Weekend Update 5/17/15

[Lemosteam]

Finished installing the train phone antennae on my PRR BP20. Now just to paint them...

[chicken45]

Are you going to model the trainphone wire through the trucks?

[ChristianJDavis1]

I did not get any modeling done this week, but I was able to do some impromptue rail fanning! While driving to my grandmothers to help her with yard work, I heard the sounds of the Southern Railroad of New Jersey entering Pleasantville, NJ. Loving the shortline, I just had to stop.


SRNJ 3578 leads the short consist on its way from Pleasantville, heading towards Atlantic City (I actually missed them coming in, but caught them on their way out).


The SRNJ serves both a stone industry and two lumber industries. Today, though, they were only serving the lumber industries. The boxcar was unusual as they normally only use the centerbeams.


SRNJ 3517 brings up the rear of the short consist. The SRNJ sandwiches their consists with an engine on each side as when the reach atlantic city, they basically enter the tail of a Y, so they just run the consist in the opposite direction, with the former trailing unit leading.


Not a train, but I had to take a picture of my car at some point. This is the first time I have taken it rail fanning.

Aside from the rail fanning, I also acquired two more passenger cars for my HO scale Japanese Passenger train. Both are brass imports by Tenshodo. I should also have another engine coming my way in the next few weeks.



My apologies for the photograph-heavy post.

[Philip H]

Nice ride! with all the car guys around TRW we may need to open a cars and autos (prototype) section in the forum.

Are those SRNJ loco ex-BCRail?

[ChristianJDavis1]

Nice ride! with all the car guys around TRW we may need to open a cars and autos (prototype) section in the forum.

Are those SRNJ loco ex-BCRail?

I believe that both M420W's I caught yesterday are ex-CN. I believe they roster about four all together, though, they used to have more (a recent scrapping spree felled a few of the M420's, a 44-tonner, and the U18b demonstrator). They did just recently repaint their GP10 from its faded blue to a bright red, very reminiscent of a CNJ scheme.

A car section would be interesting, but maybe a thread would suffice. I recall that @VonRyan once had a thread in the crew lounge where we discussed cars, but that thread faded a while back.

[3DTrains]

I did some cutting, bending, and painting.

An Aussie layout? 

[Cajonpassfan]

Otto the whole scene looks very impressive. Nice job.

Thanks Rod, appreciate that from you!
The "whole scene" is less than 9" wide, a long narrow shelf which replaced the darn 5 1/2 turn helix. Lot less boring, running in the open
Best, Otto

[craigolio1]

That M420 is ex-CN. Quick spotting differences: CN had a large fuel tank and two walkway mounted ditch lights. BCR had a smaller fuel tanks and two pilot, and two nose mounted ditch lights.

Craig

[ChristianJDavis1]

That M420 is ex-CN. Quick spotting differences: CN had a large fuel tank and two walkway mounted ditch lights. BCR had a smaller fuel tanks and two pilot, and two nose mounted ditch lights.

Craig

Interesting. Thank you for that information.

[pnolan48]

I'm slowly getting there with the Contra Costa Ferry in Z scale. Don't know if I can introduce it in N. If I can cut the small windows in styrene, then yes; it can't have brass sides in N ($$$).

[peteski]

I'm slowly getting there with the Contra Costa Ferry in Z scale. Don't know if I can introduce it in N. If I can cut the small windows in styrene, then yes; it can't have brass sides in N ($$$).

Absolutely gorgeous!  This is a museum quality stuff (and in Z scale no less)!

[pnolan48]

Pete,

I think I am getting there about the museum quality, as I've mastered how to cut styrene, mold and cast resin, and draw brass for photo-etch, as well as getting there with the paint. So thanks, appreciate the compliment from you.

I believe this is only the second model of these (the Contra Costa and Solano were sisters, with only a few differences.) It's been frustrating, as there are few good photos and drawings, and the drawings are off by a bit in alignment (not caused by scanning.) When the Contra Costa was built in 1915, it was a virtual duplicate of the Solano, but 10 feet longer, and with the walking beam engines moved to the side houses instead of the center. Thus the Contra Costa had straight tracks, while the Solano had tracks that curved around the center A-beams. And the Solano had offset paddlewheels, while the Contra Costa's were parallel--but not in the exact middle! The Solano started life looking a little different than this, with houses added on over time. The Contra Costa ended life looking a little different this, with things stripped off over time.

Not sure I can build this in N scale, unless for a fortune. I could do a whole lot more detailing around the windows, but the brass sides would be $$$$. Of course, in N I would need only the outsides in brass--actually I found that I needed only the outsides in Z, but shhhh!

I really can see why not many modelers have tried this one. The next time someone asks, "Can you build this for me?" I think I'll be looking a lot more closely before saying, "Of course!"

I actually think the Maplecove is closer to museum quality. That one went together perfectly.

[Santa Fe Guy]

I agree with Pete. that Ferry is superb.

[pnolan48]

Thanks! Wait until I add the paddlewheels. That was the gate to producing this ship: could I build the paddlewheels? Yes, I could! So I built the ship. Now I have to get the paddlewheels mounted in a convincing way. I could just glue them to the hulls--nah, might as well see if I can get them to rotate too. Didn't think far enough ahead to drill a hole all the way through the bottom hull from side to side. I know I have a one-foot 1/8" drill somewhere . . .

The problem with big, complicated ships is that you don't always see the right sequence to build them. I left off the paddlewheels because I thought I would continuously damage them as I built other parts of the ship. However, I overlooked the reality that, as I added details, the ship got increasingly hard to handle without damaging the details. That is, there were fewer and fewer ways to grab the ship, even for easy tasks like turning it end for end.

I do keep learning.

[Iain]

This is something I learned when I did my model of the armored cruiser North Carolina for the NC Maritime Museum.  That build was complicated by it being just over six feet long.  The thing is, build order differs from one ship to the next, so, while you may find the perfect order to do things on one ship, it would be terrible on the next.