Weekend Update 12/25/16

[Mark W]

Mark, interesting use of the silhouette cutter. My wife (the Board of Director) got herself one of these for her own craft projects and I've been eyeing it enviously ever since...  I'm impressed that it can cut 0.02". If CP had smooth side passenger cars I'd be all over it.
Geoff

The cutter has made scratch building SOOOOO much easier.  I've only done a few projects overall, but from the complete Roca Elevator build to a tiny T-Gauge SD70ACe and some rolling stock, it makes those perfect precision cuts so I don't have to.

[basementcalling]

Which version of the cutter did you get?

[Mark W]

Silhouette Cameo 2

https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/shop/machines/cameo

[chuck geiger]

[OldEastRR]

Might want to replace the whole roof with a piece of .020" styrene sheet. Gives it a US tarred roof look, and eliminates the seam in the middle. Some gutters and downspouts maybe too.

[garethashenden]

I started this in March but it's finally nearing completion. A Great Northern (UK) 20 ton Brake Van in 2mm Finescale.

[Cajonpassfan]

Beautiful work, but you sure you got enough wheels under that thing? 
Or is that for braking?
Otto K.

[garethashenden]

Beautiful work, but you sure you got enough wheels under that thing? 
Or is that for braking?
Otto K.

Yes, its for braking. Most British freight trains didn't have train brakes until the '50s. The only way to stop the train was the locomotive and the brake van. More wheels and more weight leads to more stopping power. All the wheels are why I wanted to model this prototype.

[Cajonpassfan]

Very interesting. Does the van have ballast for extra weight?

[ednadolski]

Just the other side of my door layout

Terrific!

Ed

[chuck geiger]

Styrene roof and gutters coming. Great idea - Thanks OldEast.

[Rich_S]

This is my five-year-old daughter's new Operation North Pole train that she received from Santa.  Our family had a great Christmas; hope yours did, too.



DFF

A nice train set for a very noble charity and a great present. We had a great Christmas as well and here is one of my presents from good old St. Nick.

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The back story with this locomotive. Two GP35's were ordered by the P&WV in 1964, before the N&W leased the railroad for 99 years. The two GP35's were to be numbered 100 and 101 and were going to be painted into a simplified P&WV paint scheme. In October 1964 the N&W leased the P&WV for 99 years, contacted EMD and had the locomotive painted in the N&W paint scheme and numbered the locomotives 1300 and 1301. The Wabash GP35's were numbered 1302 to 1308. Thank you Atlas for selecting this locomotive, I now have one of the last locomotives ordered by the P&WV on my roster. 

 

[wm3798]

Well, the cat's out of the Christmas wrapped bag, so I can share this now...  My brother in law managed to come into possession of a PRR N5 caboose, which had been retired to a property in western North Carolina.  He has had it relocated to a lakeside property near the Virginia line, so we commemorated the event in HO.

Thanks to a set of battery operated LED lights and a flickering electronic tea light, our little desk top display has a nice cozy look, don't you think?

Lee

[garethashenden]

Very interesting. Does the van have ballast for extra weight?

Yup. It's ballasted up to 20 tons. May not sound like much to Americans, but it's twice the weight of equivalent 4 wheeled brake vans of the era.

[OldEastRR]

Wouldn't having a huge drag on the very end of the train (and no brakes on the cars ahead of it) during braking have caused some clotheslining?