Weekend Update 4/14/19

[Mark W]

The remaining winners for last weeks Weekend Challenge have been announced! 

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=46851.msg615851;topicseen#msg615851

[johnb]

It’s 1980 Something….And Playa Desnuda is not the nice, bustling beach city that it once was. The area has become the slum of the future. Who would have guessed that the Crud would be the cleanest thing in this picture.

[Dave V]

I spent the weekend at the Train Expo Colorado (TECO) show here in Colorado Springs with the SlimRail modular Colorado narrow gauge club.  I have been engaging in egregious acts of anachronism for which I am not the least bit repentant.  I got a great deal on a Blackstone diamond-stack Class 70 2-8-0.  Here she is on my home layout:





...and on one of our club modules:



And, much to @eric220 's delight, my love for the Colorado narrow gauge has bled over into the Colorado & Southern.  I now have five refrigerator cars, two of which are C&S (and lettered with the very early block C&S logo which just looks so railroady) even though there is very little photographic evidence of refrigerator car use on the RGS in my era (save for a few photos near Dolores on the part of the railroad I didn't model!).



Which makes me think about the old "Rule #1...It's my railroad!"  Yes it is.  I've seen Rule #1 used and abused beyond all plausibility.  And yet as I get deeper into this I find that there's a liberation behind it.  You know, I remember visiting Todd Treater's layout for the first time some 11 years ago; my first view of his Enola Yard full of NS, Conrail, Penn Central, and Pennsy all mixed together was like a "greatest hits" view of Pennsylvania railroading.  And yet he could just as easily operate in a single era.  Well...that's where I feel myself being pulled.  My layout's trackage can accommodate any 3-foot-gauge equipment that suits my fancy (even EBT?) but yet can revert to a very faithful representation of the RGS in a single era.  Rule #1 can be a slippery slope to confusion and implausibility, but it can--if used correctly--give you that warm feeling down there <ahem>.

Anyway, that new little diamond-stacked filly is destined to become Silverton Railroad Co. #100, the "Ouray."

http://www.narrowgauge.org/images/tkcok/mx00443.jpg

[nkalanaga]

They may not have been common, but refrigerator cars of some kind probably traveled the entire RGS.  I doubt that the people of Telluride did without fresh food just because the railroad didn't run reefers up there.

[Dave V]

They may not have been common, but refrigerator cars of some kind probably traveled the entire RGS.  I doubt that the people of Telluride did without fresh food just because the railroad didn't run reefers up there.

Sure they did in the early days.  I'm talking my era, 1938-1947.  Actual train sheets show very little refrigerator traffic and I can count on one hand the number of known photographs of reefer cars in RGS consists after 1940.  But...the C&S ones look good behind the early engines (this one and my RGS 17).  FWIW train sheets from prior to WWI show a tremendous amount of interchange traffic while so much of the D&RG was still dual-gauged.  C&S and even F&CC cars ran on the RGS in those days.

[Chris333]

Howz about Tiffany reefers?

[OldEastRR]

Been on a passenger kick lately. Don’t know why since that’s wasn't what the Nickel Plate was known for, never the less completed decaling and painting these models this week. Thank God those old Rowa 10-6 sleepers are a dead ringer for what the plate had, also that the railroad had one unrebuilt diner/lounge that was painted up blue and white.

The Rowa cars are also excellent material for making the NKP sleeper-lounges. You need two cars to make one of those and there's a good bit of cut and paste. I caught a break on the roof equipment as KATO makes antennas and roof vents that match the NKP version. First car is nearing completion. Pix show the Rowa obs I started with and the NKP car it became.

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[Dave V]

Howz about Tiffany reefers?

Possibly...  But the DSP&P ceased to be a corporate entity a year before the first iron was laid on the RGS.  Still think they’re cool though!   

[btrain]

The Rowa cars are also excellent material for making the NKP sleeper-lounges. You need two cars to make one of those and there's a good bit of cut and paste. I caught a break on the roof equipment as KATO makes antennas and roof vents that match the NKP version. First car is nearing completion. Pix show the Rowa obs I started with and the NKP car it became.

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Nicely done! I just had one observation, so I just cut off the tail end and blocked one window. Mine still needs a little body work before it hits the rails.

[wm3798]

Spent a little quality time with the big box o' scenery stuff last night...









The station module is down to finishing the background structures, roadways and details.  Should have no trouble finishing this in time for Railfest.  The beam bridge module has a few more puzzles to work...but I think it's still in striking distance.  Wiring up the lighting for both will be squared away once the layout of the structures is done.

Lee

[Philip H]

Who cares what scale it is. Its just cool!!!

Yep.  29 Deathstar units in a single place.  They tell me a MOPAC shoot may happen in May.  Good thing its only 2 hours away!

[bman]

Since it's warming up nicely Saturday combines running trains at our club and watching trains. NS satisfied my early Conrail interest nicely combining the RDG and CR units.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se8MlJCoTq0

Spent Sunday at the hobby shop putting down a little ballast on a dozen or so TTrak modules. The others were making more. I've not even ballasted my home layout yet. 

[JMaurer1]

I finished up my N-scale Central Seed Co. scratch-built structure this week. This could get addictive...

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Beautiful! When I first looked at the pictures I was wondering what kit you repurposed to make into this. I wished that had been the case since I need one of these and a simple kitbash would have put it high on my list of things to do. It's still on the list (I found the plans) but it's not quite as high. Great work however and it still motivated me to add it to the list of 'things to do'.

[Cajonpassfan]

Not exactly a modeling update. We spent a pleasant Saturday afrernoon with family at the creatively repurposed Anaheim Packing House. Instead of building an outdoor deck, they have two flat cars parked at the old loading spur spur, with a canopy and seating. Pretty clever I thought. Too bad they didn't incorporate an old ice reefer, too...
Otto K.

[Cajonpassfan]

Sunday work session on Tim Dickinson's beautiful HO layout set in the mid-seventies in the Pacific Northwest, in preparation for an ops session in a couple of weeks. Great variety of equipment, amazing trackwork, beautiful scenery. A [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] lot to learn here...
Otto K.