Weekend Update 11/17/19

[rray]

Is that a GN Drovers caboose? Used on stock car trains to hold all the cowboys?

[cbroughton67]

I took a break from N-scale long enough to scratch-build this O-scale machine shop. It's my take on @gary60s N-scale machine shop found here: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34151.0. I used some unconventional materials for the build - cardboard from a cereal box, wood coffee stirrers, and construction paper for the tar paper roof. I used basswood strip for internal bracing, and some thin craft plywood for the base. This is what happens when you spend too much time at the coffee maker at work... Sometimes, when you get an idea in your head, you just have to run with it.

[Missaberoad]

The GN "Hutch" caboose was used for LCL service out of Minneapolis, most famously on the Hutchinson Branch pulled by a EMD NW-5

Is that a GN Drovers caboose? Used on stock car trains to hold all the cowboys?

Damn, @diezmon, that is one looooooooooong caboose.  What in the world was that built from or its purpose for being so big?

DFF

[rray]

The GN "Hutch" caboose was used for LCL service out of Minneapolis, most famously on the Hutchinson Branch pulled by a EMD NW-5

Ahh, so instead of using a head end car or REA car, they put the freight in that caboose. Liiks nice. Was it numbered starting with an X like all the other GN cabooses?

[wazzou]

Was it numbered starting with an X like all the other GN cabooses?

Yes, X-181, previously X-100.

[rray]

Finally, I managed to fluff 25 messages in time to share this weeks accomplishments. Actually, I have been working on the model for a few weeks now, drawing it up in Corel Draw, cutting, fitting, and redrawing till everything fit together.

So this is my Z Scale NP Lester WA depot. The N and HO guys got a kit for a 2 story NP depot to work with, but in Z Scale, if you want it, you have to scratch build it yourself. This is my first modeling project since 2012, when a promotion at my day job took all my time away. Now I'm retired and can do as much or as little as I want. 

[mmagliaro]

Jaw dropping!

Can we hear about the logs?

First,
Whoa!  rray, a great rendition of the Lester depot!  (You're right, in N, there was a laser kit for us, which I built, but for Z, it's strictly DIY, and you did a great job Robert!)
And Chris Broughton's interior (the O scale shop) detailing is awesome.  Can you provide a short list of who makes some of those detail castings, and do they do them in N?

As for the logs... believe it or not, they are wisteria bush.  There is one growing in our yard, and when I was lamenting that small branches don't really look at all like the bark of real trees, my daughter said, "I know where there's something just like what you want" (or words to that effect), so she gets the credit for this (and even in the magazine article, heh heh).

Here's a photo of the raw material, and the logs:

[diezmon]

Working the Hutch caboose got me thinking I should get the NW5 out of storage and put in a decoder.  I haven't run this thing in years.  I had to build some custom wipers because A: Life-like has the worst design of power wipers on Earth on their SW units, and B: these are geep trucks so the wipers don't match up.

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[Missaberoad]

Damn... ***** just got real!

[wm3798]

We walk among Gods.  Astonishing work showcased this week.  Thanks for sharing.
Lee

[Teditor]

As I seemed to have limited success in my ability to post a photo re; the Z Scale ZeNkeville II layout, I figured I may as well start showcasing some of our N Scale layouts.

The photo shows Union Pacific Big Boy 4006 on a coal drag on Byers Junction, our main N Scale layout.

If a real Big Boy ever came to Australia, the country would probably sink due to the weight of the loco.

Ted (Teditor) Freeman
From The Land Down Under

Whoops, photo didn't attach, Peteski sent me info on how to do it, so once I read up I will have another go.

[nkalanaga]

RRay:  And I can remember when "they" said that N scale might,someday, become a "runner's" scale, but was too small for serious modeling.

[ednadolski]

Turkey time!

<<gobsmacked!>>

[dem34]

Spent the evening getting a running pair of Twins




Wandered down to Egg Harbor and perused the collections. Spent a great deal of time trying to find any CNJ stuff in other places. Then I see that the DKS/CrisD collection does, in fact house New Jersey's entire inventory of CNJ Fairbanks Morse models.

[peteski]

<<gobsmacked!>>

??
You mean "gobblesmacked"?