Weekend Update 8/7/22

[DiggerDownUnder]

You guys down under allowed out of the house now?

Been out all year.  Even allowed to travel.

[DiggerDownUnder]

Never happen.  Other than the East Coast and the West Coast, the U.S. is not populated enough and is too far between destinations, as compared to Europe, making high speed trains a boondoggle.  I love trains, but that is a waste.  Also, I read a great article decades ago that explained how the increasing the top end speed really wasn’t the solution.  It was all of the slow speed moves as you came through certain towns and yards or approached/departed stations that were the real time killers.

DFF

Same reason they give here. We could get some faster service if they were to reroute some of the 19th century designed lines we have down here.

[hegstad1]

I bet! Gorgeous, and so evocative of the coal-fired steam era! That's quite a project. Keep the pics coming!
Otto

Thanks Otto.  That means something coming from you!

[hegstad1]

How do you plan on doing the chutes? 3D printing? and are you planning on doing the cable system for the cars with the wheels along the incline? I've thought about doing this plan and got about halfway through designing the NP's Duluth tower via laser cut material but haven't gotten around to finishing it.

I am using chutes from the Walthers wood coal dock along with the stairs and other parts.  I may put some stand-in wheels along the incline.

[Sumner]

Done about all I can on the elevator section until I get the upper level in and start laying track to, from and on the elevator. I've got it down to where it has no sudden movements or stops at the end of its travel going up or down ...

More on the elevator and layout build ( HERE ),

Sumner

[Jesse6669]

This thing is kind of ruling my life right now.  It's a fun project though.

"One Structure to Rule them All" ? 

Seriously, this is very impressive!!  Excellent modeling. 

[Jesse6669]

Been in 3D printing mode all week, working on a few different projects.

Printed some N scale Jeep DJ-5s for those who requested them.  I learned DJ stands for Dispatch Jeep..jfyi.

Also printed several test shells for a T-gauge English Electric Deltic "DP1" (the prototype for the Class 55) and an MLW DL535E (1:300 scale).   Both are powered units, the MLW is destined for my WP&Y mini-layout.   

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The DL535E has etched handrails but with the ability of this printer--note the horn-and Alco Tri-mount sideframes. 
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[mplsjct]

A few weeks ago I got started on my U33B's.


This week I finished the first of the five U33B's.
It still needs couplers and the front headlights installed, but the weathering is complete.

The weathering was all done with Pan Pastels. The oil and fuel leaks and all the grills were darkened with Tamiya Black Panel Liner.
I sealed it with several light misted coats of my dulling agent. Had I covered it with a single heavy coat, most of the powders would have faded away.
Pan Pastels do not fade as bad pastel chalks, but they do fade, especially the lighter colors.
I had to go back and reapply the pans on the trucks and fuel tanks a couple of times.

What’s your starting point for the engines  - are they Atlas B23-7’s ?

Nice work by the way, love Rock Island stuff

[mplsjct]

Looking East from Minneapolis Junction

[Bendtracker1]

Allen: You ROCK!
Otto

Thank you Otto!   

What’s your starting point for the engines  - are they Atlas B23-7’s ?

Nice work by the way, love Rock Island stuff

Thanks! 
I planned to use the B23's, but I noticed they had Anti-Climbers on the ones I had on hand, so I used the B30's instead.

[samusi01]

On the road so limited to whatever can be done on a computer. I've been wandering through the Northern Pacific's Vista-Dome document collection and making vector versions of various items in there for later projects. One just completed this morning: Pig Palace artwork.

[peteski]

On the road so limited to whatever can be done on a computer. I've been wandering through the Northern Pacific's Vista-Dome document collection and making vector versions of various items in there for later projects. One just completed this morning: Pig Palace artwork.

Looks good.  Perfect way to still enjoy the hobby away from the workbench.
Persoinally I prefer using vector-based artwork. It will not lose quality when manipulated (like resized).

[Ike the BN Freak]

On the road so limited to whatever can be done on a computer. I've been wandering through the Northern Pacific's Vista-Dome document collection and making vector versions of various items in there for later projects. One just completed this morning: Pig Palace artwork.

Speaking of the Pig Palace cars, the local hobby shop in Vegas had 4 or 5, of the 85' Atlas ones when I was in there the other day.

[John]

Just running trains this week. Cleaning track, looking for bad wheelsets, couplers, wobbly or underweight cars, trackwork issues. Bad switches, bad engines; electrical problems. Found many but taking them on one at a time. Slow going, but still fun to run and get a sense of what the railroad could be when it runs flawlessly...and some day (soon?) it will. More on my ATSF LA Division thread..
Otto K.

Same here -- the nice thing about retirement -- I can start on a project and not stop until I'm ready to ..    cleaning lots of track, dropping more feeders and cleaning up more of the wiring with better runs .

[Philip H]

I started the weekend by cleaning up the layout enough to stage this:



The SD60M came from the UP Geneva Sub and the Twinstack was surpluses by @davefoxx. So a real TRW photo.
Still trying to clean off the workbench but that’s not photo worthy yet.