Weekend Photo Fun - 11/06 to 11/08/20

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Good morning from sunny and mild Northeast Ohio!

This is the thread where modelers can show completed projects, in processs projects or pictures of their or their club’s layouts from the past or the present.

I got a couple of new cars done this week!

First up, is an Athearn ACF 2970 CF Covered Hopper kit, painted with Scalecoat II UP Covered Hopper Gray paint and lettered with Oddballs Decals. The Rock Island ordered cars with trough hatches as the main commodity they were hauling was sand, and these cars were routed through Ottawa, IL for sand loading to many various users.

An IMRC 12 Panel 10’ Inside Height Boxcar kit, painted with Scalecoat II NP Dark Green Paint and lettered with Mask Island Decals. These cars were purchased in 1946 and painted in the EJ&E boxcar red scheme, they were repainted in 1953 in this scheme showing the map around Chicago. They were in general service use for many customers in the Chicago area.

My latest acquisition, a new Athearn ICC Caboose lettered in one of the many Chessie Safety Schemes. This is a later version of the ICC Caboose offered by Tangent Scale Models.

Another view of my Rapido FA and FB-2’s on the Strongsville club layout along with its coal drag passing the major coal mine on layout.

Thanks for looking!

Rick Jesionowski

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Goodmorning everyone!

Rick- you sure do make fast work with those cars! They turned out great as always. I like those alcos. sharp looking locomotives!

This week has been a little slow for my modeling. I Did finally get my milwaukee road GP9 buttoned up. Found out I lost a grab iron. Not the end of the world, I will order some new ones.

I also started playing with static grass and wish I would have a long time ago. It really changes the look of everything and adds more realism.

oh and I built this SOO ACF 3 bay hopper and weathered it. I really like these accurail kits

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Rick … The RI covered hopper and the EJ&E boxcar are exellent. I like the Chessie caboose and the Alco FA’s too.

Ringo … I like the MILW GP9 and the SOO hopper… I’ll make a suggestion that might evenutally save some grief. The GP9 is running along the edge of the layout. The risk is it could have a mishap and fall to the floor. You should consider installing a barrier along the edge of the layout so that will not happen. (I am the owner of a “floor model” SD9 that dropped to the floor where I did not have such a barrier.)

…

Here is a CB&Q SD7 and a NP RS3 at the junction.

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Rick, thanks for starting the weekend’s thread. I really like your new caboose – I’m a caboose fan. Love the hopper car.

Ringo, the grass looks great. I think I’ve said several times that that is something I need to try. Like I told Rick, the hopper cars look great, and would look good at my elevator. I don’t have any, but I think that will be my next purchase.

Garry, I like your realistic scene. The Northern Pacific RS-3 is neat. As a kid, I loved seeing the Yin & Yang symbol on their railroad. My uncle worked as a mechanic in the 1940s & 50sh for NP in Tacoma, Washington, and he sent us calendars every year with that symbol.

I made progress on my church building. This was one of my most challenging scratchbuilds, and it is my fault. When I finished the building, I realized I could have done several things easier. One was fitting the entrance-steeple onto the corner of the building. I struggled to get the angles right where that corner hit the building and the roof.

The worst part was the windows, and they did not turn out like what I wanted. I tried printing stained glass onto a decal sheet and putting it onto clear styrene, but I wasn’t happy with that. I finally just printed glass onto thin paper and put that in. The light comes through a little, but not much. These window frames were also laser cut, and I struggled with those. N Scale laser cut might be too small and delicate for my clumsy old fingers.

I also got the railings out of scale unless the people attending this church are nine feet tall.

Next will come a cemetery near the parking lot. I liked how Peter’s cemetery and church looked, and I’ll try something like that.

Out of all the buildings I’ve built so far, I can see myself trying to do this one over again.

Thanks to everyone who makes this such a good thread each week.

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Rick - Thanks for starting off WPF. The new cars look great as usual. I like your new caboose and particularly enjoyed the FA and FB-2s with their coal drag. Great photo.

Ringo58 - The Milwaukee GP looks good as does the SOO LINE hopper. Good job.

Garry - Nice photo and great looking locos.

Took the Santa Fe 4-8-4 off the shelf and ran it with a short passenger consist. Its shown here at the southeast corner of the layout near General Industries.

Sorry for the burred photo. Don’t know what happened.

Keep the photos and ideas coming guys. Thanks to you WPF is always the best thread of the week.

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Garry- The facia is going up this afternoon and will extent 3/4 of an inch above the layout so it should stop any models from becoming a parts bin resident. I bumped the trottle a few weeks ago and watched as my Genesis GP7u went flying off the end of the layout. I made a diving catch and caught it right before it hit the floor. Only damage was a broken coupler which I was about to replace so I considered myself lucky!

John- Nice work on the church! It looks like a kit! I hope to be that good at scratch building in the future. At the moment I’m struggling with abutment wings lol

Allan- I really like that 4-8-4! Looks nice on the layout

Jo

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Stained glass by Bear, on Flickr

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It is 1914. Two Kirkstall & East Seacroft Railway trains pass at Sovereign Street. The goods train is heading to the National Filling Station Number 1, Barnbow. The passenger train is heading to Kirkstall

David

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Great contributions this weekend, fellows! Thanks for starting things off, Rick!

I’ve been walking by this bare spot of plywood on the layout for over 25 years now. Maybe it’s time to finally address it?

Ready-track-east by Edmund, on Flickr

^^ Here, I’ve begun raising the surrounding ground level with cork sheet.

Ready-track-11-2 by Edmund, on Flickr

^^ Trying out some locations for little sheds and tool houses, crew shanties.

Ready-track-11-2tt by Edmund, on Flickr

All this work has to be done while on a step-stool leaning over the finished areas in the foreground [banghead] Not fun!

When I’ve had enough of that I retire to the bench and do other projects, this time fitting a Loksound 5 decoder and cube speaker into a B&O GP30 that I recently acquired to go along with an A-B set of F-7s already on the roster.

BnO_GP30-6939-DCC by Edmund, on Flickr

On to more great contributions, folks!

Thank you, Ed

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I missed Weekend Photo Fun last week due to computer problems. I did read through the thread, and there was a lot of great work on display.

This week is looking very good also.

Rick: The new freight cars are great as always. I love all the seldom-seen paint schemes that you share and the stories behind them. My favorite this week is the EJ&E boxcar with the Chicago Map.

Ringo: The siding overgrown with weeds looks perfect. You did a masterful job with the static grass. I have had bad luck with static grass in the past, all I usually made was a big mess. I think I need to give it another go.

Allan: The SANTA FE 4-8-4 Northern locomotive is one of my favorites. There is one on display in Fort Madison, Iowa that I have visited several times. It is a massive locomotive that is very impressive in real life. Sometimes I also get blurry photographs for no reason.

Garry: The scene from your layout looks beautiful. That is a great photograph.

John: I like the handrails on the church! Being 6’7" tall, I think handrails are all way too low and very dangerous. The stained glass windows look good in the picture.

Bear: As always, the Bear-Toon is appreciated very much. [:D]

David: The compact scene between the brick buildings is fantastic. That is an example of gorgeous model building. Very nice.

Ed: Leaning over completed scenery is the worst. I believe the efforts to complete this scene will ulitmately be worth it. I had a bare plywood lot in the foreground of the first SGRR HO scale layout for years waiting for someone to make the right kit to fill that spot.

I have nothing new to share this weekend. Fall is here, so I will post this picture of Autumn on the STRATTON AND GILLETTE.

-Kevin

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Thanks Kevin. The price of land in a city is expensive. Leeds Sovereign Street is no exception. Hence an enclosed atmosphere. As a lad the feeling I got was that everything was ‘on top of each other’. Sometimes scary, mostly magical.

Excellent photographs by all. Thanks for showing

David

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Ringo … Wow! Evidently, your quick reflexes saved a Geep. Good you will have fascia as you described.

Alan … Thanks for commenting on my photo. The Santa Fe 4-8-4 i one of my favorite steam locos, and it is good to see yours. I don’t have one.

JohnYork 1 … Thanks for your remark about my photo. I like your church.

David … Your modeling is excellent.

Ed … I’m looking forward to seeing how your project to cover bare plywood truns out.

Kevin … Thanks for your comment about my picture. I like the Autumn scene on the S&G.

Bear … LOL

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Rick, Thanks for starting up the WPF with some good looking and informative models.

John, Like your church, nice windows and steeple. Didn’t notice the handrails, especially without parishioners on the steps. Sometimes we can be our own harshest critic. Btw, I don’t have a church or graveyard on my layout, did set out a few Woodland Scenics tombstones in a small vacant lot as part of a temporary Halloween scene.

Thanks to Chris van der Heide’s Algoma Central in HO Scale website tutorial and free printable graphics I finally got around to making some wrapped lumber loads.

Substituted the suggested glue stick with Weldbond and added some strip wood lengthwise between the layers for a larger bond surface. Shooting for a snug but removable load I paid particular attention in keeping overall length to size. Also added a bit of glue to the bundle ends as well.

Loads turned out solid with a snug fit, during a couple low speed runs on my switching layout they rode well and stayed put. Over time with repeated removals they hopefully won’t shrink enough to become unstable. Fun project, even if tedious at times, and I might even be a better gift wrapper this holiday season.

Thanks to all the contributors and viewers, have a good weekend and regards, Peter

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Peter: That is a mighty impressive jig you are using to assemble the wrapped lumber loads. No wonder everything you build turns out so beautiful.

A+ [bow]

-Kevin

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Thanks everyone for your comments.

Peter. Excellent work.

One of those views one has to ‘squeeze round and almost break a neck’ to take a picture.

David

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Rick,thanks for starting WPF with your fine modeling and info.

Great pic’s and projects from everyone,as usual.Looking at this thread is always a treat.

Been transferring old photo files to a new SSD this week. Here’s one of the layout in 2014:

Here’s the same corner today:

I’m still messin’ with dusk/night lighting:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Mike

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David: You are masterful at modeling small scenes.

Mike: I think your dusk pictures look very good.

-Kevin

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Kevin & David, Thanks for the nice comments.

Middleman Mike, Engrossing shots!

Happy week ahead, regards, Peter