I am starting to suffer from “NO Model Railroading” withdrawal symptoms,[:(] so am looking forward to the Really Good Stuff!
I just hope I haven’t already posted this club archive photo!
Have a Great One ffolkes,
Cheers, the Bear. [:)]
Hey Bear!
You’re working way too hard man! Thanks for starting this week’s thread.
I am working on a fleet of 1950s TOFC 50’ flats with 25’ trailers. So far I have been able to get 11 flat cars with trailers plus about 20 extra trailers. The cars are all Athearn BB. The Tyco ones lack the proper side beams. I have removed all but the outside beams from the original moldings that were on the decks of the flat cars.
As you will see from the pictures, getting the proper parts for the era has proven difficult but I have decided to make do with more modern components at least for now.
The hitches and bridge plates are intended for modern 89’ spine cars. The proper items for the era are way less substantial and I don’t know of anyone who is making them commercially. I am toying with the idea of scratch building proper jacks and chains but for now the mismatched bits will have to do.
I have made a couple of changes to the trailers including moving all the dolly wheels back, removing the front axles on most of them and adding spare tires from the left over axle bits.
Its interesting to note the differences in the Athearn flat cars over time. Some of the ones I have are quite recent while others are from the sprung trucks era. The older ones are a lot more work to tune up. I was frankly quite amazed that I didn’t have to use Kadee washers on the newer cars to get the couplers to the right height. How long did it take for Athearn to get that right?!? The newer frames don’t allow the coupler pockets to sag anymore,
No work,so an archive photo will have to do.
Almost ready for paint! Rivets are coming in the mail and the headlight still needs to be lit.
With tender pickup, it runs even more beautifully than before.
Surrounding it you can see my meager fleet of Athearn passenger cars-- I airbrushed the golden yellow layer onto them this week.
P
Hope all are ready for a great weekend. I’m enjoying the photos and projects so far.
Yesterday I bit a bullet to enable long overdue roadways to go in part of the layout. The problem was there was nowhere to go or come from. Solved by cutting in a tunnel portal (an N portal as someone suggested, just slightly on the narrow side). I think it will work well. The inside does not show up as it does here, with the flash on.
Dave, you’ve taken on quite a project, and it’s looking good. I’ve only built four TOFC’s.
Great work, fellows, I’m sure we’re lifting the Bear’s spirits[:D]
Since the railroad has arrived in Crater Lake, all kinds of new action and construction is happening. Those folks with deep pockets were clamoring for some rare miles on the San Juan Zephyr, so it paid a visit to the Cascade Branch for a run up to Crater Lake. Here it is passing Camp 10 and the local passenger.
There they saw the new facilities for handling sheep, bashed out of some leftover Walthers stockyard pieces and stripwood.
The pens and the station site were both made possible by adding a couple of bumpouts.
The crews have the stone walls of the new depot up.
Ah, wilderness!
this week ive been trying out some zip texturing. on the upper portion of the pic.
here you can see where ive put grey dirt on the flat area and tan dirt on the hill.
a shot of my west end yard lead on the left, and the two mainline tracks on the right.
later
g
I’m glad to see Weekend Photo Fun is off to a great start.
Here are some older photos of my steel mill
Some good stuff again this week!
I haven’t had much chance to do anything with the layout lately so here is one from the archives:
Pennsylvania T1 #5501 right out of the box Christmas 2013.
Keep the photos and ideas coming guys. You always make WPF the best thread of the week.
Hi Jabear,
Nice to see you open the wpf again.
I hope to see your finished ferry one day in the WPF…
This week I finish the crane for my Nscale high lift rotary coal dumper and the girder which support the pan.
I added numerous details to the crane all scratchbuild.
The girder is a brass plate whith small brass shape solder to give details.
More details to see on our sister forum “Layout and layout building”/Topic:build a small yard in Nscale.
Nice week end for everybody.
The crane whith temporarely ropes,
The girder,
Nice work guys! Mike L , what kind of loco is that ? I must have missed something!
My work train, waiting in the siding:
Mike.
Nothing new for me…but I`m about to get restarted on my car shop project.
I have been making some progress with winter scenery on my 2 module, portable layout project. I have never done snow before and am experimenting with several different materials and techniques.
Grampy
I wish I had done some better research on the types of flat car trailer hitches available. The ones you used look much better for the era but I didn’t buy them because they were described as being fixed (as opposed to being collapsable, or so I assumed). The description was very misleading. Of course they have to be collapsable to drive the trailers on and off the flat car.
I really like the way you have done the wear marks where the truck tires run. Very inspiring.
Dave
I haven’t had much time for modeling lately either, but here are some pics from our open house last Saturday:
Enjoy!
Great to see everyone’s great work. I’ve spent some time assembling a Campbell Supply Co. Craftsman kit:
Here it is temporarily positioned on the new section of my layout. Inside there are 14 light bulbs wired on 5 separate circuits. When it is installed and wired for real, I’ll be able to conrol the lights in each section of the building independently.
ON the Boothbay Railway Village layout, we are starting work on the Portland scene.
There will be street running on Commercial St., a coal unloading area on the right, B&M Baked Beans factory behind the truss bridge, a number of businesses on the piers, and Portland Gas Lighting gas storage tank - the black circle on the left.
Happy weekend. [:)]
Just delivered today:
T e d
Just finishing a Remotor on a Vintage Mantua 0-4-0
Here’s the orignal open frame motor
The replacement
needed some dremel work for clearence
Wondering if I should add a flywheel
