Well I’m starting it off a bit early this week. BTW yesterday was my 19th B-day.
This week I got 3 Alcos. The first Alcos I have.
Got them for 10 bucks each, and they run and look good. Of course these units will have to go to the paint shop to get their pilots, walkways, steps and handrails painted right, and the stripes on the back are going to go (unless that’s actually right, some units are like that on the BN)
To fix the number issue (they are all 4258) I’m just going to paint over part of the 8 to get a 9 and a 6; since I don’t have decals.
Well, never though of it that way. But I guess it works out in theory. Besides, it’s close enough for me. (I don’t have work tommow, and today is the last day of school for the week, so tomorrow is like my saturday)
I did some work on the layout this week. I had a ‘S’ curve right up front that’s been giving me some trouble periodically with some Genesis cars. So I ripped it out and put in a new stretch of EZ-Track to replace it.
Here the new piece of plywood that will support the track is already in place.
In this photo, I laid the new section on top of the old one to give you a good idea of what I’m doing.
Here I’ve got the new section in place on top of pieces of white beadboard.
The old rail joiners didn’t want to come out so I clamped the rails in place and soldered them to the existing rails. The job was spot-on. The rails are in perfect alignment.
Wow, didn’t think you had EZ track on the layout from the first shot. Looks like normal track until one of the shots exposes those clips. Good job on ballasting, Jeff.
I have been working on several projects at once. This is what I have accomplished so far. The post office car is being built like the one in the sept mr issue.
I also completed this MDC/Roundhouse 2 truck shay. It was a complete basket case. I disassembled it and rebuilt it. To my dismay it was missing the rear drive shaft to the truck and the motor drive t was split and it was missin all of its driveshafts. So this one will be a dummy display at the museum when I get to building a layout.
Not sure what this is but it looked cool and it was free. So I built a chasis out of styrene and put freight trucks under it like it is in for restoration. It will get a heavy rust job like it has just been brought in or something.
I have also stripped the paint off my bachman gp-40 and added grab irons, new brass horn, antenna. I think I will also add a plow, rotating beacon, mu hoses, and I will bend new handrails out of wire instead of that cheap plastic. I also stripped the paint on my athern gp-9 and added antenna, horns, rotating beacon, and gps antenna. I think this one will also get a plow but I haven’t decided yet.
Of course, this thread should run into monday, cause it’s labor day here in the U.S.
Happy b-day Packer! and good lookin locos, gotta love alcos.
Jeff, good work on that straight spot.
I might get some pictures for ya’ll l8r this weekend. The only loco I’ve got that still has it’s shell is my GP35, the other Geeps and h-15-44 are down for painting. And it’s not my best work. Sorry for my dark pictures last week, my desklap had burnt out and it was night, so my only illumination was my ceiling fan bulb. They should be filled w/ light this weekend.
Hi all: Good start everyone. I’m finally getting caught up with weathering all my locos and freight cars. I also added some more foliage, and tried Paul Dolkos weed seed follicles for tall grass, from Oct. MR. Here’s a Reading RR short coal train, for a change.
You are a fantastic modeler. Your scenery, track, and rolling stock are all perfectly executed. I especially like the weathering; many folks overdo it with an airbrush; you have not. Dead-on.
I happened upon your photo page. All of it, shear inspiration.
Hi Dave: Thank you very much. Your remarks mean a lot to me. How’s your recuperation coming along? I hope you’re getting well, again. It’s good to see you back on the forum.
Although I’m still on “convalescent leave,” I’m feeling fine. I’m grateful to the stringent fitness requirements of the service for keeping me in shape such that something like an appendectomy is more a minor nuisance than anything else. I’m chompin’ at the bit to go back to work, but in the meantime, I’ve been modeling like crazy!
Up first is an Atlas N scale Penn Central SD35 I’ve converted to a Conrail paint-out:
Before:
The desired result (from Fallen Flags):
After some paint, a Sunrise Enterprises cab signal box (thanks, Ed K!), weathering with acrylics and chalk powders, lotsa Dullcote, decals, and more Dullcote, the result:
One thing I tried to replicate was, as evidenced by hundreds of photos of similar ex-Penn Central Conrail locos, that they often slapped what must have been cheap black paint over the Penn Central Scotchlite logos and lettering. In short order, that lettering showed through on almost every engine as that cheap paint peeled away. The “CR” stencils were another early Conrail cost-saver; they’re the “C” and “R” from the “CENTRAL” portion of the Penn Central roadname stencils.
In light of the completion of climate control installation in my 3 car Las Vegas garage, meaning that construction can finally begin on the 22x35ft ARR Anchorage Subdivision, here’s my first of hopefully many contributions to WPF:
A celebratory photo of the 17 locomotives that’ll soon finally have some real mainline track to get out and stretch their legs on!
Love you’re work Dave and I’m glad to hear the recoup is in full swing. I’m a big fan of the PRR > PC > CR myself so I really dig what you’re doing now especially. I’ll have to post a pic of a PC GP-9 I painted from a undec shell. I think it came out pretty good, (how hard is it to screw up black?) LOL and I want to keep it as PC, but I need to finish some details on it and take a crack at weathering. I’ll post it later this weekend, or maybe later today if I can get the wifey to run down and take a few shots for me.
