Weekend Photo Fun 8/3-8/6

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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It’s that time again-Weekend Photo Fun. For those who are new, Weekend Photo Fun is a thread where we show off what we have been working on All week, and over the weekend. So here’s one of the things I’ve been working on- a scale trains Operator series 31K tank car. I super detailed it with secondary market decals, and blue axles.

I also received 5 more covered hoppers to convert into ballast cars, but I wanted to finish up these tanks before I started on another project. So let’s see what everyone else is working on?

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Looking good their.

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Jimmy … Thanks for starting photo fun. Your tank car looks outstanding.

Below are photos of my current scenery project with scenery under and behind my new bridges. The bridges connect upper level track between sections of my layout.

Now I am ready to begin scenery in the foreground in the right side of the pictures.

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Adding a few ‘company houses’.

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Jimmy,

Tanks for the opener[;)]

GARRY,

That’s a honking big bridge[:D]

SouthPenn,

Nice houses, must be a better than average company.

In the dog days of summer, still getting my fill of outdoor railroading. Not really garden RRing, as I’m not much of a gardener (although I’m taking a stab at raising some bonsai.) In many ways, the aesthetic of the Telluride & Tin Cup is rather more like an indoor layout.

Still, it’s a lot like real railroading. You have to worry about the fading light when taking pics. You sometimes have to scramble around to beat the coming rainstorm. And you better bring your bug replellent if the mosquitos biting bothers you.

While I didn’t get all the lighting in the rail car, affectionately known as the Startled Hare, under control, I did manage to figure out the head and tail lights. The rest are in the Hare, but darned if I can get the joysticks to work with this (different) batch of servo switches.

Before we go any further, how about a nice drone shot of the south end of the line?

Well, not as photogenic as I’d hoped, but at least the drone didn’t crash[:P]

Another small improvement was finishing up the boardwalk streets in Tin Cup. You can tell it’s a one-horse town, because that’s all they have room for.

A ground level shot

Here’s a pic of Motorman “Bear” Jones getting comfortable in the cab of the Hare.

After dark, the new lights help the Hare find it’s way home.

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Gary Nice Scenery work

Mlehman Great use of Drone Technology

Here’s a pair of RS units switching the mine

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Gidday Jimmy, thanks for kicking us off again, and good work on that tank car.

Garry, your extensions are coming along a right treat, but I’m curious about the reach to the old bits of the layout.

Nice additions, South Penn.

It’s your show, but I’m not sure of the wisdom of a Bear getting anywhere near the Startled Hare, Mike.

on Flickr

Always good to visit Thurmond, Terry.

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Good morning from hot and humid Northeast Ohio!

First of all thanks for all the nice comments on the cars I posted last week, that is the second Orange Blossom Special car I did since I had two decals.

Jimmy, nice work on that tank car, too new for me but it looks great!

Garry, I did not mention last week but will this week, those bridges look awesome, are you trying to take over from John Allen?

Mike, as usual more good pictures of your outdoor layout, still miss your normal indoor layout, anything happening there!

Terry, another good picture, only thing missing is a 2-6-6-2 on that mine run instead of the diesels.

Managed to get a couple of cars done this week.

Walther’s Express Reefer kit, added all the grabs, painted with Scalecoat II Pullman Green and Black Paints, then lettered with Champ Decals. To be used on mail and express passenger trains. Car built in the 40’s and 50’s.

Kadee just announced this car as coming later this year, but as I already had the decal I jumped in ahead of them. Kadee 50’ PS1 Cushion Underframe kit, painted with Scalecoat II Black Paint and lettered with Herald King Decals. Car built in 1966 and repainted in the merger scheme in 1972.

Thanks for looking!

Rick Jesionowski

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Hello again, Folks!

Thanks for the opening salvo of the WPF, Jimmy!

Those Brenco bearing caps are sure distinctive. I’m looking forward to when ScaleTrains makes some products in “My” era.

Mike— That sounds like a great title for a childrens book… The Bear & the Hare!

That little critter gets more and more character every week! Keep up the great work on the T&TC Ry.

Love the Tall Viaduct and scenery, Garry. I have one tall steel viaduct but it isn’t on the main it is on a branch line leading to a coal mine and doesn’t see much traffic.

Great work [Y] [Y]

Nice work on the company houses “On the other-side of the tracks” South Penn.

Nice mine scene, too, C&O!

As always, Rick— great rolling stock! I love “head-end” equipment, I guess from the era when I watched passenger trains, they were pretty heavy on the Mail & Express cars

I had a chance to continue on the painting and DCC install on this little PRR B6sb.

IMG_9649_fix_web by Edmund, on Flickr

One of my big stumbling blocks when wiring brass for DCC is when I get to the jumper wires between the engine & tender.

I MAY have come up with a workable solution! How about a micro-USB plug and socket?

IMG_9655_fix_web by Edmund, on Flickr

The wired plug is from a pre-made cord I had that I carefully stripped the rubbery jacket off using a #11 blade.

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Workers on the loading dock seem to not care about the big N-1 charging by.

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Some great work here already everyone.

Note- what I did on my tank was the safety stripes, the yellow warning box, blue axles and weathering. I didn’t put the “TILX” stuff on. That was already on. I just added some decals that were needed to make it pop.

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Mike L , Bear , Rick, Ed, Terry … Thanks for commenting on my photos.

South Penn … Company houses look good.

Terry … Impressive mine scene with Alcos at work.

Bear… The bridge looks great.

Rick … The REX car and the SCL 50’s box car look fantastic.

Mike L … The turntable looks like a fun project.

Ed … Your 0-6-0 project with conversion to DCC is reamrkable.

Casey … I bet teh ground is shaking under the N-1.

Jimmy … Again thanks for starting thos thread with a nice tank car model.

…

[:S]… Dang!.. You guys do such good work. I’m running out of adjectives !

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This week I finished another HOn30 critter for Boothbay Railway Village. One of our guys bought it at a train show a few years ago. It was built around an old Rivirossi N scale NW-2 which did not work that well. I replaced the mechanism with one from a Kato NW-2, added a TCS Z-2 decoder, repainted it and weathered

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Working on an old Mantua Shifter.

Before:

After paint Stripped:

Scratchbuilt tender light:

Painted tender:

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Great updates everyone.

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I have nothing new to post because I am at the National Train Show in Orlando!

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I will have some stuff next week.

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-Kevin

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Some outstanding work and ideas here, as usual [:)]. Ed, I like your idea about the Micro-USB connectors between the loco and tender. I may use that myself.

I’ve been able to get a couple of things done, too. My passenger cars are finally weathered (lightly), and have warm white LEDs instead of cool white. I’ve also added switches that can be accessed from the outside, to allow the LEDs to be turned on and off without having to open the coaches:

For the rest of this weekend, I’ll be working on my latest locomotive project, a freelanced narrow-gauge boxcab. I’ve been able to complete the assembly, so tomorrow will just be painting, lettering and putting the whole thing together:

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Jimmy, Thanks for the WPF roll-out. Scaletrains tank cars are good looking models & you’ve fitted that one out nicely.

Great line-up this week, especially when the dog days of summer so often hamper our model railroading.

Ed, Right-on’, the Atomic Cafe, a classic that I can’t wait to see finished. Btw, the Downtown Deco Facebook page has some nice photos of completed models along with the winners of Randy’s Atomic Cafe model contest.

Put the finishing touches on Raymond’s Welding last nite. A remembrance structure for me in that my late grandfather Ray was a welder & plied his trade helping build Liberty Ships during WWII at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, Ca.

Thanks to all, stay cool & regards, Peter

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For early August, this is a great WPF. Heck, even in November it would be good…[:D] Thanks for all the kind comments.

Terry, Running some diesels this week, eh?[8-|] Yep, the drone are on rails now, easily enough. Here’s my transmtters, after I finished labeling them yesterday.

The left one for the Shay uses the right joystick to turn the lights on and off. Then it uses the two upper right switches for the cab light and the firebox lighting effects.

The right one for the Startled Hare, uses just the upper two swicthes for the front and rea lighting. For some reason, my servo switches this time (cheaper supplier – whopps?) wouldn’t work with the Flysky to turn off once turned on when on the joystick controls.

Heh-heh, yes, the Bear is right and a grievance has been filed about that missing seat. Now if Motorman Jones is OK with the surgery below the waist required to fit into the seat properly, the Super has agreed to proceed once the medical release is signed…

Ouch![:o)] Let’s hope surgery isn’t needed!

FRA really didn’t like the lack of steps or door hanles for the cab, so management said since the wiring is done, why not? More to come soon.

The bridge looks robust and a weathered-in part of the scenery. Top notch!

Rick J, Thanks for the beautiful REA car! There’s not much more summer left and I have some PM projects to do inside, so maybe soon. Been thinking of building a couple of kits for PFE reefers I’ve had in the ready line for 6 months, so maybe soon?

[quote user=“gmpullman”]
Mike— That sounds like a great title for a childrens boo

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Added another company house. Now to start adding the details.

The trees have their bases attached until I am happy with their location. Some might have noticed my street lights leaning over. I have three different street lights temporarily installed around the town. I’m trying to decide which one I like best before they are permanently installed.

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Not protypical. Mom Dad and 7 kids wake up in the morning and one out house doesn’t cut it. You need a quad house.

Mom is second from the left.