Weekend Photo Fun - December 18th through December 20th 2020

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

See second post.

-Kevin

2

Welcome To:# Weekend Photo Fun### December 18, 2020 through December 20, 2020

Welcome to the last Weekend Photo Fun before Christmas!

I hope everyone will have some holiday goodies to share next weekend. I have something really neat on the way for myself.

This week I managed to complete a tank car I started a long time ago.

This is a brass model of an 11,000 gallon insulated and pressurized tank car. It was imported by Overland Models. I tried to make it look typical of a private owner tank car of the mid-1950s, so basic black and sparse lettering.

I don’t know where I came up with the name TEXAS PORT TRANSPORTATION, but I like the way it sounds.

It took me almost an hour of trying to get this thread started, but it was worth it.

Let me see some fun photos! Be safe.

-Kevin

3

Thanks for your effort to get the last WPF before Christmas and the Holidays on track, Kevin. Your Overland tank car looks excellent. Overland brass is well worth the investment. Your lettering looks spot-on and accurate. The T-P Line?

Last week someone asked about the “high-line” of the Walthers blast furnace and that got me looking at my dumping area behind the blast furnace. The supplied “cat-walk” was sorely lacking in detail:

Ore_Dump-2 by Edmund, on Flickr

I decided to fix it up with some Tichy open-grate walkway. [Y] I only had four kits on-hand so had to order some more. This stuff is a “staple” and I always try to keep a good stock in the drawer.

Stock_Track-B4 by Edmund, on Flickr

and here it is after painting and a little sprucing up. I’ll have to come up with a plan for lighting as this is a 24-7 operation. Perhaps a girder gantry overhead with some lights hanging down?

Stock_Track by Edmund, on Flickr

Two cars added to the rolling-stock roster this week from Exact-Rail. A Penn Central X77 Appliance box car. This is my first “excess-height” car. It was often found at the GE plant in Louisville, Kentucky.

P-C_X77 by [url=https:/

4

Good morning from mostly cloudy, snowy and cold Northeast Ohio!

Kevin, thanks for starting us out, good looking tank car!

Ed, nice layout addition, also like the PC car (I have one too), not entralled with the latter coil cars, prefer the old style Evans and W&K ones.

Managed to get a couple of cars done this week.

Kadee PS 2003CF Covered Hopper, painted with Scalecoat II MOW Gray and lettered with decals (DT&I Style) from the Ann Arbor Historical Society. Car was originally purchased for hauling cement out of the Dundee Cement Plant in Dundee, MI. After the Interstate Highway Program slowed down it was transferred to hauling sand from the pit in Yuma, MI to the Ford Casting Plant in Brookpark, OH.

IMRC FMC 5283CF Boxcar Kit, painted with Scalecoat II Tuscan Red, Silver and Black paints then lettered with Herald King Decals. The SP & SSW purchased hundreds of these cars in various classes with and without cushioned underframes for hauling lumber out of the Pacific Northwest. The only other users were the Milwaukee Road whose cars were eventually transferred to the BAR after the Milwaukee pulled out of the Pacific Extension.

A picture I took awhile back but never published of my detailed and painted Kato GP35 and Stewart (Kato) U25B in Wabash livery followed by a general freight of mixed Wabash and other cars.

Thanks for looking!

Rick Jesionowski

5

Thans Kevin for starting WPF.

A lovely tanker.

Ed. Stunning pictures.

Rick. Excellent boxcars.

David

6

Father and son watching the trains.

They are watching a Class 26 26016 with a train bound for Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) Barnbow.

David

7

I agree, Rick, but I guess I’m building a collection of various covered coil gons and I always liked that truss design. I don’t care much for the later, NS aluminum ones, though.

Do you know of any source for the G41 coil flats? That sure would be a neat car to have.

http://www.trainweb.org/phillynrhs/RPOTW061022.html

Regards, Ed

8

Kevin … Thank you for starting Weekend Photo FUn. You did a great job of painting and lettering the brass tank car. [tup]

Rick … The AA cement hopper and SSW boxcar look great. It is good of you to provide background information about the prototype cars. Your Wabash locomotives look sharp.

Ed … The highline details look great. I like the PC boxcar and the CR coil gon.

David … Father and son have a close view for train watching.

…

December was a busy time for railroads hauling mail and express.

Here is the modernized heavyweight baggage/RPO car I built. The prototype, CB&Q 1941, was used on Burlington’s Kansas City Zephyr.

Below is a picture of a GP7 switching mail and express cars at Union Station.

9

The only model was a resin kit by Railyard Models years ago, I managed to snag one a couple of years ago on E-Bay but it did not come with the covers. I have yet to build it. Maybe Rapido will do them with its latest attention to PRR models. Also I have an article from Model Railroading or Rail Model Journal on kit bashing and scratchbuilding them from evergreen plastic and Athearn underframes.

David, nice pictures again from Britain, it is amazing how much modeling you guys get in a small space.

Garry, like you passenger car servicing pictures, many modelers do not know how much operation can be had with head end and other traffic using passenger trains.

Rick Jesionowski

10

Thanks for starting out the weekend with that tank car Kevin! It looks great! I love the look of older freight cars.

Ed- The cat walk looks fantastic, I like the rust. The exactrail cars look great too! Hopefully santa was able to find the Exact rail WC boxcar I asked for :wink:

Rick- Love the cars as always. The cotton belt car looks amazing. Im a sucker for 50’ boxcars. Like the WABASH units too.

David- I like the father son scene. Me and my dad used to ride our bikes up to the train station in my town at 6pm some nights. That time had a inbound commuter from Chicago, an outbound to chicago and a CN freight shortly after the last METRA left. Those were the good days.

Garry- I like the GP7. Thats a nice RPO car. Say, what does RPO stand for? I’m not big into passenger stuff

This weekend I got some more work done on the river scene and as it comes together, I get more motivation to finish.!

The rocks are woodland scenics Talus. With WS deadfall and creek rocks. Looking at the deadfall I realized it’s literally just sticks. I could have went out and found some. Oh well it was only $3.

The SOO gp38-2 also saw some weathering. I am unhappy with it and am going to spend more time on it one day.

I found this P2K gp30 which I have been looking for since my second engine purchase last year. I finally found one with the paint damage on the handrails for $30 from a gentelman who was local. Very happy with it and added the hiawatha logo on the nose. I don’t think they had them but it looks better with it IMO.

Not model related but driving home I saw these two CN Geeps ideling on the CN main with a short cut of cars ( 4 hoppers 3 boxcars ). Was in a hurry to take the picture as I have never seen Geeps on this CN line. It was at the crossing with WSOR so maybe they were dropping off cars? or simply waiting for a intermodal to pass. </

11

Kevin - Nice tank car!

Ed - I’ve always liked PC stuff and that boxcar sizzles.

Rick - The Wabash diesels came out great!

David - Awesome detail!

Garry - I share Rick’s enthusiasm for passenger terminal ops that you’ve depicted so well!

Ringo - The bridge scene is coming together well, what passes for topograhy in a mostly level prototype environment can be quite dramatic and you’re working that (and the camera angle) well.

My puny contribution is a build of an old HOn(2, 30" or 3’)Trains of Texas kit of a Gilpin Tramway caboose. The prototype was 2’, which almost no one was building in when the kit came out in 1984. I made mine 3’ with an old pair of brass caboose trucks to serve on my Silverton Union line.

I thought the platforms were too narrow so extended them, providing a better space to mount the couplers as a bargain. In turn, I needed to extend the roof ion order to cover the extra 9" or so I added. The result is a caboose that looks a little less like straight off the Gilpin and more like a generalized design feature.

The steps? Are you kidding me? Those need improvement or my crews will be complaining. But it works for now, bounces a little because it’s so light, but for now it stays on the track even at featherweight. Good enough for me.

12

Rick … Thanks for your kind remarks about my photos. I agree head end cars do add interest to operations of passenger trains.

Ringo … Thanks for your remark about my photos. Nice looking Soo Line and MILW locomotives.

Mike L … Thanks for commenting about my photos and passenger train operations. Your little caboose certainly has character.

13

Ed: That new PENN CENTRAL boxcar is quite a model. The work you did on the walkway at the steel mill really payed off good dividends. The Tichy roofwalk material is a good thing to keep on hand. It can be used for all kinds of stuff.

Rick: The ANN ARBOR covered hopper car is striking. Kadee did a wonderful job on that model. I only have one of them, and it is a favorite. Your WABASH diesels are great looking models too.

David: That is another great picture of your beautiful railroad. The father and son are getting quite a show from the railway.

Garry: So many passenger cars! I asked a question about of of them down below.

Ringo: Your scene with the bridge is looking better. Your work on your diesel locomotives is impressive, they look wonderful.

Mike: I really like your little caboose model. It has great character.

Garry: What kind of passenger car is the one I circled?

-Kevin

14

Thank you for the comments on my picture, everyone. Much appreciated.

Garry. The modernized heavyweight baggage/RPO car looks really good.

Ringo. The bridge scene is really taking shape. Carry on the good work.

Mike L. Do not underestimate your talents… An amazing little model very well made.

Every****one. Some amazing scenery being made for the models to be part of. Well done.

David

15

How many times we see a glimpse of a train in the landscape as it passes? We wish we were closer.

That is what i try to achieve.

Just running trains.

A view from the control area whilst sitting down. 46210 ‘Lady Patricia’ on a ‘Steam Special’ passing the junction.

The beauty of being able to stand up and get closer.

David

16

David… Thanks for commenting on my photos. I likeyour steam special and your scenery.

Kevin … It is a former troop dining car converted into an express car. After WWII, Burlington acquired 300 such cars from Department of Defense, and converted all of them into mail and express cars. The railroad then retired old heavy weight mail and express cars. Glass was removed from windows and sheet metal replaced it.

Ringo … You asked what RPO means. Railway Post Office. It is a mail car with mail workers on board who sort mail as the train moves. My car in the photo is baggage/RPO meaning half is RPO and half is baggage. Often “baggage” really meant mail in bags or express packages instead of baggage belonging to passengers.

17

Great work everyone, so much amazing work.

Well my Sd60m came in last week, and the decals came in yesterday. So here’s where I am this morning on it.

As popular as this is online, I believe Im one of the first to do one of the new Carload express SD60M.

18

Kevin, Thanks for your patients in opening the WPF, handsome tank car and good choice with the lettering, Texas says hydrocarbon.

David, Nice scenes, especially like your father and son pic, not just for the nostalgic feelings imparted, but the appealing contrast of sunlight and shade, the lovely detail and quaintness of the row houses.

Mike, Love the caboose, a lot of character in a small package.

Put the finishing touches on my Wheels of Time Gunderson bulkhead flat.

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

19

Not a train to be seen but this will more than double my little switching layout.

20

Thanks for all the kind words about my caboose, everyone!

Peter - Tasty job of dirtying up that bulkhead flat. I need to acquire one of those, somewhere, somehow I’ve always like the looks of those cars. [:P]

Here’s a short video of my caboose.

Silverton Union RR Caboose #1012_Gilpin_Style_IMG_9235 from Mike Lehman on Vimeo.

David,

Yeah, it is some kind of magic going on. I regularly mangle a few things then need to straighten that out and somehow the “character” word gets credit. I guess I don’t give up when things get ugly and the scars that result seem to be well-regarded, which is a pretty good day of character for me most times. I really do appreciate it, (BTW, you seem to have some of that sort of gumption with your detailed scenes!) but more importantly to use it as an occasion to remind to not let fear of failing or worse, fear of less than perfect results stand in your way of just doing it and building the model you have in mind, whether kit, bash or scratch-built. That will always be an accomplishment, even if you find out ways to improve – which is what those mistakes along the way are useful for IMO.

A good example is what happened with the roof. You put the scribed side IN so that it looks right inside the cabin. They really didn’t offer any substantive suggestions for the outer covering, though. I went with one I used before, painting down tissue paper. Except the Floquil Weathered Black didn’t really soak thropugh the fancy tissue paper I tried to use. I lifted it off the roof blank (already attached to make application easier.) After daubing it with a paper towel, it became clear this fancy tissue wasn’t going to wilt or really dissolve. So I got ou