Welcome to Weekend Photo Fun## January 29, 2021 through January 31, 2021### All Are Welcome!
January of 2021 is coming to an end, and to be honest, so far 2021 feels an awful lot like it is still 2020.
I have bought nothing on eBay this week, so I did a quick-finish on a project I had almost complete.
This week I am presenting the newest member of my Fleet Of Nonsense. A 40 foot steel boxcar decorated for the ficticious SUSQUEHANNA AND EASTERN.
These decals actually came from a business relationship. I think the only time I have received a set of custom decals from someone I met through work.
One of the higher-ups for Southeastern Freightways saw me reading through Brasstrains Dot Com over lunch, and we started talking about trains. The next time I saw him he gave me the set of decals for this boxc
The Consett Iron Company wagons have arrived. They are a little out of the area of Leeds, but I have been told of many memories by Dawn when she lived in Consett.
When the Iron Company was open the town was covered in a ‘red dust’. Even the dogs had red fur.
A touch of weathering hiding (a little) the fact that the wagons had the same running number. Why model companies couldn’t put different numbers on things. Even different model companies put the same number on?
Kevin, thanks for starting WPF-- I agree that it’s more like the 13th month of 2020, this January. Here’s hoping things improve! Another great-looking boxcar.
TF, that’s a nice framing. I like the tall trees and the exposed rock face.
David, I wonder if there was just one good prototype photo all the companies used for their designs? In any case, the weathering helps esp. that second photo! I’ve found a little judicious hobby knife scraping can turn an 8 into a 3 and a 9/6 into a 5, or just get rid of a numeral or two. [swg]
More tree experiments from me this week, I have a couple of shades of yellow leaf and flocking, and enough armatures to play with that I’m not committed to these specific trees on the layout yet. Best technique I’ve found so far for these armatures is dipping the tips in diluted white glue, layering flocking, sealing with hairspray, then adding more flocking, repeat until it looks right… I’m open to suggestions, though. (Right-hand cluster is still bare in the first photo):
Good morning from cloudy, cold and snowy Northeast Ohio!
Kevin, thanks for starting us out with another of your made up creations, always look good.
TF, good looking picture of some of Keviin’s cars, great composition
David, good looking pictures and nice cars, I have a bunch of G39 Ore Jimmies, many with duplicate numbers, it was hard to find all the different sets that Stewart made, but I will renumber them as time permits to get rid of the duplicates. Athearn made many runs of cars with the same car number on them for decades.
Phil, your scenery experiments came out very well, keep up the good work.
I managed to get some work done this week, was a bit rough as the car I wanted to decal, I did not get the decals until last night.
IMRC 10,000 Gal Tank Car kit, substituted Yarmouth Sill Steps for the plastic ones in the kit, and made a metal hand brake staff instead of the kit plastic one. Painted the car with Scalecoat II Black and lettered with Mask Island Decals. The Tidewater Oil Co. (founded in 1897 in New York)) purchased the Associated Oil Co (found in California in the 1890’s) in 1926 and merged their operations. Associated Oil produced the Flying A gasoline for use along the west coast and Hawaii. Tidewater eventually got bought up by Esso and finally in 1966 Phillips took over and rebranded all the Flying A stations to Phillips 66.
IMRC 50’ PS1 Boxcar kit, substituting A-Line Sill steps for the kit supplied plastic ones. Also cut down the ladders on the A end of the car as this car represents a rebuilt car from the 70’s after the order removing the roofwalks on all boxcars. It was repainted in the new simplified scheme for the B&M and was used for general
This WPF Edition is on a good start! This week, I made progress on the DCC installs of my vintage locos. I finally did my MDC 0-6-0. It’s been waiting on the shelf for over 5 years… I regret that now because it runs perfectly. Adding power pickups on all the tender wheels makes a huge difference. I did not even bother connecting a power line from the frame on the loco to get power from the drivers. They are all brass, so it would not have made a big difference anyway!
Good Morning and thanks for getting WPF going Kevin.
Kevin another very nicely decaled car.
TF, two more very nicely decaled cars.
David I like your scenery, a lot of it too.
Phil, very nice looking stream and trees, very realistic.
I’m still working on my diner, very slow going. The passengers are just dragging their heals.
Click to enlarge
I had to redo the lighting board, I had the LEDs placed in the middle of the windows and all I got were shadows on the walking passengers.
More pictures Guys.
EDIT:
Rick and Simon slipped in on me.
Really nice decal work Rick, I really like the flying A.
Simon, very nice 0-6-0, my first HO locomotive was a MDC 0-6-0 back in 1951. It still runs great in fact so good I bought a second one of eBay about 5 years ago, new in the box kit from 1952. The first one cost $6.85 the second one cost $48.
Kevin … Thanks for starting Photo Fun . … The S&E boxcar looks sharp.
TF … Speaking of nice looking boxcars, the S&G cars look great. I like your trees and rocks.
David North Brit … The iron company wagons look great. I know what you mean about duplicate numbers on freight cars, and I have changed many of the nembers. Nice scenery, too.
Phil … Your tress look real.
Rick … I certainly like your tank car and B&M boxcar. The NS units look great, too.
Simon … Your 0-6-0 looks like a hard worker. Very nice switcher.
Mel … Your diner interior project looks challenging. I look forward to seeing the completed car.
Here is my Great Northern heavyweight observation car. It has a lighted drumhead sign and lighted rear marker lights.
A Great Northern 4-8-2 is pulling the heavyweight passenger train.
Thanks Kevin for starting off WPF for this week. Thats a handsome box car.
TF - Great looking box cars. Nice photo too.
David - I always enjoy your photos. You crowd alot into your layout space and it always seems natural.
pt714 - The scenery experiment is going well. I particularly like the bridge scene.
Rick - Great cars as usual. I like the scene from the Strongsville Club layout.
Simon - Cool little loco. I know how fussy they can be when converting them to DCC.
Mel - Your work is always inspiring. Good luck with the diner. I’m going to have to get to work on some of my passenger cars.
Garry - I like the observation car. I’ve experimented with drumheads on a few of my observation cars, but never achieved the clarity you have.
I have finally finished the new lighting buss project on the layout. After nearly 18-years my Digitrax Zephyr finally gave up the ghost. Something went wrong with the key-pad/programmer. Digitrax no longer supported it and parts were not available, so:
Enter my new Digitrax Zephy Express.
On the operational side, a couple of photos:
My version of a Santa Fe named passenger train powered with an A/B/A set of BLI F3s passes the Black River Station and its new exterior lighting.
Since I was playing around with my new Zephyr a put a couple of “modern” trains powered by UP SD70ACe locomotives on the layout. Here they are approaching each other near Grafton tower.
Keep the photos and ideas coming guys. Thanks to you WPF is always the best thread of the week.
Gidday Phil, apart from playing with a few blobs of teased green flock, I haven’t done anything with trees, so if they were mine, I’d be really pleased![tup][tup]
A Big Thanks to everyone else for their contribution of their really Good Stuff, so far.
All projects in process somewhere. Got those to that point last weekend. Now to see. what gets done this weekend. The 70T ballast cars need decals, the flat car decks from old roco military flats need thier companion cars done. the cars themselves need aging. Last weekend the wing walls for the postwar layout and area on top of the hill got a lot of work, this weekend maybe start the slopes. Of course the Midvale steel mill building gets trim, windows and doors.
No “before and after” this week. This one is from my friend’s layout. I did the buildings and scenery for him. I’m without my own layout for now so I live vicariously through his…
There are sure some great photos and contributions here this weekend. I don’t have too much new to report. I had a few more of the brass Congressional cars to fit interiors into:
Well Old Shaky Mel finally finished the interior of the Lounge car. Those tiny passengers gave me fits.
The hardest was the waitress, her serving tray just wouldn’t cooperate.
Click to enlarge
The glasses are short pieces of 1mm fiber cable.
I know no one can see the interiors but I get a kick out of doing them and I know they’re in there so it gives me some gratification of my model railroad.
The next part is a piece of cake, painting and decaling the shell.
Fiddler: Those are a pair of great looking box cars you shared with us this week. [:-^]
David: Those are also some great looking wagons shown in your share this week. I have been reading up on early 20th century railroading in England. If I were to start over, that kind of railroading is becoming very appealing to me.
PT714: Your scenery experiment with the Super Trees is impressive. Your results are looking very good. I am eager to see what you come up with as a best practice.
Rick: Of the two freight cars you shared this week, I like the B&M blue boxcar best. It is gorgeous.
Simon: Thank you for your update on the locomotive project. Do you use the locomotive for electrical pick up at all? I just use the tender on my brass steam locomotives, and the eight tender wheels work just fine for me.
Mel: Your work on the interiors is simply inspiring. I am sure going to have a lot of work to do on whatever passenger cars I decide to put on the workbench.
Garry: I like all the work you did on the Great Northern passenger train. The lighted drumhead sign on the observation car sure is a nice finishing touch.
Allan: 18 years from a controller is pretty remarkable. How is the Zephyr Express different from the original Zephyr?
Bear: Thank you for the light hearted Bear-Toon laughter this weekend.
Shane: That looks like a good assortment of projects you have been working on.
Jeff: The buildings you built for your friend look very good indeed. I love the foundations they are sitting on.
Ed: Did you paint the model of the UPS package car? If so, great job. Most people don’t notice that the wheels are a darker brown than the body. It looks like the colors on yours are a very good match.
I’ve barely begun to work with the Express but there have been changes as is obvious from the keyboard.
The Express has about 3-times the power (3amps vs. 1amp) for the original Zephyr.
The menu button at top right takes you to several operations, programming 2 and 4 digit addresses, and programming CVs.
Fortunately, beyond more functions, selected via menu, and more power, the Express seems to blend in well with my DT-400s, locos and their programming.
I haven’t yet, checked out if it will work with my LocoBuffer-USB which I have plugged into a LocoNet port. I haven’t explored the USB port on the machine.
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