Weekend Photo Fun - October 28th - 30th

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Looks like I am the first one in this morning!

Managed to finish a couple of new cars this week and have worked on some cars of the namesake railroad!

Branchline 50’ Berwick Boxcar Kit, with Diagonal Panel Roof in place of the X-Panel Roof that came with the kit, painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red, Reefer Orange and Aluminum, then lettered with Highball Graphics Decals.

Used a Walthers PS2 4427 Kit, as a standin for a Bethlehem Covered Hopper, added a Plano Roofwalk, then painted with Scalecoat II MofW Gray and lettered with Islington Station Products Decals.

Looking forward to more great pictures!

Rick Jesionowski

2

Rick,

I’ve always liked the DT&I/AA logo for its simplicity, but it didn’t click until just now when you have the two versions side by side here that it served both RRs. Is there a story behind how that came about with one then the other or did the two roads come up with it together?

This week I’ve been ebaying some stuff (mostly non-RR), cleaning out the office/workshop (will make working on the RR easier), and getting things around the compound ready for winter. I did get a chance to reforest the bald knob that overlooks Beartown, but looks like I need one more pass before it’s looking great…

Before

After

Hoping that our Bear is doing well, just resting from a long week as spring breaks in the Southern hemisphere.

3

Rick … Thanks for kicking off Weekend Photo Fun . … Your Boxcar and covered hopper are more examples of outstanding work. … You certainly do a great job of detailing, painting and lettering freight cars.

Mike L … Bald Knob looks better that way … Nice scene.

…

Here are some FT’s. There were undecorated Stewart models that I painted and lettered.

Below is my Bachmann doodlebug which I repowered with a NWSL Stanton drive…

4

Mike,

The DT&I acquired the Ann Arbor Railroad in 1964, when it was forced to be spun off with the merger/lease of the N&W, NKP and Wabash Railroads. The Annie was part of the Wabash at that time and used the Pennant Herald similar to the Wabash Flag Herald. After the DT&I assumed control in 1964 they changed the paint scheme to the “Compass” Herald which was first applied to the new GP35’s that the Annie Acquired in 1964, they supposedly had ordered C420’s but the DT&I quashed that order and got the EMD’s instead.

As a further aside, the GP35’s were too slippery on the grades in upper Michigan, so the DT&I GP38’s were used on the Annie and the Annie GP35’s were used on the flat portions of the DT&I.

Garry,

Nice job on painting those F’s in the classic CB&Q paint scheme, a very nice understated scheme, but they sure looked good.

Rick Jesionowski

5

Great modeling, Rick and Mike. I esp. like that doodlebug shot, Garry.

Here’s a meet on the bridge at Roaring Creek.

6

Interesting repower, I have a similar doodlebug that I am getting ready to make DCC. It is for Boothbay Railway Village, so will get a lot of run time; the Stanton drive sounds like something more reliable than the stock drive. Do you have any details?

If it works, I may want to do the same for our P1K RDCs. All of them are in the shop for repairs after 1 season of runing.

7

HI, George…

Here is the link to my thread explaining my conversion. I hope it helps you.

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/217394.aspx

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Happy Halloween!

If you look close the load seems to be haunted and totally is not just some unpainted figures on the train.

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RDG Casey:

Sweet!![swg][(-D][(-D][(-D]

Seriously, nice locomotive!

Dave

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Thanks Gary, more than I had hoped for!!! It will do the job for me.

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http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/217394.aspx

Made Garry’s link clickable.

George:

If your Doodlebug already has power pick up from the rear truck and you don’t want to replace the rear truck just order a Stanton drive for the front truck only. The Doodlebug conversion kit is listed on page 2-5 in the NWSL on line catalogue and it shows the specs for the front (powered) truck there. You will save yourself $45.00.

Even if the existing rear truck doesn’t have power pick up, you can add it to the truck for a lot less than the price of the NWSL dummy truck.

Dave

12

I’m working on a Walthers 90’ turntable kit which I paid a very reasonable price for. Many of you will be aware that the kits had lots of problems so I’m in the process of trying to correct the flaws.

One of the issues was that the bridge was prone to rocking back and forth so I decided to upgrade the bridge wheels and bushings. I used the left over wheels from two Grandt Line switcher kits to replace the piddling little wheels supplied with the kit. I managed to get the new wheels at the right height so that they rest on the pit rail without lifting the bridge up.

Here are the revisions still in rough form. The drive system gears are from a defunct 35mm camera and the ‘motor’ is an old brake cylinder:

Here is one of the bridge wheels that came with the kit:

I also added a brass bushing to the rotating shaft to reduce the play in the bushing:

If I can find the proper sized brass tube I will also replace the Delrin bushing in the bottom of the pit.

Dave

13

Thanks for kicking off another fine WPF, Rick!

As always, your cars show tasteful and expert lettering, detailing and weathering. Thanks, too for the bit of history and background on the DT&I, AA Wabash, N&W/NKP ownership.

The trees really make the scene, Mike. I have also been doing some housecleaning around the layout room and also prepping for the cold winds of November! I keep wondering about the Bear, too!

Nice job on the FTs, Garry! I did some Stewart ABBA F7s in basic NYC black and that was a project in itself. I like painting and decaling but I have to get my “mind right” before I tackle those projects!

Great Pennsy bridge scene, Grampy! I like the misty old-photo look!

I’m thinking of getting the NWSL repower (speed-up) kit for my three P1K RDCs George. I sold off my Bachmann Doodlebugs when I bought a brass one and I really don’t plan to shell out the $$ for the new Rapido ones. I would like to try the regear kit for the RDCs though. Let us know what route you take.

Fun stuff, RDG Casey!

I have been following your turntable build, Dave. Looks like you will have one fine running machine when you get done [Y]

All this week Photobucket has been giving me fits. Maybe because I’m trying to access the site at 4 am EDT and they are doing “site-upgrades” but it has been increasingly frustrating trying to work with them. I have over 2000 photos there. I’d hate to change horses now!

I wonder if there’s any way to use Flickr as a host site? I don’t see any easy way to link photos to Flickr, though.

Anyway, I have been working on fixing-up an “orphaned” corner of my layout that has a helix involved. I just never got around to trying to conceal the plywood chasm until this week.

This is the "Orphaned

14

Gidday All, well 24 hours late and I see it matters not at all as there is already a lot of really Good Stuff! [bow]

Thanks not only for kicking us off Rick, but the continuing freight car history lesson, I find it interesting even though the cars are too modern for my chosen time frame.

“I did get a chance to reforest the bald knob that overlooks Beartown, but looks like I need one more pass before it’s looking great…”

15

Some awesome stuff this weekend. Hop you all have a happy Halloween!

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Rick, WPF, always a treat, thanks for the start-up and the opportunity to view and be inspired by your array of fine rolling stock modeling.

Thanks to all, Happy Halloween and Happy Dia de Muertos! Regards, Peter

17

This morning I got a nice surprise in the mail. Walthers published my Going Fishin photo in the Magic of Model Railroading section of the new catalog, page 552. I had re-shot the photo adding a Photoshopped sky background and a locomotive. This is the origuinal. Always one of my favorite pictures

18

George, That’s great and congrats.

Though nearly 30 years ago it seems like only yesterday that I took my son fishing on a Saturday morning. Photos like yours that evoke pleasant memories are significant and timeless.

Thanks and regards, Peter

19

It wasn’t our fault, Bear!

I just got an email from PB…

Sorry for the interruption…

…you can now get back to your regularly scheduled cat photos.

Our site, photobucket.com is back up and running! We apologize if you recently experienced problems with our site or accessing your account. The website interruptions were due to technical issues encountered during an upgrade intended to improve website performance.

The issues have since been resolved, and at no point was any personal information or data at risk.

20

Just completed these two (of three) cabooses for the layout.

I had bought three kits, but accidentally ruined the third by putting too much pressure on one of the walls. I’ll be re-using that kit as a wreck by the bridge, and building another kit to give me three working cabooses.