Welcome to Weekend Photo Fun## October 9, 2020 through October 11, 2020## All Are Welcome!
Hello everyone. The weekend is here! It is HOT down here in Florida. We were at 94 degrees today, just one degree short of the record.
The new Dazor work lamp that Ed provided for my workbench got me to finish a freight car this week. It is amazing how a good tool gets you into the mood to work on something.
I had this model 95% complete on hold. I was not happy with how the paint went on around the door, and I also thought the decals looked too modern for 1954. The logo and lettering style just look wrong to me.
I went ahead and finished it. I gave it a little light weathering and installed Kadee trucks and couplers.
The lighting for the photograph emphasized the paint problems around the door. It does not look that bad in person.
Thank you for setting up another fine Weekend Photo Fun excursion, Kevin.
Had I known that Dazor lamp would bring you so much joy I would have sent it months ago [:D] Sure glad you are enjoying it. I have found that on occasion, a tiny drop of CRC 2-26 into the switch plunger will keep the works from getting sticky after time. Maybe this just happens when HOT incandescent lamps are used?
Again, so glad it was adopted into a loving family [bow]
My pictures are at the Rexall Drug store and are awaiting processing.
*Flickr decided to take a holiday just now [banghead]
Well, Flickr STILL refuses to cooperate. I’ll have to upload my photos later this afternoon. I’m hittin’ the rack [zzz][|)][zzz]
Thank you to all the folks that commented on my scenery update in last week’s WPF [Y] Your compliments feed my motivation to continue [:)]
Kevin- Thanks again for starting this weeks WPF! That boxcar looks good to me! Maybe a little grim will help with the paint? Good lighting makes a huge difference! I love the new LEDs in my apartment! Keep up the good work!
Ed- I hope flicker comes back soon, I was looking forward to seeing more progress!
Last week I sold 2 Athearn units on mercari ( My NS sd60 and UP GP50 ) And was able to use the funds on a proto 2000 PS-2 hopper kit and a Proto 2000 GP9. The GP9 was listed as " factory sealed" and when I opened it, It had signs of run time and hairs in the trucks. I contacted the seller and informed him of the mistake. He informed me in a very cocky manner that he replaced the drive gears and axles to insure I wouldnt have problems. I felt bad about the 4 star review I gave him and forgot about it. I got home, put it on the track and it sounded like a rock tumbler. The rear drive axle wasn’t connected! And one of the power wires from the motor was not placed back under the circuit board so the shell was getting wedged. I was a little upset that I had to do work on a “factory sealed” unit. Oh well it’s a beautiful unit. I’m going to feel a little bad painting it for the Milwaukee Road.
Thanks for another Weekend Photo Fun, Kevin! Your boxcar looks good. Unless you had mentioned it, I would not have known there was a paint problem. After you mentioned it, I still didn’t see anything wrong. It looks good.
Ed, I hope you can post some pictures. We look forward each week to your photos.
Ringo, that’s a nice looking UP hopper. That is something that I now want to get – a series of hopper cars. That is about all we see here this time of year. I think I’d be more upset than you are about that used locomotive. It’s funny that the seller lied, and yet he gets upset after admitting that the “factory sealed” part was not true. I’ve never understood people like that.
I haven’t worked on the layout too much. My photo is the City of Los Angeles leaving a tunnel. The rock around the tunnel is actually tree bark I glued to the foam, filled in cracks with Sculptamold, and painted. It still looks a little unrealistic to me, but will have to wait until I get more time for the layout – maybe after we get snow and we are in for the winter.
Sorry for the blurry picture. I need a good camera, but I’d rather spend the money on some new rolling stock.
Ringo, I hear you about those Ebay sellers “hiding the truth” about their products. I fixed a lot of locos that were advertized as “new”. Ebay is really not for modellers that don’t like to tinker and fix.
I worked a bit on my sawmill scene. As a temporary measure, I placed the items on a cork mat - in retrospect, it’s a pretty convincing base to simulate shavings and sawdust. I think I will just cover it with fine samdust to give a more refined look and weather it.
John- Thats a great scene! Thats a great idea using bark for the rock face! I would reccomend the proto 2000 ones. You can find them in kit and rtr on ebay for around $8-$15. I love it! I can’t understand people like that either. It is a new loco I believe, but still was taken apart and not put back correctly. I was dissapointed but it was an easy fix and runs great now.
Simon- I really like that scene. Love the little loco! I’ve had good luck on eBay but not mercari. They make it too hard to get your money out after you make a sale. I think I will try my luck with ebay next time I need to sell something
Kevin… Thanks for starting Photo Fun. That’s another nice boxcar.
Ringo … GP9 looks good in the photo. Too bad about the issues you described.
John York 1 … I like the COLA emerging from the tunnel .
Simon. … Nice sa mill and critter.
…
I added two more stock cars to my layout. I had some old Walthers kits in my stash of unbuilt kits. These were undecorated and easy to assemble. I painted them for CB&Q and GN.
Flickr finally flicked the switch to turn their server farm back on! Got photos uploading now —
Ringo, I tend to stay away from eBay sellers that don’t provide plenty of decent photos. “Factory sealed” should not include furry axles! Nice work on the layout, though. Fortunately old Proto locomotives can easily be repaired or overhauled.
Your City Of LA scene looks great! Hope you get some model RR time in soon.
Your cork sheet idea is good, Simon. I find it pretty reasonably priced at craft stores around me, or Amazon. The sawmill is going to be a focal point in your scene.
Garry, you had better get the gandy dancers out to drive that spike sticking up there. Don’t want it to snag a coupler, or a finger! Nice work on the stock cars.
You have some great “blank canvas” there, Chip. I’ll bet you’re anxious to get that track down, BUT, as you know — take your time and lay the track carefully [:-^]
Here’s an overall look at the tower scene. I added a few more shrubs and the concrete steps and walkways:
Kevin–I’ve never heard of California Northwestern. Hoo Dey?
The scope seems to be pointing appropriatly at Fresno.
Ringo–Never feel guilty about changing paint–even if it is factory sealed.
John–I can’t tell much about your bark rocks from your photo–it may just need paint–but if you don’t like it, it will bug you until you do.
Simon–I like your backwoods mill–especially the donkey saw.
Garry–The problem with stock cars is they look good and smell clean, right up untill the time you fill them with cows. You didn’t waste any time did ya?
Ed–I don’t know if it’s appropriate to make suggestions, especially when it looks so nice, but what you might do is take out about half of the short grass, and make it dirt like the parking lot. Especially the down-grade next to the steps. You could add a couple furrows where water runs off.
You do that and I’ll take my time with the track. (I’ve got to. The main is 29 feet long and all but 8 feet are in a tunnel. It has to be bullet proof. But at least you can see it and reach it from the side.)
Hey guys, sorry I have been absent for a few weeks ( I have been putting in a L O T of overtime lately.)
Now, on to more pressing matters. If you recall, I had “just discovered” ( ok… pointed out by everybody) that I had painted/decaled my reffer upside down.
I promptly gave it a bath in Eazy Lift Off…
A BRIEF AD FOR E.L.O.
I have used this stuff for years, and NEVER had a problem Trackfiddler pointed out that the label says " safe for most plastics"… and it is …
UNLESS: you forget your parts are coverd with it … for 30 days … then this happens.
I still “swear” by Eazy Lift Off, just dont let it sit for too long. But, now you guys get to watch me scratchbuild new carsides !
I have several feet of scribed car siding, and a set of Tichy reffer door details , sooooo… hopefully I can get started on this tomorrow …
Chip: In my freight car collection for my layout, which I call the Fleet Of Nonsense, there are no prototype roadnames, none! I freelanced everything.
There are over 150 freight cars in the fleet of nonsense. Approximately 50 of them are STRATTON AND GILLETTE, 10 for the DAWDLE AND DELAY, and 90 for other roadnames.
Building this collection has been an absolute joy.
Chip … It is good to see your layout construction. Thanks for commenting about my stock cars.
Ed … Thanks to you, I pounded the track nail down. Funny how stuff like that is not noticable until it is in a photo. Your tower scene with light pole is great.
Timmy … That is quite an experience with Easy Lift Off. I’ll stay tuned.
Bear … LOL … Words of wisdom: Don’t Poke the Bear. [;)]
Ringo: I have bought more than a few things from sellers on eBay that were not in the condition as they were described.The only ones that really get my boiling are when a seller shows “stock” pictures of an item, describes it as new, and then the item is in bad condition. This does nothappen much with model trains, but with old classic rock CDs it is way too frequent. The locomotive is very pretty.
John: A slightly blurry tunnel scene of a UNION PACIFIC streamliner is always welcome. Your layout sure has some nbice places to take pictures.
Simon: The cork flooring for the sawmill scene looks great. Your little critter is also a neat model. It all looks very good together.
Garry: Congratulations on completing some additional stock cars. Moving kits into the “completed” column always feels good.
Chip: The layout progress is sure exciting to watch. You building thread is very nice to read and I have been enjoying it a lot. I should probably comment over there more. Bringing the layout drought to an end must be great. It has been over three years for me, and I am so deep with anticipation.
Ed: The lamp post looks perfect to me. I am going to need to get ahold of a whole bunch of those LEDs and make extensive use of them on my layout. Night time photography is lots of fun.
Timmy: Other than being warped, I don’t see what is too terribly wrong with the reefer car sides. Looking forward to seeing your scratchbuilt versions. Have fun! I just recently started scratchbuilding freight cars, and have only completed three, but it was a lot more rewarding than I thought it would be.
Bear: Thank you for the toon with Garry’s stock cars. The Bear Toons always hit the spot with a light-hearted laugh that is always welcome.
My younger brother once stated that he “doesn’t like educational stuff on his day off”. Since this is Weekend Photo Fun and since this post contains a small educational aspect and is only thinly related to model railroading, I’ll try to be brief (yeah, right!).
I named the bridge just downstream of Boysen Dam on the Wind River Peninsula of my layout the Chief Washakie Bridge. As far as I know, the actual bridge doesn’t have an actual name, but I figured I’d take some freelance license . . .
Chief Washakie was leader of the Eastern Shoshone tribe (sometimes called the Washakie Band) and is a prominent person in Wyoming’s history. Washakie County is the name of one of the counties in the state (we only have 22 counties). By some accounts he lived to be about 100 years old (approx 1800 - 1900).
Here’s a photo of the (model) bridge.
And here’s a photo I took last year of Chief Washakie in the foyer of the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC.
Maybe you could flip it over and make it into a skate park or something.
Bear–If you are going steal rolling stock, get refers or box cars. You can scrub them with bleach, but you never get the smell out of a cattle car.
Robert–That is some impressive scenery. Now before you say, “but I haven’t done the rocks yet.” I can see where it’s going.
Mike–Nice car, nice train, nice scene.
[bow] [bow] [bow]
A couple days ago I was about to cut a hole for my Atlas tunetable when I noticed that my power supplies/ control drawer was stuck. I figured I better lift the plywood and fix it now, because I’m just going to add layer after layer on top of it from here on out.
Here’s what it looks like.
And here’s what it’s supposed to do.
It rolls on drawer hardware. A couple of the wires were catching and blocking the movement.
What you see is a Bachmann EZ Track transformer, a Zephyr, and a program track. Transformer is supplying about 5-6v to the turntable and the 12vac to the LEDs.
What?
I guess two years ago I must have been young and stupid, because you’d think I’d know that I should be running 12vdc.
So I spent the day refining and redefining how I wanted my accessories set up. Basically, I want to seal it and be done with it.
