Ah, train weather is here. Too cold to do anything outside, so down to the basement for some train projects.
My Colorado Midland fleet is growing. Last weekend my Lionel Santa Fe 0-4-0 , was bought by the Midland, and repainted and relettered to the “Pikes Peak Route” railroad. The MTH rugged rails Santa Fe caboose was also purchased by the Colorado Midland, and repainted and relettered as such, all including custom decals produced on the computer and printer. Also was able to purchase an Intermountain reefer kit on e-bay, in the same roadname.
Went to the local hobby store to buy some more decals (lettering from microscale), and they gave me the new Lionel and K-line catalog. They didn’t have to give them to me, as I only buy scenery items and decals from them, but they did anyway. They don’t carry much O-gauge, but I will consider buying some more items from them because of their customer service.
Took the wife shopping and while she was browsing the clothing store, went to hobbytown in the same strip mall, and purchased an Atlas switch tower. I hope to custom paint it and letter it for Divide, Co…
All in all, I’m having a great winter! My income taxes will quickly change my mood, but having a good time now. Reading the forums has also been fun. What a great hobby. This has been one of the best winters I have had. How is your winter going?
Looks good MARTY what are you going to do with covering the foam, paint? Also like the serran wrap to protect track, I’m going to borrow that one from you, thanks.
I’ll carve it up and then use a dry wall compund thinned a bit as a texture. I’ll paint it with flat colors and then add some ground cover and other items to give it a rocky and natural look. I also use aluminum foil sometimes as it stays down on the track better. The saran wrap does OK. You can cut the foam and then the saran wrap will lift right up off the tracks with the foam on top rather than in the tracks.
Marty, do you paint the foil or use it somehow to form the foam?
Mpz, love to hear about a Colorado Midland collection / layout. Ever since I read Sam Posey’s book, I’ve been intrigued by that road. Tell us more about it
I got 3 of my old post war whistle tenders whistling again thanks to OGR’s Barrett in the Backshop # 9 video. Jim B. made it look easy and not the least bit intimidating. What a difference a little oiling does to make them sound like whistles instead of a blender full of nuts and bolts! 2 more to do and the whole fleet will be repaired.
I’m sorry Doug… the foil is used to protect the track from the foam. I never really thought of it as a mold, maybe I should try that. I found that the foil stays tight against the track giving it better protection. Once you carve away enough foam you lift it off. Of course running trains with foil on the tracks is electrifying!
Oh. I feel dumb. Now I get it. Fortunately, it also reminds me about digging out an old CTT that had a neat trick in using foil to support a block section.
Well spent the afternoon using drywall compound to texture the back wall. Kept at it until I ran out of compound. I’ll have to get more on Friday when I get home. Also before using the compund I carved and checked for clearences using my bigger engines. So far all is going pretty good. Won’t be able to finish this project though until later this month as I’ll be out of town for a couple weeks starting Sunday.
My layout is in the garage so winter is the worst time of the year to work for me. Whenever spring comes around I’ll show you some pics of my progress. I’ve got a space heater I put out there but it is still chilling.
I’ve used drywall compound successfully to form rocks and roads and other stuffs. It tends to crack, which sometimes looks OK, or you can just fill the crack with more compound. It’s easy to carve even when dry. Good luck.
I’ve been working on a dozen projects and don’t have much to show yet as I keep hopping from one project to another to keep the interest peeked. Eventually, each project will come to fruition.
No need to fill with extra compound. All you need to do to smooth the cracks is wipe lightly with a damp sponge. The water in the sponge will elasticize the spackle and make it pliable again… of course you have to do this within 24 hours, after about 48 hours that stuff is pretty solid.
Nice work you are doing! My next layout I’d like to have hills and tunnels!
Dissambled the 752 coaler last night. Going to beadblast then repaint everything. I took pictures to help remember assembly, but I thought I’d share them also.
I’m trying to get some scenery installed. This past weekend I completed some backdrop paintings, though I have a couple more to go.
Next up, trees. I purchased about 80 trees this weekend, and now need to begin the process of adding ground cover, trees, and landscaping.
Of course while most of the country shivers, it’s been glorious here in California so spending long hours in the basement hasn’t been easy, particularly with a very active 19-month old who wants to go outside.
I’m verrrry loosely modelling the Colorado Midland. My layout’s scenery is mountainous, and built to look like the Colorado Springs front range area. I have a bunch of old Williams kits, and am converting some cheap cars to the new roadname, not very prototypical, but I also have a rather odd rail running down the center of my tracks. So far the fleet includes 2 Weaver reefers, 3 19th century MTH overton cars (custom lettered for the Midland using Champ’s decals), 2 cabooses, and 1 engine, all repainted and relettered.
I have a very informative DVD titled, The Pikes Peak Route, which presents a very nice history of the railroad with nice old still shots, and old movies for reference. I won’t go deep into the history, as you allready probably know most of it, but it basiclly began as a logging road, then vegetables and ice in Divide, and lastly, gold in Cripple Creek. The thing that makes the Colo. Midland special, is it was standard gauge, not narrow gauge. This somewhat forced the D&RG to also build in standard gauge in order to compete.
