WPF, 3/15 to 3/17, 2013

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Guess i get to kick things off since we’re past midnight CDT here in the chilly Midwest.

Now for something completely different…

Following a continent-spanning, almost two year long quest, I finally got the hardware together to attempt to produce a modern HOn3 diesel from the Liliput Zillerthalbahn D15 Gemeinder HOn30 model that recently came on the market. Full details are in my post here:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/215880.aspx

Here are a few more pics of #82. I have another project I’m working on, so may have some more pics later for WPF.

2

Nice job on the engine,Mike,and the river in the 2nd pic looks great!

A couple of Big Boys dig in on the grade:

These two run(and sound)pretty good together…I’ll try to shoot a short video sometime this weekend.

Happy Weekend,

Mike

3

I thought I would branch out and start weathering N Scale cars along with HO Scale. So far it isn’t that bad.

RBOX…

Before:

After:

4

Got another batch of cars done this week!

Intermountain Railway 40’ PS1 Boxcar with and 8’ Door, one of a kind paint scheme for the Chicago Great Western.
Painted with Flquil Maroon Paint and lettered with Oddballs Decals.

Atlas 17,600 Gal Tank Car, painted with Scalecoat II Black paint and lettered with Islington Station Products Decals.

Atlas 4650CF Covered Hopper, removed trough hatches and replaced with circular hatches (PITA as the trough hatch was glued in, why give you a choice of hatches and then glue in one of the choices). Painted with Scalecoat II Reefer White and lettered with Islington Station Products Decals.

No Rust on my Railroad![swg]

Thanks for looking![2c]

5

Mike and Robby,

Wow, great work guys! We’re off to one hechuva start to this WPF.

dti406,

Nice! So what’s up with the QL? Since the CGW didn’t run to Australia, it probably doesn’t stand for Queensland…[*-)]

6

Mike,

I wish I knew, I assume it is some type of specialized loader system that was installed in this car.

Rick J [2c]

7

Just a small contribution this week. I found wooden block letters at A.C. Moore, stained them and added them to my layout fascia. PCKCRR = Pensyl Creek & Kettle Creek RR, my 9 x 11 around-the-waiil (with lift out entrance) On30 logging/mining railroad. Pensyl Creek flows through my property while Kettle Creek is nearby. My quarry and logging operation are also actual industries located close to my home. So while my layout is fictional, it’s based on real life local places.

8

WIsh I could weather cars as well as you guys!

With 80 deg sunny spring weather here in Northern California this week, I hauled my Shoofly Free-moN module up to the Open Space next to my old elementary school to try and get some natural background & sunlight shots for a project I’m working on.

Here’s one of the better “rejects”:

Of course, it was only after the shoot that I actually read the camera manual and figured out how to turn off the auto-focus, so the next shoot will “focus” on getting shots for stacking and increasing the depth of field.

More photos in my Free-moN layout construction thread.

Thanks for looking, keep up the great photos you’re sharing, and have a great weekend!

9

I finished building Cheyenne Depot Station this week.

10

A good start to the best thread of the week guys.

Not much new on the BRVRR this week. Still ironing out some issues with the ISP for my website.

Here is a photo of the engine facility and yard from my website:

A static view of the yard at Berea on the BRVRR. NYC RS-32 #8038 is to the right and NYC SW-8 #9622 on the left. An unused caboose and a few freight cars are on the yard tracks.

Keep the photos and ideas coming everyone.

11

Whoa is that a real picture?! [swg] I’m kidding. I kneel before you a young N scaler teach me the ways of the force master? #9647 looking sharp with it’s new MTL’s.

12

Great work and photos this week! [bow]

Here’s my contribution, the further adventures of Burlington’s 1935 Pioneer Zephyr as it tours the California gold country. Here she is crossing Bullards Bar Lake with the Malakoff Dry Diggings in the background.

If you notice, she seems to have lost her giant ladybug from last week, lol!

Tom

13

Some impressive scenic shots, so far. [:)]

Here’s the last unobstructed views of Happy Creek falls. The bridges are finally going in. Be laying track soon.[:D]

14

DC,

Great photo. Nice falls. What did you use for the falls?

Thanks,

Richard

15

While rehabilitating an old N scale gas station model to sell it off, since it did not fit on my present layout, I discovered the corner gas company brand sign was missing. It had a distinctive shaped sign and I had a decal for the sign, but did not know if I could neatly scratchbuild the odd shape. However there were other decals for the brand that would fit a round sign, if I could make one neatly. The solution was a craft store clip-on earring blank. I bought a package of a half dozen years ago for another sign project, and had several left over. (shown at left) And it perfectly fit a round oil company sign. Removing the clip and straightening out the stem of the clip gave me a neat metal circle with an integral “handle,” a lollipop shape. I found a piece of brass tubing that the lollipop “stem” fit into, and a piece of copper tubing that fit around the brass tube, and a piece of hard steel wire that fit into the brass tubing. The steel wire would fit into some kind of a fitting I got as the hardware store to use as the base. All assembled with GOO™ and superglue and 5-minute epoxy, I had a nice structure for a round sign.

I wanted to check the color of the pole so I googled service station pictures from the 1950s. They ALL had the distinctive shaped sign. I redoubled my search through my surplus structure box and found the prototype-shaped distinctive sign. I put my sign structure in my surplus sign parts box. It had been fun and I learned a little something.

16

It has been a while since I have posted a photo of Central St in Sheepscott. It is still a work in progress, but I have painted the street and added parking spaces and centerlines. A couple of the buildings are still “in progress”, a couple others are still cardboard mockups, and others are added with Photoshop. At least I am making progress forward, however slow. [swg]

17

Thanks, Richard. It’s been 18 slow months. Must. Run. Trains.[:P]

0.015in clear styrene (back support). If I did it again, I would use 0.020in. Needs to be a little stiffer for that long a drop (9.5in). There are 4 strips.

Magic Water (base coat, waves) - partially cured for about 12 hrs. (tacky)

Liquitex gel, medium and thick (edges, runs, ripples, etc.). There’s some cured strips and beads of Liquitex Gel stuck on with the partially cured Magic Water. I used a syringe packed with the medium gel to lay out the beads and strips on a non-stick pan.

Some cotton (foam). Rolled, and packed on.

Red Devil clear caulk - goes on clear, dries clear - mixed with partially cured Magic Water. (edges, pool splash/foam). The Red Devil by itself was just to tacky/thick for me to spread. The mix is hard enough.

White acrylic craft/art paint mixed with Liquitex iridescent craft/art paint (white highlights).

When everything was cured/dried, I applied 3 liberal coats of Krylon Crystal Clear. The first 2 coats were air brushed on the falls, cause of the cotton. I think one sprayed thick coat would set the cotton good enough. The other coats could be carefully brushed. IMO. The Magic Water, Liquitex, Krylon and Red Devil all officially claim to be non-yellowing.

I don’t think it’s going to settle or yellow/discolor in my remaining life time. Should be easy enough to keep clean. All my painted rock is also clear coated - Krylon Matte Finish. I can gently wash the rock and water, if I have to. That Krylon stuff is durable, in my experience.

Thanks for taking interest.

18

Great Work this Week!!!

Building a modern Wedggie Plow on an ExactRail Gunderson Gondola. Still in the works.

19

Had a missing number board on this P2K FA2 so I fabricated a clear plate to fit and used some Detail Associates etched brass stencil numbers. The lighting is a little brighter than I wanted but will do until I put some frosting on the back of the plate.

-Bob

20

Bob,

I like how your numberboards came out. I’ve got some to improve myself, so good to know about the DA etched ones. Someone else mentioned those here a few days back – or maybe it was you? as I didn’t know about them.