It’s been a busy week at the shops…
I spent the week rebuilding or adding MOW rolling stock to the roster. First, the standard gauge portion.
I repainted several items that had been in the deadline and built a Tichy crane tender. They’re stand-ins decorated to be close to Rio Grande practice. There were two Train-Miniature outfit cars and a 25-ton crane I’ve had for 40 years, in addition to the crane tender.
looks grate mike. now come get some kits I’ve had laying around for yers and get togeather .Lol
slow train Ed
Here are two of my Athearn Genesis GP9’s. These look real neat with all the lights lit when they are running and they run a lot better than the old Blue Box locos with their better motors.
Rick J [2c]
Sent from my Etch-a-Sketch [swg]
they look great mike. Now come do some I’ve had laying around for years.LoL
slow train Ed
On the narrowgauge, lots of new construction and one repurposing of a Blackstone flat car into a NG crane tender.
First, I built three of the Rio Grande Models air dump go kits. Two were built as DRGW OS and OR. The third one is decorated for my Silverton Union Railroad.
Then I built a kit I’ve been looking forward to for a long time, the Tichy (originally Gould) wrecking crane. Although the parts count is extensive, it’s a pretty straightforward build following the thorough directions. It wasn’t too much more complicated to convert it to narrowgauge.
I carefully pressed in the wheels on the axles; lowered the coupler mount; trimmed the original coupler mount that the Kadee 714 coupler box sits on by cutting it narrower, and modified the weight box so that it clears the narrowed wheelsets.
I built it as a modernized version of the Rio Grande’s OZ. While it was said to have hardly been used on the NG (it had two sets of trucks, SG and NG) and mysteriously disappeared in WWII after being requisitioned by the gov’t and modified to 42" gauge by the Burnham Shops (ship sunk by sub on ways to unknown destination or ?) For my purposes, the need to keep strategic minerals flowing out of the San Juans prompted the gov’t to supply funds to rebuild OZ in order to support the increased traffic flow.
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Mike: Great pic’s! You must be putting in a lot time on the layout.
Rick J: Nice looking engines…I’ve got some of those,too,and they’re among the best runners on the layout. From what I see of your layout in the background it doesn’t look too shabby,either! 'Would like to see more of that…
I finished up my yard lights on the SW end of the yard this week.
Happy Weekend!
Mike (Still in Denver,CO)
Great work, Mike in IL, Rick J, and Mike in CO ! … Outstanding!
Has anyone seen DJ (Grampy’s Trains) lately?
Here are Genesis F3 (Phase 4) units.
Thanks for the props, guys. Those are some nice looking GM products stepping out. I’d sure like to spring for a Genesis Rio Grande GP with sound, but it’s not in the budget for the rest of the year after Blackstone’s recent shipments.[:(]
Nice looking yard signals you have there now that your project is done, Mike.
slow train Ed,
Every journey begins with the first step.[;)]
I do tend to be productive some weeks, but that’s usually a sign of the writing on my diss giving me problems. At least when I go to the basement I always make progress on something.[%-)][C]
This week I completed a Walthers Power Plant kit and substation for the Boothbay RR Village layout. The power house has the interior kit with added figures and lighting. I also finished a “concrete” base of a Miller Engineering “Reddy Kilowatt” animated El sign that will be installed on a hill behind the plant
I have some detailing to do around the plant site on the layout, and will post additional pictures that it is done
Great work everyone. This is a old picture of a Pennsy RS-1 pulling LCL gondolas.
Mike- What did you finally decide on to dull your yard lights?
Garry: I’ve got some CB&Q proto 2000 F3’s. I didn’t really need 'em for my layout,but I love that paint scheme!
Curt: The dull-cote helped,but they were still pretty bright. I finally went around the outside edges of the LEDs with some “engine black” paint.That cut the amount of light emitted substantially.When I do the east end I may try some different resistor values to dim the LEDs,but I recently had some shoulder surgery,and right now I don’t want to spend any more time under the layout than I absolutely have to. I’m happy with the results,though.
Have you been doing anymore loco weathering?
Mike (Still in Denver,CO)
Mike- I have completed all my loco weathering except a Athearn GP-7. I want to put a train phone antenna on it before weathering. The photos I take don’t really show of the weathering for the most part[:(]
Atlas HO Dash 8-40CW BNSF 812
A what if, …it missed it’s repaint a few years back.
Garry I am also wondering about grampys this will be his third week absent ? By the way great work all, this is the best part of the forum, love to see what everyone’s up to.
Chad,
Nice work.
It used to be that I would think this level of weathering is a bit overdone. Then I took some pics of a BNSF unit in nearly this bad of shape in the yard in Abilene next to the Eisenhower Library a few years back. They really do seem to fry like this after a few years in the Kansas sun.
Here is a pic from a few minutes ago of the progress earlier in the week.
The boxes in the center will have a foam stack like the ends…then there will be masonite on three sides.
Ah… The weekend at last! Great start to the photo fun this weekend, BTW.
I have been still doing mostly the mundane things on the layout that really aren’t that great to photograph, but I’ll share anyway. First, work progresses making the mold for the building sides oin the Octagon Blacksmith Shop.
I also have installed and put track down on the upper staging shelf. I finished and checked out the wiring just a few minutes ago.
I just need to ballast the track and it will be done. This shot shows the control board for the staging area. The green light shows the tracks that are live, and the red lights show the tracks that are not powered. It is wired so that the track is powered only when the turnout is thrown for that track. The control board is only temporarily mounted at the moment. It will be put in it’s permanent place when the scenery is done for the area. Wiring is fun as there are two tortoise and two LED bi-color in the circuit for both the upper and lower staging. It consists of the two Torti wired in parallel wired in series to the two LEDS wired in Parallel… Checked it about 4 times before plugging in the 12v Wall Wart to make sure every wire was right. One mistake and the LEDs would be fried! For each of the circuits one of the tortoise is one that is not able to throw a turnout anymore, but is used only to power one rail at a time using the internal SPDT toggles.
73
MikeL, & everyone!
Hey, Thanks!!! I just saw BNSF 777 in this scheme on the rails near Stoddard, WI a week ago last Tuesday. Although it was black sooty covered, it was in much nicer shape than some shots of the Desert Warriors on the internet.
I actually liked the way my model looked a couple of layer phases ago, hopefully if luck will have it, I may be able to find another one of these to one closer to the prototype.
Thank you, I really appreciate the compliment.
PS: This morning I attempted to start the WPF & could not link my photos. I Emailed Kalmbach Cust Service, & my next attempt 12 hours later was successful. Mine are on Flickr, & perhaps they added it in the meantime to the approved sites, or I had other challenges, very happy it is working now!!!
So Chad, that is the way you want the engine to look or are you still working on it? I do kind of like the way it looks, but being a old body and paint man. Well old habits die hard I guess. My Dash 9.
I really like Rio Grand. Here is my SD 7.
Cuda Ken
Hey Ken,
the First post with the rust effects is the final product & how it looks completed.
However, I took a real shine to it as it looked in the last post, a little milder, & closer to what they actually looked like prior to their repaints.
Is yours custom? it looks like it has a -8 intake grille & the airtanks are on the Conductors side?
I did receive a GEVO that was also assembled wrong with the tank backwards, & on that guy I had to dissassemble the entire model to change the tank because it has plastic frame detail inserts that determine the only way a tank can fit. So, I learned how to work on GEVO’s, even though I didn’t really want to take it apart!
That is a Sharp SD7, nice unit!
Edit PS: Sometimes it is quite fun to make one that is not supposed to be all perfectly glass smooth & lightly weathered. Had fun making it harsh!
I too have some exp in doing auto body work, & some of the late 80’s to late 90’s paints & materials.