Good morning from Sunny and Cool Northeast Ohio! Completed this Atlas Evans 52'6" gondola this week, car was painted with Scalecoat II NP Dark Green and lettered with Highball Graphics decals. Car was built in 1980 and used in general service on the Maine Central. Exactrail Evans (Early Version) 5277CF Boxcar Kit, added the Henessey Door Openers and A-Line Sill Steps. Car was painted with a mixture of Scalecoat II Big Sky Blue, Reefer White and BN Green paints then lettered with Herald King Decals. One of the many IPD cars of the late 70's period. The St. Lawrence Railroad ended up with over 4,000 of the IPD cars by 1979 and this for a 13 mile railroad, when the IPD scheme was made irrelavant by the Staggers act all these small railroads were swamped with returned cars and the were eventually sold off to other railroads for a pittance. Another view of my Rapido FA-2's on the Strongsville OH club layout. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
This is an old International Hobby Corp Sand and Fuel Depot kit I am working on. I finished building the structures now beginning the weathering and detailing process.
When I started working at Cornell University back in the early 80's, I was commuting nearly 50 miles from Binghamton to Ithaca, New York, along a route that took me past what was probably a mile long NYS&W siding (formerly the EL Syracuse branch) or maybe an old passing track lined with dozens of quite new looking St. Lawrence Railway exterior post box cars. The font and colors are different from what I remember. I was always curious why they were just left there to rust.
Railfanning at East Hannah Vista depot before the Fuzz kicks me off the tracks as the on-time Chief cruises by:
Been working with these KV Models fishplates, installing on a small diorama to test them out. They are a nice detail, but not sure I would put them on the whole layout due to eye strain concerns... I guess this qualifies as "Fun" ?? Take Care All, -Bob T.
This is a three pack of SPSF cabooses that I picked up last weekend. I paid too much, but now I have MORE projects! I also found that SP Scarlet from Tru-Color is an exact match to this Athearn paint!
What is a fishplate? And where is it in the photo? I was looking for a Captain D's meal on a plate But seriously, I have no clue. BTW, are all of you professional photographers? Great pictures, amazing how well pictures are from a cell phone now. Unless you all are using professional digital cameras?
The fishplate is the joint bar connecting the rails. They are detail parts and are quite small. Here is the zoom-in: The rails are painted with a rail brown that you can get from Micro-Mark (air brush) and rust/weathering on the rails and tie plates is Pan Pastel (Oxide and Burt Umber-ish).
So in real life they weld the rails together and add a fishplate for extra strength? Learn something new everyday I mean I might have seen one in real life not really thinking about it, but I sure in the heck did not know what they were called, till now.
Low tech ! In the 1950s mothers used a form of communication called, The Window. " Billy ! it's supper time !"
No, welding is relatively new technology. Fish plates go back to the early 1800s. Modern welded rail does not have fishplates. Before welded rail the joints between rails with the fishplates gave the clickity clack of the wheels going over the joint. Known as the "rhythm of the rails" in song and story.
Fishplates aren't needed with welded rail, but date back to the days of bolted rail. Old school. (Looks like Russell beat me to that one.)
Fishplates come in various shapes and sizes. in this case a fishplate is joining two different weights of rail, 115# rail on the left to 90# rail on the right. BTW, rail is sized (defined) as Pounds to Yard. The left rail is 115#/yard. The right hand rail is 90#/yard.