Good afternoon from cloudy and mild Northeast Ohio! I managed to finish a couple of cars this week! First another old AHM Covered Hopper, where I removed all the bookcase ladders and replaced them with ones from the scrapbox and added all the airlines for the braking system. Car was painted with Scalecoat II UP Covered Hopper Gray and lettered with Highball Graphics decals. Used in various services on the Rock Island. Next, a Front Range Combo Door boxcar where I replaced the sliding door with another plug door from the scrapbox leaving the car with a 6' and an 8' plug door. Also installed a Cal-Scale Hyrdo Cushion system on the frame and Moloco ACF style coupler pockets along with A-Line Sill Steps. Car was painted with Scalecoat II Black, Reefer Yellow and Silver paints then lettered with a mixture of AA Historical Society, Highball Graphics and Herald King Decals. The GBW ordered fifty of these cars, 6 were assigned to specific canning plants and the rest were free runners. Underframe Construction: Finished Car: A Pair of Rapido FA-2's in Ann Arbor with a general freight rolling on the Strongsville Club Layout. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
Thanks for bringing back some sweet - and creamy - memories of summers long ago. Ice cream mustaches and other fun.
About 15 years ago I bought a Northern Pacific A5 at an estate sale. It was a Daiyoung from 1983, according to the googles and had a broken gear box. I fixed the gear box but don't have big enough curves for a large brass steamer. My friend Charlie does though, and he invited me over to run some of my trains on his layout with 40" radius curves. Shown here, NP 2682 is climbing the grade from Bear Creek to Oak Hill on Charlie Comstock's BCSJ railroad. It is crossing the big bridge over lower Bear Creek and the branch to Coos Bay. Actually, that is about where it stalled with 29 cars on the drawbar so Charlie fired up an AC10 and gave me a push to the top of the hill. He also made a video of some of the shenanigans that happened. While the new gearbox and mechanism are very quiet and smooth, the pickup and wheel gauge are not so much. The 5 axle rigid truck on the tender made for some comical bouncing over switch frogs.
Wow, that's a real beauty of a loco, always loved those NP Northerns! Your layout is awesome as well, love it!! Oh, and I think I saw Bigfoot @5:02 in your video?!
I've been helping Charlie on his layout for a few years but it's not mine! Yours truly as Bigfoot, laughing at the poor tracking and pickup. I wonder how hard it would be to make sprung axles on the tender... Paul
Oh, she's purty... Looks like Charlie's layout is a great place to let her run loose. The still photo is perfect to show her off.
Granted, the electrical pickup problems (to be expected) are obvious and I see what you meant about the bouncing, but the locomotive is magnificent nonetheless. Things I noticed about Charlie's layout: 1. Nice string of transition era mixed freight. Looks like it belongs and makes some nice sounds in and of itself. 2. Speaking of sound, I like the way you can hear Charlie's AC10 coming long before it comes into view. 3. Very nice looking scenery and structures. 4. Vehicles go a long way toward setting the time period. The ones on the layout send a pretty cohesive message. It's at least 1954 (judging by the Pontiac at the grade crossing) - maybe as late as 1956. Overall, outstandinding.
Railmix, Charlie's layout and operation is very well thought out. I think it was in one of the MR Railroad Planning annuals but I don't know which one. He also won the MR photo contest one year, maybe in the early 2000s. We operate with Time Table and Train Order which I find more fun than track warrants, I was never a fan of the radios. One of my favorite jobs is an extra that runs from South Jackson to Oakhill and switches the log yard, team track and gravel quarry. The trick is the run arounds are done on a wye. It is fun making your own way and staying out of the way of the timetable trains. The link in my original post is to the current version of the layout and has a track plan and ops and construction photos. Another issue with the locomotive is that the two axles in the trailing truck are not parallel to each other. The rear one is slightly skewed so it sometimes makes a sort of grinding noise as it tries to climb the rail. I haven't looked at it too closely to see if there is an easy solution. I doubt there is. It is back on display for now.
PRR K4 number 612 (Bachmann Spectrum) bringing a local into the station as a couple of PRR MP54's (Con-Cor) discharge their passengers. I just found out the MP54 is DCC ready. Now I need to figure how to get the shell off so I can access the pin.
There are some antelope bolting away under the bridge as the 104 leads a train across the big bridge.
Absolutely nice photos. I am curious about one thing. What is the lineage of 5849? Is this a patched out ex-GTW unit?
I know that as of last May 27th, 5849 still has its GT noodle on the engine hood. So rye's 5849 is covered by Rule #1 and Rule #2. @rye - Nice night photos.
