A couple of oldies from when I would drag my "Prairie on posts" diorama out and set it up on a levy not far from my house. The background is all developed suburbia now so would not look the same at all. A couple of kit bash projects I did long ago. An Arnold Rapido Pacific given the Southern Pacific treatment. And and MRC/Rowa Y6b that took an extensive trip across my workbench.
Those are amazing models Russell. They look as good today as they did when you completed them long ago.
Good morning from mostly sunny and cool Northeast Ohio! At least we will not have snow for the opening day of the Cleveland Guardians as we usually do. With all the bowling stuff going on and my wife in Pasadena for a week, did not get anything completed but did get some time to work on things. First up, completed the Exactrail 4427CF PS Covered Hopper kit and it is ready for painting. Roofwalk will go on after everything is painted and lettered. Next, I received my Tangent 4500CF GATC Covered Hopper kit, here is what is in the box. Part of the underframe is installed still have one bay to go. All the underbody detail is installed, since I had a different kit than the instructions I had to contact Tangent and they sent we a couple of drawings on what I had to do with the brake rigging as one kit had truck mounted brakes and they other did not. Another fun task was fishing the brake rigging through the discharge bays. Next moving to the B end of the car for all the brake gear and piping. And finally, another old picture from the Strongsville Club Layout. Pennsy N1s 2-10-2 with a string of coal cars. Have a great weekend! Rick Jesionowski
Some shots from last weekends open house at the South Bay Historical Railroad Society open house in Santa Clara, California. From the N Scale layout And from the HO Scale layout
Russell, "Extensive" is kind of on understatement. That Y6b not only changed ends, but traveled all the way across the country on the top of your workbench. Excellent work on both it and the Pacific. On a less positive note, ain't suburban sprawl a mutha? rjthomas also left us another superb look at another time and place. Very nice. Myself, I had another foot surgery last Friday, so I'm done building benchwork, etc. for at least a month. Since I can still work on other projects, I put this work station together in the bedroom.
What is that old item to the left on your desk? Looks intriguing, like a tape measure or pocket level?
You are correct in that it's a 6 foot tape measure. I have two of them. They belonged to my dad. I have no idea how old they actually are as I can't remember a time when we didn't have them. If I had to guess, I'd say 1955, when he started building our place up north. He always left one up there, probably so if he forgot to put one in his toolbox, he still wouldn't be without a tape measure
Mmmm. Tasty. Are those wagons Chevy Nomads? They look like they could be the less common Pontiac version.
I think they are 55 Chevy Bel Air wagons. Woodland Scenics doesn't say what type of car they are representing.
I decided it was time to upgrade this older Atlas WV BN/FWD caboose. The upgrades included the removal of the end ladders and roof walks. After doing that, the end rails needed to be redone a bit, so some .025 plastic rod (matching the Atlas endrail size) was used to fabricate about 1/2 the endrails. Moved the smoke jack to the right side and end of the caboose, added the most important toilet vent too. Spent more time than I care to admit installing .015 sheet styrene blanks to the side and appropriate end windows, then the side window plugs were masked off and given a fresh coat of cascade green and the end windows a shade of yellow. Also added were the long grab irons on the cupola roof and short grabs, just in front and behind the cupola. I found a correct brass, caboose axle generator, installed it on the appropriate axle, I also had in my parts drawer an extra sprue of caboose brake rigging lying around, so I used canopy glue and glued that to the center sill, had to lengthen some of the brake rods using .020 brass rod. Then used a on-off-on switch and powered the marker lights on either end, shows much brighter than it really is. Anyways some images. The Prototype FWD 179.
As I have begun converting my locomotives to DCC the latest conversions are two B&O Atlas Master DCC System GP40 locomotives. The locos come with a DCC decoder installed but are set for DC. Converting to DCC involved switching a plug from one location to another. The hardest thing was figuring out how to access the decoder. I had to take the dynamic brake cover off. After testing them for a time I created a consist and the following 34 car run by is the result. (1 of 4) Baltimore & Ohio GP40 (Atlas Master DCC System) Reading RR 50 FT Plug Door Boxcar (Athearn Blue Box kit) Bessemer & Lake Erie 50 FT Double Door Boxcar (Athearn Blue Box lit) Delaware Lackawanna & Western 50 FT Boxcar (Athearn Blue Box kit) Pennsylvania RR 40 FT Boxcar (MDC/Roundhouse kit) Reading 40 FT O.B. Boxcar Steel Door (Accurail kit) Bangor & Aroostook - State of Maine 1937 40 FT AAR Boxcar (Intermountain)
(2 of 4) Delaware Lackawanna & Western 1937 40 FT AAR Boxcar (Atlas Trainman kit) Fruit Growers Express 50 FT Mechanical Reefer (Athearn RTR) Ethyl Chemical Tank Car (Athearn/Roundhouse) Staley Chemical Tank Car (Athearn/Roundhouse) Warren Chemical Tank Car (Athearn/Roundhouse) Chesapeake & Ohio 50-Ton Gondola (Proto1000) Lehigh Valley 46 FT USRA Gondola Erie 40 FT Wood Boxcar (Athearn Blue Box kit)
(3 of 4) Norfolk & Western 50 FT Open Steel Gondola (Athearn Blue Box kit) Baltimore & Ohio PS-1 Steel Boxcar (Accurail kit) Baltimore & Ohio 40 FT Steel Single Door Boxcar (Accurail kit) Clinchfield PS-2 2-Bay Covered Hopper (Atlas Trainman) Western Maryland PS-2 2-Bay Covered Hopper (Atlas Trainman) Western Maryland PS-2 2-Bay Covered Hopper (Atlas Trainman) Monon 40 FT Boxcar (Bev-Bel Athearn Blue Box kit) Baltimore & Ohio 40 FT Boxcar (Athearn undecorated Blue Box kit Dry Transfers) Jersey Central 2-Bay Offset Side Hopper (Atlas Trainman) Jersey Central 2-Bay Offset Side Hopper (Atlas Trainman)
(4 of 4) Baltimore & Ohio 2-Bay Offset Side Hopper (Atlas Trainman) Baltimore & Ohio 2-Bay Offset Side Hopper (Atlas Trainman) Reading 2-Bay Offset Side Hopper (Atlas Trainman) Baltimore & Ohio AAR 40 FT Boxcar (Accurail kit) Shell 3 Doom Tank Car (Athearn Blue Box kit) Shell 3 Doom Tank Car (Athearn Blue Box kit) Shell 3 Doom Tank Car (Athearn Blue Box kit) Burlington 40 FT Boxcar (Athearn Blue Box kit) Atlantic Coast Line 40 FT Boxcar (Bev-Bel/Athearn Blue Box kit) Baltimore & Ohio Bay Window Caboose (Bachmann Silver Series) Video
Nice. I can't imagine exactly what would have happened to that gondola, but I know I have seen prototype cars damaged in that way. It's a hard life.
