My projects this week were a pair of Stewart F9's and a Proto 2000 BL2, all of which needed heart transplants (remotoring). The Stewarts (Stewart/Kato A/B set) both had motor issues and the B unit had truck issues in addition. The A unit got an Athearn-type motor from a Proto 2000 FA1. The motor for the B unit is an Athearn type from a Proto 1000 switcher. Athearn flywheels were added. The B units damaged trucks were changed out with the trucks from the Proto 1000 switcher. Some surgery on the Stewart frame was required to make them fit. Stewart F unit chassis with Athearn motor shoehorned in. What remained was to insert foam shims on either side. This was before I discovered the trucks were trashed. As you can see Gomez Addams came to visit. This Proto 2000 BL2 also needed it's motor replaced. After a breakin and a test it's best speed was a scale 20 mph and the motor was hot to the touch. It's replacement came from an Athearn SD40.
This E7A (Proto 2000 E6 chassis wearing a Walthers Trainline E7 shell) also required some attention. It had a good sized crack in the nose. I put some super glue in the crack and held it closed for 15 minutes while I played solitaire. I did most of that in the space of a day.
I started to work in my mine area, I recently added Bar Mills shingles and some weathering. The kit is the Grandt Line East Terrible Mine. The missing door will be installed after it is painted.
I like the photo by Geared Steam. Looks very realistic. It has been weeks since I contributed. I am posting a new image showing a busy afternoon at Seneca.
Foto Fun 2011 09 11 Hi, all, For any of you living in the San Francisco Bay area, tomorrow, Sept 11, 2011 at 9am, is the local NMRA Pacific Coast Region, Coast Division quarterly meet at: Guests always welcome and no charge! Janet Pomeroy Center 207 Skyline Boulevard (at Herbst Road) San Francisco, CA 94132 All the info is at: http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/ The reason I posting this - I think many of you would love to see the two clinics that are being offered at this meet, and guests are welcome at no charge: http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/meet_clinics.shtml 10 AM: The Art of the Backdrop by Dave Biondi 11 AM: Layout Tricks and Solutions by Jim Betz One of Dave's backdrop's, done *right in front of us in 1 hour* at a recent clinic: One example of the many layout tricks that Jim will talk about: Both of these clinics are highly acclaimed and worth the visit. Best of all, Coast Division guests are free, we'd love for you to come, enjoy the clinics as our guest. You get to check out everything else that goes on at our quarterly meets as well, with great models at the Show Tell, Model Contest table for example: http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/contest/Contest_June_2011.shtml http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/contest.shtml I hope that if at the last minute, this fits into your schedule, you might come by, I know you would love these two clinics. If you're not in the local San Francisco Bay Area, I can still certainly offer that you'll enjoy browsing the many many inspiring photos on the twenty plus Coast Division meet reports over the past 5 years here: http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/contest.shtml Such as Al Kuhn's "Oyster Bay" diorama: and Photo Contest: And you'd also enjoy reviewing the recent year's Coast Division clinics including handout downloads: http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/meet_clinics.shtml Finally, remember that many of the Coast Division clinicians also presented at X2011 West NMRA Nationals in Sacramento, and many of those Nationals handouts are online for free download at: http://x2011west.org/handouts.html Enjoy, all. A safe and happy model railroad weekend to you.
Here's what I'm working on....This is a GP38-2 (Athearn) that is painted for my friend's home road, Southwestern Pacific. It's been leased by the Turtle Creek Central (A subsidiary of the D&RGW) and will be used mostly for local switching duties. Here we see it pulling an SP box and a WP hopper followed by the TCC 52.
Less than stellar lighting Glued down lauan roadbed ready for paint when the rest of it sets up. Disappointed in how the lighting turned out in the pictures I took. I might try another camera, but I have a feeling I will have to take the lights all down and move them closer and buy even more.... ugh.
Modified Lighting Moved the light fixtures closer together and added two more. Definitely helped the dark spots, still need to invest in a better camera.
Two Stewart F9's I just painted and decaled today. The Kato Blomberg trucks on the B units had busted gears in the gear towers so I did some major surgery on the frame and replaced them with AAR trucks from a Proto 1000 switcher.
Here are some of my older TrainBoard pictures. At least among those since we rearranged RailImages sometime back. Alcos. This is a custom (IIRC) paint job; no weathering yet. Notice this picture has the RailImages.com tag at the lower right. C628 hard at work in the yard. East Yard switcher lineup. C636; Trainmaster; C628. Sorry about the reruns; busy weekend.
Nice job Flash, but how do you get the clean red nose wings on your SPs? Decals seem to have the gray show through & painting the wings leaves a heavy paint mask on the edges.
...Vanrail was this weekend and the C&W hosted 3, 4 hour long ops sessions (with 3 hours of restaging in between). I am happily beat. md
In celebration of the memory of those lost ten years ago, The Flags were flying during Sunay's ops hours.
