A place to refresh

I'm starting the month detailing a N Scale Walthers Dairy Queen Grill N' Chill for an appearance in support of A Modeler's Life - the very best podcast in the intertubes!

Upper deck support

I wanted a clear support for my upper deck without any posts from below or cable from above. The depth planned is from 24” to 3-1/2’ over the 15’-6” length. Since I have a 4” deep upper deck for servos, lighting, and wiring, I picked up a C-channel of steel for the span. It is 4.1 lbs per foot or about 60 lbs. Sitting on a couple saw horses, I couldn’t get it to deflect/bend more that about 1/16” in in the middle! Now how to get it in the train room?

Wow Neil!

That sure outa do the job. I think you found a new motto for your railroad....."Go big or go home"

Wow is right

I think that should be 'Go big AND go home'

Barry

Latest project.

A N-scale handcar and tool shed based on a 1908 NP plan. I'm waiting for the paint to arrive. The shingles on the roof are Oracal 651 dark brown vinyl dry brushed with black and white acrylic paints. They are cut on a Silhouette Cameo, 18 inches long, random width with a 9 inch reveal.

Barry

Still working on Tylick Tools

Got the roofs on yesterday.

Following

Following

mockup

Here is the currently winning design mockup for the control room for the rotary dumper/ indexer.  It is shown rendered in cereal box. Probably Oatmeal Squares.  Obviously, the stairs have not been installed yet but will most likely go down to the right and land behind the yellow indexer pulley.  The crossover bridge allowing personnel to access the other side of the tracks while a train is being dumped is undecided.

Paul

Nicely done Paul!

The power of the mock up is so underrated.  If that is the mock up I can't wait to see the final version

Steve

Massive Scope Creep

These are all done, but for the weathering.

This started out eighteen months ago as a project to add two more GP35s to the Operations Road Show fleet after I got a good deal on a couple of Kato GP35s at the West Springfield train show. We already had two GP35s in service for a number of years, but needed more as they were very common on the portion of the Wabash's Detroit-Decatur line that we model.

The project stalled out as 2019 turned into a year focused on urgent family matters. At the same time, however, I came across a deal too good to pass up on four more undecorated GP35s.

With a lot of my usual social activities being cut off this year, I was able to finish these. This is the second project where I've grit-blasted the handrails prior to painting them. I've found that it makes a huge improvement in how well paint (Scalecoat II) adheres to them.

Now we have all eight of the GP35s the Wabash had at the time of the N&W merger in 1964.

WC Map Unit

WC 3026 started out as an Athearn BB unit and has been upgraded with cannon fans, cab, and long hood end. It was painted with true color paints but the cream color was custom mixed. It was decaled with circus city decals. These are by far some of the best decals that I have ever worked with. 

WC Map Unit

WC 3026 started out as an Athearn BB unit and has been upgraded with cannon fans, cab, and long hood end. It was painted with true color paints but the cream color was custom mixed. It was decaled with circus city decals. These are by far some of the best decals that I have ever worked with.

MRH: Picture flipped right side up. To fix a photo, you need to open it on a PC or Mac, make some small edit change, and then do a save as to a new name. Upload THAT photo and it will be right side up.

Hey, I noticed the photos are upsidedown and I think I can help.

Did you take the photos on a mobile device, with the device turned camera down?  I did that with all the photos I took for my early blog posts and they always came out upside down except when I took cropped screenshots of them and pasted those into the blog instead.

It doesn't matter if the photo appears to be right-side up when you take it, if it was taken with the camera down it will appear on the site as upside down when pasted or uploaded.  I should probably start using an actual camera since this issue kind of bugs me personally.  Not saying anything's wrong with the way you take photos.  Those are nice focused photos of nicely painted models.  I'm just trying to give a helpful pointer, no offense meant.

List of possible projects.

Work on my module has come to a momentary stalemate, but I have several ideas for upcoming projects.

I saw this video and thought the idea was really cool, so I'll be sure to consider this as a possible project.

Buildings are another thing I'll have to consider, and I've got several different buildings in waiting.  I have an old Campbell kit for a cattle platform/pen/office(?), which someone appeared to have done some sub-assembly construction on before giving up.  I'm hoping to build a Santa Fe depot kit (a Laserkit model, to be precise), but I'm starting to have second thoughts about whether it truly belongs on this particular module (since I'm modeling an alpine scene of more-or-less Colorado origins).  Perhaps another module lies in my future?  Or even just a diorama that I could turn into an actual module at a later date?  The other modules I'm thinking of using are old plastic kits that my dad got when he was a kid.

I've also been considering taking a break from actually doing LAYOUT work and instead putting together some more rolling stock, weathering it, converting it to NMRA standards, that sort of thing.

At the moment, I am perfectly content (well, almost perfectly) to relax a little bit and work on a story I started a few days ago.  Perhaps I'll talk more about that later (and no, this doesn't have anything to do with IrishRover and his 1970's New Orleans catastrophy tale).

Flipped

PS I sent the beam picture to my son who lives on Oahu who replied “Don’t move it yourself, I’ll come help!”. Wataguy. 

Working on a 36' Flat scratchbuild

I 3D printed a basic frame, bolsters and needlebeams, then added commercial queenposts and brake system. Handcut floorboards and stake pockets plus side beams with commercial NBWs and eye bolt rings. It rides on Bitter Creek Heavy Thielsen archers. Still needs more staining, some painting and weathering. Having fun. All best, Alex

Found a project!

I have decided to construct a Branchline Blueprints 50' Single Door Boxcar (8' Door, Rivited Side) painted as Santa Fe 1001. 

The model laid out on the table, none too neatly.

However, I have never built such a detailed kit before, so I will be building an Accurail kit first as practice.

This is a 40' O.B. Boxcar with Mtl. ends... not exactly sure what all that means, but to me it looks like a six-panel boxcar with a fancy Door and a couple extra panels on each side.

This ought to be fun!

Finished a Deck Truss Bridge

This IS my workbench

for the past 3 months or so.  I'm hoping to get the rough scenery done in the next few weeks, then the detailing process begins which will last until I get rid of it most likely. 

no photo

but I've got a glass front display cabinet on my workbench. It's an old one that has been kicking around my shop for years. I had to replace the back and refasten some joints. It's about 4 feet high by 2 feet wide by 2 feet deep so depending on how many shelves I put in it there should be spots for quite a few cars. I'll install it under the benchwork at one of the wider aisle locations....DaveB

Been painting my backdrop.

Nice thing about only working on small modular sections of the layout at a time, you can work on them at the workbench sitting down.  
 

Here is the backdrop I am working on for my Astoria Oregon layout. 
 

Project update.

I've finished the Accurail kit (with the exception of the brake wheel and brake wheel staff), and have completed the underbody sub-assembly (which I have yet to actually attach (with glue, I mean) to the underbody of the car.  My next job will probably involve working on the ends.  After that comes the body detailing, then the doors, and then the final detailing.  The one problem... I need a #61 bit to drill holes for the roof walk and I haven't got one to use!  Just the #61!  None of the others are missing!  So it would appear that it might be a while before I can fully finish this kit. 

The kit as is. 

Underframe sub-assembly not firmly fastened down yet.  

The missing culprit.

On the whole, this kit wasn't as easy as I'd hoped but neither was it as hard as I'd feared.

TT scale and 2mm finescale projects

I've always got a few projects on the go, and here are a couple of my latest.

Firstly, when not playing with TT scale and Russian narrow gauge stuff, a mate has gotten me into 2mm fine scale (as if I didn't have enough to do!). I am slowly working on a Victorian Railways T Class locomotive photoetch kit.Finally finished soldering and 3D printing of bogies and other detail parts. A bit of clean up on the inside and it will be ready for paint. The T Class was an EMD G8 built by Clyde Engineering in Sydney for the VR. It was a great workhorse (and still is).

Ok back to real stuff. TT scale!

This century, the SW9/SW1200 has been the only US locomotive made by a manufacturer. In this case MTB in the Czech Republic.I finally got my hands on one and thought, what railway do I really want to model? The obvious answer (for me) was something out of field, a bit odd, an obscure small shortline. While searching around I discovered the Ballard Terminal group of three lines around Seattle. So I am turning this one into Meeker Southern MSN103, ex Weyerhaeuser WEYX/WTCX 303. Most of the detailing is done. Just have to sort out the ditch lighting, add a few more pilot details and then it will be ready for paint. I have enjoyed making this one

TT scale

Hi Steve, Great job on the MTB switcher . I have a couple of those and really like the way they run, very smooth switch engines....DaveB