Locos and rolling stock
Car Building
Sitting on the couch yesterday afternoon watching football, I was able to dive into some kits I've had sitting around.
My process is kind of long on these, as each model gets new intermountain wheels if they're not already metal, Sergent couplers, and I weigh the components before assembly incase I need to add weight to the inside. All said in done, it took about 5 hours for the five cars.
For my transitional era fleet, I added
An Accurail 41' AAR Steel Gondola (CN 130484)
1939-era Santa Fe California Limited passenger train HO model
For those interested in Santa Fe heavyweight passenger trains, I'm working on an HO model of the California Limited as it was in 1939. This was a Chicago-Los Angeles train but since the consist changed in Barstow, California, I'm only interesting in modeling the part that traveled between there and L.A.
Storage Boxes (HO?)
I'm currently looking into some professionaly made storage boxes to house my engines and rollilng stock.
I'm not interested, at this time, in discussing the merits of these products based on their cost, so please refrain from
"I could make that for $2 out of dumpster diving materials" comments.
I'm currently look at the Axian boxes. Has anyone had any experience with these, or is there another manufacturer that is preferred?
Thanks
Scratchbuilt flat
This is getting addictive!
Here are links to photos of the prototype, SP class F70-12, a 53' 6" fishbelly side flatcar.
http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=2871 This one has a lumber load that came from my hometown.
http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/photos/sp/sp564625_jim_eager.jpg
Athearn Genesis SP SD70M
Guys, I just bought a pair of the Athearn Genesis SD70M's, with the third one on backorder. Fine models that they are one item I found little strange and that is the black fan housings. As near as I can see in colour pictures of SP's SD70M's the fan housing appear to Lark Dark grey. There is a darker patch at the end of the hood which appears to a non slip coating? that again Athearn appears not to model. Anyone know if fans were black or gray and if the non slip coating was applied to all the SD70M's.
Charles Emerson
Queensland, Australia.
Standard Tread Wheels vs. Proto 87 wheels
I was in the hobby shop the other day and was looking at Intermountain metal HO wheel sets. There were standard width wheels and proto 87 wheels both for the same price. My first thought was why not purchase the proto 87 wheels - same price and they look more prototypical. Then I remembered reading somewhere that if your track work is not finely tuned, the proto 87 wheles will be more prone to derailments. Basically, the standard width wheel treads are more forgiving.
Which Wheelsets are best?!
I would like opinions on which manufacturer of wheels are best of the three choices I have. Intermountain, Proto 2000 or Jay Bee. I haven't assembled that many cars, but I have managed to collect a sizable collection of all three kinds, but would like to "standardize" which ones I use, and sell off the other two most likely. I have heard from other discussion groups intermountain are best, with P2K runner up. But I have not seen Jay Bee discussed that much.
SP Decal Help?
ExactRail just sent me my invoice/shipping notice for my SP 2420 Gondola. I plan to model this car:
http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=51191
Question I have is... Who makes the data decals? I've surfed the Microscale site but the images are small so I cannot tell if I'm getting what I need.
The SP MOW decal sheet will provide the large reporting mark and road number for the sides. The end reporting mark and number will some from some data letter & number sheet(s). The COTS decal will be from Microscale as well.
Microscale-PFE-HO
FYI
Attached is an MSWord 97 file listing Microscale's offering of PFE refer car decals in HO scale.
Microscale-HO-SP
It was stated in a recent forum entry that Microscale has a difficult website to traverse if you don't know which decal set you're looking for. So true.
I have developed a list of Microscale decal sets for HO scale Southern Pacific locos and cars. It also includes a few generic lettering, data, and striping sets. See the attached file. It is MSWord 97 .doc format.
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