Good morning from sunny and cool Northeast Ohio! Here is what I finished this week. Front Range 1944 AAr Boxcar kit, substituted a 7' Superior Door to match the prototype along with A-Line Sill Steps. Car was painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red #2 and lettered with Mask Island Decals. The DT&I used these cars in general service then gradually added insulation and a 8' plug door to make the 19000 series for Campbell Soup Service. Next an Atlas 3960CF ACF Covered Hopper kit (with see through walkways). Car was painted with Scalecoat II MofW Gray and lettered with Mask Island Decals. I always thought this was one of the prettiest paint schemes put on a covered hopper. The cars were used for grain hauling out of ADM in Decatur, IL. GP35-C424B and U25B with a general freight train on the Strongsville Club Layout. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
Curved trestle over Lightning Creek and nearby mining camp coming along... Have a good weekend all, -Bob T.
Lehigh & Hudson River #83 Light Mikado 2-8-2 (Broadway Limited) heads up a freight through the station as New Haven DL109 (Proto 1000) pulls into the station.
Another weekend of great modeling everyone, thanks for sharing your images. This weekends post is a BN SD40C #6330. The SD40-2 was rebuilt with a Cat 3612, some say it was 4200 hp, others say it was 3800 hp. This one got a SD45 radiator section to help cool the cat engine better. It served well for many years for the BN then BNSF. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1065438 A detailed image of the modified exhaust for the Cat engine. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1485348 My attempt at modeling this very unique BN SD40C. As with most of my older models it started off as a blue box Athearn. After a bunch of modifications and additions. I modeled a little later version where the horn was moved back on the long hood. and has ditch lights. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
I would love to be showing some SP pics but here are some of my recent project. It is the WABTEC BEL #3000, 3D printed and painted, decaled, and flat clear coted. I still need to add couplers, glass and of course the KATO C44-9W power chassis. No lights as she will be run between 2 BNSF locos just as the 1:1 unit was in late 2020 on the Barstow to Stockton route, approx. 350 miles. Thanks for looking. I'll have more images on my build tread.
Wow! That's a nice model! Great work, as usual. That's an interesting one. Kind of a half-cowl, half hood unit - very telling on how many batteries a rechargeable loco needs. Nicely done! Keep up the good work! With a battery level meter on top too!
Mike, Thanks for the "like". The data sheet I have states there are 20 racks of lithium-ion batteries, 10 on each side of the interior walkway. Approx. 20,000 battery cells with a capacity of 2,400 kilowatt hours. You can see the HVAC unit on the battery compartment in my photo. It was rated at full 4400-HP output for 30 - 40 minutes, max. speed approx. 75 MPH. They built a wayside charging station in Stockton for recharging, and it recharged under dynamic braking as well. The real kicker, to me anyway, is that only 4 of the 6 axles have traction motors. I'm a little bit skeptical about this BEL (Battery Electric Locomotive ), however the UP and several other non US roads have ordered several of these beasts. Caterpillar, BNSF, and Chevron are working on hydrogen power units. Progress ? ? ?
So am I. 30-40 minutes at 4400 horsepower, at 75 MPH, makes about 40-50 miles or so before a charge is necessary (like steam locos needing water). I think this kind of engine might be good for transfer runs or other short trips, or maybe as a self-powered road slug, but I don't think that we'll see these in mainline service with 150-car double-stack trains blowing by at near passenger-train speeds. Even the Energizer rabbit doesn't have that kind of stamina! A more energy-dense solution needs to be found. Hydrogen would be a better alternative. Having an on-board generating station is the ideal for any locomotive application. That's why diesel-electric locos were created - to independent of a tethered power supply (overhead catenary or third rail). The main problem with hydrogen (other than the Hindenburg thing) is that it's very light and not very dense (which is why hydrogen-oxygen fueled rockets are so big). With hydrogen, we would definitely see the return of the locomotive tender. That might be a good thing, since a fully-fueled tender might be waiting at a fuel stop and then it would simply be an exchange of tenders. A much shorter operation than plugging it in to a charging station and waiting until next month before it's full...
I usually never purchase pre-built structures, but I did make an exception for representing Primo's Deli & Market in New Milford. The N scale Woodland Scenic's "Franks IGA" built up structure was a very close representation for my N-Scale Housatonic RR. I removed the huge roof sign, added some HVAC equipment, moved some attached details, made a new sign for over the door and weathered it. I also had to expand the parking and delivery access. It saved a lot of scratchbuilding time for this foreground structure. I do need to glue the building down, to eliminate the gap, but that will wait until I finish up the background scenes, so I don't damage any foreground structures.
Since the Sebring Model Railroad Club had its monthly business meeting on September 11th, one of our members had these three (sound equipped) locomotives, which honor our first responders, idling on the siding closest to our meeting room, and where everyone entering the layout space would walk past them. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk