Good morning from mostly sunny and warm Northeast Ohio! Russell, thanks for starting us out! This weeks completed work! Second Eastern Car Works N&W H2a Coal Hopper kit, added the air lines for the brake system then painted with Scalecoat II Black paint and lettered with Greg Komar's decals. This time I used the decals for the 1951-1963 time period. McKean Models Evans Boxcar kit, replaced the plastic grabs with metal grabs, added a Moloco End of Car Cushioning Coupler Pocket, replaced the poorly done end ladders with some left over from PS1 boxcar kits, added some left over walkover platforms from duplicates in other kits and finally a wire grab over the platform. Car was painted with Scalecoat II B&M Blue and Silver paints and then lettered with Herald King Decals and the Evans Products logo from a Microscale set. The Green Bay and Western received a couple of hundred of these cars some were painted yellow and the others blue, the blue cars were assigned to the American Can Co in Green Bay, WI. I have been expanding my fleet 40' Trailers for intermodal trains I am building up. The first van is an Athearn where I modified the FGE Prototype by removing the the little metal flap over the landing gear and all the cast on grabs that were only on the FGE Van, painted with Scalecoat II Silver and lettered with Microscale Decals. The second van is a Walthers Trailmobile and it is painted with Scalecoat II White and lettered with Highball Graphics decals. Don't know why Walthers lettered all their Trailmobiles with Foobie Paint Schemes and did not do any of the prototype ones like the DT&I. Also I added mud flaps to the ends of the vans, why the manufacturers do not include these is a mystery! Atlas Trains RS-32's (Highly Modified) hauling a mixed freight on the Strongsville Club Layout. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
I have posted this newly completed car in another thread but here goes again; I think it looks pretty good but not exactly of the same era as today's Boeing trains. So I have weathered it lightly. I would appreciate comments regarding needing more heavier grime. Thanks for looking and look forward to suggestions, Carl
I like taking photos outside in oblique light to really bring out the details. Here's GP18 GTW 4703 basking in the late afternoon sunlight: That's my paint and detail job. Since the landlord added some regulation-mandated safety features, I can't do this anymore. I need to make a portable diorama I can haul outside and do my photography there. Maybe a winter project to keep me busy when there's too much winter outside... I have a leftover turntable kit that I could put to good use...
I used to do that a lot when my house was on the edge of suburbia outside of Houston. In the last 30 years, all the open fields and spaces where I could set up have been developed and are now full of houses. I can still pack everything up and drive for a half hour to "get out of town" again. When taking photos of locomotives and rolling stock I have what Kirk Ready calls my prairie on posts to set up trains for a photo shoot. Then I could also haul my NTRAK modules out and set them up for building shots. Now I just have an indoor diorama with different track pieces and photo back drops and rarely get out in the fields.
Part of being a model railroader is the ability of re-writing history. I feel robbed that I had to wait until I was 13 years old to ride a train from Long Beach to Los Angeles, and what was worse, was the fact that most of the route was rebuilt over the top of the old Pacific Electric line. I have wondered many times how different Los Angeles and Orange Counties would be if the Pacific Electric stayed in the passenger business past 1953 (they sold the passenger service, The MTA kept going until 1961 on the old Pacific Electric lines and until 1963 with the old LARy PCC's), and if they made it to today. I used some Microscale decals that Miniatures By Eric had made for his line of PE Interurbans…I still have 4 cars to build, and I have three chassis…..I better get back to the 1950’s next….
Here is another mock up. This time with the completed Union Station in place. Not totally happy with the weathering on the station. Came out darker than I intended.
Same here. That building must have endured decades of steam loco smoke and soot. Then rain to smudge it around. Quite nice.
A small Free-moN module 16"x20" crossing Split Rock. An Nscale project. I plan to add some super trees when they arrive and maybe some white water rapids. It is a learning experience.