It's been a while since I have done much on the layout and still nothing really new layout wise to show. I did recently get some cool Frisco rolling stock and an E unit from a fellow TB member who I appreciate far more than he probably knows. And I picked up a Rapido new look bus. I'll have to run the wires for the lights but it should look cool. That's about it for now.
The Santa Fe Herald on top of the building caught my eye immediately. Then what appears to be a Frisco E8 also caught my eye. How about the policeman on a pedestal directing traffic? Then I noted your control panel. Reminds me of a early mix of toggles, Atlas Sliders and Switch Controls similar to what I had early on. Kato is better any day. Good to see your layout up and running. Your never done. There's always that one little detail item. Humm? i need a guy on a ladder over here. Or this could use an extra Chevy/car, you know the one I saw at the hobby shop. Or!!! How about a new passenger train that just came out. It never stops. Looking marvelous!
Did you see the Delorean from “Back to the Future”? thought that was neat to sneak in. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
No, I didn't. I was to busy looking at trains and stuff. Missed it. Pretty cool. Now can you make it disappear into the future? LOL
The DeLorean helped us skip July completely on the layout thread. :O I did get down there and run trains a couple of times but that was about it until this past weekend. While I was at the N scale convention, I was able to pick up what I thought was a good deal on a 6 pack of LBF Coalporters in BNSF paint. LBF has been out of the game for a while but these cars were still new and bundled in the original shrink wrap. The seller had them marked as a show special. I saw a lot of folks look at them and pass. I did to at first but ended up getting them. You could see all 6 cars and they all had issues. My guess is the set had been dropped. Possibly more than once. Most of the cars looked like this. Saturday morning I decided it was finally time to see what kind of mess I had gotten into with these. I grabbed a cup of coffee and went to work on the. Less than an hour later, I had 3 of the cars 100% ready to roll. The other 3 I had glued some parts so let them sit for a little while. After giving the glue time to dry, I re installed the trucks on the other 3 cars and now they are on the shop track waiting for a trip around the layout With the small amount of work it took to get these cars back to 100%, I have decided what I thought was a good deal turned out to be a steal of a deal! Next up, I worked on some shelves for the wife and at the same time cut the parts needed for a display shelf for one end of the layout. I got the wife's stuff all put in place and them got my shelves put together.. Still need to find some trim for the bottom of this. Built the same thing a while back for the other end and it is still waiting on some trim too. Guess that will be one objective before it gets too cool to paint this fall. here's how it looks so far. After all that I sat at the desk and worked on getting these tractors prepped for painting. Remains to be seen how these will turn out so tune in next time when we......................
I've been running a CSX unit train of coalporters for years and I prefer these to the Deluxe Innovations model. Mine are actually branded E&C shops; same tooling, same product as LBF. They were also sold under the Huberts brand in case you go looking for more road numbers. According to Spookshow the tooling was bought by Intermountain. I especially like that they came with MTL roller bearing trucks, and unlike the DIs they included internal bracing detail, although each was missing one brace. They are extremely lightweight, so if they run flawlessly then you have excellent track work. Interestingly if you fill them with actual N scale anthracite they happen to hit the NMRA weight standard exactly. The Deluxe hoppers leak coal and the weights look unprototypical.
Wow, the JPT Sub Shops have been hard at work, sparks flying in the Car Shop, the Shelving Dept. and the Farm Equipment Div. too! All very cool and diverse projects. Keep 'em coming.
I'm late on my response. Must of had a DeLorean experience. Forget-back to the future. Like your Coalporters. Wish I could find them in black with yellow ends and lettered for Santa Fe. What a layout!
Hi all, hard to believe that i haven't made an update since early August. Time is flying guys. Not a lot to report but I'll bring everything up to date. In my last post, I had the tractors prepped and ready to paint. They did get a fist coat but still need a second. No pic yet. Next up, I decided to start making some progress on the pluming and Outhouse business. I removed a section of underbrush and cleared it for a concrete pad. A few weeks later I test fitted a concrete pad I also managed to get my Challenger out of the box for the first time ever! Looks great paired with some Scale Trains tenders. I have yet to program an address and run it on DCC yet. Gave it a cursory DC run and now it's just sitting there looking pretty. The next project turned out to be a easy one. I had a pair of the CMW Septic service trucks. The cabs are a bit old for my era but the tank part is good. Like I have doe with some other CMW trucks, I planned to bash them together with the Atlas Ford LNT9000 tractor. That usually involves removing the forward tandem axle and lengthening or shortening the frame on the Atlas truck. In this case, when I took the bed off the CMW truck (it has clips so snaps right off), removed the forward tandem axle and then set the bed on the Atlas frame. Since I preferred to leave the exhaust stack in place, it turned out that the bed snapped right on ad was a perfect fit. POW! Too easy. With that, I headed back to the port-a-potties. I put a bunch on a base plate. Next up, I moved them and the trucks to the layout. Now all i need to do is fence in the lot and do a little scenery touch up around the pad and there we have it. Bowel Bros is in business again.
Some new things include this super cool Valdosta Southern boxcar that a good friend gave me recently. I can tell you all it will always have a special place with me now. Also, while walking through Kroger with the wife, I came across a Hot Wheels Toyota Tacoma. Had to get it since it is very similar to mine. Even the color is close enough. I scored a set of the new W/S traffic signals. Will probably be a while before they get installed but they are nice enough. I also came across an Athearn 57' mechanical reefer in the FGS Solid Cold paint scheme. Between the older MDC version of this car and the newer Athearn both with and without sound, I have far too many in this paint scheme. Can't help it though. It's my weakness car. At least I know I am helping support Jim Wiggins in some small way The next new thing is new from June but still really new since I just uncovered it again. Last week, i was talking to a friend and we were talking about the Walthers steel mill and I mentioned I had picked up a hot metal car from KenRay Models at the N Scale convention. Well, i was thinking about it later and couldn't remember what I had done with that car. Well, I had taken a cooler of water and snacks to the convention with me to put out at the Online Modelers Meet. After that, I had put all my purchases and some other stuff in the cooler for the trip home. Apparently when I emptied the cooler, I had never removed that car. Fortunately it was safe and sound and it made an appearance on the layout yesterday. Well, there you have it. Not much but we are back up to date on the JPT Sub happenings. Thanks for checking in.
Those athearn sound equipped reefers are pretty cool. I got two of them a while back and the nice thing with that amount is they aren't synced so usually have at least one running giving the audio illusion of a much larger consist. Like the hot metal car too and for those of us who refuse to fully grow up a die cast replica of our cars we have owned or own is mandatory
Nice honey wagons! If ya paint them yellow and add red and yellow lights, they could be the Stool Bus...
Nice update on the JPT Sub with some great projects done. That hot metal car is really neat. I had no idea these were made in N Scale. At a train show some 25 years ago, a guy added an orange bulb inside his similar HO car and somehow had worked the center of the ladle to glow. It was amazing, so realistic with perfect weathering that it appeared that you'd suffer a severe burn if you dared touch it.
Stool Bus, that's great stuff. After the blue water express, I guess I could make that my "#2" choice.
I literally laughed out loud on that one!! For inspiration, an actual #2: https://www.stoolbusnd.com/about_us https://www.google.com/search?q=sto...iw=1365&bih=926&dpr=0.75#imgrc=YWDi-QBmm10ZoM
Just a couple of random shots. A Valdosta Southern boxcar has been spotted for loading. Some ballast has been set out until needed while an autorack train rolls through town
You tried hooking up the WS Traffic Lights just to test them? Even if you aren't going to install them for some time, I would test and make sure they work during a return period, just to be safe? Mine should be there this weekend, I hope?
