Picked up Digitrax decoders for my SW1200’s today. And got bucked around pretty good by the extremely high winds! Almost lost tonneau cover at one point. Dust so heavy, you could NOT see the vehicle 15 feet in front of you at times! Had headlights and emergency flashes on, for safety. And a tailgater through the worst of the dust! Probably trying to keep me in sight, for safety. Don’t really know. Now, to figure out how to get stock board removed from locomotives! Not sure if I want to attempt later today or not.
I finished the hop cars and except for a little mild weathering with some Bragdon dust coating and a seal coat they are ready to join the fleet. At the same time I finished the two power units for the blue train, my express and mail train. I repainted a Bandai B cab unit into blue and took a Bandai B train baggage car and using left over parts from the kits turned it into a baggage/express power cab. Both units have a Kato power chassis under them. 000_0198-1 by John Moore posted Apr 17, 2018 at 8:30 PM And in a late add now with some weathering and a dull coat sealer. That had to be the brightest white I have ever used on a model. But now ready to take their place on the siding at the mill where they will be in captive service between the mill and it's customers. 000_0200-2 by John Moore posted Apr 17, 2018 at 9:59 PM
Having gone through my freight fleet yesterday the Vinegar car was one of the cars that exceeded my limit of 40 feet however I liked the car and it would go with one of my canneries along with the pickle cars. So I shortened it and fit it to one of my 34 foot flatcars. About now some collector is probably reading this and clutching his chest while looking for a chair. I repainted the shortened car and it is now decaled for the Shamrock company. Then I converted another Overton into a passenger carrying caboose. I have two other Overtons that are combines that received the same conversion as LCL cabooses. 000_0204-1 by John Moore posted Apr 21, 2018 at 6:02 PM
When I see a cupola added to the top of a car that is (was?) not a caboose, I often wonder about 2 things: 1. does that mod maintain vertical clearance restrictions at the top of the cupola, and 2. when there are windows in the original car, how do the seats in the cupola work with those windows?
The ones I have seen are all on clerestory roofs with the clerestory either notched or the cupola only projects a few feet above the roof. 000_0207 by John Moore posted Apr 22, 2018 at 9:56 AM Here are the conversions in front of woodchip or sugar beet gons by DimiTrains. Mine are about 2 feet shorter than the tallest stack on my steamers. My vertical clearance from the rail tops on my tunnels ls 24 foot and they sail through those with room to spare. They are about the height of a high cube boxcar. Most were done on old combines in the one to one world. So the window wasn't a problem. In most cases platforms were built on either side with ladder access and the area under them was usually a desk, or kept as locker, or seating space for crew. On my one that is done on a coach body the cupola is offset over a blank space in the side. There were instances of box cars and passenger cars being used for cabooses, most notably on the SP&S. They added bay windows to two passenger cars in Oregon Trunk service and did convert some boxcars to cabooses as a temporary measure when they came up short. The use of the combines appears to be a western thing for branchline mixed train service combining LCL and passenger service with the function as a caboose. Here is a 1 to 1 photo of an actual conversion. H-05909_141 by John Moore posted Apr 22, 2018 at 11:26 AM and another. 2014109165944_00 DRGW Pagosa Combine1 by John Moore posted Apr 22, 2018 at 11:32 AM and one of the more unusual. 348b15009b488be17d39e79cb3deb65b by John Moore posted Apr 22, 2018 at 11:38 AM
The platform floor for cupolas varied between prototypes but was around five feet above the floor of the car. In any case it would not be above the top of windows so most every such car does not have carbody windows under the cupola. Charlie Vlk
Thinning my caboose fleet of everything that isn't MT or the wood RS Laser kits with the exception of my Overton conversions. Some of the thinned fleet is being turned into bobber cabooses and one more old clerestory roof combine is being shortened and also turned into another caboose. 000_0208-1 by John Moore posted Apr 22, 2018 at 8:51 PM And with rain in the forecast for most of next week I will get back to the layout after a sabbatical from the construction.
The caboose project is slowly coming along. One two axle bobber and one three axle bobber and another combine into a caboose will be my last caboose project other than to re-decal a few into Turtle Creek. My biggest headache was fitting the single trucks to the cut down underframes. 000_0214-6 by John Moore posted Apr 25, 2018 at 9:34 PM
John Moore, I LOVE cabeese and love what you're doing. I do have a couple questions, though. 1) Does this have something to with a "Dream of the Blue Turtles" ??? 2) Does your mainline pass through "Heartbeat City" ??? Yes, a couple REALLY bad jokes, but I've loved your work since you motorized the Tichy rotary plow. Always like to see what you're up to !!!
Well the Turtle Creek Central is known for it's colorful cabooses all acquired 2nd hand of course. And the shop uses what ever paint is left around the shop or on sale to paint them. Even the turtle emblem varies on them. Sometimes just a roadname, at times a green turtle, and at other times a white turtle. The caboose fleets varies in color from several shades of red, two shades of blue, and green. Motive power is the same way, with recent acquisitions left in the original colors with just a road name and number added. And it has the only three axle bobber in existance.
Made a little progress with the underframes and roof walks And glazed the windows. See I have to attended to a few joint lines too. The gray objects are tool boxes that have to be painted and mounted. 000_0217-2 by John Moore posted Apr 27, 2018 at 8:17 PM
Made some more progress on the three cabooses and created a generator power car for the Port of Friday Harbor using a surplus caboose body and part form the parts boxes. Tool boxes have been added to the cabooses. My two homemade bobbers are sitting either side of one of Bachmanns bobbers. Underframe details have yet to be added to the power car. The cabooses in back are all awaiting patched decals they were former GN and SP&S cabooses. 000_0218-1 by John Moore posted Apr 28, 2018 at 5:16 PM
This is the Southern Pacific speeder shed in Casa Grande, AZ. It is 18×22, the sides, back and roof is metal, and the front is metal and wood. The shed was used for a speeder and repairs. I drew up a scale plan on 1/4″ square graph paper using Grandt Line #8008 windows. While they are not correct, they are not too far off. They are smaller than the 4×6 prototype windows, and they have more than the prototype 8 panes. I had a fresh sheet of 0.040″ styrene, some leftovers of metal roofing from the D’Amato Lumber project, and a small piece of freight car siding. The three sides are plain styrene, the front is a combination of the freight car siding and plain styrene. I am using five Grandt Line windows, and the door is made out of more freight car siding. The siding is horizontal, and the door planks are vertical. I will be shooting it with Tru Color Southern Pacific Colonial Yellow and brown. I gave up on taking pictures with my cell phone, all pictures of the model were taken with my tablet.
Well these were on my workbench so I could add leg pockets and drill the alignment holes. To late for the sander so will start track tomorrow.
