Been working on a very old kit that I picked up a long time ago. Was HOn2-1/2 gauge but putting HOn3 trucks on it. Kind of a goofy little critter, not quite prototype but still fun. No decals for it so am making do. Bashing some RR Gothic letters to get GRAMPS.
It's a little hard to see since it's mostly made of clear acrylic, but since I'm too cheap to buy a track inspection car, I made one. Store bought are usually 40' but since most modern rolling stock is longer, I made this one closer to 60'. Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk
Really cool, where the name Gramps come from? I think I know, but decided to ask. Are those letters clear on that decal page?
The GRAMPS tank cars were used to deliver oil from a loading facility in Chama, NM to a refinery at Alamosa, CO via the D&RGW narrow gauge. Both the oil field and small refinery were owned by "Gramps" Lafayette Hughes, hence the lettering specific to cars in this service. They were in use from about 1939, four years after the discovery of the oil field west of Chama, until 1964 when the refinery was shut down after being damaged by a fire. Although the UTLX frameless cars were converted to narrow gauge from standard gauge, they didn't receive the Gramps lettering until they were in narrow gauge service. No cars with this lettering were known to have been used on the standard gauge. The decals for the GRAMPS are Microscale white on clear decal paper. The rest are Dulux imitation gold kludged together from Microscale, Odballs and Rail Graphics.
This kit has taken longer than I planned, but it’s getting close. Converted the Walthers Champion Packing kit into a railroad power house for the roundhouse, car shop, etc. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have more done on my GP35M conversion. I have all the parts added and the body primed. I just purchased a dummy frame and wheels from E Bay. John
I have another Bluebox right behind this.I found a complete undecorated dummy kit for a GP40-2 and also had decals left over from a U Boat Conrail build so I can do this as a late 70s Conrail engine from back home in the day. The only thing I need to purchase is 2 "weed cutter" snow plows. I added all the glass, horn and masked then primed and painted the blue today. John
Installed Seaboard style roller bearing trucks from Plate C Model Prototypes on my SCL boxcar this morning. They look great! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Putting the finishing touches on an Arbour Models PRR J1. These kits get a bad rep but with some patience, they can turn into some really nice models.
This is a Bachmann $10 find I got last summer at an odds and ends 'antique' store. The coupler mounts were more than a little strange, so I took some time this weekend to experiment and figure out how to mount Kadee couplers. Then I took some more time figuring out how to raise the coupler height. It seems good now, so next I'll work at converting it to DCC. Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk
I added the cab sun shades and painted the pilots black. Today I masked and painted the yellow. Next is the dark green. John
I also have more done on the GP40-2. I did the walkways, pilots and some detail painting and started the decals. I need to do some touch up on the body where my masks leaked. John
I don't know how I missed this but that is out of control! There is a 100% chance I would, (a) not attempt this and, (b) not have anywhere near this kind of success doing it if I somehow forgot about (a)! I'm in awe.
Here is a bit of an update on the SD75M. I made a post about it a few months back, but I got a few more parts for it and painted them up. The biggest additions were on the pilots. I was waiting on the proper snowplow and got some MU cables and made a custom coupler cut lever too. I made some 3D printed brackets for the coupler cut lever. You can see them above the MU hoses in the above photo. Below is what they look like painted but still attached to the printing base. It’s a bit blurry and zoomed in, but it’s difficult getting photos of something so tiny. The first batch were slightly too small and the hole wasn’t big enough, so I reprinted it with a slightly larger loop to fit the cut lever wire through it. My final version that I’ll use on future projects is halfway between. The current ones are still slightly too big, but good enough for now. I may make some GE versions too and put them on Shapeways. I noticed that even in the Cal-Scale cut lever kits, the brackets are simply eye bolts and not true brackets with rivets and actual details. It might be nice to add them to the hobby market. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The MU cables are Details West part MU-236. The dummy sockets on the SD75 are pretty far apart, so I had to stretch the cable out, which is why it looks all wonky and bent-up. Some of the molded-in bends didn't want to straighten out all the way. I think the cable would look better on a different locomotive like a GE unit, where the sockets are usually pretty close. I am tempted to cut the cable out, leave the socket and plugs glued, and simply form my own that's a bit longer. Sometimes the SD75M didn't carry a front MU cable, but I liked the 'busy' look with all the cables and plumbing applied.
I like to cut off the "cable" from those Details West MU cable parts and replace it with solder. It allows me to get the droop and length I want and it has a round cross-section free of flash.