Well, now that I got the Mark III Tamper done... I can show you all my MoW Train. The first set of pics show the motive power... a Road Slug with a GP40-2. Next, there is the Scorpion Rack car with a Swingmaster. The 2nd flat has a Ballast Regulator and the Mark III Tamper on it. The 3rd flat has two tie cranes(one newer green, and an older yellow one with tie cart). The 4th flat has a tie shear with aux cart(made from the 2nd tie cart that came with the tie cranes) and a scratch built(well, mostly) universal two man spike puller. Next, we have an old Conrail boxcar for storage, and then there are 4 gondolas for ties and scrap. The last pic shows the whole train pulling into Bayard Yard. Seems like they are trying to get one more tie replacement job in before the winter weather shows up. Any questions about any of the models... feel free to ask. Thanks for looking, enjoy! JMS
That is some jaw dropping modeling there Jim. I have the Durango Press kits and you have inspired me to get them out! I have never tried a kit like the tamper and regulator you have though. You sure make them look good. The whole train looks like you could crawl on it and go to work. I have a few beat up Gondolas too. How did you bent yours up? I ruined a couple trying to bend them up lol. I saw an old Mill Gon in a steel facility in think it was a 65 footer, I swear that thing was so sway backed, it looked like the center was dragging on the rails.
The denting on the gondolas is very well modelled, absolutely convincing. I also like the grungy look of the locos. Can I suggest dirtying up the flats a bit more?
Thanks guys! As for the gondolas... I used a soldiering iron to heat up the tops and sides of the gondolas to make them flexible. The pic of the last gondola was the first one I used to try this technique. As you can see, I went a little overboard on THAT one! LOL! Lucky that I removed the center sill when I decided to rough it up... it still sits square and tracks great. As I continued on to the others, I got much better at it. After heating the sides, I used any object( end of x-acto knife, screwdriver, even an old piece of HO scale rail to dent and bulge the gondolas. The red Chessie gondola was the last one I damaged, and I even poked some holes in the sides with a piece of rail. Then, I used a dull x-acto knife blade and a nail file stick to wear down the sharp edges of the plastic around the holes. If you use this technique, use an iron that has a 15W setting, and practice on an old car that you wouldn't mind if it ends up in the round file! LOL! I do need to weather the flats more... although, the MoW Train that I saw a couple years ago that I based this on had flats that were mostly clean. They could have been freshly painted? The weathering of brown I used does not show up well on the brown that the cars are in pics. In person, one can see the dirt. JMS
where did you get the flats from? I've been wanting to make a MOW train similar to that for my freelance line.
David, sorry to tell you... I built them myself. 3 are F89J flats from Walthers(had a sale couple years back... they were $12.98 each) and the other is a F89F Athearn I bought at an open house. I removed all the trailer hauling equipment from the tops. Then, after looking at pics, I noticed that some of the flats have steel boxing for the rails with about 4-5 cross members connecting the two "box" rails down the length of the deck. Others have actual rail welded straight onto the decks. The two brown F89J flats have HO scale rail glued on the tops. The Kershaw Scorpion Rack Flat(F89J) and the Brown F89F(has the Regulator and Tamper on it) have scratch built "box" rails with cross members out of styrene strips. The Kershaw Scorpion Rack is made from Custom Finishing MoW Ramp. I cut the ramp into sections and added extra braces and cross bracing and stuff using photos of the real thing. The ramp does not function... it is glued in place. All of the flats were painted and decaled by me using photos for references. JMS
