I picked up one of the new Trainworx Peterbilt 351s just to hack up and rebuild into a grain truck. I also got a few spare parts from TW to build a grain pup trailer to go along with it.
That's really cool! I've been thinking about getting him a truck of some kind to hang around the Lumber Mill, and a '50 Chevy five-window for the farm. I bought a set of N Scale Hobos, and I could do some farm and mill work using those characters. I have a Hitachi compound slide saw, and I could cut some beams at that scale. I guess wooden matches would make some nice beams too. I've spent as much time putting buildings together as I spent laying track! His Dad knows about Woodland Scenics. I bought him that curved tunnel to make the loop a little more fun for him. I thought about putting the Hobos around the campfire on top of the tunnel, but REAL hobos would have broken their necks climbing up there! Where did You buy Your semi? I already have his Christmas gift. I got a deal on an FA1 and FB1 in Erie paint scheme( we're 30 miles from Erie). They're both powered, so by the time I get his reefer and boxcar kits all together and weighted He'll have plenty of ooomph to tug 'em. I won't have a problem figuring out his birthday and Christmas gifts! I'm going to spoil this lad.
I was really happy that he liked it. You never know, but I figured, I had so much fun with HO cars when I was a kid, and my Brother's Lionel set up was fun. I love the bigger trains, but there's a cool factor to the small highly detailed N Scale trains, I think the little trains appeal to youngsters, at least know from what I gathered from ZNolan this week. I think if his Dad drops a hundred or so at Woodland Scenics it will really hold his interest. I'm so thankful to the assistance and equipment that I got from Rodsup9000 (Rodney) and brokemoto, (Max). They really turned this into a nice project. If He happens to get bored with it, at least they can put it under the Christmas tree and just plug it in. An electric train adds magic to a child's Christmastime. I have no indication that He's growing tired of it.
We live in a town of three thousand, yet we have a rail fan club, and a small area between three tracks that is designated a a train viewing park. They have railroad line signs on picnic tables, and three barbecue grills. I never knew about it until I started building Nolan's track. The guys had a small meeting today, and I took a few train shots. I just have to get good at hooking up my camera to my iPad. I'll get his Dad to take him out there, because I'm sure that this is opening a whole new world to Nolan. What once was that noisy thing down the road will become rail bound works of art. And they're Made In America. Yep. A whole new world for a smart, curious young boy.Thank You everyone.
Well decoder installation has been an ongoing project. Thus far I have installed decoders in all the engines that were easy; meaning they were drop ins or nearly so. Nothing really difficult but a good step for a rookie. Now comes the hard part. I got three ABBA sets of LifeLike FA/B 1's that enjoy most favored locomotives status in my world. I would like to convert these to DCC but not immediately. They will need Aztec milled frames and I would rather have someone (who knows what they are doing) perform the conversion. In the meantime I got work to do on my sectional layout. The basic sections have been constructed and track laying is next.
I just bought a new boxed FA-B1 set, both powered, and I'd like to get them loaded up DCC with sound decoder and the works. But, they're LifeLike and came with Rapido Couplers, so I think they're probably coated with wax and not even DCC ready. I'm thinking about just putting two rusty boxcars and a Caboose with two sets of hobos manning the back three cars, and touring the USA. I think the theme for my layout will be "Tour of United States Interstate Highway Construction 1958". I was a little kid in the mid-50's, and we lived on a farm. They were building Interstate 80 across Illinois in '58, and Mom and Dad bundled us up some nights, and we'd sit on a graded bridge hill and watch the HUGE bulldozers building Eisenhower's Great Highway System. I was two, so I couldn't have known that I was viewing the greatest building project since the great railroad lines were built in the 1800's. It will be a layout theme that means a lot to me. I will certainly have a Mom and Dad with four kids sitting on a bank watching the massive equipment move mountains of material to build the greatest highway system ever built. I'm going to be buying a LOT of those Cornfield Sections for my layout. And a lot of Harvestore Silos!
Not really the workbench, but computer screne, a PRSL dual control stand GP38 cab. Many of these are still on the rails today. I plan on building the one that spent a few years on NS before being rebuilt. It will be a complete drop in replacement for the Atlas cab and nose.
My soon to be decaled Southern Pacific heavy tool car....sitting next to my daughter's stock MTL NYC horse car
I bought some compensation for the broken Intermountain Tunnel‘s. But it’s not KATO or Foxvalley!! The Hallmak models need some tune-up.
Well, now that I have finished another Update for the Passenger Car Photo Index I have started a kitbashing project that I hope will yield an interesting car. Ever since my youth growing up in North Carolina during the early days of Amtrak I have had an interest in steam generator cars, after first finding one of the Southern Railway's rebuilt EMC FTB cars that was rebuilt into a steam generator car. Usually stored at Spencer Shops, now home of the North Carolina Transportation Museum, SOU 960601 usually was kept inside the roundhouse for any possible call to duty to be used on one of Southern's passenger trains, three of which, the Southern Crescent, the Piedmont and the Tri-weekly (as the former Asheville Special came to be known as) operated to or through Salisbury, N.C. on a regular basis. Since that time I have learned a lot about of other railroad built steam generator cars, some built from other passenger cars, some built from steam locomotive tenders while others still were rebuilt from boxcars (Southern's first was also a boxcar while four were built from EMC FTBs and two others from passenger cars). It was because of these other cars that I started planning out steps to create a similar one. It has been nearly a year since planning and careful consideration began so as to develop the process that I hope will lead to me building a reasonable facimily to that of Great Northern steam generator car #5. Built in 1929 in the GN Shops from wood vestibuled dining car 1001 this car was constructed to suppliment the purchased new steam generator cars, numbered 1 through 4, that GN acquired from St. Louis Car Co. in 1928. The #5 was unique in that it had a vestibule, which none of the other cars had, but no other side door like those found on GN #1 - #4, making it a very unique car. Later, around 1948, the car was rebuilt with a streamlined profile and welded sides and roof, at which time the car lost its vestibule but kept its wider end spacing between the end of the car and the truck on the vestibule end. As part of its rebuilding the car received two newer automated boilers which was part of a general upgrading program that GN had instituted to make the cars more reliable and less labor intense. GN #5 was sold to the Spokane Portland & Seattle in 1969, becoming SP&S 1, where the car provided steam heat so freight units to be used on that line's passenger trains in place of the aging lone EMD E7A and several EMD F7As. It was dismantled by Burlington Northern in 1974. I will be building a model based on the original arrangement of the car just after it was released from the company shops. The diagram below is for GN #5 from 1930. In looking at the diagram I was able to determine what might be the way the car appeared when it first entered service. Note that the boiler stack and roof panel will likely be taken from a Tiche 120-ton derrick while most of the other parts will come from four MT mail cars. The drawing below is based on known construction techniques used by numerous Builders back during that time and shows the cuts that will have to be made and the order each part will be placed in so as to create the new carbody. The vestibule will likely be the biggest challenge since I will have to combine parts of both a mail car and a MT Pullman so that the shortened vestibule door can be created on both sides. While the windows on the prototype car was single sash I may keep the MT mail car windows simply because it would be so very difficult to alter the windows to a single sash. Clicking on the drawing below will open the full sized drawing, which is quite large and shows the various cuts and other changes that need to be made. As a part of the first steps I have disassembled all four models and have given them an alcohol bath to remove all the paint. To my surprise the Milwaukee Road model I purchased was molded in orange plastic while the Canadian Pacific model was molded in a purplish plastic... the other two cars were Pullman green paint over dark gray plastic. It is my intent to use a single edge safety razor blade to make the cuts in the carbody itself but for the underframe I have already learned that the plastic used on them will require the use of a razor saw so as to cut the parts up as will be needed. I have already begun practicing the cuts on a scrap shell and hope that I will be able to make all the cuts in an appropriate fashion so that I don't loose any needed parts, hopefully with the desired straight edges being obtained. Side parts adjacent to the vestibule will have to be cut free from the floor so that they can be applied to the portion of Pullman floor that will be on that end of the car while other parts will have the floor piece retained and added as would be approrpiate. Its worth mentioning that when I get ready to actually work on the underframe that I will be splicing one end of a Pullman's underframe to part of a mail car's underframe out of the hope of gaining the unique truck spacing that was found on the prototype. There is a lot yet to do but I hope that I can get things going so that this project can begin to take shape. Hopefully with something being able to be shared soon with you all. Wish me luck!!!
I'm installing ESU Lok-Pilot decoders in a number of Japanese Micro-Ace and Kato steam locomotives that I purchased years ago. I also replaced the tenders that came with the locomotives with spare Spectrum and Kato Mikado tenders that I had accumulated. Staying cool and having fun with it....... Shades
Can you post pictures of the powered 35" box car? How well does it run? Do you plan on using it as a hidden booster engine?
My recently completed fleet of Royal American Shows vehicles. Now Micro-Trains has to release more circus flatcars to carry them!
Hi After months of little time for modelling work, I managed to get my WNY&P M-636 ready for its Cartier paint job. Should be able to finish the painting in the next few days. just a couple of small defects to sort first. Cheers Steve NZ
A step closer. Colours are light to allow for some weathering to be done. Ignore the blue trucks, they are standard Atlas Dash-8 and still need a make over to make them more like DoFASCo Trucks. Cheers Steve NZ
