Here's what's on my "workbench", AKA layout... More scenery. Things are coming along. The mountain top is removable for access, hence the gaps. They are not yet fully blended. Here's what I have so far: And what I'm trying to catch the flavor of:
Summit has rail except for the wye bit that will be a removable section. Now its time to move west towards alray. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Not technically "on my workbench" since all my train stuff is currently packed up, but I just got the Dome Roof that Mark Runyan did in SolidWorks for me in rapid prototype form in the mail today and it is outstanding. Still waiting on the Seat Insert. (the CB&Q used the prewar Budd Coach that Kato produced to make the so-called "Pattern" first dome cars Silver Dome (aka Silver Alchemy) and Silver Castle. These cars were run in extra service and showed up on the Twin Cities Zephyr on a fairly regular basis). Charlie Vlk
Got to see Charlie's Dome project last night. All I can say is "WOW". This will be an instant hit for any Burlington fans in the crowd! In keeping with the "Q" theme, it seems I've been on a CB&Q streak lately. Here's my almost finished E5. Still have to add the window glass.
SF Water Treatment Since finishing the sandhouse, have reached the cardboard mockup stage of the next project, a model of a 3 tank (under 100k gallon/day) standard ATSF water treament facility. As I understand it, 3 tank water facilities used two water tanks for treating and collection and additional tanks for storage. The 100k refers to the size of the building used to mix the chemicals will diluent to move to the treatment tower, being a 32' long chemical storage/mixing building. Over 100k used a 40' version of the same building. The version that I am modeling is based on 1905 blueprints, soon after, most of chemical treatment took place in the treatment building, eliminating the need for the treatment tower. But I like the looks of the older version, so that's what will be in place in my little train world.
lookin good robert! hopefully ill have a running layout in the next 6 months and then ill be onto the scratch building stages. need to get that done so i can get a final structure layout before scenery is applied on the populated sections like san berdoo. on the other hand, ill most likely not be able to resist finishing summit so thatll probably get scenery first.
59-tonner I'm finally able to post about something that's on my actual workbench (OK, it's on my table, close enough). This is a project to scratchbash a 59-ton switcher used exclusively at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, NY from 1931 to 1974. These were built by GE and Ingersoll Rand and only 7 were made (all of them for BT). Unfortunately, all of them were scrapped, which is especially a bummer since they apparently ran quite well, even though none of them was ever rebuilt since delivery to the railroad. Here's what it looked like: To model this, I am using the shell of an old Model Power RSD-15. I stripped the paint using a bath of Simply Clean (the purple stuff that I learned about here on TB), which worked amazingly well. From that, I made several measurements, mocked up some possible options in an image editing program, made more measurements, researched power options (gonna go with a Kato 11-105 power chassis), and started cutting. Here's a dry fit so far: I still need to clean up a bunch of rough ends, glue the end platforms/stairs/pilots back on, glue it all together, paint, add lights (after I figure out how I'm going to make them) and other details. Should be fun. Can't wait to get it on the rails!
All right I'll play: Boston & Maine F2: Started life as an Intermountain SP F3. cut the 45* numberboards off, drilled a third porthole and brush painted it marroon, decalled it and called it good. Well it's been bugging me, so I'm now stripping the shell to do things properly, although I'm still a little stuck on what to do about the small numberboads. Bachman 44 tonner, bought before they released the B&M version. Basic strip and paint, most likely into the "Blue dip" scheme. Intermountain AAR boxcar. This, I believe, is the first piece of equipment I have ever bought the says Union Pacific on it. And now for the tiny project: Micron Art Vincent Motorcycle kit. I'm pleased with how it's coming so far. I used an x-acto knife blade to put a blob of paint on the tank to give it a more rounded shape.
Most of my current work has been on my layout. Right now I'm at the staging yard section. Also ran Saturday at Jeff A's (4X2dsp) layout. A good run on someone's layout like Jeff's gets you charged up to do more work on your own. More photos of my layout and Jeff's can be found on my blog.
I can finally take my SD70M-2 off the work bench. I'm pleased with how it came out. Now to weather it. My favorite part of the loco is being able to see through the rear vents.
Too humid to make castings, but here's a '46 Hudson coupe I cast a few months back. I had to re-shape the roof and add the bumpers to the HO model before shrinking it down to N.
I am attempting my 'glacier' type obs car... Mine will have a clear plate glass window in the back...along with a pole dancer (someone suggested that one...lol). I removed 2 seats and put in the dance floor and pole. I have some filing to do and then the window. I stilll need to find an N scale girl in a bikini for the pole ;-) Thats all i am working on for now. I am still in 'recovery mode' from my surgery and things are going slow :-( .
Now thats how ya boost ridership! Hahahaha. With that nice big window, I bet you could figure out a way to motorize the pole to rotate at a few RPM with the dancer glued to it.
A pile of work so to speak. Six 'chip cars' and a caboose. Just finished build the 40' 'chippers. Three will be Mil., a Great Northern and 2 WP's. The sides are Evergreen and I use brass angles for the corners. Ladders were added on 4 of them and stirrup steps on the WP's. These are primed and ready for painting to start today. The caboose is going to be GN. I've shortened it to 25' and pluuged the windows. Lots of windows on a GN 'hack'. Still needs to be scribbed to make it a wood caboose.....................................
Hey George, If you ever round up the money for any of them, look in theses gems: http://lookmodeljapan.ocnk.net/index.php/product-list/20?page=2 (make sure you look at the first page too.)
Thanks for the link Steve. Those are some fine looking models but that has to be one of the most boring web sites I have ever seen. IMHO Mike
