If you had a good look at my car roster, you'd notice that almost all of the equipment is from the late 60s through early 80s. The two newest locomotives I've got are the Kato F3 and GP50. The rest are things that either I got from my dad that we used when I was a tyke, or things I've scrounged up over time. And since my train budget is in the negative numbers, if I want it, I gotta bash it or fake it. And, like you, my aim is basically just to get the flavor of whatver I'm modeling. Like here's the prototype idler/reach gon: My version is a reasonable facsimile and that's all I was aiming for, so mission accomplished. Same deal with the 59-tonner. Only 7 of them were ever made, all for the Bush Terminal, and all were scrapped in the mid-70s (none were ever rebuilt, btw, a testimony to their quality construction). Nobody's ever going to produce a commercial model of that. So I had to build it. And as long as I can capture the flavor enough to remind someone of the real thing, then I'm happy. I wish I could find that last box of train stuff I have around here somewhere. In it should be an 0-8-0 and maybe some other useful bits. Would love to have some steam for the layout, especially a little 0-4-0 saddle tank. Will have to find some way to trade for that... Anyway, I gotta say that I'm really liking your work. The latest project is spectacular and I can't wait to see it completed. Will it join the ranks of the Route of the Dashing Turtle? Or are we talking Great Northern or Southern Railway paint with that green boiler?
I have a little 2-6-6-0 that will probably get the turtle on the tender and join the two wood burners and two 44 tonners. This gal is being done up in the scheme that was found on a number of the GN power on the west end of the system. The red roof was only common to the Kalispell shops and I am debating on whether to apply it to this one. The only problem with the 0-4-0and 0-6-0 saddle tanks is getting them through a switch. The small 0-6-0 with the slopeback tender with front truck pick-up would be a better choice. Then if you search around you may be able to find a Concor 0-4-0 with a slopeback that has both tender trucks picking up current along with the drivers of the loco.
Yeah, I figured they weren't great runners. But the Bush Terminal used 0-4-0 saddle tanks (or Porters or Docksiders, so did the BEDT, into the 60s even!) and I thought it'd be nice to have one, even if only parked on a dead line or something. Thanks for the tips though. Always learning something new here. :thumbs_up:
Are you only going to make one idler car? If you do another try building on a newer tender chassis with two rail pick-up. Then use that as the additional power pick-up for the Docksider or Saddletank.
Well it is far enough along now to start worrying about the tender drawbar connection. Since I'm using the newer Bmann Vandy with two rail pick-up I need to design a split post on the loco to take advantage of that and stay away from wires between loco and tender. So I am going to try an idea I've been toying with for awhile and if it works I'll have the solution for my other older power. Hopefully I'll also have the spacing shown in the photo between cab and tender. Still have detail parts to add but they will wait until almost finished before applying, such as piping under the running boards and a very delicate bell, and fill in the gap under the rear of the cab slightly. Handrail staunchions will be the last thing I do and probably after decaling.
Just finished these four cars. Micro-Trains PS4427 hoppers. In case anyone needs to know, the paint on those green Farmrail hoppers MT did falls off with in minutes in the paint stripper. Also, I haven't read this any where or researched it, but it seems like the walkways on these cars might be lazer-cut wood (I'm not sure). I didn't strip the roof walks, but when I painted them they warped. The design of the car holds them firmly in place though, so no big deal.
My littlest engineer was up at 0-dark-thirty today, so I got a bunch of boxcab action in: Headlight housings installed (and holes drilled for LEDs) "Nose" installed Front rivets and hand rails removed (except under the cab window, that one will be painted yellow) Roof details added, including: Horn Stove pipe Other pipe Metal straps (to hold small radiator) Bell So I need to add the grabs next to the door, under the headlights, and maybe the ladders (though I'm contemplating just skipping those in lieu of dry transfer yellow lines), then I think it'll be ready for paint. This little guy is almost as cute as my little guy!
So I have started a build-up of an N Scale model of Southern Pacific GP35E #6300. I have a nused Kato built Atlas model (fits in well with my U30C), and I have been studying all photos that I can find of her (Thanks again Tom Fassett). I had a N Scale of Nevada rear light package and bell, got some Micro-Trains couplers, BLMA cab shades and MU cables (man those things are tiny), and Detail Associates lights. I took the body off of the GP35, and I used an emery board to file off the foot boards, swapped out the couplers, got to the lights, and DA 8218 duel Pyle lights look like a great fit. Too bad the single light, DA 8219 is too small. It is now time for a quick change of plans. Perhaps Intermountain has a stash of nose lights that they use for their tunnel motors laying around.....
Once I got the electrical pick-up working right on the Vandy tender it was time for the oil bunk. This tender has a removable front and slide out coal load and I wanted to keep this feature for access. I took a piece of .040 styrene and cut it to fit. After sanding the oil bunk to fit it was ACCd to the styrene. These are my own cast oil bunks made way back when I couldn't find a supply of them. I essentially took a section off an old tender side that had the right rivet and seam lines, added styrene sides, and Detail Associates tender hatches and then made my own molds in two sizes to cast resin oil bunks. Shot of the oil bunk slid into the tender feul bunk. The Bmann Vandy chassis is behind and it has a nice directional back-up light that works on DC. In shortening the oil bunk I had to remove the rear fill hatch so went to the box and ACCd one of my stock of hatches where it needed to be.
My idler/reach gondola project was looking good, and originally I was just going to leave it as is (even though it was longer than the prototype 40-foot gondola that was actually used). My main reason for not tackling it was that I don't have a saw guide or anything to make precise cuts (everything else I've done up to this point has been eyeballed then filed to match up). Then I read an article about using lego blocks to reinforce and keep straight HO resin kits. Hey, those are pretty decent right angles! And I've got tons of Lego blocks (note: or rather, I was able to negotiate the trade of several Lego blocks in exchange for future options with my son... he's a tough negotiator). So I rigged up a nice sawing jig and chopped that sucker up! Here's the result: Much better! I also shortened the cement blocks to match and was able to use the original weight in the car, so it's pretty stable.
I built this highway bridge a few years ago. Now I am finally going to add the walkway that goes on the ledge at the bottom of the photo. I did have to make some repairs, too. It's about time for a lot of projects on my railroad.
Got around to adding the piping on the old 2-6-8-0. Still have more details and a little more piping.
Er, ah, ... That, I'm afraid, is another project deep down the list somewhere. I forget the exact location. I know I will get to it if I live that long. I should be a better person, I know.
Actually stopped raining today. Then I was blinded by a bright object in the sky. Wife informed me it was the Sun. So after I went outside screaming in relief from the severe cabin fever, calm returned and I went back to the workbench. Managed to mount the Gold Medal staunchions for the handrails, install number boards, discovered that I was out of marker and class lights, and all the roads between me and the last surviving train shop flooded and closed, I trimmed some caboose/observation car lamps down a bit and danged if they don't look better in my opinion. Filled in a bit of the open space beneath the cab, and fabricated sander control valve boxes for the sand domes. This shot also gives a view of the piping installed under the running boards and some of the appliances and piping installed on the belpaire firebox. Looked at my GN steam decals today and came to the conclusion that somebody was wrong on the sizes on the tenders. Suspect Mr. Bmann.
