I am working on a new project this week, and it's NP of course. The Northern Pacific GSI 53' Bulkhead Flatcar. Modeled as built by NP using General Steel Industries cast steel underframe and end posts. Inside Length is 48'6" between the bulkheads: NP extended the end posts from the 8'6" standard to 10'0" for this series car from the series numbered 67135-67174. It was designed for carrying up to 70 ton shipments of wallboard: GSI offered a line of cast steel car parts that were popular with many railroad's car shops. GSI also built the complete cars for the railroads too. -Robert
It's funny how we bring more work upon ourselves! Robert, you have done it again. Managed to show what superb talent you have making Spectacular Creations as such. Awesome! The pride we get from hearing others praise our creations is enough to drive us to build more, and more, and more. The bad thing is everyone wants one, or two, or even more too. Damn that work load! :lightning: We do it to ourselves though! Awesome Bulkhead Flat Car! I know you are just showing the general "Z" public one of your newest personal creations. I also know, from our phone conversation, that your home laser model railroad business workload is booked for at least the next 3-6 months (and have no spare time for other extra's), so I will be a good fellow "Z" scaler and not ask when can I have some or when will you be making these in kits for sale. When ever you have the time to make these in a kit form, I will inquire at that time. I hope all others will follow my lead. Again, very Awesome Flat Car! Hobo Tim
Awesome Bulkhead Flat Car! I know you are just showing the general "Z" public one of your newest personal creations. I also know, from our phone conversation, that your home laser model railroad business workload is booked for at least the next 3-6 months (and have no spare time for other extra's), so I will be a good fellow "Z" scaler and not ask when can I have some or when will you be making these in kits for sale. When ever you have the time to make these in a kit form, I will inquire at that time. I hope all others will follow my lead. --------- Maybe Anthony will place an order for "500" so we don't have to bug Robert. ...don
NP GSI 53' Flatcar Here is the GSI car without bulkheads: You can see that I added bolt holes for the deck boards on this unit, and you can see the bolt pattern for the cast steel underframe as it bows in the center of the car: And it's got slightly different lettering for the different car series, the 70 ton general purpose flat. Could use some weathering:
OK I really really really want a flatcar. Man those are great. I'm off all next week, I could fly to Cali and help ; ) drool drool
As always, amazing work Robert! Not only does it look good, but it looks like it has been in service as well! Very nice.
OK, robert, if you're going to commit to showing them, then you've gotta commit to selling them. your pictures are so good we don't need to wait for instructions. what will you charge for sending some "beta test" cut sheets on to us? our risk (our benefit too!!!). what do you say? we'll even wait for decals, unless you want to throw something in that even just sorta works! (begging like a dog ... but in a manly sort of way trying to look cool doing it) ... dave f.
Great work as usual Chris. You should send that picture into MR because that section of trackwork could be one the best I've seen in Z. Well done!
Thanks guys, I changed the photo above to what I think is a better one. Old photo was taken with a new 5mp point and shoot, this is taken with my old 2mp. At least with it I can control the shutter. It will have to do until I save up $800 for a real camera. I'll add that these flatcars are excellent and track very well. There is a piece of sheet lead sandwiched into the layers of the frame. Oh, also don't forget that up to now this car was unavailable in Z scale! Another photo here: http://zcentralstation.com/modules/xcgal/albums/userpics/10120/dscn0097.jpg
It's not the MP, it's the camera. Having control (shutter, aperature, manual or spot focus, exposure lock) are most helpful. For websites, I shoot pure 640x480 on a 2MP as taking an 8MP image and then reprocessing it down to 640x480 is a complete waste of memory and the results, no matter what algorithm is used, still looses a LOT of detail. My Panasonic has a 12x image stabilzed zoom, great for hand-helds but a tripod always gets the subject in focus. Lighting is usually the worst issue and some cameras just do not like what they see.
Jeff, Yes the control was way better with my old Coolpix950. I have replaced a bunch of parts inside the camera, but it is more than worth the $45 bucks I paid on E-bay for it. Now I have a Nikon L3. I bought it because the coolpix doesn't like batteries at all. I take model photos with the AC cord. Any ideas for a cheap(er) camera that has more control? Thanks
Haven't looked at models since last year so can't say for sure. Problem is anything new is 5MP+ but have HUGE screens so you have half a clue that the shot was in focus.
