A new beginning...JRs UPRR.


Hi James,

Nice work on the layout! I was wondering what to do with the window in my room. I see you covered yours with plywood, is the back side painted or have you fully figured out how to handle it?

I am thinking about possibly a temporary removable cover...
 
Good morning Alco,
Most importantly is I am glad you are on the mend!
What may I ask is the significance of the timken boxcars, I have heard of timken bearings, are they just a better quality more rare type of car ?
Gary

Timken bearings have been used since the dawn of US railroads on the cars and steam engines. Today that remains true for the rolling stock/cars and the diesel engines. Not to mention the thousand other applications cars/automobiles etc.

Here is the link:



The Beginning
In 1890s, Henry Timken, a carriage maker in St. Louis, Missouri, recognized that heavy freight wagons had a difficult time making sharp turns. To solve the problem, he applied a tapered roller bearing design that could handle both radial (weight) and thrust (cornering force) loads. The results were encouraging and provided several customer benefits. First, the application ran more smoothly, reducing repair and replacement costs. In some cases, the bearings improved wagon performance so much that fewer mules were required to pull them. Finally, better cornering meant less chance of losing a load of goods. Always focused on customer benefits, Henry quickly realized that the tapered roller bearing could improve product performance in many other applications as well. Henry and his sons, H.H. and William, founded The Timken Roller Bearing and Axle Company in 1899, building the foundation for a global enterprise that today helps keep the world in motion.

Throughout the years, Timken has contributed to customer success through a clear vision, industrial focus, advanced processes and global growth. Following are key examples of how Timken has moved global industries forward since 1899.


Also:



The first locomotive to use roller bearings made by Timken was Timken 1111, a 4-8-4 built by Alco in 1930. The locomotive was used on 15 American railroads for demonstration runs, and was purchased by the Northern Pacific Railroad, the last railroad to try the specially-built locomotive, in 1933. It operated in regular service on the NP until retirement in 1957 and was subsequently scrapped.


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As for the boxcars that I acquire, I buy them when I find a different color scheme or road number I just love having them and well there is not any or rather very rare pictures of any of the cars proto type wise. They did have a few billboard boxcars but again history and information on them are slim. I have found a video of a proto type gondola on YouTube at one of their plant locations. Even Timken switchers.

See here: You will see the switcher at the 8 minute mark and the gondolas. Notice the wheelsets on the gondolas. They are like passenger car wheels. These gondolas took a beating on the scrap metal.

 
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Hi James,

Nice work on the layout! I was wondering what to do with the window in my room. I see you covered yours with plywood, is the back side painted or have you fully figured out how to handle it?

I am thinking about possibly a temporary removable cover...


I am still on the fence about this situation.

Currently what you see in the pictures is basically a piece of Birchwood veneer. I have not painted any of the sides yet. If I do I would primer 2 coats both sides white. Then the interior layout side would be the sky blue paint color.

My issue is I don't like this application. I am looking at using the thinnest foam board and replacing the Birchwood veneer.

One reason is this wall faces the west. So when the sunsets. I want to insulate/reflect heat away from the layout. The wood would absorb the heat etc.

2nd reason the foam is lighter and easier to paint with out having to primer etc.

I will post an update when I do it. I am also going to revise that area so the foam board back drop will extend left to right past the window jamb molding. I do not intend to paint the molding blue it will remain white so the will be covered by the foam board as the board will be in front of it flush.

Peace
 
I know that ACF built one car for Timken in 1943, a 1937 AAR 40' Boxcar, in the table supplied there was no indication what kind of truck was applied to the boxcar and no number was give, just that it went to Timken with TRBX as the owner.

Here's a picture of one of the cars....

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The Santa Fe was the first company to have roller bearing trucks made by Timken under their passenger cars, much to the delight of their passengers, and the bottom line for the company. Timken commissioned the construction of a demonstration boxcar in 1943 that was first displayed at the 1948 Chicago Rail Fair. It was a rolling advertisement for a new way of reducing friction - roller bearings (made by the Timken Roller Bearing Company). The car's trucks lacked the then common axle journal boxes, with the bearings mounted on the ends of the axles outside the wheels.
 
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In my research just to share, there have been only 4 different paint schemes of the promotional Timken "billboard" boxcars. 5 if you include the one I posted above as that one was the only one done with the Santa Fe Logo and SFRR map.

1st scheme was Yellow with the white stripe with different roof color variations from black, silver and blue.

2nd scheme was the silver and blue stripe with silver roof.

3rd scheme was the red and white stripe with red roof.

4th scheme was the entire boxcar was orange no stripe but had the Roller Freight logo on it etc. Also all black lettering. Very rare and hard to find. I actual have seen only one picture of this.

5th one was a demo with the SF RR as posted above.

So anyways I can only say I just love these cars for the history and the elusiveness on finding pictures and other information on these cars. I know there someone out there that has a cache full of pictures. Someday it will get out. I am surprised that the Timken company doesn't share this information. I have a lots of pictures of their plant switchers and gondolas etc. but very very few boxcar pictures.

I have 3 of the color schemes. 1 (all 3 different roof colors), 2 and 3. All HO scale of course. I am not aware that any manufacturer made the 4th scheme in orange except for Lionel in O gauge. It is possible Lionel ran some in HO scale but I have not found any. All of my HO scale manufacturers vary from Athearn (of many different era of productions), Bev-Bel, Lionel and Model Power. I do not care for the release of Model Power as it is more toy like.
 
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Well Wyatt & Doc got a call for the much waited and anticipated delivery of the new short line locomotive that will handle the southern interchange deliveries for the "Bay Line". The #507 GP-39-2 non turbo EMD will be working specifically on it's own to handle this work until later in the future the RS-1 project is complete where they will share those duties together. In the mean time there may be a UP loco assisting this #507 GP-39-2 as needed.

The boys gave a look over and picked out few things that will need to be done in the UP diesel shop. We will need to install a decoder and LEDs. Not much else is needed other than add/replacing the couplers. The motor runs pretty good although we will hardwire the pick-up feeds and the frame/motor etc.

#507 is a solid runner not much growling as the gears have been replaced by the previous owner. It's a nice addition to the stable. Wyatt & Doc approve.

Here she is showing off a bit.

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James....the first three color schemes, were they produced all at once, one after the other? Do you have a date range for each scheme?
 
James....the first three color schemes, were they produced all at once, one after the other? Do you have a date range for each scheme?

Are you speaking of the Timken cars?

They were released about a year to 2 years apart. I am working on finding out the historical timeline. I have talked to a few people on getting more info on this. As I am enjoying this history venture. I am hoping to find more prototypical pictures of the era of these cars when they were used and produced. It's a challenge. It's like a serious treasure hunt. It's really funny though because the advertisements are so abundant yet the prototypical photos are hard to find. I have to research with people who have worked or lived in the areas where Timken manufacturing is located in Ohio and other areas. Also most people do not know this Timken is also known for Timken Steel not just bearings and bearing assemblies. So yes they manufactured steel for some time in their history. An all American company! The research is intriguing.


EDITED FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Here is a great read a bit long but very interesting on the impact of RR.

 
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Refer back to this image......James that is some cool stuff.....You know of course once you put this out there, people are going to be looking at it...😁😁
Soooo...what I found are quite a few box cars & a tank car on line. In the image above, besides the box & tank car, there is an open top hopper. How cool to have a small fleet of those guys! Is there hopper cars out there?
What are the trucks/axles like on the cars you have? Do they look like the ones in the image?
Jerry
 
Refer back to this image......James that is some cool stuff.....You know of course once you put this out there, people are going to be looking at it...😁😁
Soooo...what I found are quite a few box cars & a tank car on line. In the image above, besides the box & tank car, there is an open top hopper. How cool to have a small fleet of those guys! Is there hopper cars out there?
What are the trucks/axles like on the cars you have? Do they look like the ones in the image?
Jerry


Jerry,

Unfortunately HO scale only has the boxcars and tank cars. O gauge on the other hand has just about everything. Tank cars, hoppers, gondolas, boxcars etc.

As for the trucks....the older Athearns that have the metal kits have the correct trucks as the tank cars do as well.

The "newer" boxcars Blue Box Athearns do not. Even the Bev-Bel kits do not.

I may make in the future once I am set up with a paint booth do my own gondolas and hoppers as they do not exist in HO scale as far as I know.

As far as drawing attention to these cars I am good with it. All fair game I got most of what I am looking for....just picking up a few scragglers along the way. ;)
 



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