Back In The Day

[2Tracks]

Welcome....the frame is painted, a top view.....

And a bottom view with coupler pockets pulled out......

Here's the instructions for coupler assembly,

And the parts.

I was thinking about the paint scheme for the car, (again, after I got the bunks painted) was wondering if the all black bunks were too much.

Here is a Rivarossi car labeled for Pacific Lumber, which is what my car will be labeled for. Internet pictures are largely modern skeleton cars, early cars are black & white photos. Anybody have an idea on how they might have been painted out of the shop, although I could see where they were painted at the whim of the shop/owner?

All black brake gear on my car isn't going to happen, (sounds like a good challenge for the next skeleton car build, I still have 2 more,) and I was thinking of painting the iron work on the end of the car and the truss rods black.
What are your thoughts on a paint scheme?

 

[Sirfoldalot]

JERRY - Could be that they were not painted? Just a "rusty" look.

 

[Iron Horseman]

I was thinking of painting the iron work on the end of the car and the truss rods black.
What are your thoughts on a paint scheme?

Black is always a good bet for iron work.
For the wood part I would guess a car like this might not have been painted at all, or just the brown or red oxide primer that I think the model's color is supposed to represent.

 

[2Tracks]

Greetings......'bout time to wrap this up......On the paint scheme, I'm going with Rivarossi car's scheme, well close. I'm not going to try painting the brake gear, truss rods will do for this build along with uprights & brake wheel.

The truss rods I managed to slip tissue paper (the wrapping kind) between the rods & frame.

I have a bit more on the coupler install, the pic below shows that you're to take the small nail (brad,) and drive it into the hole at the back of the couple pocket. Vertical arrows. Well, I didn't much care for that, especially if I need to work on the couplers later on, it just so happens that I had picked up a variety of small screws some time back, and there is one that fit this application. Horizontal arrow.

Without looking them up, I think I got these from MicroMark,

Couplers together, painting done, install bunks.

With this bunk configuration, I figured I'd number these cars in the 500 series. Not many places for decals here.....

Log load, of Kadee plastic logs. As mentioned above up there somewhere, there's tips on weathering the logs, I'm not going to get into that now, I would want to wait until I could do all three at the same time.

They are pretty accurate on looking like Ponderosa Pine logs, which was the predominate species logged with the railroads here in this country, but nothing looks like wood, like wood. So, the willow tree comes thru once again. When I was working for a log trucking outfit, we called this kind of bunk configuration, hayracks. They hauled the shorter pieces.....

They sure don't look like pine logs, but they look like wood!
Another view....

I will make chains & binders for this load, because they will be traveling on a foreign railroad, but again, I'll wait until the other cars are built before I do that.
Until next time.......take care!

 

[2Tracks]

Hello everyone, time for another "Back In The Day"
The wife of that buddy of mine that died last fall came across a stash of stuff in a back closet. Including this pack of diy rail.

63 pieces is an interesting number. Code 100 brass. There are 37 left in the tube. Neat tube, the cap is missing....

 

[2Tracks]

More in the stash......Now this IS, back in the day! I've seen this talked about recently in the last several months on various forums. This is the track I started out with when I acquired my first bit of railroad goodies....(mid 60's )
Atlas fiber flex track with staples......

 

[2Tracks]

There is a box in the stash that has some N stuff in it, including this Micro Trains case....

Why I brought this up, is the address on the label... I got the coupler pack a couple of years ago when I "picked" a hobby store.

It's not particularly that long ago, but mainly for a little history lesson...
Kadee moved up from southern Cal. and they landed at 720 S. Grape St. in Medford Ore.
In 1992, they made the move to White city. At that time is when Micro Trains split off of Kadee, part of the family taking Micro Trains, another part taking Kadee.
Right now, getting materials for manufacturing is not such an issue, it's getting personal to operate machinery.....

 

[2Tracks]

Back in the day joiners came in a cardboard box. These are brass.

All for the price of......

And insulated joiners.....

All to hook up your new switch with, well back in 1968 it was new..... This was in the batch of stuff I got with the train set back in the 1960's. (It's still in the box )

 

[2Tracks]

When you laid flex track back in the day, one of your options for holding it down was spikes. The box on the right is the one I got so many decades ago, & the one on the left was in Al's stuff. I've got a few thousand spikes now!

Here is 'ol Joe (HO) and his spikes...the big ones are Varney, the small ones Walthers, what I'm using on the Shinohara track. The Varney spikes worked really well in the vintage flex track. (Above)

Here are a couple of track gauges (HO) that you might have used in building your own track back in the day. I have no idea if these were the only thing available or not, they were in the Al stuff. They are .005" thick...I think I like the pill bottle best....

 

[2Tracks]

I have some paper work for a little "back in the day" today. The deceased buddy's wife came across some more stuff...some N cars, track & this pamphlet....

As this came out when I was a junior in high school, I'll give it a "back in the day," not quite ready to call it vintage just yet!
(date on this page)

Break out the 4X8 sheet of plywood..... Linn Westcott looking pretty young there........ & he likes diesels

Cost, certainly an important factor...check out the first two lines....
And will ya look at that...an F unit....
Interesting that the F unit appears to have knuckle couplers & the other two cars have horn hooks.

And size is important!...Right?

More later....

 

[2Tracks]

Then there is this guys place, he has five layouts, plus one in a briefcase! How neat is that? Oh, ok ,where to locate my railroad...

Selecting a track plan......

 

[GuilfordRailman]

Then there is this guys place, he has five layouts, plus one in a briefcase! How neat is that? Oh, ok ,where to locate my railroad...

View attachment 144685

Selecting a track plan......
View attachment 144686

Gotta have the briefcase layout for sure!!!

 

[Snowman]

More in the stash......Now this IS, back in the day! I've seen this talked about recently in the last several months on various forums. This is the track I started out with when I acquired my first bit of railroad goodies....(mid 60's )
Atlas fiber flex track with staples......
View attachment 144012
View attachment 144013

Yeah, dad had some of that. It's a flex track, but it holds its position after being bent.

 

[Boris]

My favorite "old timey" hint was a from a late 50's Kalmbach book that advised mixing asbestos shorts with your plaster to make your scenery hardshell stronger.

Yeah, Based on that book, I actually used Asbestos Furnace plaster for model railroad scenery. Actually had a good effect once dry and painted.
That was before we knew what we were working with. Bought a bag at the neighborhood hardware store. The author was featured on the cover, smoking a pipe, as I recall.Wish I still had the book.

 

[2Tracks]

With a Z layout in the brief case, we need a power source.

Check out this dual power source....3.5 amps worth.
The one on the right is apparently the smallest you could get.... idk

Here is mine that I still have from my original HO acquisition in the mid/late 60's.

I don't recall why a power pack wasn't with the train set when I got it, but I do remember getting this power pack. I saved up the money from returning bottles. My two choices for taking back bottles were beer "stubbies" and soda bottles. The stubbies were one or two cents, the soda bottles, three cents? I don't remember.

 

[Iron Horseman]

With a Z layout in the brief case, we need a power source.

All of those are WAY to much power for a Z layout.

Here is mine that I still have from my original HO acquisition in the mid/late 60's.
View attachment 144854

I got mine in the mid 1960s. I was in 4th grade and Christmas brought it and a new locomotive. My very first not "hand me down" locomotive. It replaced an old thing with a slider throttle that I don't know how we didn't burn the house down or get electrocuted from. Several years later I modified mine with a third switch to put it into "plus" power mode. When I switched to N-scale in 1969 I think it didn't have the fine control needed for slow speed on the smaller motors, so I used the small things that came in the N-scale sets. Today I can smell the burning magnet wire coils when I run it. Probably happened when I was using it for a power supply for a foam cutter. Basically a short circuit to get a wire hot.

 

[2Tracks]

2Tracks said:
With a Z layout in the brief case, we need a power source.

All of those are WAY to much power for a Z layout.

I need to proof read better. What I should have said, was...
With the Z layout in the brief case, we need a way to power all these layouts,
(picture)

 

[2Tracks]

Some basic bench work to get started.....

Tools you might need for your modeling adventure.
The large flat file is interesting, I'm having a hard time coming up with when I needed one of those for the layout.........

Some Q & A's........

And if your fairly new to model railroading, some terms you should know......

 

[Patrick]

I missed this thread for a bit.

I've had (and still may have) some of the fiber flex with the staples. Up or downside of buying stuff from estate sales and so forth. I may still have a couple of the old 402 MRC AMPACK controllers hanging in a box of stuff.

 

[Iron Horseman]

Some basic bench work to get started.....

I never understood this books use of L-girder/joists type benchwork AND plywood. Why go to all the trouble of building an L-girder bench and then ruining its purpose by putting a sheet of plywood over it?