Weekend Photo fun 10/11/12 October 2008


Mike,
I like you graffitti. I would weather it a little. The only thing I would do diffrent is make the lines not so straight and not so perfect, maybe a few drips or something. As far as it being to far up, there is a prototype for just about everything.
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KP&W grain hopper 28755 trailing Gilbert Grains (NARA 5654) heading to the Gilbert Grains elevator on the GVR.

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KP&W 28755 is an Accurail 3 bay ACF hopper,NARA 5654 is a TYCO/Athearn PS2 covered hopper.
 
Smoke, making the switch to Sergents? :D

Some more recent work. I've spent my weekend decaling, and building both a Cannon & Co. Cab kit, and two La Belle wood passenger cars. Here's the results of decaling.

UP 5699, one of the first ES44AC's (C45AC-CTE) delivered to UP. This unit, along with its 5 brethren were delivered with Full AC4400CW internals, and a Dash9/AC4400 style exhaust. These have since been switched out, and all 5 have been "yellow striped" (which I have yet to add). Notice the un-level numbering, I slightly exaggerated it for modeling purposes, however, the prototype IS un-level!
View attachment 10914
View attachment 10915

UP 2227, Proto 2000 SD60 I got for pennies on the dollar (Noticed the damaged ladder well), patched. I original picked 2226, however, due to my choice of modeling era's (always modern), It would be outdated, as I found a picture of it repainted, with a lightning stripe. 2227 was my next best pick, as it has a ghosted out "Q" (some quality thing UP did for a short time) on either side of the cab, and Microscale's decal pack has these decal in 2 parts, making the modeling of the ghosted "Q" easy.
View attachment 10916
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UP 2236, another SD60 I got cheap. This unit still has its "We Will Deliver" slogan, as far as I could tell, so it was prime for the picking, considering the SD60's I got had the slogan. #2227 in the prior post will have its slogan removed.
View attachment 10918

BNSF 3642 is an Athearn BlueBox SW1000, that I'm working on. It still needs to be patched. Side frames are Smokey Valley exposed bearing. Handrails will also be Smokey Valley.
View attachment 10919

KCS 722, P2K SD60, the third of 3 cheap SD60's I got. My first KCS unit too!
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Nice work on those locomotives, Josh. I actually saw the 5699 in person once and thought that the paint shop had made an error in applying the numbers since they were tilted down like your model. Pretty good eye to catch that.

Johnathan, nice covered hoppers. I need to get me some more of those since my entire roster consists of only two grain cars.

Mike, very ingenious way to come up with masks for your grafitti. The overall effect is really good. I agree with Mike it needs to be a littles less neat with some runs and drips. Remember, these "artists" are trying complete their work before the police catch them.

Nice WP consist, Dieselfan. I always liked that color scheme on the WP F's. It's too bad the picture is so blurry - makes it hard to see how really nice they look.

Crandell, nice crane and nice scene, including the digital additions.

MLW, very impressive job on those scratchbuilt signals. The dwarfs came out really nice. With a ladder, platform, and number plate, those searchlight signals will look as good as any of the commercial signals I've seen.
 
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jbaakko said:
Smoke, making the switch to Sergents? :D
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Josh, Just testing them out, but I like them. I don't have all that much equipment yet so I have to decide which way I want to go Kadee or Sergent. I am leaning sergent at this point, but will always have kadee's on hand in case I want to operate with somebody else.


This week I added safety striping and fuel spills to finish off my 8-40C that I have been working on.
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-Smoke
 
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Smoke said:
Josh, Just testing them out, but I like them. I don't have all that much equipment yet so I have to decide which way I want to go Kadee or Sergent. I am leaning sergent at this point, but will always have kadee's on hand in case I want to operate with somebody else.

-Smoke
Click to expand...

Sergents are great for shelf models, but not practical for operating sessions. They are by far the greatest-looking coupler I've ever seen - virtually a clone of the prototype - but I feel their use in model railroading should not be an accepted practice; it is an environment where practically 99.99999% of modelers are using Kadee-compatible couplers.
 
mtrpls said:
Sergents are great for shelf models, but not practical for operating sessions. They are by far the greatest-looking coupler I've ever seen - virtually a clone of the prototype - but I feel their use in model railroading should not be an accepted practice; it is an environment where practically 99.99999% of modelers are using Kadee-compatible couplers.
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Which the Sergent couplers are not.
 
I would say the trend is the opposite, more and more modelers are using Sergents. I know at least three modelers using them. Everything else in the hobby is moving toward more realism, couplers should not be the exception.
 
mtrpls said:
Sergents are great for shelf models, but not practical for operating sessions. They are by far the greatest-looking coupler I've ever seen - virtually a clone of the prototype - but I feel their use in model railroading should not be an accepted practice; it is an environment where practically 99.99999% of modelers are using Kadee-compatible couplers.
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**Rant begin**
Honestly, I feel what you're saying, but I myself feel Sergent's are better then sliced bread. They look like, & operate similarly to the prototype. The argument that they're too manual is retarded, are we that lazy that we no longer want to uncouple manually? Yes, they are NOT cross compatible, so club layout use is kind of a no-no. However, who's to say you could no carry one simple piece of rolling stock with a Kadee #58 on one end and a Sergent on the other? People did this when Kadee came around!

Honestly, I think you saying they should not be an accepted practice is biased, and should be refrained from, as you theoretically also categorize X2F and hook & Loop in the same concept then. Yes, you are entitled to that opinion, but maybe you could state it better. As far as I can see, its about ~75% Kadee style, ~18% Sergent, and ~5% X2F, ~2% Hook & Loop. Stating that 99.99999% use knuckles is way way to biased, if I stated what I saw, not what I assume, I'd have to say 50% are Sergents!! I'm seeing them everywhere!
**Rant over**
 
That's all well and good but I don't see them anywhere where I am. The LHS doesn't stock them and most of the modelers I talk to in this area won't touch them. The push with Kadee couplers was to get away from manually uncoupling cars and have the process be as automatic as possible.
 
*Just to be clear*
I'm not saying that Sergent's are the answer for everyone. However, I am saying that Kadee's are not the answer for everyone.

I understand that there will always be people who feel one way or the other.
 
Well I am a firm believer that all of our model rolling stock should be universal, just like virtually every railcar in North America can couple with one another. As far as HO scale goes, we use the same width of track, the same 1:87 specifications for many details (excluding couplers), so why should we not have a universal coupler? Kadee is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to this - as a point, manufacturers such as Bacmann (EZ Mate), McHenry, Kato, Accurail and others have made CERTAIN their couplers are Kadee-compatible. Sergents will never go anywhere, because they are the fringe and will never supplant a Kadee-compatible coupler in the marketplace. It's wishful thinking, but the standard has already been set. That being said, Sergents look much better than Kadees, no doubt about it. That makes them great for shelf models :)
 
I don't really want to play with a coupler...since I don't care what is in-between the cars. Now, would I put a Seargent on the point and rear of a train??? You bet! They look nice, and I don't have to fool (IMO) around with too much manual operation.

However, if they are only good for Shelf Models, why buy a more expensive coupler for just display? If you were going to do that, you need to get some of those look-a-like dummy couplers (like I did) for the shelf models.

Now, personally, about 98% of my rolling equipment has Kadees. No horn-hooks, but the rest (well, really not that many) have Seargents. Now, yes. If one was going to have a operating session, or something similar, go for it. They give it a realistic appearance and feel. However, in everyday train running (What I do) I just want the train to run, and keep running, without my assistance for the couplers. They are good for a person who really wants the true feel of running a railroad.

Will I buy more Seargents? I don't know yet....:confused:

Phil
 
But... Ahh heck, I got my point across previously.

In any case, I'll upload to next weekend's WPF shots of my La Belle wood kit with Sergent EN87's in Accurail P:87 coupler boxes.
 
I'd love to see it Josh.

I've got a LaBelle CMSTP Boxcar that was built by none other than Francis J. Wiener, and Seargents would look great on it. The way it's weathered, it has really seen it's days. It's my favorite freight car.

A while back (a few years) I started on a Proto:87 based diorama with the boxcar, and a section of track (Code 55, split in sections with rail joiners) that I never finished. Again, I'll see what I can dig up.

Here's the car on the forgotten siding...

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Phil
 
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