weekend photo fun Nov 30 to Dec 2


Jerome, nice fleet you're building up. Tom, those demonstrators will look great with a little weathering. Jeffery, I managed to get one of those '53 Caddy and trailer combos too. They are pretty neat looking. Bob, I can tell you're a pro and I'm not. :) Steve, I can tell the drugs must be wearing off if you can do nice work like that. Those cardstock buildings are amazing. Josh, those palm trees will good outside that Mission style station when it's done.

Here's my contribution for the week. The Chamber of Commerce decided Hillside needed a snappy new welcome sign so the the street department boys are just putting on the finishing touches.

WelcometoHillsideSignMedium.jpg


A Southern freight led by F3 #4172 is just about to pass the new cotton fields on the outskirts of town.

CottonFieldMedium.jpg


P&N 638 finally got through the holiday traffic downtown with the empty carbon black hopper and is now returning to the yard on the sadly neglected P&N right of way, which is getting more weed grown with each passing month.

638onGradeMedium.jpg
 
Steve B--Looks like you've been busy, nice work
Wheeler1963---Good looking fleet your building
jbaakko---Station is looking good
Railphotog--Great pic
UP2CSX---Really liked the shot of P&N 638
mtrpls--Nice video

Nothing new here, folded layout up for holidays, just now getting back to it.
Heres a older shot I liked.
 
Thanks, Josh and R. (Dang, I forgot what the R. stands for again). I like shortline ROW's that look a little disreputable without having the ties completely sunk in the mud. Now, industrial spurs can be anything from well groomed to having the railhead surface just above the the ground level with flangeways in the dirt. They are fun to play with.

R., I hated those CF-7's when the Santa Fe first came up with them but they've grown on me over the years and I kind of like them now. Nice model.
 
Thought I might jump in here with some of my 0n30 stuff.

First up is my diesel switcher critter.She is based on a KATO NW2 with an scratchbuilt walkway and a new cab bashed from a Bachmann 0n30 steamer cab.
critter01.jpg


Secondly is a shorty (28'long) flat car made from an old TYCO flat car with a new wider deck and body mountted KADEE couplers.I probly have less than $5.00 invested in this car.
flat02.jpg
 
Joe, thanks. It's actually not hard to do.

First, for all the non-believers out there, you're looking at Bachmann E-Z track. I needed track on a grade high enough to separate the ROW for the street and the E-Z track is perfect for that. I sprayed the track with Floquil rail brown to cover up the horrid gray color of the E-Z track and give the ties a more prototypical look. I cleaned the rails and rail ends well with a Brite Boy before laying the tracks.

I used only one thing from Woodland Scenics. It's their "Foliage, Dark Green", part number F53. This is the stuff that comes in a mat and is very fine, not like the clump foliage you use for bigger bushes. I ripped pieces off the sides over a large piece of newspaper. I rolled the resulting strip into kind of a sausage shape and glued it to the shoulders using Aleene's Tacky Glue, which you can get at any craft store. It's like white glue but with better grip so things stay in place as soon as you press the foliage material in. I repeated this down both sides of the shoulders until they were covered.

When you're done, you'll have a pile of very fine clumps of foliage left in the newspaper from all the stuff that fell off while you were ripping your strips. Take this and spread it out between the rails and use a fine brush to get it between the ties with some covering about 20% of the ties. You don't need to cover many of the ties for a weedy look and covering too much of the roadbed will make it like the rails are running through a lawn, which is OK if you're modeling a "Streetcar Named Desire" but overkill for an operating railroad.

Once I had the fine foliage spread out the way I wanted it, I took some WS fine blended turf and ran some down the middle of the tracks to simulate a path through the weeds since people always seem to uses the tracks as a travel route in an urban area.

Run a freight car up and down the line a few times to make sure you haven't obstructed the flangeway and clean up any areas that are too tall or too thick. When everything looks good, treat it just like ballast. Spray it lightly with water mixed 50/50 with rubbing alcohol and get it wet without disturbing too much of the weeds. You have to do this a little more delicately than with rock ballast because the weeds will move around if they are sprayed to heavily. A few light passes with a spray bottle are better than one heavy pass. When it's all wetted down, use a dropper to apply a 50/50 mix of water and white glue to the roadbed. If it's wetted properly, all you have to do is apply it the middle of the track and the mixture will flow down the sides of the roadbed by capillary action.

When it's all dry, usually about a day, clean up the rail heads with a Brite Boy and run your train. You'll probably find a few spots that snag the coupler gladhand or where there needs to be some weeds removed from the flangeway area of the rails but you're basically done. It's easy to do and I think the result is pretty realistic.

BTW, I used the same WS Foliage F53 and some white acrylic paint to make the cotton field in the second picture I posted.
 
Card buildings here

did another tank for practice, the taller one turned out better than the first one, the top cover is tricky to get lined up and glued without it deforming some
10-08-07123.jpg


the yellow square will be the diesel depot
10-08-07122.jpg

and got a bit of vegetation growing in the brickwork as well
10-08-07125.jpg
 
My latest project (not finished yet) is painting an Athearn BB SD40-2 to look like a reasonable facsimile of KCS 666.

Yesterday I started with the undecorated loco and gave it a coat of the KCS gray paint.

P1010002-27.jpg


P1010004-15.jpg


As of 4:30 pm today I've gotten to this point.

P1010004-16.jpg


Yes, I know the herald is crooked. That will be corrected.

P1010001-30.jpg


There's still more to do.
 
Jim, thanks for the info.
Nothing much to show this week. I did some wireing but didn't think it was worth taking a picture of. I did get this SW out of storage for the first time in a few years. Runs like a top but something hapend to the hand rail!
DSC02667.jpg
 
So many great submissions, where shall I begin...?:rolleyes:

Steve - Looks like you been mighty busy on that new layout of yours - hope it's all modular since you're going down under in 6 mos. That retaining wall is fantastic, I'd never have known it's printed if you hadn't said so!

Bob, as usual you've submitted another 'knockout' photo. Even if I could afford the high caliber of camera and lenses you're using, it would probably take me forever to learn how to use them...

Jim, that's a great ground-level panoramic shot of your town. And I don't care what others may say, weeds are beautiful!:D

Phillip, nice shot of your up-and-coming layout.

Jeffrey, love that 'dusk' shot of those illuminated buildings! And that new KCS sd40-2 rocks, I never knew the Athearn BB versions had a fat hood - I thought that was only a problem on their GP7 and GP35? :confused:

Jerry, awesome work on that lauderomat - reminds of the days of my early adulthood when I'd be sitting and sweating in one of those places with a paperback novel!

John - looks like you're ready to have some fun with that new wireless system!

Chip - you're working too hard, man - you gotta get a hobby or somethin'...

Harold - haven't seen you 'round these parts in awhile, good to have you back. Great photo BTW, looks like that salesman has himself a 'captive market'!

Tom, those Baldwin demo sharks are purty! How well do they run? My LHS started carrying Bachmann stuff since he relocated, says they're "redeeming themselves" quite nicely with some of their latest offerings (including the sharks). I'll have to see what others say, but for the first time ever, I'm actually thinking I might try a Bachmann engine myself...

Jerome - quite a sizeable fleet of locos you're putting together there!

Josh - fine lookin' Asian palms! That Suydam depot looks exactly like the type one finds along the Santa Fe...

RW - your scene certainly has the flavour of a typical Okie right-of-way!

Cat - interesting project, so you're leap-frogging from N to O, eh?

Joe - looks like that switcher is ready for service!

(Hope I didn't miss anybody, if so it was unintentional)

Well, my humble offering for the week is an in-progress shot of my 2600 cu-ft covered hopper conversion project. I mixed as close a match as possible for the beige color that CSX paints their covered hoppers and sprayed on a few layers. After I did the first hopper (top left corner) I realized it was too dark so I lightened it a bit. Also applied a thin coat of gloss so I can apply the decals. Speaking of which: I prepared a homemade sheet using my favorite photo editor, adding the exact prototype numbers I plan to use (I loathe having to cut out single digits, ugh!). I got the decal sheet printed and ready for use. So, here's a view of the fruits of my weekend labors:

painted_cvd_hpprs_and_decals.jpg


The staggered red line on the decal sheet is one-inch segments that I use to calibrate the compression setting on my printer, and the stacks of C's are what I used to determine the height of the large CSX letters relative to the reporting marks in the prototype photos (they did not all use the same size, as you probably noticed...) Anyhoo, if I'm lucky I'll find the time during the week to apply those decals and have pix of the finished* products in time for next weekend's thread.

* Everything but the weathering, that is...
 
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Wow Ken, those cars are coming along!

I think your eyes are messing with you on Jeffrey's SD40-2. It's not a wide body at all, one key feature to tell is the cab. Wide bodies cab had a removable roof, normal body units have a completely removable cab.
 
jbaakko said:
Wow Ken, those cars are coming along!

I think your eyes are messing with you on Jeffrey's SD40-2. It's not a wide body at all, one key feature to tell is the cab. Wide bodies cab had a removable roof, normal body units have a completely removable cab.
Click to expand...

Actually Josh, I was referring to something Jim said a few pages back. I always thought they looked fine.
 
I'm sneakin' in late with a few quick photos of what I've been doing. First off. Ditto everything that Ken L said. Some great work as always!

I finally finished the rebuild of the wall at the far end of Hopewell Junction in front of the Yard lead. Ruined several of the sections cutting them. Ended up using 12 sections to get the 9 sections I needed.

WallReconstruction5w.png


I've been putting some finishing touches on the Caboose project. I didn't like the large open windows on the old kit so I made some window frames out of scale 2 x 2s CAed in place. Here they are before I painted them (otherwise some of you would wonder where they were....?).

CabooseDetail06w.png


After being painted to try to match the paint I used on the sides:

CabooseDetail07w.png


And one last one showing more of the interior details. The windows are still wet. They are made with the Testors Plastic Cement and Window Maker stuff. I like this material for making old time looking windows (1925).

CabooseDetail08w.png


Photos were taken on my workbench, hence all the junk in the scene...... Need to get the weathering and some other stuff finished on it this week as I plan to take it to a NMRA local meet next Saturday.
 
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Steve, those cardstock buildings never cease to amaze me. I've got to give some of them a try. That retaining wall looks as good as anything I've seen in plastic or plaster.

Jeffrey, I see you're coming along on that SD40-2. I do wish you'd try some decal paper though - the method you're using with the airmail paper is covering an awful lot of detail.

Johnathan, nice kitbashing to get that On30 switcher and flat car. Good work and it looks like you'll have more money in the budget than most On30 modelers when you're done.

Ken, nice work and paint on those covered hoppers. The decal sheet looks really good also. I like the way you used the the three "C"'s to get the CSX height right. What kind of printer are you using and what software?

Joe, is your engine a P2K SW 900/1200? I had exactly the same problem with the hood handrails on mine. I've taken them off and they are definitely warped and I don't know why. I have a P2K SW 800 and the handrails are fine. Yours is also not the first one of these I've seen with the warped handrail issue. I'm going to call Walthers tomorrow and see what they say about getting replacements.

Ray, neat job on the retaining walls. You only had to use 25% more of the material to get the results so you beat my usual 50% screw-up rate. :) The caboose is coming along nicely. I like the windows - they do look a lot better with the added mullions instead of just the one opening. Back then, I think all the cabooses were built with these sliding type windows so they could get some air in the caboose.

Josh, that was me that made the comment about the wide body on the SD40-2. I thought all the BB Athearn Geeps had a wider long hood than was prototype to accommodate the bigger motor. When did that practice end and with which models?
 
Jerome
Nice looking shells!

Jeffery
Cool car!

Bob
Thanks for the set-up shot!

SteveB
Looking good!

Josh
Nice work on the station!

Jim
Great shots! I really like the look of the right-of-way in the town!

R. Wilson
Nice loco!

Catt
Nice looking loco and flatcar!

SteveB
Nice shots!

Jeffery
Nice loco shots!

Joe
Cool loco!

Ken
It will be neat to see the decaled hoppers!

Ray
Nice caboose!
 
CSX_road_slug said:
Tom, those Baldwin demo sharks are purty! How well do they run? My LHS started carrying Bachmann stuff since he relocated, says they're "redeeming themselves" quite nicely with some of their latest offerings (including the sharks). I'll have to see what others say, but for the first time ever, I'm actually thinking I might try a Bachmann engine myself...
Click to expand...

Ken

I like them. They run quietly with no problems. I had them pulling a 24 car train with no problems. They are DCC equipped but run fine on my DC layout.

I am thinking about trying to get another set; maybe B&O this time. Also I am now seriously looking into getting an Spectrum Amtrak F40PH.
 
UP2CSX said:
Josh, that was me that made the comment about the wide body on the SD40-2. I thought all the BB Athearn Geeps had a wider long hood than was prototype to accommodate the bigger motor. When did that practice end and with which models?
Click to expand...
Of the EMD's only the GP35, SD45, SDP40, GP30, & GP7/9 were wide hood. The SD40-2 came in during the 70's along with the GSB SD40-2, and they had already adopted the narrower motor.
 
After posting my weeks work on here, I must say, there are some very talented people here!!! I've gotten lots of ideas just from looking at everyones work this week. Keep the pictures coming!!!!
 
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