The South Park Line

Handlaying vs. Prefrab

2011-12-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

As my birthday and Christmas approached, I decided to place a few items on my list for the hoped for layout construction next summer (should our home finally sell). I decided to do some cost calculations to compare my options.

With the South Park, this was never an option. Precision Scale's flex track, if it is obtainable, is expensive. The only question for me was whether to use the aesthetically pleasing Code 70 rail or the more durable Code 83. I've read enough/heard enough frustration from other modelers about Code 70 in On3 (and Code 55 in HOn3) to be cautious about them. Regardless, I had no plans to run the heavy Rio Grande 2-8-2s which seemed to be the primary destroyers of small rail.

But, the Oahu Railway had very heavy rail. With 80-90lb rail, Code 100 is actually a little on the light side! I'll definitely use this on the double track main and probably beyond. I'll use Code 83 and maybe some Code 70 for the yards, docks, and sidings.

So, what is the best choice, San Juan Car Co's flex track or hand laying? By my calculations, SJCC track is $1.83 per foot while my preferred method of handlaying is $3.60-$3.80. Ouch. But, the Oahu Railway used 7' and longer ties...while the SJCC track has only 6' ties. Additionally, it has tie plates and only spikes on every third tie (if I'm reading their descriptions correctly). Therefore, in order to make an apples-to-apples comparison, I need to reduce the cost of spikes on my handlaying...and while that dropped the cost to around $2.50 per foot, it still wasn't too competitive with SJCC flex track when I consider the amount of track I intend to lay. But the clincher is that the 6' ties are shorter than anything that was used on the Oahu Railway. For the empire of my dreams, it will make a difference greater than $1000, but the hit will be spread out over more than a decade and I don't want to lower the prototypical accuracy of my track to purchase one or two additional brass locomotives.

My solution is to use Micro Engineering Code 100 rail on 7' Mt. Albert ties with either ME or Proto:87 oversize spikes for the mainline. I'll use SJCC flex track for staging and helixes(my top track plan has two). My secondary lines will use smaller rail both for appearance and cost. In some places, I'll substitute SG ties as the OR&L used them. I won't lay Code 70 on any sidings that will be likely to be visited by the 2-8-2s (sisters to the K-28s) or, someday, the big shays (sisters to WSL #8 & #9). Someday, I'll have at least a DSP&P diorama with Code 70 rail.

Previously, I loved the look of ME Micro spikes, but I didn't like their blunt ends. I'd rather pay 50% more and get the pointed end spikes from the Proto:87 store. I'll probably use the longer variety every few ties and fill in the short ones on every tie in between.

For detailing, I'll use Grandt Line fishplates with notches in the tops of the rail every 33' or 39' scale. I'm currently in the process of figuring out the rail length from photos. Logic says that they shouldn't be more than 29' or 33' (the OR&L's flatcars were 30' and 34').

For projects, I'm again working on the Montezuma in 1:20.3 scale for my son. With weight added, she run's like a champ and now has both a spiffy diamond stack and a sharp cab. I also re-wired an old, battery powered 1988 Bachmann Big Hauler for track power and we picked up a G scale "Percy & Troublesome Trucks" trainset for Christmas this year.

I hope to resume working on my OR&L #36 bash after Christmas as well as decal artwork for my passenger cars. After #36 is in service, I'll either build #35 or an 0-6-0...#9 or #12. Artwork for locomotive decals will be next on my list as well.

Why John Allen didn't have kids

2011-09-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

I've always loved, as have so many other model railroaders, the work of John Allen. But, I can now understand why so few modelers can even dream of such a masterpiece as his layout...because most have kids!

In the past week, Liam has outgrown his crib and received a big boy bed. He celebrated by using a chair as a ladder to unlock the door to our loft and get out a number of my locomotives (4 On3 plus some HO) twice last week...I've removed the door knob. He then learned to make his way to the basement and find the cabinet with most of my HO stuff...of course he found my favorite brass NKP Hudson! This evening, he found the place I hide my On3 models...and damaged my scratch built waycar. Do I need to mention that he also ripped the circuit board out of his OO scale Thomas the Tank Engine? I spend quite a bit of time rewiring it today. At least Madeline is limited to only going after what is left within 2 feet of the floor...

I've got the stock car conversion ready for the paint shop, along with my father's SUF stockcar which I've finished (brake rigging excluded). I made a point to vary the hardware a little bit on each car to represent the variations which existed in the C&S fleet (for example, the fancier as-built style middle corner braces on one of the cars).

Additionally, my C&S caboose is ready for its paint, my SUF stockcar is ready for touch-ups after some repairs/modifications, and my first scratchbuilt boxcar has received her new undercoats of weathering paint.

Trainfestival 2011 - Rock Island

2011-07-25T16:14:00.000-07:00

Trainfestival 2011 was an enjoyable experience. The 765 was there, the two Chinese built QJ 2-10-2s, Viscose #6, the Grambling family's TWO tank engines, the magnificent Leviathan, the 1936 Nebraska Zephyr, and a variety of diesels (including a pre-war E-5 on the Zephyr).

For our drive up, we stopped briefly at the NKP 2-8-2 in Bloomington, IL.

She's essentially a USRA copy built by Lima in the 1920s. Ray B. has built some gorgeous models of these engines in HO.

We attempted to catch 765 on the return leg of her day long excursion, but she was moving at track speed for much of it and we didn't catch here until she pulled into Moline alongside us as we sat at a stop light!

The way it worked out (having my toddler along but not my wife), I didn't get many good photos...this is the closest thing to a side view of the Leviathan:

Leviathan did make at least one fine demonstration run...1000'+

There were 2 hour and day long excursions

The steam engines took turns pulling the 2 hour trips, with an Iowa Interstate RR GP on the rear end. This one had an Iowa Interstate 2-10-2.

It backed up to the Rock Island yard in Rock Island, IL and then ran across the bridge to the Rock Island, past the arsenal, and then across the 1890s bridge into Davenport. The passenger cars for this were from the Iowa Interstate RR and Mid America Car Leasing...heavy enough for a nice show on the 1% grade.

The older of the two QJs...1985! The younger one is from 1986! While the design is older than the 765 (a Russian version of an American design, iirc), you can tell that it is newer in the details. Additionally, the engineer sits on the wrong side and the controls are a little different. Neat engines.

In addition to the trains, there was a river boat for cruises on the Mississippi.

That's the Burlington's bridge closing after our boat for the 2:30 crew change.

Among the most intriguing "toys" at the festival were these 100-107 year old amusement park locomotives, Cagneys.

They've been restored and Wasatch is offering new ones.

The actual trains were located in a Burlington yard. The festival portion was at a beautiful city park next door.

There were a few nice diesels as well (it is rare for me to refer to a diesel as "nice")

This beautiful SW-7 wore different slogans on each of her sides...gorgeous...and was used for some real switching on one of the mornings.

The C&NW F-unit couldn't compete with her fellow Illinois Railway Museum sisters for cosmetic appeal.

I particularly enjoyed the contrast of the Burlington E-5 parked alongside the modern 4400 HP BNSF diesel (thank you BNSF for helping make this happen and for providing a display diesel!). The technology gap between the Leviathan and the NKP Berks is about the same as the gap between these diesels.

On the ride home, we stopped in Galesburg for the Burlington 4-6-4.

I remember seeing that engine from an Amtrak train when I was 5 years old...on my way to Como, Breckenridge, and Alpine Tunnel.

As much as I love steam...the class of the show was the 1936 Nebraska Zephyr

Not the 1940ish diesel, but the passenger cars!

What an unusual vestibule!

And the unique ceiling in the car...sort of the opposite of a clerestory!

The kitchen, which was being used to prepare diner for the night, was still authentic with charcoal stoves and a working ice box! The resemblance to the galley of the 1939 Pullman/NYC 6 BR-Buffet-Lounge car my father used to own was uncanny (but this was about 3x the size); surprisingly, the Zephyr wasn't anywhere near as ornate).

One of my co-workers made rode the Zephyr on its all-day excursion and still managed to pull off the 7+ hour drive home last night. I'd like to get up to IRM to ride it as well.

What a neat train!

Not dead

2011-07-25T15:58:00.000-07:00

I'm not dead...I've just been severely hampered by selling our house and finding a new one...as well as working long hours at work and teaching two halflings to love trains.

I've done a few odds and ends in recent months, but my time has been too limited to photograph it or blog about it. The major project has been converting a Grandt Line C&S SUF stockcar I received for Christmas into a truss rod car.

http://www.grandtline.com/model_railroad/rolling_stock_and_locos.htm

There are a few hardware modifications needed for this, as well as a new roof and a new frame. The 1907-8 C&S freight cars were built with Betterndorf hardware (not just the trucks). The 1909-1910 cars were similar, but had steel underframes (SUF) rather than heavier wood frames with truss rods. The earlier C&S cars were different animals, despite many of these cars being indistinguishable to the untrained eye (such as the surviving C&S stockcar at the Colorado Railroad Museum).

This shows the partially completed brake rigging with the new frame, truss rods, and trucks with modified brake beams (to be free rolling and allow the trucks to be removed without removing the brake beams from them).

The interior of the car and the underside of the new roof (probably wrong...as I suspect that they were actually internal Murphy Roofs rather than wood). Like the frame, it is all styrene.

The top view of the roof.

A view showing a few of the minor variations I've made from the instructions and modifications to the kit. The wood frame is made from noticeably heavier timbers than those used with a SUF car. A noticeable change is the modification to the stake hardware...for the bolster's truss rod.

Note: Trainfestival 2011 was this past weekend and it was located in the Quad Cities (Davenport, Moline, E. Moline, Rock Island, and BETTERNDORF). Betterndorf is where the hardware was made for the 1907-1910 C&S freight cars. Today, there is a casino on the site.

Moving

2011-05-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

We are currently in the process of selling our current home and purchasing a new one.

Instead of being limited to an 8'x 15' space with a low ceiling for a layout, the plan is for me to have between 900 and 1600 sq ft, dependent upon the home. My trackplan calls for about 1100 sq ft, including a crew lounge.

Due to the need to have the home ready for showings, all of my models and tools have been boxed up. Many of them are stored in my in-laws basement. God willing, we'll sell this home quite quickly and land in a new place early summer...reducing the duration of this unwanted hiatus. I hope to do a little bit with some models/kits and tools I have readily accessible, but there's no hope for me to get any resin casting done until we've sold our house or moved.

Odds & ends

2011-03-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

Odds and ends are the order of the day so long as our latest edition remains unable to sleep on her own...and thence allows me more modeling time each evening.

My C&S caboose has been waiting for a few details and paint for some time. I added the grab irons to the interior and assembled the sinks quite recently amongst other little things. I can't really do anything else until I get an appropriate color for the interior (the top half of which was buff). I'll paint the bottom half an oxide red just as the recently found 1008 has. (I lacked some confidence in the paint used on C&S 1006 and 1009...but the 1008 was recently found in Los Angelos and had a more classic scheme...buff and red).

I've also been working a little bit on applying a surface to the roof on my first OR&L coach.

My Colorado Central lime car has finally received her truss rods...what an improvement! I need to add them to my stock car soon...

The most interesting project to me has been reworking my Waycar. The sides were bowed in (and were from initial assembly). It became on acceptable to me and so I cut out the old windows and added internal bracing. I also removed the fascia strips (sign boards) from the roof and attached them to the body. The new fixed window panes look quite a bit better imo. The removed parts are visible in that photo.

This photo shows the other new photos...assembled over a period of 15min this evening. You can also see the bracing I added to the car. Perhaps she'll also receive a new interior...but with a buff and green scheme rather than buff and oxide red... My next waycar will be straw yellow and then a long one in oxide red.

A temporary scale back

2011-03-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

Since child #2 was born in January, the hobby has been far more difficult to partake in. With one child, it was easier to work it into the day. But now, I'm lucky to have any energy left when I get to my hour of free time (if I'm lucky). Additionally, it isn't a good idea to use solvents (glue) in the presence of a 2 month old. So, I'm now focusing on finishing up my various projects (new windows for my DSP&P way car, finishing up the various cars which are greater 90% of the way complete). Earlier this week, I managed to finish my C&S coal car and she is now resting on the layout...getting to my LHS to purchase some flat finish was far more difficult than in the past. Today, I'm hoping to make nice strides on my way car's new windows, the C&S caboose's interior (which I can't finish until I get an appropriate depot buff paint), finish the CC gondola sides, and either touch up my OR&L coach's paint or work on trussrods/brake rigging of my DSP&P stock car. My family is at grandma's today...so I have some freedom.

I might work a little on the pattern work for the DSP&P coaches and the OR&L combines/baggage cars, but they won't make it into full scale production until after things calm down around the house (and the newest addition learns how to go to bed in the evening without being held constantly).

Baggage doors and platform cars

2011-02-08T19:44:00.000-08:00

Last night, I produced a standard Oahu Railway baggage door. This marks the first time since #2 was born that I've been able to produce a master. This standard door (the unpainted one) was common to all of the Oahu Railway's baggage cars and combines from what I've been able to tell (I haven't checked the arched roof combine). I haven't yet decided if she'll be a separate part from her frame or not (probably separate). To the right, for comparison, is an 1879 DSP&P baggage door.

In other news, my C&S coal car and CC platform car have received their red paint. The coal car has also been lettered. I haven't yet sealed the letter with a dull coat, so she's rather shiny right now. I like the finishes on both of these...and that color is my current favorite freight car red (I avoid painting all of my cars the same shade of red and I like to vary the level of weathering...uniform color shades and uniform heavy/light weathering are unrealistic).

I'll mare the lettering some before its finished.

And, the necessary comparison with the HOn3 version I built at age 17:

At age 17, I made two notable mistakes: the grab irons are flush with the sides preventing the Little Imaginary People from being able to use them and I painted the inside of the car. When I built the On3 version at age 26, I allowed clearance for the LIPs to wrap them hands around the grab irons. Similarly, at age 28, I've give the interior an unpainted wood finish.

The best way to begin scratch building?

2011-01-26T19:09:00.001-08:00

I received two On3 C&S kits for Christmas. One of them was a C&S/RGS Reefer Hardware kit. While I build all of my own hardware, most modelers would consider starting with a hardware kit and plans to be "scratch building". Personally, I would consider it to be a craftsman kit since all that's missing is the material for the frame and siding (plus paint, decals, and glue). While I'm not planning to start it (or the other kit, a C&S stock car...both from Grandt Line) anytime soon, I opened it to verify that all the parts are present and share a photo here on my blog. If you've ever wanted to try scratch building, get this hardware kit and give it a shot. Since Grandt Line pulled their HOn3 models, there is no telling if this hardware kit will be available in a few years. Grandt Line's car kits are absolute gems, and this looks to be on par with their usual excellence.

Here are the parts. At bottom is the steel underframe, trucks, and draft gear (plus Grandt Line's couplers which I regard as the best value for a coupler: function, appearance, and price). Above the SUF is the brake parts. Above them are the C&S reefer specific parts (the C&S door latches are on the sprue with the corner irons, not the ones with the hinges). To the left of these are the ladders and stirrups (which are far faster and easier than bending wires as on the stock car, gondola, and box car...the reefer only requires a few grabs to be bent)

Here are the plans and info on the SUF:

I picked up a set of CDS Dry Transfers for these cars a few years back. I'm still a couple sets of C&S stock car decals short...

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My first 23' flat car kit has received all but its red paint. The deck is quite dark on the top and more brown (like the underframe) underneath. This version I am building with out the intermediate sills (I'll build an example gon with the int sills).

The deck

The underframe

Comparisons against a Grandt Line 30' C&S coal car:

First Colorado Central 23' flat car castings

2011-01-16T18:20:00.000-08:00

I decided it was time to try preparing a 2-part mold using my new rubber. Since the passenger car parts are large and hence could waste a lot of material, I decided to create the molds for my 23' Colorado Central flatcar. Additionally, it gives me a ready-to-sell product in the event that a need a revenue stream prior to having the passenger cars ready. The first castings were rejects, but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are good enough to use/sell. I've cleaned up two of these:

Here's a deck and frame sitting on a pair of incomplete trucks. Not shown are the two sets of levers that I'm including in the kits (one for power brakes, one for manual only).

Here's a view showing some of the details:

And the comparison shot against a DSP&P 26' flatcar.

The gondola sides are in the works, and the portion of the mold for the option intermediate sills was a bust. I'm in the process of building the first to kits to verify that scrubbing the parts is sufficient for removing the mold release residue...an issue I've had with some of the Oahu Railway coach parts which may not have been scrubbed. Once I'm happy with paint adhesion and assembly, I'll punch out a as many parts as the mold with give me, and then offer them for sale based off of the time and material each kit required to make (I'm hoping for $20-25 for the flat car, and $30-35 for the gondola version...both less trucks, couplers, decals, and probably brake wheels...all preference decisions which will vary from modeler to modeler).

Cleaning up windows

2011-01-12T09:45:00.001-08:00

The majority of the time needed to create passenger car sides is spent on the windows. I'm cleaning up the 60 windows I cast to create the car sides. I need at least 28 double pane windows for the combine and baggage cars. I need 17 single pane windows for the chair cars. I'll take the best windows and use them in the masters, and then the rejects will likely go to a friend in Chicago who has previously generously helped other friends/South Park modelers.

Above the 17 windows needed for the chair car, I have a Barney & Smith coach side. The B&S coaches was within 2" of the chair cars in length, and so they are give a good feel for how the windows will be spaced. Similarly, I've put the 11 arched windows needed for one side of the combine (with a space left for the baggage door) next to an Oahu Railway coach side, which minus the corner moldings is 1'4" longer than the combine. In the middle are extra windows plus the four needed for the baggage car side. I'll clean up the remainder of the photos prior to assembling the sides.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that, as of today, we have a 1 week old daughter. Despite being off work for this splendid event, I haven't had any additional hobby time. I attempted to take our 2 year old son to the local Wonder of the World, an 80,000sq ft model railroad, but learned after we got there that they are closed Weds from January thru March. We made up for it by stopping by one of the dozen local railroad yards...the only one with passenger cars...and let him watch a little switching (he loves that sort of thing).

Arched windows galor!

2011-01-01T19:54:00.001-08:00

I now have 54 windows sitting on my self healing mat. They are of two designs: single and double pane. The single pane variety are for the South Park's 1879 chair cars. They require 15 per side plus 2 per end (17 minimum to produce the necessary kit parts). Combine #6 requires the double pane variety, 11 per side plus 2 per end, while the 1879 baggage cars require 4 per side. I'm looking forward to building the car sides quite soon. I'll then need to create a 40'4" car version of the roof and continue with the odds and ends (end beams, roof vents, etc).

These are 2" scale wider than the original version.

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On a related note, my Oahu Railway coach is coming together. Here's a photo of here:

The wavy roof is an optical illusion created by a slight bow in the not-yet-attached and missing-the-interior-wall side. When pressed into place, it is beautifully straight.

I really love the Oahu Railway, DSP&P and Colorado Central. That were such interesting roads.

On3 resumed

2010-12-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone, and the skeleton of an 1871 2-4-0 was very well received by a toddler as it raced around the tree. Still plenty of work to put into it, but I have resumed my On3 work.

I chose to go 50/50 coach green/pullman green for the OR&L coach and I love it. I made the horrendous mistake (realizing it at the time) in going with Testor's yellow for the windows. I won't do that again. My air brush allows me to to a far better job than those spray cans. Regardless, it was acceptable with some brush touchups. So, I'm assembling the OR&L coach now.

For Christmas, I received a variety of goodies. I will be had pressed to resist the temptation to build my new Grandt Line stock car kit. I can do it in around 4-6hrs, but there are other projects I should give a higher priority to. I plan on building it as a truss rod car since I already have two with steel underframes. The excess parts will go to a C&S SUF boxcar.

On3 work on hold

2010-12-16T19:05:00.001-08:00

I'm currently engaged in the mad rush to get my son's 1:20.3 scale 2-4-0 built. I plan on resuming my On3 work (and blogging about it) after Christmas. It really isn't a good idea to perform 90% of the work on scratch building a locomotive in the 30 days leading up to when it needs to be done.

The decals will be from Stan Cedarleaf and are the same ones he developed with David Fletcher (mylargescale.com Masterclass Master Builder) for David's gorgeous model of the 1871 D&RG Shou-wa-no. The Shou-wa-no was one of the freight engines while the 2-4-0s were passenger power. The initial freight and passenger cars where four wheeled and more like LGB cars than the B-man, Aristocraft, and such.

Waiting game

2010-11-08T20:20:00.001-08:00

I'm currently in the process of ordering some higher grade rubber for my molds. The prior stuff degraded too rapidly. I could start punching out OR&L kits, but I'd prefer to get my first car assembled first to see if anything needs to be changed. I ran out of primer, and so it is on hold until I can get to my LHS.

The South Park windows still need to be widened, but there isn't much sense in getting them ready prior to the arrival of the better rubber.

In the meantime, I resumed working on what I hope will be my son's Christmas present this year:

Again, the wheels and motor are from a junk B-man Big Hauler chassis I picked up on ebay. I started off building a Cooke 2-6-0, but decided that it would be a bit large for the tight curves it'll run around and so one of the D&RG's 1871 2-4-0s will be the engine. The particular motor/gearbox set included on the axle is know to strip over time, and so I have a simple modification planned to prevent it. I'm designing it with space for a sound decoder in the frame or in the firebox. I'll leave a space for the speaker in the smokebox (I can't stand sound coming from the speaker in larger scales). I probably won't add sound for a few years. To protect it, I'll exercise care in limiting the weight so that she'll prefer slipping to gear grinding...

Window spacing?

2010-10-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

I used four reject windows to check the spacing:

The far right is 5" between the frames, and then 4" and 3" at left. I like 3" the best, but changing the spacing would force me to widen the windows to compensate or else there'll be too much space at the ends of the cars. I'll probably try wider windows with 4" posts and see how that looks.

My caster's regular work has picked up and so I'll be bringing the work in house. I'll have to decide if I want to get the Oahu Railway coaches into production now or get the South Park kits together first. I'll probably start producing the Oahu Railway coaches and then work on the South Park cars in between filling orders. The Oahu Railway kits are time consuming to cast...I don't see how most of these kits could be commercially viable if the pattern work wasn't donated (as a part of my regular hobby pursuits).

windows-765-CT

2010-10-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the pace of life really flies. I've been home two weekends in the past six weeks or so, and been sick both of them. Two of the other weekends, I had the pleasure of smelling coal smoke.

Here are my windows for the 1879 South Park 34' and 40' cars. The 34' cars have the single hung sash windows, the 40' chair cars get the single hung sash windows. I tried dozens of different arches (and different techniques to produce them)...these are the ones I like best.

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Back in mid-September, 765 ran a series of excursions on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic (Cleveland to Canton...yes it is quite scenic). Currently, 765 is up in Michigan hauling some excursions (my dad called me last night to let me hear her...sounded like he was in the cab...lucky dog).

On the way up, I stopped by the 8th wonder of the world:

And then boarded 765 at the very nice CVSRR maintenance facility:

You can see the Viscose #6 who ran past with her two car train and then returned to the yards while we were waiting for clearance.

The photo run-by was after dark.

When we returned that night, the Viscoso engine was loaded on its flatbed and spent Sunday there as well.

The trip to Canton (passed the PF HoF) was very enjoyable.

765 looks pretty cool from the front of a dome car.

I had a brief cab ride on the main...always fun.

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A week ago, we were in Hartford, CT for a wedding. Naturally, we made our way down to Essex for the Valley Railroad.

Their handsome 2-8-2 had a nice train of heavyweights. Considering that she has the tractive effort of a D&RGW K-36 and the size of a D&RGW K-28, not to mention the drivers and good looks of an EBT 2-8-2, I bet they have a level (but pretty) piece of railroad.

They had their handsome 2-8-0 in the well groomed yards.

I spotted their Chinese 2-8-2 drivers...but she was inside...

Plan to post again

2010-10-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy the past couple months. I have done some model railroading, but not really accomplished a whole lot. Haven't heard from my caster for a while...I need to find out how things are going. I can't get too far into the next few projects until he provides me with some feedback.

I've got some photos to upload from my trip to Cleveland a month ago...765 of the Cuyahoga Valley. Last weekend, I was up in the Hartford area and stopped by the Valley Railroad in Essex...so I have a couple photos from there as well...they were running their tiny but handsome 2-8-2.

Business organization

2010-08-24T19:50:00.001-07:00

Today, I formed a partnership with a resin caster/mold maker. The circumstances are such where it will be a very mutually beneficial arrangement for him, myself, and potential customers. I will be free to spend more time doing what I'm best at: creating masters from styrene and brass while he handles the production. The result is that we'll be able to bring more models to the market and produce a greater quantity of them.

Next week he will start on the Oahu Railway coaches. I don't know if he'll use any of my molds, but I don't expect this to delay their release. It is also quite likely that I'll be passing him my 23' Colorado Central flatcar patterns. They are nearly ready, so I'll make a big push this week to finish them up. I'll also try to get gondola sides for them ready and maybe even get something else ready. If I can sell enough to keep him interested, then I'll continue to be free to focus on bringing more kits to the market.

In other news, I will be starting a job on Monday. I'm quite excited as it is a very good fit for me: a good company, good co-workers, a good project, uses my master's degree, and will help me earn my Professional Engineer's License. No longer being forced to focus on school, the job search, and being a stay at home dad (less fun than it sounds), I'll have more mental freedom to pursue modeling. Thank God!

765 Open House

2010-08-22T14:25:00.001-07:00

This weekend was the annual open house for the FWHRS, the NKP 765. My parents, my siblings, and our kids all made it up.

765 was under steam, and caboose rides behind the caboose were available. My little boy had a great time...he was not scared at all...even when the whistle was blown.

Liam and mommy enjoyed sitting in the cupola of my favorite caboose, the recently restored NKP #141.

After that, they road the cupola of the Wabash caboose during our caboose ride. He didn't care that it was raining, he stuck his head out the window and got drenched.

He was very enthusiastic about the "Gordie"...Gordie is derived from Thomas the Tank Engine's friend Gordon, an LNER A3 pacific (the Flying Scotsman).

The president of the society (aka "dad"), arranged for our entire group to have a short cab ride. Liam sat on my lap in the pilot seat behind Rich Melvin as he preformed his familiar role and Liam looked out the window. His cousins were on the fireman's side (Jeff) where grandma took their photo. This was the first cab ride for Liam and my wife. It may have been my first steam cab ride in a decade or so. The cab is a fun place to ride...and Rich is always a pleasure to talk with.

A few other photos:

The Wabash 0-6-0 is now in the shop

The new NKP caboose. Built in 1962, four years after 765 was parked.

Our family photo.

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Here's slightly larger rounded corners for the South Park cars:

I probably need to try a slightly larger radius, but they are looking better.

I'm currently learning the nuances of the detail part mold for my Oahu Railway coaches. I've managed to eliminate air bubbles...but my castings are coming out a touch thick...too thick of flash.

Arched windows and grab iron bending jigs

2010-08-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

The most challenging aspects of an accurate South Park (or, really, any prototype) passenger car is all in the details. Arched windows were the norm, and so they represent one of the more challenging aspects of building good models.

Tonight, I successfully produced the rounded corners needed...and in a manner which I can replicate them with precision.

Here is the result of my first attempt:

I'm probably going to make them a bit more pronounced than these...but the technique has been proven.

Additionally, here are the intriguing box steps for the Oahu Railway cars:

Note that a corner is missing out of each one...that is because steps actually run slightly under the end sill on the prototype.

And lastly, my grab iron bending jig for the Oahu Railway cars. The Oahu Railway used far more complicated grab irons that your typical passenger car. This jig should allow anyone to assemble them with just a little practice.

The last detail parts for the OR&L coach

2010-08-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

The last detail parts are under construction...and the difficult work is done.

At left is the door with positionable window panes. It is accurate for these cars. The window frames are to be added by the modeler, so that they can be painted separate from the rest of the door. The other parts will form the box steps. On the prototype, the side of the steps next to the car do not attach in the normal fashion, instead they appear to bend 90 degrees and attach to the bottom of the frame. And so, I am making them in this fashion (hence, one of the three has already been shortened). I'll produce two box steps. Once they are ready, I'll prepare a mold for all of the miscellaneous detail parts (bolsters, steps, doors, etc) and cast enough duplicates to prepare the production molds for those parts.

There is a decent chance that my next post will be covering construction of South Park passenger car parts...imagine that, a blog titled "The South Park Line" actually doing something South Park related. The flexibility that I'll have with a 1940s Oahu Railway and an 1880s South Park Line will be beneficial once the layouts begin to take shape. There are so many difference between the two, they make a delightful pairing.

Window Spacing on South Park Passenger Cars

2010-08-10T19:45:00.001-07:00

I've finally settled, after hours of studying photos, measuring photos, and performing calculations, on the window spacing which I'll be using.

Here are my rules:
#7&8 are identical
#6-8, #40-41, #45 have identical windows except for the number of panes of glass.
#6-8 have the same window spacing
#6 has little space between the last window and the corner molding
#6-8 have a space more than twice the width of the posts at each end

The equations are as follows:
for #6:
2e1+13w+12p=400
for #7-8:
2e2+15w+14p=476

There are a few additional equations based on the C&S folios, but the above are key.

e1 and e2 are the space at each end of the car, minus the corner molding
w is the window width
p is the post width
If e1=p=5", then w equals 25.38 and e2=12.5
Yep, I am an engineer...just not the fun kind which gets covered in soot.

That is confirmed by a drawing which was developed independently of me (thank you Dave).

Additionally, I've potentially developed my technique for simulating the tin metal roofs which were standard on 19th century narrow gauge (and SG) passenger cars. I'm looking forward to the OR&L cars reaching the market which will fund mold prep for the South Park cars. I think I'll do a few freight cars after I get these goodies on the market...freight cars don't require anywhere near the time and effort to prepare (although the unit cost isn't that much less).

Pictures of goodies

2010-07-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

The following photo shows the end beam, bolster, and needle beam.

The bolster is the steel variety used on the shop built 1st class coaches. The difficult to see needle beam is prototypical for these cars, just like the bolster and end beam. An additional trust rod runs the length of the needle beam with a pair of small queen posts in between the 12" queen posts for the truss rods running in between the bolsters. I ran across the name for this arrangement in the 1895 Car Builder's Dictionary, but it escapes me.

At the far end of the car is a second needle beam and bolster; they are appropriate for the Carter built products, shop built second-class coaches, and the head end equipment.

A better view of these is here:

The QPs are scratch built on these parts. While Grandt Line offers fine products, they don't have the correct QPs...their 3" variety has too wide of a base...and they offer no such part for passenger cars. I'm not a big fan of PSC's brass needle beam, nor is it correct for this car, and so my tastes have required building my own. I will be very pleased with these cars when they are ready...they won't be ready until I am so.

Working on the details

2010-07-17T18:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't completed much work this week. A very good pet died on Monday evening. He was a 5.5yr old cat. That left me bummed out and unable to really enjoy my hobby. He seemed to be perfectly fine until he collapsed and died...probably heart related. There were few things he enjoyed more than visiting my model railroad. Our surviving cat (6 yrs old) is also quite the railfan.

The bolster master for the shop built Oahu Railway coaches is essentially complete. The needlebeam is largely complete as well. Due to the effort it would require to fit the body bolster into the frame, I've decided that I'll add them to a new frame master to save much time and effort during assembly. In turn, I may release the Carter Bros coaches first since they'll use the existing frame mold. I already have the needlebeams for them well on their way and their bolsters were quite simple. The remaining parts consist of grab iron bending jigs, steps, and possibly brake parts.

With the Oahu Railway passenger cars nearly ready for production, I'm planning how to built DSP&P combine #6, chair cars #7-8, and baggage cars #40-41. They'll probably be next. I've been working on determining the width and spacing of the windows...a tricky task since #6 and #7-8 were different lengths.

A couple photos of end beam

2010-07-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

The OR&L end beam is coming along nicely. I added the gap on the bottom based on a photo of a wrecked coach (the same wreck that caused #87, sister to the surviving 4-6-0 #85). Every piece of hardware that should be there is there, except the ratchet and pawl for the brake shaft and a pair of brackets to be created. I want these to be good since they are the most noticeable detailed parts on the models. If I had to do this for every end beam on every car, I wouldn't do it. Glad the South Park cars won't need as much hardware on their end beams.

The belated June Update

2010-07-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

The end of May and early June were fun. So much fun. Glad they are history. My life may now continue.

I've done a variety of things since my last update.

#1 I've been unhappy with the paint on a few of my models. I decided to take care of it. It is now more than 10 years since I started my HOn3 C&S reefer. Back then, I painted it boxcar red along with my boxcar, gondola, and caboose which were part of the same assembly line. As I started to place the decals, I noticed my mistake...it wasn't red. As I recall, I next gave it a way-too-heavy coat of white either with a brush or a spray can. Then I realized that it should be yellow and gave it too heavy of a coat with that. I stripped that off a year or so ago, only for the spray can to mess up the model. So, I stripped the paint off again. This time, I'll use my sweet Paasche VL air brush to give it an extremely thin and nice coat of yellow.

along with her is the frame from a 23' Colorado Central flatcar.

I was also quite unhappy with my first scratch built boxcar. It went from gorgeous to ugly when I applied the dry transfer lettering. I didn't quite get the lettering straight. The paint was also chipping, so it was time to strip it. I may upgrade her now that the paint is off...she has a few deficiencies. I did finally decide to mount the doors in the closed position.

She's a DSP&P Barney & Smith boxcar

I managed to sand most of the paint off of my 26' DSP&P flat car's deck and primer-ed it up. I'm going to use a different technique as I know have masted an approach vastly superior to what I previously used.

#2 I decided to prep my Grandt Line C&S coal car and caboose for painting. Since the grab irons were already added, I found a method to applying the chemical blackening agent to the grab irons without removing/damaging them. I wrapped paper towl/napkin around them and soaked it in chemical blackening agent. I then did the same thing to the cars which I'd stripped.

#3 My local NMRA chapter was supposed to have Hopper cars as the monthly contest. Well, the monthly contest was delayed, but I used the contest as an excuse to build that Nn3 hopper Lisa got me for Christmas a year ago.

Here are the 0.010"x0.020" styrene bits I cut for the end platform, along with my "scratch built" brake cylinder and air reservoir:

Compared to the car castings:

And the complete car in my hand along with my scratch built brake wheel platform and prototypical grab irons:

#4 Over a month ago, I cut/filed/carved an end beam for the Oahu Railway coaches. I was unhappy with the shape...it wasn't perfectly symmetrical. I finally got around to fabricating one. Instead of a single piece of styrene, this was is up to 11. The shape is precise...something I'm quite happy with.

The good one is on the bottom

And the end view:

I need to add the various hardware bits to them.

Last weekend we met my parents and my brother's family at Carillon Park in Dayton for their annual train festival. It is one heck of a museum. This year we made it into the building which houses the 1905 Wright Flyer III...it was the first air plane in the world which could turn...it is more original than any of the 19th century steam engines left in Colorado!

One of the live steamers had a South Park mogul:

I doubt he knew what it was, but I could clearly tell. He just had it painted wrong and evidently didn't want to pay the royalties on the Cogdon stack ;-)

Here are a couple photos of the body bolster and truck pedestal of their 190X Barney & Smith coach/observation car:

Still alive, updates coming

2010-06-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

I've been through hell with an aborted attempt at graduation (my degree has been finished since early May, but paperwork has kept me busy and delayed my graduation).

I'll have an update soon. I'll be uploading photos of a side project involving an Nn3 hopper car and then some work on the South Park passenger car kits. I have enough info to complete the Oahu Railway coach masters.

First floor out of the mold

2010-05-19T07:30:00.001-07:00

I ran out of my primary rubber while making the mold for this. I had just enough material in all the right places for the mold to be usable. For subsequent parts (platform end sills, platform decking, needle beams, and car bolsters), I'll be forced to use a more expensive platinum cure rubber which I have on hand.

The first casting out of the mold is a scale 7" thick and has a little trouble where I inadvertently damaged the flooring in a couple places. This was because I wasn't very careful despite the fact that the part hadn't yet fully cured. Because of the size of this mold, I need to modify my casting set up, and then I ought to be able to get it down to my desired 6.5" thickness.

My present research is into the most probably WABCo products used on the Oahu Railway cars from 1889 until the end. I'm using trade journals, WABCo catalogs (1886, 1890, 1900), John H. White Jr's books, and Car Builders Dictionaries (1879, 1888, 1895, 1906). I'm counting on my Oahu Railway friend Jeff to provide enough information on the brakes under #2 for me to identify them (they look to me like the Quick Action air brakes due to the shape of the triple valve and lack of multiple air tanks). I'm expecting 8" cylinders.

Truss-rod & Bolster configurations on OR&L Passenger cars

2010-05-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

I've been studying many photos of Oahu Railway coaches, surviving and deceased, for clues as to sort out the truss-rod and bolster details.

So far, I've learned a few things.

The shop built clerestory coaches (such as my kit) had the customary two truss-rods which connected to truss-rod irons at or just before the bolsters. The body bolsters were the common type, metal plates, presumably attached to the side sill (I have yet to find a photo showing the bolster-side sill arrangement for these).

The arched roof cars, as well as shop-built clerestory combine #36, and the observation cars Pearl (Carter built) and #64 had wood body-bolsters with truss-rod washers. The body truss-rods ran from end sill to end sill with square washers visible. #64 has more than two truss-rods...probably 4...which is peculiar for a car that never need to haul much weight nor have other cars behind it.

I haven't yet come to any conclusions about the Carter built coaches (3, 11, & 12) and combines (38 & 39).

I'm going to ponder these questions, perhaps ask around, and try to make sense of it. My gut says that the truss-rods connected to the end sills were a sufficiently stronger/better arrangement that they could get away with wood bolsters.

In the past week my preferred local hobby shop as moved out from under its former toy store roof (Johnny's) and become a stand alone store: Tim's Trains & Hobbies. Today, my friend Pat and I visited. I picked up a number of sizes of styrene needed for building Oahu Railway freight cars. In general, Oahu Railway freight cars used sills of twice the size of South Park cars (for which my "lumber yard" was stocked). Afterwards, we stopped by an open house at the local RR Museum (a collection of private cars in poor repair) and toured ubiquitous Cascade as well as a 10-1-2. For those not familiar with Pullman cars, Cascades were sleeping cars built by Pullman starting in 1938 with 10 Roomettes (single rooms) and 5 double rooms. A 10-1-2 was a heavyweight sleeper (1920-1935).

Oahu Framing

2010-05-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

The shop-built Oahu Railway coaches didn't have ceilings (sheathing under the framing). Accordingly, I consider it important to have a prototypical frame under the cars which is consistent with that under the surviving coaches.

The red mark is the result of my toddler and his red crayon...I'll remove it before the mold is made. Every visible surface on the frame has been textured with wood grain. I'm in the process of researching the hardware that goes on it (and what can be cast in-situ). I've identified two bolster types, but not been able to clearly determine if one style was specific to Carter built cars or shop built cars. I do think that the Carter built cars and #64 had ceilings (#64 definitely did).

I've temporarily cleared my workspace and filled it with grad school stuff in my attempt to gain freedom for hell (grad school).

The cons of contests

2010-04-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that it has been 2.5 weeks since my last post. I'd planned to do so after the NMRA meeting, but that was delayed.

There was an incident with one of my entries (1st place, scratchbuilt). Someone managed to send it to the floor...and with its 1/2lb+ worth of weight, it landed hard. I'd requested a photo from one of the guys whom was taking such photos, but he hasn't returned my email (which is always annoying for someone like me whom strongly prefers email to phones). I was going to post once he sent me his photo...or at least gave me a response. (Edit: he was out of town, and isn't quite as addicted to email as I am)

Here's what the car looks like:

Isn't that pretty? It actually won't take me too long. I only used the PSC end beams because I was short on time and I hastily created the brass end rails. All were supposed to be temporary...and now they've been crushed. The body generally broke cleanly. Had the frame been attached to the body, I have no clue as to how she would have done (probably worse). Most of the steps were knocked off. Fortunately, the scratch built styrene roof was unscathed. Thank God. I'm planning a new display track which will anchor the cars so that such accidents can't happen.

In other news, I built a set of box step masters which were based on the 1879 South Park passenger car box steps. I did that on Thursday or so of the NMRA week. The mold was completed on Saturday morning and the first set of castings came out fine.

Here are the masters, prior to adding the hardware.

Here's what they look like on the baggage car. No, they aren't crooked...it's just the photo. It is actually a terrible photo of that car...a quick snapshot. The roof had smearing issues as I hastily painted it at 1am before the NMRA contest. The stuff I used, evidently, smears horribly even after it is dry...thank you Testors for reformulating Floquil!

The car is sitting on my new test track. I decided that it would be a good idea to evaluate this:

That's the overhang on a 36"R curve. Much better than the 27" and 30" curves of my existing, temporary layout. I'm looking to go with 42" as a minimum mainline radius for my future OR&L layout and either 42" or 36" min. main. rad. for my South Park line. My test board has the roadbed in place for 42"R and a line marked for 48"R. My layout, of course, handles 27"R and 30"R testing.

I'm probably going to see about modifying McHenry's HO talgo couplers into Link & Pin couplers for my passenger cars. They are about the same size and close in shape to the South Park's L&Ps. For my Oahu Railway cars, I'll be using Knuckle couplers so it won't be an issue (possibly PSC's brass couplers or some other non-Kadee couplers).

I managed to lay that track in a short time before dinner. I used a hot glue gun so that I didn't have to wait before spiking. Obviously, it isn't a good approach for a layout...but it worked well enough for track that won't be carrying trains.

I think I'm going to go ahead and build my master frame for the Oahu Railway coaches...I don't know when the photos will arrive, but I know the dimensions and spacing...so I can build it accurately.

Oahu Coach roof casting

2010-04-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've been a month or more without a home for my casting. My previous location was the kitchen table...not a long term home nor a safe one. I can't use my desk, as I must pass through Liam's room to get there...and he is usually asleep when I want to do casting.

So, I cleaned up my basement workspace and it is now the home of my resin work.

I've generally found that the ultimate table protector is garbage bags. Neither silicone rubber nor polyurethane will stick to it...and it is a material we always have in the house.

Since I now have a home for it, I managed to prepare some new molds and make a few test castings.

This is the second casting from the interior wall mold. I like it. I may add coat hooks above each seat, per the prototype in the early days, using brass wire.

And this is an out of focus view of the first OR&L roof casting. It is a beauty. There is one air bubble along one of the ends which I'll probably fill for durability, as well as a portion of the sheathing which is a little thin and might get reinforced. The other defect is the swayback. While a swayback is a coveted feature amongst many model railroaders, I am not in that camp. I ought to be able to fix it with a little heat. The detail of the master has been nicely captured in this resin casting. In order to get one of these cars ready by next weekend, I may just fabricate a frame in styrene for the first car...and do the master & mold later.

Currently, a DSP&P 34' passenger car roof is curing in my other roof mold.

Interior detail

2010-03-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

I don't know when to stop. After waiting over a week for a chance to visit the LHS for more 2"x2" (actually 0.040"x0.040") styrene to properly build this part, I can't decide where to stop with the details. I was going to skip the paneling above the windows since it was a) not normally visible and b) removed from the cars in can service and c) varied slightly between the cars. But, I have now gone ahead and added the most common variation...with a couple touches left to consider adding.

I like it. I've left the footboard off. It'll be a detail to be added separately, so that if someone screws up with assembly...it is okay (it also gives me slightly looser tolerances when casting).

I'm still waiting on some additional info for the frame. I'll probably build a prototype frame for car #1 so that I can take a completed car to the local NMRA meet (April 18th). Haven't yet decided if she'll be a coach or a combine. The contest category is passenger cars. I'm planning to finish DSP&P #40 and #051 as well for that day (I need to order alphabet sheets so I can letter them. The Oahu cars require a custom font...the Mrs. will be helping me with that). #40 needs the underframe taken care of and the roof surfaced/painted. #051 needs its lights replaced, an interior built, and brake gear. Both need end platforms/steps. I'm going to use a combination of an 1886 WABCo catalog I found online in conjunction with a 1900 WABCo catalog I've borrowed from my dad and the 1879 Car Builder's Dictionary to produce more accurate parts than I believe to be commercially offered (for now).

Sometime after that, I'll submit my entries for my Car Builders Achievement Award and I'll be presenting a mini-clinic at the May NMRA meet on scratch building detail parts. I have to put aside all 1:1 research of the Oahu Railway between now and then so that I don't get distracted.

What is the correct color?

2010-03-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

Few debates have less basis in fact and are more edifying than those which revolve around correct colors. It is sometimes even worse if color photographs do exist!

Here are a few basics which I know and which affect my opinions:

-There is no such thing as a uniform, standard railroad color.
Why? First, even if they start off identical in hue, cars that spend much of their time in the shade won't be bleached as badly as cars out in the sun (there are other weather factors as well).
-No railroad shop had the facilities and staff to repaint every single car the exact same day from the same batch of paint. Most cars were only repainted as needed. Many South Park cars carried their original numbers and lettering into the late 1880s after the renumbering in mid-1885. This was particularly important when we factor in that paint's weren't mixed by computers and hence would vary a bit from batch to batch...year to year.

-The vast majority of railroad photographs from the steam era (the period of my interest) were in black and white...so even if the colors are known, the matching a shade can be extremely tough...even if there weren't variations. Since different processes where sensitive to different types of light...mint green for example...would look almost the same as white or light yellow in many B&W photos (the great South Park Waycar and Tiffany debates...white/white for me).

The only mentioning I can recall of Oahu Railway colors is "Pullman Green" in Vol 1 of the Hawaiian Railroad WWII Photo Album. The cars...both preserved (I trust #64's colors the most) and white I can gleam from the B&W photos look much lighter than either Scalecoat and Floquil's Pullman Green. Granted, there are variations in the colors as represented on compute displays (mine has been calibrated to ameliorate this), but I like what I've come up with.

Here's my test:

The left is $0.50 acrylic green. The right is Floquil's Pullman Green. The center is Floquil's light green. These parts were not fully cleaned up before painting...so it didn't adhere too well...by well enough for this test. Light green with reefer yellow windows works for me. In some photos, the yellow looks to orange while in others doesn't appear to have enough orange. I've been careful to examine the colors under both high and low light conditions...as that matters too. A perfect color match from a prototype will yield way too dark of a model...prototypes are seen under much, much brighter lighting than is practical for a model railroad.

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Here are some of my castings:

I think they are pretty. I have a window insert in one of the car ends. The sides a spot on thickness...0.060" at the sheathing. The tolerance for acceptable window castings is under 0.040" of total thickness. That way they'll fit into the grooves to slide up and down.

This evening I'm going to either start (or completely assemble) the interior master. It'll probably be a two sided part. I've designed it to allow the windows to be removable after assembly (when the roof is off). A groove will exist in between the interior wall and the fascia (letter board) to allow for the roof to lock into place/prevent light from leaking. I will not produce a roof mold until after the master has been test fitted to a complete production car body. The underframe is awaiting the arrival of digital photos to supplement framing measurements on OR&L #1. At that point, hardware construction will begin (brake rigging and such).

Since I don't know when to expect the photos from the very generous person whom has gone out of their way to help (thank you very much!), I'll probably make a trip to my LHS in the next couple of days to secure parts for construction of the side masters on the South Park baggage car kit. (an easy assembly...I've previously worked the details out on my #40).

I need to prepare the decals for the Oahu Railway cars. Mein Frau ist ein graphic designer. Her day job is designing signs on vehicles.

Production has begun!

2010-03-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

Today, production casting was initiated on the Oahu Railway coaches. I have yet to develop the interior and floor masters, as well as the roof mold, but I want good side castings first. After a few technical difficulties over the last few days, today I reached production quality. I am comfortable putting my name on parts this good...nearly air bubble free, smooth surfaces, and very thin flash. I'll upload some photos soon...

In the process, I've learned a few tips to integrate into the next kits. I'm really looking forward to the Barney & Smith cars. Thanks to Mr. Brian Norden, I now know where to go for SP drawings of the trucks...which means that I'll hopefully be able to build them. Today, I tracked down a means of having "BARNEY & SMITH MF'G CO. DAYTON. O." on the parts. The book, The Birth of California Narrow Gauge, has a great photo of an 1876 B&S pedestal...it is a clone of the "V&T" market pedestals (copies of the B&S parts) currently under C&C #2 (thanks to Mr. Andrew Brandon for showing a really clear photo of one).

OR&L window production

2010-02-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

The window assembly line is up and running. I spent an 30min-1hr on it yesterday, and an hour or so today. It is most of the way done.

D is the exterior view of a window (actually, an end window...which is 5" narrower than the side windows). "A" shows the otherside of the top. The recess allows the glazing to be inserted. This may or may not be of benefit...but it does make the windows far more time consuming to construct. I don't know how well the mold will tolerate the undercutting...but it should be ok.

"B" is the framing behind the upper pane. "C" is a part "B" with the window frame added.

My current debate is whether to cast the windows as on a thin frame that aligns them, cast them as loose windows to be inserted, or to cast them integral to the interior walls of the car. The first option would be difficult to perform with precision (it would be too thin in between the windows). The third is attractive for assembly and appearance...but requires a more complicated mold. A perk to this third option is that the "B" frames would be unnecessary.

Herman Darr's catalog of plans hasn't yet arrived. It has been a week. I'm looking forward to getting it...especially the Barney & Smith plan (for the roof contours). I am now aware of at least five railroads which operated those cars...one of them was a Cincinnati road! I know of a few additional roads which operated the shorter (and earlier) version.

Casting on Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

What a wife I have! She allowed me to take 4 hours for an NMRA meeting/layout tours, as well as an hour before church producing my first castings from the new OR&L car side/end molds. This evening she made Milanese Risotto (she did it the way I would, with chicken broth instead of beef so that it had a nice, yellow color) while I made authentic Wiener Schnitzel. Thanks honey, you're great!

And so here is the pre-production castings along with the roof. Note that the fascia is missing, hence the gap between the two, and I haven't yet performed the touch ups on the roof...

The side mold is perfect. There is a slight detail change I might make to the end master and then produce a new end mold. With the pre-production samples in hand, I can now prepare the frame and window masters, as well as prep the roof for molding.

I'm very enthusiastic as I think about my next project (I ought to prepare masters for those South Park cars which utilize the 34' car roof).

A sheathed OR&L roof

2010-02-13T14:19:00.001-08:00

With this, major combat operations on the roof are complete. Minor touch ups are all that remain. The Oahu Railway coach is in the home stretch. I either need to get the necessary info to create the B&S roof, or work on masters for the cars using the 34' roof.

Sorry about the closeup...I didn't bother to really check the image before uploading it...

OR&L roof frame complete

2010-02-09T18:05:00.000-08:00

The Oahu Railway roof framing is complete:

That piece of styrene in the middle will be removed once the sheathing is complete.

Now, I've begun to sheath it. The ends have their first layer:

Tonight, the first layer of sheathing on the short carlines is in place and the glue is drying.

For future planning, I've performed some research towards equipping my planned Pullman Plan 73 sleepers with the appropriate 6'wb trucks and 30" wheels. The Plan 73A are the only passenger cars which I can recall having been offered commercially...but I strongly prefer the more balanced looking Plan 73 cars. After I get my masters ready for the Oahu Railway coach, I can pretty much do all of there pre-1921 passenger car roster without much of a sweat (after 1921, they also had 44' arched roof cars)...so my passenger car attention will shift back to cars for the South Park Line.

ORL Roof ends in progress

2010-02-03T19:24:00.001-08:00

I'm in the home stretch on the roof framing. I'd have it completed, but I felt like watching Cecil B. Demille's 1939 epic Union Pacific instead of working on the car. That was brought about by reading a new (to me) book on the V&T (for those not familiar with both, the movie Union Pacific used V&T equipment, especially the JW Bowker).

If I skip the Cincinnati Railroad Club meeting tomorrow night, I could have the roof sheathed by tomorrow night.

OR&L Roof, test photos

2010-01-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

The following are photos of the roof framing. I still have the end details to assemble...but most are formed.

Here are photos of 4 South Park cars. 3 are On3, one is an HOn3 kit that I touch every couple of years or so (she was a clearance item). Please click on the comments button if you have any positive or negative feedback on the flat and coal car decks...I'm not completely happy with them.

Edit: Mein Frau finds the black spot on the mat to be gross. It is actually some of my beloved Viennese Coffee which is grown in Yemen, roasted in Vienna, and purchased at a specialty grocer. Also, the flat and coal car are my only cars with a pocket for the weights. The advantage is that you can't see the weights when the cars are turned over; the disadvantage is that the sills aren't the full depth and the trussrods don't extend to the ends of the cars. I now prefer to leave off the intermediate sills and add them there. Sure, I could use loads...but half or so of the cars should be empty (coal/oar/lumber out, empties in).

OR&L Pictoral Supplement

2010-01-23T16:34:00.000-08:00

I don't believe I've uploaded any photos of the Oahu Railway coach (either the prototype or the model). So this post addresses that deficiency.

Here are the completed roof components:

At this stage, the final assembly of the major parts could be accomplished in an hour or less, but I've got a couple issues with the car ends that I'd prefer to figure out first.

Here are a couple of the parts (fascia board and clerestory windows) overlaid on the drawing from the Gazette. The drawing is slightly undersized (4" over the body, but within 99% of the size). The parts are exactly to scale. The reason I'm showing this is the curve profiles...they are exact.

Here are a few photos I took of the prototype at the Hawaiian Railway Society:

The arched roof car is one of around a dozen that the OR&L built in the company shops around 1920. I won't get around to building one of them for some time as they are very long and my layout has very sharp (27"R) curves...

And their step-sister which has many design features in common:

Over on PacificNG.com, several good and knowledgeable gentlemen have shared photos and information regarding the Oahu Railway coaches...and the surviving B&S coach...

The coach and combine at Travel Town thanks to Brian N...
http://www.pacificng.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=78

The neat roof detail on the B&S coaches...thanks again to Brian N...
http://www.pacificng.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=111

To improve my detail shots, I used a Lowe's gift card on 1000W of Halogen lighting. I currently lack adequate cords to use them, but I have a few test shots here:

Obviously, too much direct light on the styrene.

A nice few of the wood grain I added to the styrene, but I need more lighting on that transom facing the camera.

An incomplete brake cylinder.

I need more time to practice with the lights, but they clearly have potential. Wish my wife's really nice camera hadn't died...

OR&L Clerestory and Club rant

2010-01-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I sat down to finish forming the end roof profiles and begin the final assembly of the roof framing. The wife asked me when I'd be heading to bed, I shook my head and said...10?

I decided to assemble the end framing to the clerestory windows before attaching the car lines. Ugh. Because I calculated the spacing separately from the sides (the spacers in between the windows are different between the two), there was nearly a 0.008" error in the width of each window. That probably doesn't seem like much, but it results in a scale 2"~2.5" difference in the location of the last window in the clerestory and the last window in the car side. It might be acceptable if they both had this same error (certainly within the tolerances of the drawing), but unacceptable in this case. If I didn't fuss about 5", I might be in On30 ;-)

Of course, the wifey was a little upset at 10 when I wasn't ready for bed. In my hurry, I managed to fix one of the clerestory window sets...but then decided to trim it (the overall length was off too). Big mistake. I measured once and spent quite a bit of time finding the small pieces and fixing it. If there are any visible scars tomorrow, I'll just throw it out and visit my local hobby shop for more material. Sigh. This will be a gorgeous kit when completed.

-------------------------------------------------

What is it with clubs/organizations? Most wonder why they can't attract young members, and then turn around and make the dues even worse.

A week ago, I was talking with a former member of an O-scale club. I told him that I'd previously thought of joining, but that the cost ($20-$30 per month) were out of my league. He tried to tell me that it was chunk change. Clearly, this 60ish gentleman with disposable income doesn't understand the economics of being in your 20s. It is especially bad when you are unemployed, your wife is partially employed, and you have both a 1yr old and a mortgage to pay. Yeah...the club fees are nothing! Especially when I only had $40 a month of discretionary money when we both had income.

In other news, the DSP&P historical society is now $35 per year (Edited: I accidentally put month here instead of year) . I don't have any clue why. I was a member for one year, a couple years ago. It is a fine organization that I'd love to be a part of...but it is a bridge too far financially. Back in November, I met one of its board members. He asked me if I was a member and I explained that I couldn't afford to both be a member and build trains. He didn't seem to like that and didn't say much else to me the rest of the time (keep in mind, I am very passionate about the South Park). Perhaps, they pay authors or something. $10 is for restoration work. So what about the rest? $5 for the newsletter printing/mail...and $20 for ??? How about a bare bones $5-$10 membership or something with an electronic version of the newsletter for people under 30? It wouldn't increase their costs...and it would help support the mission in the long run. Of course, if you check out the convention photos, those under-30s are conspicuously absent. Perhaps they aren't interested in trains.

I'm not certain how I'll pay for my bare-bones NMRA membership once my $10 trial runs out. It is clearly a powerful tool...especially since I actually get to meet dozens of people. Hopefully I'll have both a job as an engineer and have kit sales to fund the cheapest renewal option with the NMRA. Similarly, I've got to figure out what to do to cover my Cincinnati Railroad Club renewal. I have a war chest from Christmas...but I have no other money for discretionary spending and it is needed for starting up my resin car business. For now, I can only dream about joining other societies: SPng, HRyS, CRRM, etc. For now, I will be content to learn what I can through the internet and by devouring books through inter-library loans/borrowing from my dad.

To any leaders of organizations out there: you must compete with the free forum of the internet. They do not need you to network with other people. They do not need you to learn more than most of your members know (by actually reading books rather than just collecting). Still, they might want to join you if your cost is within their budget. Eventually, they will be paying full dues and actively supporting your organizations. Pass on your passion and your knowledge...it is vital to the future of your groups.

Happy New Year

2010-01-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

It has been one month since my last post...too long. The trifecto of my birthday, Christmas, and New Years always robs me of some good modeling time. Still, I picked up some quality time with my dad studying NKP car #5 in Lima. My favorite gift was definitely Sundance's Colorado Central book which has been on my list the past couple of years...a tremendous book which goes mile-by-mile on the line documenting everything with photos, statistics, and maps...almost all of it from before 1890!

For the NMRA meeting, I managed to get my stock car part of the way done. I didn't finish the interior detailing/weathering or really even touch the underframe...but she still looked nice enough to draw some compliments. More importantly, it and my steam locomotive slides were conversation starters to get to know some of the NMRA members.

Here's the roof sheathing ready for installation. The sub-roof is at the lower right.

Being an open car, and being a fan of prototypical construction, the roof has appropriately sized car lines and joists (I can't recall if it has an appropriate number of car lines). The sub roof is made of sheet styrene due to the difficulty of doing the entire thing in board-by-board in a timely manner. Here it is, hurriedly painted and awaiting touch-ups:

Here's what the car looks like today:

I haven't sealed the decals as of yet. I don't quite like the spacing of the & P, so I might see about moving them if I can. Currently, the trucks are attached in the prototypical fashion with a pin...a time saver that will be replaced with a screw in the future.

My Oahu Railway coach patterns are coming along. I'm currently working on cutting the inside contours to the car lines.

I've decided to leave the clerestory car lines flat on the bottoms to improve their structural strength. I'm not that far from a completed roof. The car still needs the window patterns and an underframe. Of the cars I'm planning, I'll probably keep more of these OR&L coaches than any other cars due to the shear volume of these cars on the Oahu Railway and also due to their relative length (2-5 cars was normal Colorado narrow gauge trains, the Oahu Railway ran 4-20 car passenger trains).

NMRA meeting this Sunday

2009-12-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

Last year, I attended my first NMRA meeting. It wasn't a particularly enjoyable time...in part because the table where I sat was filled with people whom were unwilling to engage in conversation. But this week, I will go back for my second meeting as I met enough interesting people through the Mini-Bunch to have a better time.

The monthly contests are stock cars and photos of steam. I'll be entering my favorite photo from Jenbach, AT into the photo contest...and I'm working on completing my DSP&P stock car for that contest.

Accordingly, I've started two pair of early DSP&P trucks. One pair will be for this car, and the other will go under one of my other cars. Since this is a nicely executed car, I'm making a point to detail the trucks. The wooden transoms are scribed on all four sides as well as the ends. I'll add the NBWs once I have the side frames together; journal lids after it is complete. I'll design some sort of faux spring plank so that it looks right, but isn't fully functional. This type of truck is the most difficult freight car trucks that I've built...with at least 35 pieces per truck, excluding the bolster pad and augmentables.

These are what I did last night. They are the transoms and spacers. They are a scale 12" tall and 16" wide, with a transom length of 5'2" IIRC...these correspond to 1/4" x 1/3" x ~1 1/6".

A lettered waycar

2009-11-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

Today was the Mini-Bunch fall meet. It was my first Mini-Bunch event. I had a good time and greatly enjoyed chatting with numerous likewise "narrow" minded individuals. Last year, I just missed the fall meet and couldn't make the spring meet.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. There were several nice models in the contest room, as well as some cool layouts. I had debated which car I ought to paint/letter and bring, and I settled on the incomplete baggage car and waycar. I was really almost too embarrassed by the waycar to take it...its execution is now well below my modeling level. Regardless,I hurriedly painted her white on Friday morning and then hit the underside with a wood shade and black on friday evening...single coats of each. I cut squares of silk span approx 2'x 2' and applied them to a coat of gray on the roof to depict a canvas roof. I finished applying the first layer of dry transfers and sealing them after 3am. I then woke up at 9am and applied the second layer and sealing them. I would never dream of doing this with one of my "good" models, but hey, I'm already disappointed with this car...so all I could ruin was a good pair of dry transfers! At the last minute, I tossed the lime car into the box as a space holder to keep the way car from rolling around...and I ended up setting it up on the table as well. After the event, we visited a fabulous HO Southern layout.

Here are some photos of the lettered way car and the 34' roofs: 2 good resin roofs, the warped roof, and the master. The resin copies are actually stiffer and heavier than the styrene master.

Yep, I smudged the paint a little and I had poor color separation.

What an ugly paint job underneath! It matches the crooked truss rods! I am thoroughly looking forward to my next way car...I'll do that one right. This one will be just fine as a filler car on my future roster.

Roofs lined up!

I also got around to installing all of the door guides.

It was really a lot of fun to take models to the show. Sure, winning would have been great, but the models were great conversation starters. I definitely will take models to all future conventions and events...even if I don't have a competitive piece, because it made the event more fun than had I not brought any.

Here's the Mini-Bunch page: http://www.narrowtracks.com/minibunch/

Returning to work

2009-11-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

I've been quite busy over the past month with defending my MS thesis. I've reached the land of 10,000 corrections...having passed the defense. Therefore, I haven't gotten around to posting. I've done a few things here and there:

-patterns for the sides of an Oahu Railway coach
-experimenting with painting techniques for simulating unpainted wood (using $0.50 acrylics)
-researching South Park passenger cars
-researching the Oahu Railway freight roster

My big project the today was finishing up the mold for, and casting my first, resin roof. I've not bothered to start any of the other roofs, for if there are any lessons I need to incorporate into them...it is best to learn them before starting.

The next two roofs are for the OR&L clerestory roofed cars and the 40'6" Barney & Smith roof for coaches #3 & #5, as well as the cars that served on the Carson & Colorado, SPng, Nevada County Narrow Gauge, as well as another road in Pennsylvania. It is important to note that while coaches #3 & #5 both made it onto the C&S roster, they were extensively rebuilt and so the 1920's version of the C&S cars would require a special roof.

In my experience, the first casting reveals any problems that I have with either a) the mold or b) my technique. Accordingly, I didn't wait long enough for it to harden since I wanted to see if it worked (this caused it to be warped). I adjusted my technique and another has been hardening for an hour.

Comparison shots with the master:

That roof will probably be used as part of a wreck or abandoned car scene.

Finished roof

2009-10-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy with work/school. Things will continue to move slowly for around a month...until school ends...forever!

The roof for #40 has been sitting for a couple weeks. It needs just a few touch ups. I'm trying to decide if I'll texture it or not prior to creating the mold (probably not).

The holes at the ends are for ventilation. They probably weren't there on the baggage cars, but I'd bet they were on the chair cars...which will use a lengthened version of this roof. I'm close to settled on relationship of the windows, window posts, and blind end space on #6 and #7-8. Once I've settled it, I'll start on the masters for their sides/ends.

This is a 23' Colorado Central flat car. I got around to adding a few more details to it...the stake pockets in particular. I've toyed with adding the couplers now for some test runs.

Not only did they only cost me a fraction of commercial parts, but they are more accurate for these cars. I still need to add the u-bolts to them. This model doesn't have intermediate sills as I'll be stuffing weights into their place. This car and my 24' lime car account for 2 of my 4 pairs of Colorado Central trucks. I'm currently leaning towards the metal sheathed powder car and an excursion car for the others. I'll also have to decide if these will have hand or air brakes...the powder car definitely gets hand brakes with dual staffs.

I have two additional projects that I've started, but since I plan to publish them, I won't be showing them here until after they are either published or turned down.

Complete roof frame for #40

2009-09-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

The holes in the end are for ventilation...not for the model, but on real cars. I don't know if this baggage car had such a feature (it wouldn't have been as necessary), but I've added it so that I'll have it for the combines and coaches that'll use this roof.

I'll remove the two cross braces once the sheathing is in place.

Roof, #40, step 4

2009-09-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here are the end profile pieces, shaped:

Here they are laid out for orientation:

And here's the clerestory with its carlines installed.

It is currently 33'4" long. The additional 8" of body length and 4'2" of overhangs will come from the end profile pieces.

Next, I'll be attaching the rafters...and it will start to look pretty. I'd really love to use as many carlines as the prototype, but that is wayyyy too much work.

#40 roof part 3

2009-08-26T18:37:00.001-07:00

More carlines

2009-08-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

Here are the carlines. The deck carlines are 2" tall. The rafters haven't yet had their undersides formed...but they'll be 6" wide at the base and 2" tall on along the length.

The patterns I used are at the top-left of the picture. For the deck carlines (top of the clerestory), I only used the patterns to form the top curves and then my calipers to mark the bottoms of these...followed by cutting the bottom sides out.

I have three main options as to where to go next:
1) form the clerestory sides/windows
2) form the end curves
3) cut out the undersides of the rafters.

I've chosen #1. I decided to go with 12" tall clerestory sides. A friend kindly checked some dimensions from the plans of the modernized version of this car that were published in the July/August 1989 Gazette (C&S #1)...and this verified that I'd guestimated some of the dimensions correctly. It is handy to study standard practices!

Here are the 210 pieces of the clerestory sides ready for assembly:

A little less than an hour later, here's one of the two sides:

I've designed this in a simpler maner than the sides since I intend to duplicate this in resin...the windows are not openable nor have the type of complicated/prototypical construction that I'd normally use.

Doing a bit a research over the weekend, I determined that in addition to baggage cars #40 and #41, three other cars can use this same roof. #40 & #41 were 34' long, 8' wide, and had 9' body/roof heights. #6 had the same roof profile and identical dimensions, only the clerestory window patern was slightly different (it was a combine); similarly, coach #7 and chair car #8 were 40'4" long, 8' wide, 9' tall, and had the same roof profile and clerestory window layout. So I'll be able to squeeze 5 cars out of this roof (I'll use three of the roof castings to make the two roofs for #7 & #8). I'll have to see if it is possible for me to widen this roof for use on #45 which was 34' long, 9' tall, and 8'2" wide...with a very different clerestory window pattern.

Roof for #40, step 1

2009-08-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

Carline production has begun. I want a minimum of 12 of these per side, 24 total, with a maximum of 20 per side (40 total).

Next up, I'll be cutting the bottoms of the carlines so that they are basically arches instead of square.

Some details on NKP hudsons

2009-08-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

Last night, I decided to renew the fight against my Nickel Plate hudson. I actually have two, plus a long term lease on a third, but my first one is the one I think of as MY NKP hudson. She was the most expensive locomotive I've ever purchased by a wide margin...and she has elephant ears. She is also, in many respects, my worst locomotive.

Nickel Plate Products imported these locomotives in 1977. The L-1a's came with elephant ears and mars lights...the L-1b's came without these details. In 1982, the imported more L-1a's that were factory painted. All were made in Japan and have a reputation as bad locomotives...with numerous ones have self destructed. The biggest problem is in the way the cylinder block is attached, as well as the valve gear. These parts are loose enough that they can slide around and cause binds. Combining that with their bad open frame motors, and they aren't winners. But, they are the only NKP passenger power ever offered (aside from the berks that were equiped for passenger service). Ironically, the other two hudsons have had their problems fixed...so they are merely new motors away from being excellent locomotives.

A friend, Wayne, tipped me off as to the best way to install the motor in her. Since the motor is too large to slide through the ashpan, I'll mount it in the firebox and use tweezers to place the universal when it is being put together.

Last night, I removed the gearbox from my troubled hudson...so that it can roll freely. This has allowed me to attack the problems with the valve gear. I've bent various parts around to try to help them avoid binding...but there is just so much slop in the mechanism that I fear a relapse even though it is quite smooth right now.

With that done for now, I've gone after fixing a few of the details on the boiler. I noticed that one of the sand lines is missing, plus a number of the parts are crooked. Upon further review, the missing sandline shouldn't be there...it is an error.

Variations:
The L-1a's were built in 1927 by Alco-Brooks. They were the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th hudsons ever built. They were numbered 170-173. After WW2, they were extensively rebuilt with new frames, elephant ears, and various other upgrades. Sometime after 1946, the L-1a's received additional sand lines as the HO hudsons have...apparently for backing up into LaSalle Street Station. 170-172 were defiled in the 1950s with Mars lights...one of the many reasons that 1940s railroading was superior to 1950s railroading. The 170 sits in the St. Louis Transportation Museum. The 173 was purchased by a man whom intended to save her, but his untimely death led to her getting cut up.

The L-1b's were built in 1929 by Lima. They were #174-177. As with the pacifics (and the berks), the Limas were better than the Alcos...as the 175 and 177 were distinctly the best hudsons (162 was the best pacific). 174 and 176 were both defiled with Mars lights. 174 & 175 had the same fate as the 173. All four Limas never recevied the additional sand line...and since my models will be/are Limas, they'll have their extra sand lines removed. I need to research the tenders a bit more as they varied in the 1940s...and I don't want them to have the standard 1950s hudson tender if they didn't have it in 1948.

Perhaps, in the future, I'll add more L-1s to my roster by acquiring USRA light 4-6-2s and bashing them. The mechanism is identical to that of both the NKP pacifics and hudsons, and so it will spare me the effort of fixing another brass L-1. Two manufacturers have had USRA light 4-6-2s that have been overdue for nearly a year.

Box steps

2009-08-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

I've been working on box steps. My waycar, paycar, baggage car, and coaches all need them. They need to be slightly different sizes for each...and my waycar needs ones that are a slightly different shape. I've cut out enough parts for the first three sets...the waycar, baggage car, and paycar. I haven't checked to see what shape they'll need to be for the Barney & Smith coaches. Since I can build my own, I can't just settle for what is commercially available!

Here's the sheet I've used for most of the sides of the box steps. The reverse curved sides are for passenger cars. The simpler ones are for the waycar. I studied every photo I could of the 13' waycars to get the shape correct. The earlier cars had strap steps...and I believe that they were both longer than these as well as painted red instead of a light color (I prefer white).

Here's one set of the passenger car cutouts along with the baggage car:

I decided not to put too much effort into the floor of the baggage car. I'm on the fence as to whether or not add a lamp and interior at this point. I may start the roof next.

Here's what it looked like before I added the floor but after glazing the windows:

Here are the waycar box steps under construction:

The first two sets have been installed, so just the above two need to be completed:

Don't be deceived by the photo. The two are nearly identical in size...almost spot on in every dimension...and they should be. For the cupola car is C&S 1006...which was either DSP&P #72 or #73 before being modernized...and the waycar is the series which included the #72 or #73.

My next waycar will make up for the deficiencies in that car. I'm planning to add #69...a 13' waycar that was red with black lettering (#72 was white with black lettering) and then a #64 which will be a 15' car with white lettering...strap steps, and less grab irons.

Next project?

2009-07-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'm debating between two cars...

The DSP&P's first couple passenger cars...the Auraria and the Denver...
Or the DSP&P's Bower, Dure & Co cars...#16, 17, 22-25...

All eight cars were very similar. All had similar roofs and had classic mid-early narrow gauge features. The biggest difference was that the BD&Co cars were wider. Either option produces both combines and coaches. Another difference is that the Denver, coach #2, burned in 1880.

Combine #1, Auraria, shows up in this photo from the Ted Kierscey Collection. The coach behind it is one of the Barney & Smith cars that I'm already building.
http://narrowgauge.org/images/tkcok/m0048.jpg

This next view shows one of the BD&Co cars at Nathrop...
http://narrowgauge.org/ngc/graphics/tkierscey/dspp/dspp0012.jpg
And another view with two of them in a row...
http://narrowgauge.org/ngc/graphics/tkierscey/dspp/dspp006.jpg

And another view which could be the Denver or a BD&Co car...along with my baggage car...
http://narrowgauge.org/images/tkcok/m00422.jpg

I've never met Ted, but I'll thank him for sharing is wonderful collection whenever we do meet!

I'm inclined to create a resin kit out of the one I select. If you would be interested in one or the other...leave a comment...to help me decide which to do. I'd probably offer the BD&Co with either the original or a modern roof.

I'm going to make a mold for my baggage car and B&S car roofs. I've decided that I'd like to do so in case I make more of either...as there was a second baggage car identical to the one I'm building and a number of additional B&S coaches in California/Nevada...particularly on my two favorite California NG roads...the Nevada County Narrow Gauge and the Carson & Colorado/SPng.

Train Festival 2009

2009-07-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at Train Festival.

Our weekend started with a drive up to visit my family on Thursday. My Grandmother was in the hospital (she's now out) and so we took the Liam in to see her. Once we got to my parents' house, I began ripping up all of the old HO yards and much of the old main...leaving just the branch line, coal mine, and an oval for continuous running below the branch.

All of the trackage I removed. Flex track on the right, turnouts on the left.

I also found the On3 switching layout I started back in high school...On3 in a 2'x4' space!

We then headed on to stay with them at the other house...two blocks from the Nickel Plate's Minster branch. The rail was dated 1913...so it actually predated the NKP's take over of the LE&W. My dad suggested that it is probably around 80# rail (it wasn't stamped, but I thought it was lighter than 90# rail).

We headed up and caught the Daylight at Alma, MI.

And I figured out where the photo run-bys were, and caught all three...

And then caught it once more after the run-bys...

I'd love to see the interior of this car:

And ride in this:

The following morning, dad and I caught the 765 before she departed Owosso...as she was covering for the ill 1225:

Based on the 1225 crew's response to their trouble, it sounds bad...as did what I've heard. Hopefully, once they've been able to get at the problem, it will be fixed in time for the rest of their season. Their website has been silent about it, which implies to me that they aren't confident enough to assert that she'll be ready, but they have enough hope not to cancel anything.

After the 765's departure, we caught the Little River pacific as her excursion passengers loaded...

Once inside the festival, we went straight to the back to see the Leviathan...a brand new replica of an 1868 4-4-0.

Nearby was the former Gettysburg RR 2-8-0.

Her fellow GRR 4-6-2 was the engine that had the boiler explosion (NOT a catastrophic explosion) which prompted new FRA boiler rules and sidelined many perfectly good locomotives. It is worth noting that the rules wouldn't have done anything to prevent the gross operator error that caused the Gettysburg incident. I saw both this 2-8-0 as well as that 4-6-2 a few years ago near the Ohio Central's Morgan Run shops.

There was a Weaver NKP hudson on one of the display layouts...

I drooled over those when they came out. I love them.

And then the family arrived...

And we made a B-line to the 1/8th scale trains for a ride...

My brother's family

One of the live steam 1:32 railroads had an SP GS-4 operating near the real SP GS-4...

But the ultimate model at the show was this Southern PS-4...

It's whistle sounded incredible unlike most 1.5" scale locomotives.

Three generations of railfans...

And my nephew enjoyed himself...

That Little River 4-6-2's tender carries 10 tons of coal and 4500 gallons of water...while the 765 is 22 tons and 22,000 gallons. So I'd guess that the 4-6-2 has a coal range of around 350 miles and a water range of less than 50 miles.

Sunday was an interesting day. We chased the 765 in the morning...

Then broke off the chase to ride the Huckleberry Railroad...

My brother's family rode the trip before us...

Liam loved it

That's ex-D&RGW coach #308 at their shops

And a Mexican 2-8-0...

Their primary power is the ex-D&RGW #464 (which has been immortalized by many models) and an Alaskan 4-6-0 #152. They also have a Quincy and Torch Lake 2-6-0 sitting behind their shops.

I had a wonderful time with the crew...it is an incredibly well run railroad...and loaded with excellent equipment. Their best piece (historically) is definitely their ex-NPC coach #8 which was built by Kimball in 1875...an extremely rare bird...and they do not use it for its protection. Their hospitality delayed our departure by an hour...but it was thoroughly worth it!

The delay caused us to reach Lima at dinner time...so we stopped at the Kewpee. Being so close to the NKP 779's home in Lincoln Park, we headed on over.

Much to my horror, I discovered a hole had been cut in the fence.

My father is one of the caretakers, and so I immediately had a park ranger dispatched and notified a caretaker whom brought over his keys. We then went in and found no damage or missing items. Suddenly, the delay which made us late to Huckleberry and the excellent time with the crew there made me very glad. The Lincoln Park event added another hour delay...but I couldn't leave until it was taken care of. The result was that Liam had a melt down for the last 45 minutes of our drive home...but I'm glad that the strange day happened as it did.

So, I saw 8 locomotives at Train Festival, 4 at Huckleberry, 1 at Durand, but the only locomotive I climbed into the cab of was the 779...which was under lock and key!

Painting cars and test runs

2009-07-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

I painted two of my passenger cars Chocolate Brown. I also touched up the paint on my pay car...which I haven't touched in 9 months. Since the real cars were finished with a gloss varnish, I'm going to violate one of my rules of modeling...a gloss finish on my passenger cars. The initial test looks great. Here's a picture of some of the painted car parts:

I've also been working on prepping more link & pin couplers. I have too many cars that need them...so I'm getting them ready. Unfortunately, my bag of links, pins, springs, and microscopic bits has gone missing in the past couple of days. I'll chemically blacken every part (and possibly paint them) before assembly.

And for the first time in a year...service has been restored to my entire mainline...

The approach tracks are temporary.

This is the view which greats visitors...

I just might have to remove that unnecessary guard rail...

My next entry will probably be of the 8 locomotives at Train Festival 2009, plus the 4-6-2 at Durand, MI, and the 4-5 locomotives at the Huckleberry Railroad. If I'm really lucky, I'll also see the 4-6-2 at Jackson, MI. Unfortunately, my 82 year old grandmother is once again in the hospital, so if things are really bad, I might not be in Michigan...

Car end construction for #40

2009-07-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

Here are the two car ends. One is upside down to show the construction. Both have holes drilled in the correct places above and below the door for the brass wire which will allow the doors to be opened or closed. I don't know why exactly, but I have a fascination with having doors and windows being positionable. It makes construction a heck of a lot more time consuming.

Side doors for DSP&P #40

2009-07-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

The Denver, South Park, and Pacific's baggage-express car #40 has all 6 of its side doors now. Each of the 4 baggage doors was made from 32 pieces of styrene. The openings scale out to match C&S baggage car #1 which was what #40 became during the 20th century.

Here she is with the parts nearly invisible on my recently found MR notebook.

Here's a nice view of three of the doors in place.

I suspect that this will definitely draw plenty of interest on my future layout...how many baggage cars had that many windows and doors? I still have to make the two doors for the ends of the car...then I'll have no excuse for not painting it and assembling the car body.

Unfortunately, I plan to model one of the two sections of the South Park that had a mail contract...so this will be reserved for special passenger trains (the mail was handled by a trio of BMXs...2 Pullman and 1 UP) as the regular will need an RPO. I plan to build both Pullman BMXs when I build 2-3 of the original Pullmans.

The lovely wife allowed me to take over her old DAAP box (DAAP was where she picked up her B.A. in design). I've turned it into a tool storage bin.

Some pictures from Carillon Park

2009-06-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

Carillon Park is pretty cool. Sure, they have a 1905 airplane and such, but I go for the trains!

They have an 1835 steam locomotive. A 190X Barney & Smith coach-observation car, a B&S interurban, and open trolley (B&S???), a Lima fireless cooker, a 30" gauge Porter, a B&O caboose, and a 1/8th scale railroad.

This weekend, they had a train show...which surprised me. I didn't take photos of any of the layouts, directly, as I was short on time and I prefer 1:1 trains to model trains.

Here are a few photos:

A 1/8th scale Southern Ps-4...I road behind her.

The porter

The open trolley

The interurban

Inside the interurban

The exterior of the passenger car

The coach portion of the passenger car

The 1835 Grasshopper. She is not a replica...she is a genuine 174 year old steam locomotive.

Continuing work on my 2-8-0

2009-06-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

After the disaster that was my first attempt at rolling the locomotive after adding the main rods (there was a bind between the #1 driver's crankpins and the crossheads...causing damage to some of the frame members).

I started off with reinforcing, laterally, the vertical frame members by drilling holes and adding pins from the horizontal members...after gluing them back in place. I also filed down the crankpin locations on the lead driver as well as the backs of the crosshead guides. I added 2"x4" spacers to lower the driver bearings (raising the frame), filed off a couple bits here and there, and it rolled smoothly once more. I then reinstalled the gearbox and connected the motor...success! I now need to find some longer crankpin screws for the main drivers.

The level of satisfaction that I receive from success with this project is definitely the greatest I've ever experienced in this hobby. The second greatest is from building passenger cars.

Before renewing work (mustering up the courage) on the 2-8-0, I made a mold and cast a few name plate ovals for my passenger cars. I cheated a bit on the mold and regret it, but it will work. I also got around to working some on my 26' flatcar deck. I'm still not happy with it...it needs more gray...but it is improving.

1st door for the baggage car

2009-06-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing much modeling. We have had a guest in our house for the past few weeks...and I'm more inclined to visit (she is from China, so we are ambassadors of sorts) than build trains. I'm not introverted as my long posts imply...

The head end car received its first of 8 doors this evening...8 doors. 8 windows, plus 8 doors with 20 windows in those doors.

I converted my $69 On30 2-8-0 into an On3 2-8-0.

I also swapped out the wood burner stack for the conventional stack (and coil springs for the tender trucks). It runs nicely on my layout.

What shall she be?

Probably OR&L #36...I prefer it slightly over the other similar 50ton 2-8-0s the OR&L had. Yet, SG&N #34 is pretty close to and I've got a soft spot for the Mears lines.

I'll have to get a second one for the SG&N/SN/WP&Y #34

I have 5 name plate ovals ready for my passenger cars. I'm going to make a mold and cast resin duplicates of them:

Also pictured there are the formers for my HO lightweight passenger car roofs...the 1940 AAR contour minus and inch or two for the actual roof material. The name plate shown is before the edge was added.

I had a production line a few weeks back and produced 3 sets of Colorado Central trucks. One pair has been mounted under the 1872 23' Colorado Central underframe I built a couple years ago.

While I was at it, I mounted the trucks under a few of my other cars (specifically the CC lime car and the DSP&P flat car).

I put my waycar under the knife and fixed the crooked pedestal which caused only three of the wheels to touch the rail at once...that led to adding the second layer to the roof and will lead to continuing my work on the brake gear.

Riding the 765

2009-05-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

My childhood returned to me as an adult this past Friday. I can recall, before I understood the concept of a week, that while most days my father was at work and my brother at preschool by the time I woke up, some days they would both be at home when I woke up and we would head up to Ft. Wayne, IN together. Why Ft. Wayne? Because of the Nickel Plate Road 765. My father, when he was younger than I am today, helped found a volunteer organization which pulled the 765 from a Ft. Wayne park and restored her to steam a few years before I was born. My childhood was dominated by this formative experience. Many summer weekends were spent both following and riding the 765's excursions.

As I grew older, I began to understand my schedule. 5 days a week, my father went to work. On Saturdays, he worked on the 765 and his passenger cars. On Sundays, we went to church and visited family. I would draw railroads on my children's bulletin at church...and spend the week imagining things relating to the 765. This life ended when I was 10 years old. The 765 needed some very costly 100,000 mile maintenance procedures. We continued heading up to Ft. Wayne, but then it was primarily for my dad to work on the Chittenango Falls. (http://thesouthparkline.blogspot.com/2009/02/chittenango-falls.html)

I temporarily lost my interest in trains when I began jr high sports. They were rekindled in high school after I quit the basketball team. The catalyst was an annual banquet of the 765's crew...the speaker was a long time friend of my father whom had saved the NKP 779 (sister to the 765)...the 779 was the last domestic, commercially produced steam locomotive in the USA (other nations continued to produce simpler locomotives into the 1990s).

The 779's cage along with John H. Keller's caboose, NKP 1091, and NKP business car #5.

Shortly after that meeting, the 765 received a TEA grant to fund the work...essentially, $500,000 for the overhaul. This was right around 1999...only 6 years since my last trip about the 765 when I road the crew car. Being that the TEA grant was a government thing, it wasn't exactly fast...but worth it.

The cab being removed early in the overhaul

Glen Brendel has also been there since day one and probably deserves more credit for this overhaul than anyone else. Not only was he part of the original group of visionaries, but he was also the tireless one whom obtained the grant and then managed the overhaul. If you have ever enjoyed the 765 and happen to meet him, thank him.

Here, you are looking at a professional railroader. Gary Bensman grew up with the Nickel Plate literally in his backyard...the small yards and wye where the NKP's Minster branch met up with the NKP's LE&W (Sandusky-Peoria mainline). Gary is a consulting steam locomotive restoration expert. I can recall a couple of his projects from the late 1980s prior to his leaving the 765 crew...such as the CB&Q 4960. The services of Diversified Rail Services were brought in to help with the restoration.

Here, Gary and Steve Winicker (sic?) are in the firebox. The Siphons have been cut out. This is were Gary is really cool to talk to, as he's restored so may locomotives that he's learned stuff about siphons which few very living people know...such as how they actually serve no purpose and hence are a liability. Steve is a regular at the shop. He has tirelessly driven a couple hours every Saturday for as long as I can recall to work on the 765.

Here's the locomotive on the day of the big lift. Every 100k miles, a locomotive needs work on its running gear. The drivers are removed. The steel tires are removed from the driver centers. They are then turned on a gigantic lathe. Tires on steam locomotives are changed by placing flammable rags around the tires and lighting them on fire. The 765 has 69" drivers prior to wear and tear. Most modern freight engines had between 57" and 69" drivers...63" being the most common. The larger they are, the faster they are. Passenger engines typically had 72"-80" drivers...the largest I can recall were 86". Hence, the wheel lathes are huge...and only a few are operational in the US.

Here she is sitting on the cribbing. She doesn't weigh anywhere close to the 400tons weighs while operational.

That's me admiring the trailing truck after tagging along with my dad. I'm 6'2"...but I look a bit short alongside those massive wheels.

Here she is after her wheels were returned.

Here she was on her break in run back three years ago. She operated on the former Pennsy mainline between Van Wert, OH, and Ft. Wayne. This track is a regional railroad now, but it was once the primary New York-Chicago mainline of the worlds largest railroad.

Once more, ready to exert 4500HP and attain speeds approaching 90mph.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This Friday was a members appreciation special. Lisa, Liam, and I left Cincinnati at 8:30am and arrived around 12:45 Ohio time...not bad considering we had to stop for Liam's lunch. We made it in time for the dedication ceremony. My dad gave a short speech and Glen Brendel did the honors with the champagne.

My batteries died right at the start!!! AHHHHH!!!! I didn't remember to bring spares. Fortunately, Kevin's, whom was part of the two man team who magnificently restored the group's wooden NKP caboose, wife had a couple spare batteries. I nursed the batteries since I didn't know how much life they'd have...and therefore didn't take anywhere close to as many photos as I was planning to take.

I only knabbed one photo of the local group's pride and joy...the C&O 2789. She is a sister of the 765. Six NKP, twelve C&O, and two PM "berkshires" survive...the single greatest number of examples of any steam locomotive design. Two of the NKP, one of the C&O, and one of the PM engines have run. A third NKP engine will be restored in the near future.

A family photo.

Little man was a good sport as we road an open air car which belonged to the 765 crew (FWRHS) when I was a kid. We switched to a "modern" (1954) air conditioned coach for the return trip.

It is a time honored tradition on steam excursions to, at some point, allow everyone off the train...back it up...and blast past for the cameras.

back on the train, right before changing cars.

Back in North Judson at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum (whom provided the railroad), here's a view of the modern passenger cars...the were built for the Canadian National and served in VIA (Canada's Amtrak).

The two open window cars which formerly were owned by the 765 crew. All of the passenger cars as well as the diesel on the other end (there was no facility to move the 765 to the other end of the train for the return) were provided by Jerry Jacobson. He is well known for his acquiring and restoring equipment which he usually runs on the railroad he recently sold. Years ago, he was part of the 765 crew.

After the passenger excursion, 765 was coupled to a short string of vintage freight cars which are from the HVRM collection. A 1929 Wabash composite boxcar, a transition era MDT reefer, a 1959 N&W hopper, a 1946 NKP gondola, and a 1962 NKP caboose (built in Kenton, OH...not far from where the 765 was built in Lima...and a town where I played basketball/ran track in high school).

Three generations of rail fans.

The vintage freight cars looked wonderful...so much better than modern freight cars. Two thumbs up!

And here's a compilation of videos:

New motive power

2009-05-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we had full day of 1:1 scale steam railroading. I'll be posting videos and pictures on here soon.

Today, I received three sets of On3 trucks in the mail from a friend in Florida. One pair will be used on a kit which has been sitting unassembled since I was around Liam's age...maybe longer.

Another toy came in the mail as well. On Weds evening, I saw a B-man On30 2-8-0 on ebay for $80 buy it now or best offer. I got it for $69. I was very excited as it is a great starting place for an Oahu Railway 2-8-0...it just needs regauged and re-detailed. It runs well and looks great. It comes with a number of different detail parts...an extended smoke box, multiple fuel loads for the tender (wood, coal, or oil), different smoke box fronts for different headlight locations, different pilots, different stacks, etc. I swapped out the onion stack for the tapered as well as the road pilot and oil load.

With the model in hand and armed with some measurements courtesy of Jeff L. out in Hawaii, I have begun evaluating which OR&L 2-8-0...the little Baldwins, the big Baldwins, the medium sized ALCOs, or the big ALCOs. I think that big ALCO #36 is probably the winner. The driver wheelbase is one foot too tight on the model...and every detail/dome needs changed, but it could look pretty darn cool. Plus, it'll need a new tender. I uploaded a broadside photo of #36 and have taken many key measurements off of it...especially the domes and the tender dimensions.

Now, I'm not so sure about it. I had the misfortune of thinking: I know what locomotive that is nearly spot on for...SG&N/SN #34. I pulled out the book Rainbow Route with a plan for #34, and it is spot on. The piping is correct, the tender is within a couple inches, the wheelbase is very close, the boiler is spot on, the domes are right, the cab is perfect, the turbo generator is in the right spot...it just needs the valve gear simplified and the counterweights removed.

There were really three projects I've wanted to build based off of this model: an OR&L 2-8-0, an OR&L 0-6-0, and SN #34. Now, I have to decide the easy road or the hard road...or acquiring a second and having one SN and one OR&L. I think that I prefer the OR&L locomotive...but It'll also require WAY more work. I know that either way, I'll eventually have both. I'm going to simmer on this decision for a while...perhaps I'll regauge and run her some first. I'm also going to study every photo I have of the two engines. (the 0-6-0 will probably be a project for the future).

An Oahu truck...

2009-05-11T20:29:00.001-07:00

I had fun today printing out plans from Next Stop Honolulu. It was #1 on my list after discovering the Oahu Railway about a year ago while in Hawaii. This truck frame is a trial. I've decided that the rule for building non-DSP&P cars must be that the trucks be completed before I'm allowed to start the car. The OR&L had a number of cars that I'd like to build...

The yoke...

2009-05-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

Here it is along with odd Cooke bracket...

And where it was a couple nights ago...

Last night, I focused on the cosmetics of the cylinder block...but don't have a photo of it.

A few nights ago, I was sufficiently tired of the 2-8-0 and so I finished preparing the arched ends for one of my coaches...

Current as of today

2009-05-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

This week, I managed to form the Laird crosshead guides. I still have to add a few details to each and glue the piston in place, but they are in nice shape now. I've carefully engineered the parts for smooth motion. I was thwarted by my scale during the creation of the yoke...my scale has two 2s in a row...one for reading from left to right on the 1 1/2" scale, and another for right to left with the 3" scale. My as built drawings are 1 1/2"...and I measured them as being 2'7" instead of 1'7" thanks to the 3" 2 being the same mark as the 1 1/2" 1. Er. I taped over it to avoid that repeating that mistake again.

Here is the frame with the cylinder block in place and the frame extensions for the pilot...

I've temporarily added some spacers to illustrate the apprx motor elevation. You can also see the size of the boiler...minus its rivet overlays.

Here are the ends of the cylinder block:

I'll be adding the steam chests soon...but they aren't as essential for smooth performance since I won't be adding working Stephenson Valve Gear. (but I'm temped to do so...)

Here are the Laird crossheads with the main rods attached:

They look better in person.

-----------------------------------------
I've repowered, for now, one of my NKP hudsons. It has a Cannon motor in it now. Runs both quietly and smoothly...adjectives not applicable to it when it had the open frame motor. I can't wait to see the other with its coreless motor...as it will run even better.

Here it is visiting the Isle of Sodor...the only HO track currently set up in the family homestead.

Little man was excited about it. Unfortunately, it kept shorting as the brass tender and cab have opposite polarities...and touch on the super sharp Sodor curves. Note that Liam is wearing a train shirt...he's a good kid.

Motors, cylinders, and other frames.

2009-04-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

The camera is back in service. The motors arrived yesterday. Motorman is definitely going to be my supplier of motors for the future. Excellent products at excellent prices!

The 2-8-0 runs magnificently with the surplus Maxon coreless 2232 installed. Not bad for $15 (retail it would be more like $150). It has enough power to slip like a real locomotive if your are too aggressive with the throttle. It coasts for more than a foot at moderate speeds when the power is cut. I calculated its minimum speed at under 0.1 mph. I have never run such a nice locomotive before.

I've also elected to use a 2522 and a Canon can motor in my #1 and #2 NKP hudsons respectively...the shaft speed was too great for the current gearing in my hudsons (or at least I think it is).

I've also made progress on my cylinder block. The cylinders themselves are close to ready.

Liam's 2-6-0 rods are ready for testing. The frame needs a small adjustment as the lead driver sits 0.050" too far forwards...

Frame 3.0

2009-04-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

I kept tweaking the frame...even though it was fairly smooth...as I noticed an occasional bind. I tried filing it a bit, but the performance degraded. I decided last night to build a new jig and start over on the frame. I'm convinced that the old frame was slightly off being square. The new frame is more precise, more robust, and square. I also made this one 0.020" wider to deal with one of my other gripes with the old one.

Another change was that I decided to reverse the #2 & #3 drivers due to the old #3 having a slightly recessed crankpin. I decided that it would be nice to have that on the main crankpin...so I decided to moved it to the #2 spot. This caused a potential issue with a support and the gear on the new #3 driver. I dealt with this by removing the gear with my gear puller. This led to me having to requarter this driver. My NWSL Quarterer I couldn't handle the axles (I believe that I previously mentioned this). Accordingly, I couldn't be certain that some of my troubles weren't due to quartering. So, I got out my trusty jeweler's saw and modified my quarterer to accept the axles. I then quartered every driver precisely.

Now, it is completely bind free...very smooth. That means that I need to get the cylinders and main rods together. If that works smoothly, it will be ready for the motor and for detailing. I want to have it running flawlessly before I begin the comestic work. (this saved me quite a bit by being able to junk the old frame without losing effort spent on detailing).

My camera is temporarily out of action, but in a future post I'll have photos of my new jig, modified quarterer, and new frame.

Rough cut rods

2009-04-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the rods so far. They have been roughly cut...a few modifications are needed. I'm also planning to add some details such as bolts, thickness variations, and such.

I want this locomotive to be as well detailed as my rolling stock...and so it must rival or exceed the level of detail of a Japanese-built brass import.

2-8-0 mechanism 1

2009-04-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

I am one update behind on my trestle progress. I have 120' scale feet of trestle deck completed...and I'm sick of it. I was originally planning for another 15', but probably will stop there. I've also built a bent jig and cut much of the wood for the bents.

In the mean time, the gearbox I'd ordered for my 2-8-0 arrived this past Friday. On Friday evening, worked on it a little. I discovered one problem...it won't fit on the axles BLI drivers. Because they are a split axle design (each half of the axle is of the opposite polarity with an insulator in between), I couldn't just replace it with a brass rod. Instead, I made a trip to my LHS on Saturday and purchased some 1/8" styrene rod. When I got home, I discovered that it wouldn't just slip into the gear and driver centers...they need 3mm axles which are just slightly smaller. So, I chucked up some styrene rod in my drill and turned it down to size with a file (actually an emery board)...

Once my caliper verified the diameter to be correct, I pushed on the gear, the bearings, and the driver centers.

I quartered it in my NWSL Quartering tool.

Another change I made was to get out my jeweler's saw and hack off the...the...at a loss for the correct word here...part of the crankpin which sticks out, but it is oversized on these drivers and therefore prohibited the use of scale side rods (it was wider than the rod that is supposed to fit around it). Here is the main driver in the process of getting hacked up:

After I made those changes, I decided that it was time to prepare new side rod blanks...this time from styrene...for the rods. The ends will be 6"x3"x15"...the location of the #3 driver will be 7"x3"x"15", at the main crankpin it will be 7.5"x3"x15", in between #1 & #2...and #3 & #4 it will be 2"x3.5", and between #2 & #3 it will be 2"x4". They will look great (and they perform well from testing).

Here are the new blanks on the drivers with the gearbox installed.

The gearbox will be completely hidden in the firebox. The motor will be in the boiler above the #2 & #3 drivers. I ordered it today...a Maxon 2232 Coreless motor for $20. The new drive train has cost me $36...$20 less than the previous motor alone. I've also ordered a 2232 for my beloved Nickel Plate hudson. Mine will be #175...the real NKP #170 is sitting in St. Louis...here

Trestle Construction

2009-04-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

I finally go around to finishing up the bench work this past weekend, and have now begun building the trestle. The Deck is 2/3 completed, with the parts for the rest awaiting assembly.

I'm currently cutting pieces for the bents. I have built jigs for cutting and assembling the pieces.

Here are my jigs:

deck tie spacing

Trestle bent legs

Deck stringers

And a collection of cut parts.

I'm using basswood. First, I stain it Miniwax Pine. I then stain it with diluted india ink. Some of the pieces are stained with similar colors to provide a bit of variety.

I also had the pleasure of my copy of Sloan's Narrow Gauge Data Book arriving. What as resource! I'm most intrigued by a couple Carson & Colorado cars. Great stuff!

On2 too

2009-04-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

I was running low on medium spikes and decided to try micro spikes again. They certainly have their deficiencies, but I really like the look.

Here are some medium spikes...

Here are some micro spikes...4 per tie...

I definitely like it much better.

I also ran out of ties, and so I began cutting down switch ties. I decided to keep the scrap materials as I've flirted with adding a bit of On2 at some point...maybe just 12" of track below my trestle.

Today, I stopped by my LHS and picked up more bridge supplies, a DSP&P push car!!!, and a piece of N scale Code 55 flex track. I snipped off a couple lengths of the Code 55 rail and spiked it to the scrap ties using micro spikes...On2 track! I might make a provision for several feet of On2 in my town. I won't be adding the On2 track now, just adding the necessary supports for it.

Here's the DSP&P push car kit...

It'll look great with my PSC hand car.

An On2 Grandt Line Gilpin Gold Tram car sitting on Coronado's Gilpin On2 trucks...sitting on the On2 test track. The spikes, gauge, and tiny rail work fine together.

Here's a comparison of N scale flex track, HOn3 track I laid when I was 16, the new On2 track, and On3 track.

Here's the same but with a piece of HO track sitting there to give an idea of how On30 looks alongside On2 and On3. It is a terrible stand in for On2!

I have a B-man 8ton On30 porter which I'll convert to On2, and later I'll also add a 2-truck shay. I don't care much for Maine Porters...and I think that the gorgeous Maine 2-6-2 is too large for what little track I'll have. But I won't be adding any On2 for some time.

I really like the look of the micro spikes...and I presume that I could combine them with some tie plates I have. My track would look great, but that would be a ton of work. I'll need to find either better micro spikes or a better set of pliers for spiking them down. With medium spikes, I have other tools which I use instead of pliers.

I also textures some of the ties and gave them a little bit for India ink & alcohol staining.

I've built a model of my model railroad and picked up some cheap clay to experiment with the scenery which I'll be starting soon...

It is 1/12th scale.

Prototype for B-man's On30 Boxcar

2009-03-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

There are many model railroad scales and gauges. Gauge is a reference to the width of the track. There were three basic classes of gauges (in the USA):
-standard gauge (56.5" gauge) Nearly all 20th century railroads
-broad gauge (mostly pre-1880 railroads...4'10" in Ohio, 5' in the South, the 6' gauge Erie Railroad).
-narrow gauge...99% was 36" gauge...with some 42" gauge in Pennsylvania...a touch of 30" gauge in Hawaii, and 24" gauge mostly in Maine.

Scale refers to a miniature scale drawing. The original naming convention was #2, #1, and 0. 0 was believed to be the smallest possible scale in its day...1:43.5. #1 was 1:32 and #2 was 1:22.5. For whatever reason, most likely Lionel failing to correctly read Marklin's specifications, the US scales became 1:48 for o scale...not zero anymore, but the letter "o". A new scale was introduced that was half the size of European 0 scale, 1:87.1, which became known as H0, half-0. This is the most common scale in the US...HO.

My On3 trains (1:48 scale, 3' gauge track) run on 0.75" gauge track. 10 years ago, an obscure gauge O scale became popular, On30...which combines O scale with HO gauge track. The manufacturer whom really made this mainstream is Bachmann. Their initial offerings were a 2-6-0 mogul, passenger cars, and freight cars. I have a couple of their moguls, a passenger car, and a couple freight cars. The moguls are a nice approximation of a Colorado & Southern Brooks mogul as it appeared after 1900...and I've converted one of them to On3. The passenger and freight cars have been mysterious to me...too small to be moder, yet featuring a mix of post-1908 saftey hardware with 19th century brakes.

I have discovered what I consider to be the prototype for B-man's boxcar. The current issue of the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette has plans for Ohio River & Western boxcar #605. It is nearly identical to the B-man car. The only difference I can see is that the B-man model lacks the end stirrup steps and the Eames Vaccuum brake diaghram faces the wrong direction. Otherwise, both are about 25'4" long and 7'3" wide. The trucks are the same. The safety hardware is the same. I will probably regauge mine to On3 and letter her up to be #605.

How to wire a 3-way stub switch?

2009-03-26T19:12:00.001-07:00

I'm currently thinking about how I'll wire up my 3-way stub switch. Probably a rotary switch is in order, but I might also consider a guitar selector switch.

Pictures:

Here is a market sheet of 0.080" styrene for one of the two frame sides for Liam's mogul. Both sides have been cut out.

Part of the cylinder block

The motor liberated from the old frame

This gear slides back and forth...no wonder these sometimes eat their gears. I'll be shimming it to prevent the lateral movement...so long as she can still negotiate tight curves.

We took Liam to one of the zillion Cincinnati parks a few weeks back. It was really too hilly (w/steps) for pushing his stroller...quite the workout.

The park is in the middle of the city...but had a 3' gauge railroad passing through it over a century ago.

Here's a culvert from the old College Hill Railway

Here's a view of the right-of-way

Here's a deer along the roadbed...in the middle of a 2 million person metropolis...I love Cincinnati!

I taped the end pieces down and used a compass to mark the curvature of the roof.

Not good enough for my tastes.

Preparing variations.

Here's one of the soldered curve connectors to join my curved sections.

Since I will, for the time being, continue to use both DC and DCC, I've added a knife switch to allow both...but to avoid decoder frying accidents from mixing the two.

Here's the previous 3-way and a template drawn from a mix of info on the location and the min curve radius.

Here she is completed. The bundle of red and white wires underneath are the feeders. 3 are for frogs, plus to for the outside stock rails. The thicker white and black wires are the busses. I haven't had any luck so far in finding a simple way to wire up this turnout. I understand how to do so in theory...it is just a matter of finding (or building) an adequate switch.

Here this stretch of track is...the roadbed now glued in place. Three sets of feeders are visible on the tracks approaching the 3-way.

I partially rebuilt the other stub switch...the first one I built for this layout. It was perfectly fine a year ago, but wasn't so fine anymore. I fixed the frog by soldering a piece of PCB to it...rather than holding it together with spikes. I'm currently using rail joiners instead of the throws for the stub switches. I have some Grandt Line parts to use with the throws.

Here's the wye turnout which I need to rebuild. I'm going to replace this entire piece...it will be the lift out bridge in between the 3-way and the trestle.

The trestle will be were my guitar rack is sitting.

Here's a train that the Porter cannot pull. 4 Grandt Line kits, 1 Model Masterpiece kit, 2 Mainline model kits, and 7 of my scratch built cars.

Last weekend there was a baby shower in Sidney, Ohio. Being that one of my father's good friends lives in town...and I hadn't seen him for a few years...I had to get in a little bit of railfan time while Lisa did girly things. Doug, my dad, and I drove around Sidney a little...watched a train the Big Four (NYC/Penn Central/Conrail/CSX) cross over a train on the CH&D (B&O/C&O/Chessie/CSX). This is the Big Four bridge build circa 1922 as part of a project to move the mainline out of downtown Sidney, eliminate the grade crossings, straighten out the tracks, and double track the mainline into a delux 70+mph railroad.

New 3-way installed

2009-03-24T20:32:00.001-07:00

The new 3-way stub switch has been installed. She works beautifully. My most difficult pieces are a poorly balanced Grandt Line porter which has an out of gauge driver and was half destroyed by my childhood...and some unweighted Grandt Line Steel Underframe cars (the light weight and SUF cause the trouble)...the porter handled it like a champ...as did the SUF cars.

Within the next week, I'll have to start bridge building. I'll post photos within the next few days.

returning to work

2009-03-19T17:51:00.000-07:00

I've spent the past month immersed in fulfilling a current portion of my graduate school requirements. While it has been limiting my time for 6 months+, it really took over around a month ago. As of today, that is completed.

I have made a little bit of progress with my trains. Liam's 2-6-0 has two frame sides cut out of 0.080" styrene. I've also produced a few different passenger car end parts.

Tonight, I've been working on getting my layout's mainline back in service. The project had left me with 7' of operational mainline for the past six months. I know have half of it back in service. I cut out a few PCB ties and soldered 3" long pieces of curved rail to them to join the curved sections. In the future, I'll consider making the curved sections 1-piecers.

Chittenango Falls

2009-02-21T19:55:00.000-08:00

I've decided to scratch build a Pullman sleeper lounge car. The car is Pullman plan 4086...a 6 bedroom, buffet-lounge car. I'm building for my father owned it when I was a little kid...the Chittenango Falls. She was built in 1939 and served on the Commodore Vanderbilt. She was sold to Ted Church in 1964 and my father purchased her and 1941 NYC Pullman built coach 2600 sometime before I can remember (probably before I was born).

Here's the sides so far...so much faster and easier than an On3 passenger car...

I will probably finish the B&S coaches before this car...as they have a higher priority for me.

Rounded door frames

2009-02-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

My least favorite aspect of passenger car construction is building the ends. The B&S cars have rounded top doors...

From Hayes Hendrick's website, taken by Todd Hackett...
As car #3 rotted on the plains east of the Rocky Mountains. She became C&S #56 in 1906. If it wasn't for this picture, I'd make it a square top door. I'll also need to file it to be rounded for matching the corner moldings.

My first attempt at forming this is to progressively drill holes until the opening is 1/2" exactly...2' scale feet wide as B&S built the doors on their narrow gauge cars.

The layout

The holes partially drilled

I then cut the pieces in half (each one is the proper width for the ends)
I'll next have to cut the top to the roof profile.

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I sat Liam on the dining room table where I've been busy with work, and turned my computer for him to watch trains. This time it was Thomas the Tank Engine (usually it is real trains).
----------------------------------------------------------------

Last Friday, my Eastern Car Works passenger car kit arrived. When I was a little kid, my father owned two passenger cars...a 1941 Pullman built New York Central 56 seat coach, and a stylish 1939 Pullman Sleeper-Lounge car. The Sleeper Lounge, or official a 6 Bedroom, Buffet-Parlor, served on the Commodore Vanderbilt passenger train and was equivalent to the finest passenger cars of the era. This car, the Chittenango Falls, certainly helped me develop a passion for passenger cars. The Chittenango Falls was part of the second batch of cars in the streamlining of the New York Central's premier trains.

THE premier train on both the NYC and on all other railroads was the 20th Century Limited. The train was the ultimate symbol of American luxurious travel for decades, with its life spanning 1902-1967. The train entered the streamline era in 1938 with an all-new, Henry Dreyfuss designed train. Pullman, the world's premier passenger car builder, built all of the cars and ALCO build the streamlined steam locomotives. At the same time, the Pennsy streamlined the Century's rival train, the Broadway Limited...although the PRR cut corners on theirs...and had it designed by the legendary Raymond Lowey (the father of Industrial Design...also designed the Concord jets).

I've long wanted to add matching cars to my NYC streamlined hudson, and so now is the time to start. I want to build a complete 20th Century trainset (12 cars), as well as the Chittenango Falls (which had a slightly different paint scheme) and the 2600 (which had a very different paint scheme).

Eastern Car Works makes several of the cars needed to reproduce the '38 Century...as well as a sleeper for the Commodor. I ordered one of these to examine the quality of the ECW's kits. Mine is a 4-4-2 sleeper. I also ordered a set of 1938 20th Centur Limited decals from Champ Decals. Both were dissappointments.

Here is the ECW kit...

I knew that the trucks were wrong...they are correct for a 1939 or later car, but not for a 1938 car...the '38 cars had unique looking Triple Bolster trucks...which used to be available from MDC/Roundhouse.

Here is a car side along side the official Pullman drawings...

And the problem...
The windows should be the same height as the stripe on the hudson's tender. The windows are a scale 4.5" too high on the car sides. This really matters because of the striping which runs the length of the train.

Here is a very high quality brass model of a 4-4-2 sleeper in '38 paint. It was produced by Fine Art Models and sold for $2750...1:32 scale.
The stripes must line up.

Also, my Champ decals didn't include the striping or the black outlines on the aluminum letters...so I'm going to have to find a source for the striping...or possibly paint it myself with very careful masking. In 1:87.1 scale, a .75" stripe is less than 0.010" wide.

Currently, to fix the window issue, my 4-4-2 is in the process of being hacked to pieces. I'll reassemble it into a correctly proportioned 4-4-2. I'll also build the Chittenango Falls from scratch...and then decide whether to kitbash more ECW kits or scratchbuild. Walthers is coming out with a 1948 Century for $65 per car, which includes a 4-4-2, but that is far more than I am willing to spend on the train...it is worth my time but not much money...I'm a model railroader, not a collector.

The HO NYC cars will be a back burner item.

I'm on the fence on what to do about my 2-8-0 project. I've invested $55 in the motor...and now I've heard back from Grandt Line and the gearing will run around $60-$60. The drivers cost me $50. The Soundtraxx Tsunami (digital controls and sound) will run a little over $100...and so this engine is rapidly approaching $300. Ouch. My next engine will be build with a 37:1 gearbox for $15 and a $15 motor...and maybe just a $20 chip for digital control...no sound.

A completed SUF car & such...

2009-02-08T18:01:00.000-08:00

Here is the completed SUF coal car.

The white brake lever was a replacement for the original that went "snap". Of course, the brake staff is removable...a lesson I've learned a couple times before. I'm going to wash it, chemically blacken the grab brass parts, and then paint it.

With that out of the way, I completed the windows for my passenger cars. I'm glad to be working on them again.
There are enough windows for three cars in that picture. All are cleaned up and ready to paint.

Liam is showing quite a bit of interest in his OO scale Thomas trains. My side of the family saw him in action on Saturday...intently following Thomas...almost rolling over to keep an eye on him. Clearly, we must be doing something right as parents so far. On the same day, I learned that whistles and my nephew Evan are a bad combination. I let 4yr old Evan run some trains in TrainZ...and he insisted on holding the whistle for minutes at a time. He also insisted on using a "diesel"...hopefully he will learn (diesel = devil).

Assembly of SUF coal car is complete

2009-02-04T20:13:00.000-08:00

The car is awaiting a trip to the paint shop. I'll then take the builder's photo. I'll post some photos of the completed -but not yet painted- car later.

I enlarged a set of 1:48 scale drawings of a South Park Cooke 2-6-0 to 1:20.3 for Liam's CC 2-6-0. I've examined the chassis and I'm trying to decide if I should increase the driving spacing for the lead drivers...they are currently 4'6"-4'6" spacing, but should be 5'-4'6" spacing. I won't have to alter the motor-gear-rear driver arrangement, but it will affect the sound cam.

I'm looking forward to getting back to my passenger car projects and preparing the mold for my 2-8-0 domes.

The C&S Coal Car diversion/Train show

2009-01-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

On Friday evening, I decided to build the C&S Type 3 Coal Car kit. What a great ebay find! I'm keeping an eye out for more.

I decided to work in Liam's room as mommy was working with him in there. The result was me sitting on the floor to build this under low light and on a surface that temporarily stole a few of my parts (darn rub gnomes!)

The entire family was there. Chester was supposed to be my spotter while lifting heavy parts, and Pumpkin was supposed to be our supervisor...he didn't give many instructions.

I ventured from the instructions at the start by drilling #78 holes everywhere on the car body. I then cleaned up the big pieces and chose to assemble the I-beam steel underframe first. You only need to drill out one of the two holes in each bolster...so long as you drill out the correct one.
A bolster, the end of the frame, the pad that goes on the bolster, and a completed assembly sitting on the I-beam.

Chester didn't do his job very well. He fell asleep!

I then went back to the directions to assemble the box.
Adding the stakes

Corner reinforcements

Unfortunately, I could decide whether to square the sills or the sides. (dumb) I squared the sides instead of the sills. I then dropped the floor into place...to make certain that it was square. I realized my mistake when the wooden frame didn't quite fit...it was 1" scale too short. I quickly seperated the parts that were drying and re-glued them...still squaring the corners. Unfortunately, I then had to help with the dishes and the parts didn't dry quite right...too long.

I then set about to assemble the steel underframe (SUF) when I got back. I didn't follow the directions so that I could photograph it seperate from the car. These cars were quite modern freight cars when completed around 1910. They consisted of wood boxes similar to the Type 1 and Type 2 coal cars, which were patterned off of some coal cars inherited from the UPD&G (they were so new that they arrived painted for C&S instead of UPD&G (IIRC)...they were built by St. Charles/AC&F). The principle difference was that they were equiped with Bettendorf hardware like the Type 2 cars...and SUFs instead of trussrods like the 1s and 2s. The only surviving C&S Coal Car is Type 1 car #4319 in Black Hawk, Co. For more info, see Harry Brunk's Up Clear Creek for the C&S stuff or Run Rudnick's UPD&G/DL&G modeling guide for the story of the first cars.

It didn't fit...it was too wide. The problem was that by not squaring the sills, the sides were around 1/2-1" scale too narrow. Many platform cars (flats, gons, etc) had end sills which extended beyond the side sills, so it didn't occur to me before this point that they should be flush with the sides (square the sills, not the sides). I fixed it by filing the end of each crossmember of the underframe, and it now fits fine.
It now is awaiting the brake rigging.

But it looks rather nice as is!

Total time expended: 2hr 15min...30min of which was probably fixing my mistake with the body.

I also spent 2.5hrs on a Life Life P2K stock car kit in HO on Friday...it is assembled...the time would have been better spent on my On3 stuff...any On3 stuff...good sign that On3 is still the scale for me!

Today I went to my LHS, Johnny's Toys for their annual train show. There were a few layouts there: an HO layout with L&N stuff, an On30 layout that was quite nice, a large scale layout, a couple live steamers (1/8th full size and 1/12th full size), an H0e amusement park layout, an S gauge layout, and the store's fine HO layout (but with steam running for the show!).

I did a bit of bargain shopping:
-B-man large scale track: 24 curves and 8 straights for $44 total (the first track for Liam's future Fn3 trains...I was considering brass track...but this was too cheap to pass up!)
-A Thomas the Tank engine OO set for Liam....$25
-An OO Thomas freight car for $6
-some detail parts that were cheap
-styrene for the Fn3 locomotive
-An MRC Prodigy Express DCC system for $90 (for me...I wanted an NCE Powercab...but this was too cheap to pass up...this and a set of sprung HO trucks for $2 were the only things for me)

The pictorial supplement to the quick update...

2009-01-22T19:48:00.000-08:00

Liam and what will become his locomotive...
And what it will become...
Only lettered up as Colorado Central #14. The boiler jacket will be a metallic light blue, the cab will look like varnished wood. The cab windows will be painted like a light colored wood. The tender, frame, domes, and other misc parts will be black. The lettering will be gold leaf with red drop shadows.

Here's the motor for the 2-8-0...

The window making party...
And that's it for now. I will continue to focus on the passenger cars...and let the large scale and other On3 projects simmer. I might snap an HO P2k stock car kit together ($5 at my LHS), but that wouldn't take much time...certainly not on the same scale as this stuff.

A quick update

2009-01-22T16:32:00.000-08:00

In the past couple of days, three packages have arrived. First, a Grandt Line On3 gondola arrived. It totaled $19.80 on ebay. Then today, I received two packages: the long awaited motor for my 2-8-0 project and a Bachmann Big Hauler chassis for Liam's F scale "trainset".

The Chassis isn't quite as complete as I was expecting (the bottom panel is missing), but that doesn't bother me. I sort of suspect that whomever sold it to me, replaced it with a Barry's Big Trains chassis. I don't care. It was cheaper than getting a full 4-6-0...and I would have junked the rest of it anyway. My goal is to turn it into a Colorado Central mogul by either Christmas or possibly even by Liam's birthday.

Now that the motor for the 2-8-0 has arrived, I ought to get back to work on it. I need to figure out what sort of gear tower to get. It has a gearhead, so I'll probably get some sort of 1:1 ratio gear tower such as that made by Grandt Line and Precision Scale. After the mechanism is performing flawlessly, I'll continue on with the rest of the locomotive.

The Grandt Line gon was cheap and I've long wanted one. The price was right and it goes with the 4 car C&S freight train in service already. I plan on adding a boxcar and reefer this year...which will turn it into a 7 car freight train: 2 stock, 1 flat, 1 coal car (gon), 1 boxcar, 1 reefer, and 1 caboose.

"arched windows"

2009-01-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

Supposedly, the fixed window panes on these cars were arched. But from studying the pictures of Ward Kimball's car, his aren't. Instead, they have little quarter circles which could easily be mistaken for arched windows in the fuzzy details of pictures from 115-130yrs ago on which I've based these models. Their are no commercial plans for these cars...just miscellaneous info, much of which comes from folio sheets (basic info such as length, width, height) that are dated from when they were nearly 40 years old.

Since Ward's car still has the original style roof and is probably from the same plan, I'll guess that the windows were the same...at least in dimensions and details. One major difference is that I believe the DSP&P cars had end windows...the C&C/SP cars did not. I believe the South Park cars had them because I can see belt rails on one end of the ruins of #3 which Todd Hackett photographed in 2002...thank you Todd! (I doubt you'll ever read this, but your pictures have been invaluable to me!) Belt rails were frequently visible on wooden passenger cars...they were a cosmetic feature which covered the framing under the windows (and at the tops of the side trusswork). They look like armrests. If windows were sheathed over, the belt rail usually remains...but if no window ever existed, their is usually (or never) a belt rail. Ward's car doesn't have belt rails at the ends.

My sides are complete on the exteriors, minus the fascia which needs some styrene I've run out of and the name plate ovals. I've started the ends...and I'll probably go with rounded top doors as #3 had at the end of its life...while Ward's has square tops.

Yesterday, I visited Johnny's to see if they had any Thomas OO stuff on scale for Liam. They had an Emily set on sale...and I thought a bit about it (Emily is the Stirling Single of 1870...it has a single 8' or so driving wheel). I ultimately decided against it...for now at least. Last year they had an excellent special on Thomas stuff at this time. I walked away with $10 or so of stripwood and 3/32" thick "plywood" for starting Liam's large scale "trainset".

Here is a picture of a real Stirling Single which I took 2 years ago in England:

I cut some of the "plywood" into deck planking for Liam's first flat car, as well as cutting a few sills. This photo shows the scale of it alongside an On3 frame of the same car that I built 6 months ago. They are both models of the Colorado Central's 1872 23' long, 7' wide flat cars. Liam's trainset will have a Colorado Central 0-6-0 and a series of 1870s Colorado Central freight cars that are designed to survive his childhood (as will be the engine!). Lisa thinks the flat car looks huge, it is 20.3 times smaller than the real thing, while my On3 car is 48x smaller than the real thing.

Here are a few links to some Colorado Central goodies on the DPL WHC site...
Sometimes you have to refresh it several times to get the pictures to load...
http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?20102201+CHS.J2201
http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00301084+WHJ-1084
http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00130075+C-75
http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00130084+C-84
http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00130097+C-97

The Colorado Central is great because the cars were dinky. The early Rio Grande is great for the same reason...small cars and small engines look great on 2' radius LGB track. I plan to build him 2-4 locomotives...a Colorado Central 0-6-0, a Colorado Central 2-6-0 (which is actually bigger than many 2-8-0s) and possibly Rio Grande 2-4-0 and a dinky Rio Grande 2-6-0 (close in size to the 0-6-0). Some of the Rio Grande cars were only 14' and 17' long!?!

Continuing the sides

2009-01-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

I caught Mr. Pumpkin reading the Rainbow Route. Every once in a while, I'll catch him reading a railroad book. He always has excellent taste in books: The Mineral Belt Vol. II, Mac Poor, etc. Before him, I didn't know that cats were literate.

I've installed the 28 panes needed for two of the car sides. I still intend to add a few trim pieces on the backsides. I'll then need to make the ovals, the fascias, and the interior sheathing.

Here are the panes, as the glue dried. 14 have been installed at this point. Installation involves trimming and sanding off any extra glue, and sanding to fit in place.

All of the panes have been prepped for assembly, and 28 installed. Also pictured are the car sides for a 26' Litchfield boxcar which I hand scribed back on my birthday before Christmas.

The South Park used 5" boards with a groove down the middle. The "edge" scribes are scribed deeper than the "groove" scribes, this in person gives the same appearance as the siding seen in close ups of the actual cars.

The little man spent part of the time on my lap as I prepped the windows...until he needed his diaper changed.

I'm currently fighting the urge to work on freight cars...specifically freight car patterns for trying out my new resin. I will definitely be casting the Bowers, Dure & Co cars...as there were 6 of them. 2 of these were rebuilt into baggage cars in 1884. In C&S years, they became backup cars...and had been rebuilt with bullnose roofs. I have plans for the later configuration, and am preparing plans for their earlier roofs (similar to the first J&S cars for the Rio Grande). I plan to cast parts for 4-6 coaches and 2-3 combines. Because the moulds will be good for 40+ coaches and 20+ combines, I'm inclined to sell the extras as I know that a few other South Park modelers would like to add these cars...and they are of a classic early design.

window production

2009-01-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

I'm cranking out the windows for the coaches. I've cut around 250 pieces for the fixed panes and assembled 1/4 of them. This is currently around 1hr-1.25hrs of cutting and gluing. I spend far more time deciding what to do than I spend actually doing it. The key to working quickly is to set up the chopper accurately and to make consistent cuts.

New Years

2009-01-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to get much done over the past 3 weeks due to work, Christmas, and family.

I received a few items to help me with workin' on the railroad. I'll probably get a nice tools (or set of tools) with my Birthday & Christmas gift money (perhaps that micro mill I've been wanting to get).

There were a variety of gifts, such as the ever in demand On3 wheelsets and DSP&P decals. Here are a few notable items:

Smooth Cast resin. With a slightly longer (in practice) pot time than the alumilite I have previously used, and much lower viscosity, I'm hoping it is actually of value (unlike alumilite).

Coronado's DSP&P Link & Pin couplers. 8 pairs of these was great. They are always in short supply, so I was really happy to receive these.

1905 C&S boxcar lettering. Last year I received a pair of extremely disappointing Ye Olde Huff'n Puff kits...a Tiffany Reefer and a C&S boxcar. I tried to salvage the original, pathetic paint & lettering job on the Tiffany (would you believe that despite what their directions said, Floquil Reefer White didn't match the car's paint) ...I then either severly modified our outright modified every detail part in the kit...and sawed all the parts down to the correct dimensions. The boxcar's dimensions are closer, but its lettering job is the single worst job I've ever seen on a car...including hand lettered cars. Not only is the placement and quality of the lettering terrible, some of it is wrong! (such as the car having been last shopped in Ridgeway...Ridgeway? It is a C&S car, not a RGS car!?!) So I'll be striping the paint off and applying these new decals.

For Christmas, Lisa picked up a passenger car decoder and a pair of Nn3 car kits for me. I'm not switching to Nn3, but I've wanted to build a kit for a while. She gave me a C&S caboose and an EBT hopper. If I decide to get an EBT 2-8-2, I'll letter the bobber to one of the pre-8wheel EBT cabeese. Unfortunately, adding a locomotive will be in the distant future since I won't make much budget available for non-On3 items.Nn3, HOn3, and On3. HOn3 uses Z-scale track and wheels. The Nn3 car is a model of C&S #1002. The HOn3 is a model of the 1005, and the On3 model is of 1006. I've removed all the flash from the 1002 and partially preped the frame.

Moving panes

2008-12-12T21:53:00.000-08:00

...are now assembled. No more windows needed for this car, except in the clerestory. It's coming along nicely.

I'm looking forward to taking a picture of the 128 window panes needed for the two coaches. Intriguingly...I can fabricate them fast than to duplicate them in resin.

I built one extra pane...just in case I'm not happy with or destroy one of the others.

The 10th pane is from the paycar. There is no optical illusion in this picture...it is noticeably large than the panes for #40. It is also of a different construction technique...11 pieces instead of 4, with an internal pocket for the glazing. I'm using a simpler technique this time to ease the installation of the glazing. I kind of like to get some super thin glass from Clover House, but I tend to think that it is too clear for 19th century glass...I feel that clear plastic is more accurate for the time period.

The photo that photobucket didn't like yesterday...

windows installed

2008-12-11T21:23:00.001-08:00

#40 has her windows. I created and installed them while watch da Bears beat the Saints.

Trying to decide on whether or not to light her. I'll have to hide the decoder in some freight if I do. I might just make provisions for lighting, but not actually install a decoder for now.

I need 2" moldings for the people doors...but probably won't get to the hobby shop to fetch them until 2009...we'll see. I'll turn my attention to sheathing the interior of the walls next.

The windows awaiting installation...
The windows are installed, but photobucket doesn't want to let me display that image.

40 sides nearing completion

2008-12-10T21:01:00.000-08:00

#40s sides are coming along nicely. I spent a pair of hours on the pair of sides. I examined the only known photos of either #40, 41, or 45 (nearly identical in photos...subtle differences in clerestory windows, width, and such). This helped me to determine how I was to cut the fascia. The coaches are awaiting my decision to give them either 6" or 7.5" Fascias (probably 7.5").

I then cut to fit and installed the sides of window frames. My new audio book, Retribution, is quite fascinating. I covers the last year of the Pacific War...but not in the usual sense...I don't really need to know how many shells the Adm Jesse Oldendorf's squadron fired on a particular occasion, but I am interested in the experience of the average Japanese soldier, the British soldier in Burma, and the Chinese civilian in Manchuko. This book gives me the latter.

Here is #40's sides...with only the center door frame, fixed window panes, and interior walls to complete. Then I'll build a pair of ends and slap the body together. I rejoice that this car doesn't have a dropping bullnose roof or end windows. I hate the former and don't care for the latter. I'm really looking forward to all the simple duckbills (child's play compared to some bullnose roofes) on the Colorado Central cars. I've successfully assembled to bullnose roofes before, and there will be plenty more to come :-(

Passenger car update

2008-12-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

Here is the current progress. I spend a couple hours each of the past two nights on these. While the glue was drying last night, I began cutting pieces for the 2-8-0's tender. I need to decide on a number for the 2-8-0...so she'll have a name.

Gluing and soldering

2008-12-02T20:40:00.001-08:00

I spend this evening (which didn't get started until 8pm) gluing the foam & track to the benchwork. I managed to get slightly more than half of it down. I also wired 1/4 of the layout for DCC using Free-mo standards (14 gauge buss, 18 gauge feeders). Every piece of rail has a lead and no rail joiners are used on each section (solder instead). I'm trying to force myself to get the mainline back into service for when Evan and Addy come to visit. In prep for this, I also created my trestle deck template. I want the full oval to be back in service...and maybe some rudimentery scenery.

Chester got a little too excited seeing the Grandt Line porter make a test run...so had him go downstairs with me. He's a good little model railroader, but he's sometimes too aggressive. His fuzzy paws with claws aren't very good at helping. He came back up when the Goose #4 was making a test run (Goose #4 has sound). Finally, C&S #22 took a pair of Grandt Line stock cars and caboose #1006 over the freshly wired track. #40 is currently in pieces for when I feel like creating molds of the domes.

I'll probably decide some night that it is again time to go back to the passenger cars and knock all 4 sides out. The first two are looking quite nice. I've got to decide if #3 and #5 had 6" or 8" boards above the windows. I guess I should just calulate it from the specs...

Marching forward

2008-11-30T15:20:00.000-08:00

I assembled the window frames and paneling for a second side. I plan to have 4 passenger car sides together within a few days.

I stained the remainder of the stringers for the trestle's deck. Mit mein Neffe und Nichte besuchen im Dezember, bedurft ihr Onkel seine Bruecke abarbeiten.

Thankful for Dell

2008-11-25T21:37:00.000-08:00

My laptop returned on Monday...various new parts including a new motherboard. Additionally, they're sending me a replacement main battery...something which hasn't worked for months. Everything was covered by my Complete Care warranty.

I have on passenger car side looking very much like it. It is 38'10" long exactly...and will be 40'6" once the corner moldings are added. I need to create the fixed window panes now.

This pile consists of about 200 pieces for the window frames needed to produce two coaches. The rectangle is my assembly jig (which I modified after this picture) to have a uniform window spacing.

Here is one of the upper frames in place.

Here is the side in its current state of development. Above it is the side of baggage car #40. I intend to finish both coaches and the baggage car at the same time. I'll probably use slightly different construction techniques for the other 3 coach sides. If the paycar sides were sitting there, they'd be in between them in length. The cars are 34', 36'2", and 40'6" long.

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Lisa and I took Liam to Johnny's Toys yesterday. I picked up a variety of supplies, including styrene tubes for the 2-8-0's cylinders and 1/2" tubes for making brake shoes. I can't bring myself to spend $3 per car to purchase them from a manufacturer...at least not now.

Here are the brake beams for the way car. There are also the four window frame tests in the shot.

Here is the car sitting next to the team track. I sure hope I receive some Link & Pin couplers for Christmas so that I'll be able to pull it. (mom, dad, Lisa, family...hint hint). She'll receive her white paint soon enough. The next one will receive red paint. The South Park had apprx 20 of these cars...the first ten were red and the rest were either white or pale yellow. The early cars had less hand rails and strap steps, they were red, white lettering, and I think they were 14'11". The last red cars had black lettering and were 12'11" long. The next cars were white (or pale yellow) with black lettering, box steps, and more hand rails. The last cars had different lettering, different windows, rounded corner moldings, and I think they were only 12'4" long. No one really knows which ones were the long or short ones...but we do know that some were these lengths because there were a dozen that survived to become C&S cabooses. We know that 72-73ish were 12'11" because one became C&S #1006 and is sitting in Silver Plume, Colorado.

Laptop still out

2008-11-20T07:05:00.000-08:00

My laptop is probably in Memphis today, getting a diagnostic performed on it. I expect the problem to be on the motherboard. If computers had bladders, a glass of water probably wouldn't cause such a problem (or if the circuit boards were coated in epoxy to prevent shorts).

I produced 4 pilot models of the arched upper pane windows for the B&S cars. The windows are 23 5/8 inches wide, I've decided that they should be 12" tall and 1" thick, plus 1/2" for glazing and clearance for the slidinging pane. In O scale, that becomes a window which is 0.4920"x 0.250"x0.020". I've built pilot windows by fabrication of (3) 1x2s and a 1x4, the same but with 1/2x1 reinforcements through the joints, laminating 1/2x2 and 1/2x 4s so as to reinforce the joints, and the last technique was to cut it out of a single piece of sheet styrene. From 6", they all look great...but if they aren't the best that I can reasonably do (which they aren't, before my windows had pockets for removable glazing), I'll notice the imperfections. For me, the best way to form nice arches is to mark off 2" from the edges of the 1x4 top pieces. I then use a round file to for the arches at each corner. I cut and file the center flat. This is how some of the arched windows looked in the 1890s...and I can't really tell how they were arched in the 1870s or 1880s. I'm looking forward to completing the roof. I might try to track down some plans of the Carson & Colorado coaches, kin to these, as they could help with some of the subtle details.

Here is a link to Carson & Colorado #5, built to the same design, and unlike the South Park cars, her roof was never modernized...http://www.oerm.org/pages/GF5.htm
Here previous owner, Ward Kimball, paid for his backyard railroad by creating Disney's renditions of Dumbo, Jiminy Cricket, and the Cheshire Cat. The photos of her are in many respects more useful than the only 2 photos of the car from my time period. The difference being the paint (mine will be Chocolate Brown), the presence of a name plate oval, and a belt rail.

Additionally, I'm rounding up information on South Park passenger cars #1 & #2 and #16-#17,#22-#25. All of these cars were "built" in Wilmington, DE in 1874. #1 were probably kits from Jackson & Sharp which the Halleck Bros of Denver assembled. The others were built by the obscure Bowers & Dure Co. There were two major builders in Wilmington, J&S and Harlan and Hollingsworth. B&D sure seems to have copied their design. I have a 1930s era drawing of the B&D coaches, a drawing of a Har & Hol coach from 1875, and pictures of a J&S car of that time period. The B&D cars came to the South Park through a short lived arrangement with the Santa Fe, but I won't go into that story, Jay Gould, the UP, and such now. The B&D cars and #1 were all 35' long; they were all rebuilt from hooded roofs to bullnose roofs that made the car bodies 8'11" tall. The B&Ds' sides were 6' tall. #1 had the same window pattern as the B&D coaches...the B&D combines & #1 had an 18'6" passenger section with the same number of window locations. The vents and stack arrangement is the same on both. The biggest difference is that #1 was only 7'7" wide while the B&Ds were 8' wide and the windows on #1 were slightly taller. The Har & Hol coach is 35' long, 7'7" wide, 8'8" tall body (6' sides, 2'8" hooded roof), and had 13 windows. All had arched single pane windows (although the center window on the H&H was slightly wider).

So, I'll may be able to make nearly identical roofs for all of these cars, perhaps I'll cast them in resin. If I do that, I know a few people whom I'd like to repay for helping me out with a few things in the past...and maybe sell a couple of them on ebay to cover the cost of the rubber molds and resin. Still, my previous experience with resin has been bad enough to assume this to be a waste...unless I'm building all of the cars and trying a different resin. The key here is that I can easily alter the B&D roof to be 5" narrower for #1.

I haven't mentioned #2 much because little is known of #2. Coach #2, the Denver, was probably identical to #1, the Auraria, upon leaving J&S as a kit. The Halleck brothers then replaced a couple windows with a baggage door and added the partition, just as was done with #23 and #25 in 1884. #2 burned in 1880, and therefore isn't necessary for my future layout (I might build her anyway to go with some of the other 1874 equipment...specifically the boxcars and the 4-4-0).

Only 5 South Park passenger cars were named: Auraria (a then twin city to Denver), Denver, Geneva, Halls Valley, and Leadville. The exception to the numbering only after 1878 were the Pullmans: Plan 73 cars South Park, Bonanza, Leadville, and San Juan (which also burned), and then Plan 73A Pullmans Kenosha and Hortense. Pullmans were sleeping cars for the train from Denver to Gunnison...the service lasted only a few years...but the cars were later converted to coaches, combines, and a business car.

Fried laptop

2008-11-17T20:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I unintentionally served a partial glass of water to my laptop. It is now acting fussier than Liam. Oh well. Glad I have complete care. No picture uploads till Dell fixes it (for free!).

I tore out some track work I've been happy with, including a 3-way switch. I soldered together a replacement on PC Board...but will probably create another replacement since the mainline curve is now slightly too sharp.

I've decided to start my passenger train. I have 1 baggage car side assembled, a huge pile of window frame parts and car side parts cut and awaiting assembly on my desk. These will be the Barney & Smith built coaches #3 and #5 of 1878. IIRC, #3 was named the Geneva. Additionally, B&S (of Dayton, OH) also built #4...but she was a slightly different design while #3 & #5 were sisters and kin to 6 Nevada narrow gauge cars...2 of which survive...one thanks to one of Walt Disney's main henchmen, Ward Kimball. Additionally, there is a floor plan from these in Scott Trostel's B&S book. That gives me ample resources to start these two cars. For the record, #4 was the Halls Valley and became C&S #77...serving the citizens of Colorado as a 1st class passenger car for more than 60 years.

So, my passenger train will consist of a baggage-express car and a pair of coaches. After those are completed, I'll want to knock out a pair of Pullmans, a DSP&P built coach (quite different), a B-M-X (Baggage-Mail-Express), and combine #1. I will try to avoid the constant temptation to start on the East Broad Top's Orbisonia which would be a very easy car to build. But this third batch of cars (the paycar was the first batch) are in the distant future. I have a variety of good reasons to have stalled on the Paycar (which isn't a passenger car despite its appearance, it is a rolling bank), and one of them is to have it along with the three passenger cars in the same painting, wiring, and brake work sessions.

A typical South Park passenger train of around 1884 would be pulled by a Cooke mogul and have a baggage car (likely a B-M-X), coach or two, and a Pullman from Denver to Gunnison. Such a train would have quite probably overwhelmed a Mason Bogie at Kenosha and Alpine Passes...but a big Cooke moguls (which could out pull some of the 2-8-0s) would have been fine.

Workshop moved, production continues

2008-11-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

Hurray for Lisa! She found my missing plans. They included drawings of the Pitkin depot on the DSP&P (which I'd started building months ago), the Almont depot of the D&RG (the coolest depot on the D&RG), a C&S flanger, and D&RG #1. The Almont depot will be a rustic fishing depot opposite the aisle from the Pitkin depot which will sit in between the team track and the wye.

Earlier this week, while Lisa took a nap, I moved the company shops from the kitchen and dining room tables to the loft, adjacent the layout.

I drilled out the rods for the 2-8-0 and it rolls smoothly (a pleasant surprise). smoother than my commercially produced locomotives.

I then checked a pair of domes that I picked up from Precision Scale a few years ago only to determine that they are too small for my 2-8-0. Instead, I'll be making resin duplicates of the domes on my 35yr old Cooke 2-6-0...they are spot on. The smoke stack will be a casting Lisa gave me for my birthday last year (from Coronado). I've had plenty of unhappiness in the past from dealing with alumilite resin...mostly in an ill fated attempt to duplicate truck side frames (it is faster, easier, and more reliable to just form them from styrene). These should be easier...and I don't need as many.

I also added the weight and deck to my 26' 1878 flat car. This, along with the assembled 27' coal car, were built with a hidden pocket for the weight. This caused some slight problems and I won't be doing this again. Eliminating the intermediate sills and putting the weights in their place is better. I'll use a bit of weathering to tone down the rainbow look of the deck.

Here's the piles of ready to use, stained but not weathered, and distressed but not stained lumber for the trestle.