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Showing posts with label Model Railroading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Model Railroading. Show all posts

Sunday, April 07, 2024

The Railroad Empire grows!

 So, 

Been working on my two Modules for the group I belong too, as we have another group set up in a few weeks. Thanks to my buddy Robert for lots of work, we were able to get the modules ready for their test at the last show.

The last few weeks I have been trying to decide on the layout for the second module, which I finally pulled the trigger and went with a simple spur that will lead to a large warehouse building, in fact the whole module pictured below will be warehouses with only two being rail serviced.

The final plan

The facia and plug ins for the module are in.

The modules boxed for travel.

Another shot of the modules together.

Here is the first module.

So there you go, making progress on the module and the nice thing is I can hook these together to have either a small passing siding or go with the other ends to give me a small switching puzzle sort of layout. I also made them be able to be separated so that they do not need to be next to each other. Too many people in our group have set sizes, while the club is modular, certain modules have to go together, I decided that I did not need to have them be combined like that. So progress is moving along, I am happy with where this is headed.


TK 

Monday, January 15, 2024

Building a railroad empire!

So,

Been a while since I got to work on my Model rail stuff, since the move, I had to disassemble my shelf layout, but I am still part of a Modular Model Railroad club. Since the move I have not been able to get back into working on anything, after 8 months though we are finally unpacked and now I have room to start working on stuff again.

So for the past two weekends, I have been going over to Roberts House to help him with constructing a corner for our club. We use a two piece curved corner and they are a challenge to assemble. 

Laminating wood to form the curved front. 

Since we have curved corners, you basically have to laminate this plywood to make the curved sections. It was a process and I like the look, but its a pain to build.  


Here is the two parts of the corner getting the end plates glued in.

And here is the corner up on its legs and clamped together.

So, about two years ago I purchased from my friend Rick, two 6' x 2' modules that he was not going to need anymore. Well once I picked them up. I noticed that the module frames were actually 5' 11.5" long and not a full 6'. Now the sub road bed he mounted was an actual 6' and over hung the frame. When I asked Rick about it, he could not remember why he had done that. Well I was slightly discouraged by this and just put the modules in my garage with plans to fix them.

Well the lack of club shows, didn't make me want to bust them out and work on them as I always had other stuff going on. Then the move happened and I brought these frames over to the new place, my wife and friend Darrin asking what I was doing moving these as I hadn't done anything with them. Well I would be getting to them, just had to get the garage completed.

Well the great news was after almost 8 months, the garage got finally unpacked and I could get to the modules that were buried in the back of the garage. So this past weekend I got them out and took them Down To Roberts place to do some work on them.

First up was getting the end plates on them which included lots of clamps and some hefty amounts of glue. 
Gluing on the end plates.
Once we got the end plates glued on, it was next to get some wood down on the deck, which by luck Robert had an extra thin plywood that we had bought the weekend before, he donated it for my modules as it was easier then taking it back to Home Depot. SO a few cuts later, we had decking for the frames, the only thing was Robert ran out of brads in his nail gun, so I have to glue the deck down at home.

We have tops now!

So sometime this week, I will get the tops glued and tacked down, then I can start to plan the track plan for these. As I told Robert yesterday, its good to be working on these and seeing progress makes me want to continue. So with any luck, I will have these two ready for the next train show we do.

TK

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

New Books, New/Old model!

Well,


I have some great new books that arrived the last few days, I was recommended to pick up these three title from a friend, all the Books are from Lance Mindheim. The three titles are How To Design A Small Switching Layout, How To Build A Switching Layout and How to Operate A Modern Era Switching Layout, all found on Amazon.

Lance Mindheim collection

All these books are great for novices and old timers alike. Lance does a great job pointing out some pitfalls that we all fall into when planning, building and operating. Most of which I already knew, but there is also a few things that were new to me. These are a great collection to anyone's library and are very easy to read, I highly recommend them.

Also I felt like I wanted to build something, so I busted out this Walthers Open Air Transload building that I got a few years ago. This kit will be going on a module that I am planning for my group that I belong to. Its a pretty close match for a transfer building that used to be down off of 107th Ave and Buckeye here in Phoenix (Avondale really) that was named Western Seed Production.

Walthers Cornerstone Kit

The kit was pretty straight forward and had a two sided instruction sheet. I got this assembled in two nights and now is ready for paint. I remember when the Cornerstone buildings first came out years ago, I had built a few for myself and friends and those kits were very fiddley to assemble. But this is a newer kit and it went together very nicely and its very sturdy. I was very pleased how the kit went together.  


Loading Dock side

Back of building

Rail serviced side

Truck serviced side

Now I have fully assembled the kit and will be painting on it in the next few days. So stay tuned to see progress on painting.

TK 

Sunday, January 03, 2021

Rolling in the dirt shop!

Well,

So this past weekend I decided to weather up a few cars that I assembled on New Years Eve, first up is an old MDC double door box for WP, I added weight and Kadee couplers, just waiting for the metal wheelsets to arrive. I used my usual suspects for weathering, Vallejo Environmental colors, and really weathered up the roof as it was silver.

MDC Double door Box

Roof weathering.

Next up is an old Athearn Double door Box painted up for the Longview Portland & Northern which was a car we would see in Anaheim from time to time as it was for wood products. Same products were used for weathering.

Athearn Box

Roof weathering again.

Next up is a single door Golden West Service box from Athearn, GWS was just starting to enter service after the SP merged with Rio Grande and I would see these cars all the time along the 5Fwy in Souther California on my way to work for the mouse.

Athearn GWS Box

And lastly another LP&N box from Athearn, this one being a single door FMC car. once again these would make there way down from the Pacific Northwest and were something we would see in Anaheim.
Athearn FMC Single Door Box

So there you go, four more cars for the railroad and now are fit for service once I get my metal wheels for all these cars.

TK


Friday, December 18, 2020

Track gang at it again!

 Well,

The track gang came along last night and made some changes to my layout last night, it seems that management was not happy about the progress this past weekend. So this past Saturday Robert and I went out doing some lite rail fanning here in Phoenix and I realized how spread out things are on the real railroads. I have always know this, but in my effort to try to cram more industries into my track plan I got a little carried away. I was more in Model Operations mode then trying to model the real thing.

Also another layout has really brought the idea of Less is more is this great layout Red Dirt & Rails which is a nice little railroad. I heard about this layout from Robert who found it on Youtube, and I binged his videos and was very impressed at just how well he captured the Oklahoma area. I knew I had to change mine as it was bothering me.

So last night I took out the middle set of tracks which I was calling the switch back track, when I put it in I made it easier to switch out the trailing and following industry tracks, in reality the real railroad would never have done this and it looked to cluttered.

Before, middle track is just a switch back.

Here is the track after removing the switches, much more simpler plan and feels right. Another thing that removing the track, it gave me more area for modeling the industry along this section. I was going to use just facades but now I can add more depth to this section of the layout.

After, removed the switch back track

Less track makes it tougher to operate, thats a good thing!

More space for the industry as well!

I am happy with the plan now and it does capture the feel of the real railroad to me and it gives me an opportunity to do more modeling with the industries along this section of the railroad. So I will lock down the rest of the track later today or tomorrow.

TK

Monday, December 14, 2020

Track Down

 So quick update,

This past weekend finally was able to secure some flex track to finish laying the track on my switching layout, I still need to add cork roadbed, but now I can actually start moving along with wiring and operation. 

West End of Layout

Main line with industries in the back on the west end.

Middle of the layout

East End corner as main line curves around the corner.

Next up after the cork will be to add the feeder wires and then I will be laying down the track using caulk. I am pretty excited to be finally moving along with this and look forward to seeing operations of the system I am guessing right at the new year begins.

So stay tuned, more progress coming soon.

TK

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Weathering Time

Okay,

Time to get started on some model railroading projects, last night I decided I wanted to work on doing some light weathering on a ready to run car, so I picked out this Athearn Roundhouse 50'FMC Box which was a faded paint and re lettered from Golden West to SP. I love that Athearn has made a few cars like this, already faded and re patched in SP markings. So all I needed to do was add some dirt to it. 

Athearn Roundhouse 50' FMC pre faded

Now, many people seem to go extremely crazy with weathering, while yes you can see some really beat up cars for real, most cars are not that bad. After all if a car is that beat up from the weather, its either something that is now going out of service or is headed to be repainted, not all the time, but I am guessing most of the time anyway. So I wanted to not filth this one up too much as I also will be using this for operations on my layout, I still need to see the car numbers.

So the first thing I did was add some weight to the car as it was a little light, just added a few 1" 1/8' hole washers (I uses these for metal basing for wargaming figures). I then took the car body off and shot it with a flat clear coat to knock down the shine of the factory paint, I also did this on the trucks minus the wheels.

The main culprits for the filth 

Next up came the Vallejo colors, on the roof I used Vallejo Environmental Rust, its a great paint as it adds some grit to the rust, I applied it with a brush then streaked it while still wet with a sponge (or in my case leftover pieces of foam packaging from a Flames of war blister!).

I then took the Vallejo Black Wash and some water and lined all the raised areas on the model like the ribs on the side of the car. I start with a thinned down wash and slowly add more black to it. I added some of the wash to the whole panels in some areas just too mix it up and add variety. 

Once this dried, I came back with Vallejo Brown Engine Soot and with the trucks and under carriage and lower part of the car body with a dry brushing/stipple effect, once again using my sponge to streak some areas. And as the black wash, I applied it to areas on the roof and some other areas of the car panels. I also applied this color to the inside of the wheels making sure to not get paint on the points of the wheel sets.

Last color was Vallejo Engine Grime which is a grayish color that I applied as a dry brush on the underside and lower area of the car body as well as the trucks. I also once again applied some to car panels and streaked with a sponge.

And here below is the finished product, took me about an hour to do the whole car as I had to wait for some of the wash to dry between coats of paint.

Finished dirty car!

I really like how this one came out, its not overdone with grime and filth and it looks very realistic and right. I now have about 60 more cars to work on, but I will vary it up and work on other projects. Also you will notice I did not use my airbrush on this project, I have seem many airbrushed cars, and to my eye they look a little too perfectly weathered, almost cartoony to me. Dont get me wrong, they do look great, but they tend to all look similar and not real. I feel I can get a better natural effect with a regular brush instead of busting out my airbrush, now i may on other cars, but right now I will continue with a regular brush.

TK 

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Trainsgiving!

 So,

As I wrote a few post ago, I was giving a huge collection of HO train equipment from a good friend and among the ready to run rolling stock were a few old school '"shake the box" kits from Athearn, MDC and some Walthers Classics. So I decided that I wanted to get a few of them put togetherand do some weathering. First up this CNW Covered hopper which is an Athearn custom paint by Bev Bel .

As its a yellow I wanted to tone it down, so I used Some Vallejo Black Wash thinned down with water and kept it to the raised areas.

Athearn Shake the Box kit.

For the underside I used Vallejo Engine Brown Grime dry brushed on the underside but kept it pretty light I also added metal wheels from Inter-mountain Railway as well as added a few Kadee couplers. 


Metal Wheels and grime 

Other end

Once I got that one together I decided to work on another one for CMA which was an Athearn kit as well. Same thing as the other one, weathering wheels and couplers.  

Another unique Bev Bel custom paint. 

At this point I ran out of metal wheels, but was still feeling like building kits, so I busted out this Athearn kit. I still need to do weathering but will do that once I pick up some metal wheels. 

Another old Athearn kit

Next up was a Walthers Classic boxcar, this one gave me some issues as the boxcar walls had squeezed inwards causing the roof not to fit properly. So I busted out some plastic and made a few gussets to keep it in the correct shape. I always like the GWSpaint job and need to locate a few more.

Golden West Service Wathers kit.Add caption

Next up was this classic MDC kit for the WP car, I used to have a bunch of these cars and was bummed when I could not find them anymore, especially for the older price! 

MDC classic kit

Next up was this Athearn mechanical reefer, I used to have a bunch of these as well, now the glide the rails of a buddies layout in CA.

Athearn reefer

Last up, an SP caboose from Athearn Genesis kits, this one is non lighted, but its a beautiful model. The time frame I model early to mid 1990's, SP was still running a few cabooses on local trains and special trains. Its just a great looking model I had to put it on my layout.

Athearn Genesis Caboose

So there you go, a few kits that I have gotten built, I know need to get more couplers and wheel sets to finish up the rest.

Happy Trainsgiving and thanks for stopping by.

TK



Monday, November 23, 2020

A Model Railroaders Christmas!!

 So,

This past weekend I got a very unexpected surprise from a long time friend and model railroader in CA. My good friend Don sent me a message last week asking if I was still doing Model Railroading and if I was interested in a few locomotives and some rolling stock. it seemed that he was needing to thin out his collection. I told him I was and he said he would send a few over to me here in Phoenix. Well he sent me another message stating that it would cost way too much, so he decided to drive them out and do an actual visit.

Well this Saturday he came on out and before we unloaded his car we caught up and went to lunch, when we got back from lunch, it was time to unload his car. I knew something was up when he asked if I had a hand truck or furniture dolly! Well there must have been at least 6 small boxes and three large boxes. When I grabbed the first box it must have weighed at least 40lbs, Don laughed and said wait until you see whats inside!

Well, I was floored, I started pulling out box after box of brand new, never been out of the box Southern Pacific locomotives! Don had told a little lie, it was more then a few locomotives! Total count was 49 locomotives and just about the same number of rolling stock, mostly all the rolling stock is ready to run, just needs to go onto the tails! 

Locomotives

More Locomotives!

Rolling Stock

So I had to ask my buddy, are you feeling and doing okay? As why would anyone want to get rid of all this stuff, surely you could sell it and make some money back? Don laughed and said yes he was fine, the simple fact was that he had plans to either build a layout or join a club, but just never did. he liked the collecting and after years it was just stuff and he knew he would never get to actually use it. So hence the message and delivery too me! I was totally shocked by this and the sheer amount of stuff, I do have a small switching layout I am working on and I do belong to a modular group so I would be able to use most of the rolling stock. Don's only request was that when our modular group starts doing shows again, he get the chance to come out to operate some of his trains, I told him that was a must for sure!

So what am I going to do with 49 locomotives? I do not know right now, I will be needing to purchase decoaders for them and there are a few that I am super excited about (Tunnel Motors and SD45's!) and I will begin weathering models as I go. I am super thankful for this gift from my friend, still overwhelmed but thankful as its a very generous gift to say the least!

But this got me thinking and I have spoken to a few friends already, at some point I think we all get to this point with the stuff in our lives. We just need to get rid of things that we had many ideas for that just never happened. I sometimes think about doing the same thing with my war gaming stuff, it just gets to be stuff and not important any more.

Well I have to get back to planning now, lots of stuff to work on now.

TK 


Thursday, March 14, 2019

Great Train Show 2019 Phoenix

So,

This past weekend I attended with my HO modular club (AZMR) the Great Train Show at the Phoenix Fairgrounds. This show used to be called the Great America Train Show and when I lived back in Southern California I used to attend with my old club Orange County Modular Railroaders. Yes after years of being out of the hobby of Model Railroading I came back to it a few years ago.

The new club (or group of guys as we are not really a club) set up a 36'x36' layout to run trains on. Our group likes to run long trains and when I say long, I mean 80 plus cars! This layout set up had us running much smaller trains as dictated by the length of sidings.

Right side of layout

Left side of layout
As some know, I am working on (very slowly) a switching layout in my game room, it is really a point to point layout, so if I want to run trains in a larger layout I attend and operate on the groups layout. Nice thing is I am able to use locomotives that would not work on the switching layout due to size here.

Southern Pacific Railroad is my favorite and I model the time frame in the late 80's to 1996 when the Espee was merged with the Rio Grand Railroad. With that being said, one of the most iconic Espee Locomotives is the SD40T-2 Tunnel motor. When I used to do model railroading 20 years ago, no one was making this locomotive except in brass. But Athearn did finally release one and as soon as I heard about it, I knew I had to have one.

SP SD40T-2 
Also another iconic locomotive that was all the rage back in 1996 was the GE 39-8B (or as Espee designated them as GE 40-8Bs). My buddy Rick had an Atlas unit for sale so I bought it from him to add to my mainline road power.

Cotton Belt Dash 8
 Now one thing that you will notice is that both locomotives are very clean, this was not normal for the Espee as they rarely ran the locomotives thru the wash racks. now I intend to dirty up the Tunnel motor, but the GE unit will remain as it is as I am representing when it was first delivered.

The show was good, not as good as they used to be, but still not bad. It was busy on Saturday and Sunday saw a smaller crowd at the Fairgrounds. I got a lot of folks complimenting my train I ran as all but the Locomotives are weathered really well like the real things. In this day of ready to roll equipment, most model railroaders are not doing anything to their cars or locomotives to make them look weathered. It leads to a very toy like appearance as most buildings are weathered and the trains are not. So while my train looked beat up by the weather, it stood out from all other trains being run that weekend.

Here are a few more shots of trains being run on our group set up:

My locos together working the mainline.

A GP9 Rio Grande unit

ATSF Steam Locomotive

Amtrak out this weekend
So there you have it, another one of my many hobbies that compete for my pocketbook and more importantly, time.

TK