Tom's Trucking

This model has been awaiting its day on the workbench far too long.

The structure is a well-built Fine Scale Miniatures Truck Terminal.  It was built for the Calapooya Pacific, Tom Gates' magnificent model railroad near my hometown in central Florida.  The kit came on the scene in 1971; I'm not sure when it was built.  Next it was owned by the Ocala Model Railroaders who dismantled and stored the CP, and now it resides in my collection, courtesy of that same club.  To say the Calapooya Pacific was an influence on my development as a model railroader is an understatement.  Hence, this model will get special treatment and occupy a piece of prime real estate on the Pine Branch Park layout.

Note the loading dock and its roof - both hanging in the air!  The roof needs two posts and piers, though I may give it three since I think that might look better.  The dock needs legs and stairs.  I've got the stairs and some of the leg and bracing material though I'm missing the posts and piers for the roof.  There are two chimneys and I've got those as well.  However the real challenge will be the gutters.  All four corners have significant damage and are missing material.  

Fortunately I've got some FSM gutter stock laying around.  A while back I stumbled across an eBay listing for the two stall engine house - minus the box and instructions but otherwise complete.  On both that structure and this one George (Sellios) instructs the modeler to put gutters on the rakes.  This isn't a very common feature, at least not that I've ever seen.  There weren't any included on this structure and I'm not going to put them on the engine house which makes them available for use here to repair the eave troughs.  By the way, I didn't know what a roof rake was until I began researching that design element.  Yet one more way this hobby rewards the modeler who is willing to learn new things.

Here's Tom's Trucking in place on the Calapooya Pacific from the May 1981 Model Railroader magazine, page 56.  The structure is on the far left just behind the locomotive.

I've been careful not to attribute the structure to Gates himself, as the article from which this photo comes - written by Gates - mentions that many of the Fine Scale (Miniatures) structures were built by Pat Ford.  "She is a master structures builder and has won many awards in the NMRA Sunshine Region contests.  All of the buildings and structures are modeled to reflect heavy use through weathering and apparent repairs."  So, my repairs will not look out of place if I don't get the coloration dead on matched.  Good to know.

I'm in no hurry to finish this as life has thrown some curve balls at me and I'm juggling them as I catch them.  But that's also important, taking my time that is, to honor this structure's heritage and do the best job I can.  Results will be shared when ready.

Geissel Got It

Recently my attention was directed once more to the Chester Valley Railroad of J. Harold Geissel. This was the “Layout of the Month” in the November 1939 Model Railroader. That original article wasn't the starting point this time around, rather, it was the article by editor Russ Larson exactly 30 years later in the November 1969 issue. “What makes an outstanding layout?” asks the title. The author answers in the text below:

“I feel the basic ingredients for a good layout are:

• A good track plan

• Authentic structures
• Attention to scenic detail
• Realistic operation, including the selection of rolling stock
  

The final product must be judged, at least partially, on how well the modeler blends these basic ingredients together. It also takes an intangible something extra. To create an outstanding layout you must, I believe, go beyond what is commonly done and develop something better in at least one of these basic layout qualities.”

Note he begins by describing what makes a “good” layout before leading the reader to the answer to his question, what makes that layout “outstanding”.  I appreciate his points and think they're not bad at all.  And yet...

I think he missed one crucial ingredient; the concept.

Oh yes, this is one of those contrary articles in which I espouse my fervent belief that the concept and the plan are distinctly different elements. What Larson missed is what Geissel explicitly stated in his article from August 1939. (The November “Layout of the Month” article shows the track plan which was reprinted in Larson's article while the August '39 article is by Geissel himself and includes photos, also reprinted in '69.) Quote:

“The Chester Valley is now in its third location as an operating layout. While the basic idea carries along without change, each layout has been different; the track plan has been simplified, curve radii have been increased, and real railroad practice has been followed more closely." p.386

Sorry Uncle Russ, but it all boils down to the "basic idea", i.e., the concept.  Geissel's article begins with a description of his rationale for choosing a short line - an idea that had remained with him since childhood.  Once a good concept takes root in your mind, grows, blooms and drops seed, it can be nigh impossible to dislodge, should that be desired (it most likely will not be).  How the concept is executed can change with income, location, skill, energy, etc. but a good idea - a good story - can call forth creativity for a lifetime, or at least until it has run its course and been successfully expressed.

About that 4-6-0

 

A while back I mentioned an AristoCraft (New One) 4-6-0 I'd considered to pull my Selley passenger train, when the day arrived to need it.  Well, the Selley passenger cars are still in kit form, in their boxes, awaiting their turn on the workbench.  But another reason emerged for needing this engine, and one that's more apropos.

While searching for that elusive (and now suddenly everywhere!) New One "Supply Car", I ended up with a whole train of New One cars, nearly ready-to-run.  It's a long story, and might find its way onto this blog someday.  For now, suffice it to say that I've got a five-car "Open Enders" (New One's name for its cars) passenger train with one of each type plus an extra coach.

That brings us back to the 4-6-0.  The poor old gal had a broken tender truck, a broken drawbar spring, and two broken main rods.  After some cogitation I figured I could repair that truck, ditto the spring, and begin hunting for replacement main rods - more on that in a moment.  I managed to "weld" the truck back together with the same two-part metal epoxy I had used on the frame of the 2-8-0 kit-mingle.  I bent a new spring for the drawbar and soldered it in place.

With those repairs the thing should have run, and it did, briefly.  After cleaning the wheel treads and oiling the motor bearings the performance improved but not by much.  So I turned to what any reasonably skilled modeler would have done back in the day; I bought pickup shoes from Tomar and installed one under the loco.  I try to follow the troubleshooter's creed of "fix one thing at a time - then test - then repeat as necessary"*

With that solitary change and more wheel cleaning the thing now runs reasonably well.  Well enough, in fact, to pull the New One cars around Pine Branch Park without much difficulty.  Of course it still needs those main rods and I may have the solution.  Finding original parts will be less likely than a close-enough replacement, so I selected a pair of rods from an MDC 4-4-2.  As you can see from the photos they're pretty close.  Crucially, they're longer and I can drill a new hole (hopefully) in the beam and make it work.  Fingers crossed.

*I don't know if that really is a troubleshooter's creed, it just sounds like it could be.  Please don't come after me, members of the troubleshooter's guild.  If there is such an organization.  I'm just guessing.

2024 Tombstones

Pre-made "skinny" stones being bulked with foam.

 

Inspector Vulture approves.

Shaped and coated with joint compound over paper mache'.

Painted black and dry-brushed white.

While I have several ideas for scratch-built monuments, this was another year to simply "bulk out" premade stones to give them more heft and believability.  It is a simple process of building up the back and base of the stone with additional foam then coating with paper mache' and stippling with drywall joint compound mixed with art paste.  Not shown is the small block of wood and vertical PVC pipe I insert in the base.  This adds weight and a way to install the stone in the lawn over a short length of rebar, to keep it from blowing over.  Next year I'll be back to creating never-before-seen spooky-silly additions to the Golden Cedars Garden of Rest Pet Cemetery.

Two Words - Train Master

A Trainmaster is a person in charge of the movement of trains in a division or subdivision of a railroad.  A Train Master is a diesel locomotive, designated H24-66, built by the Fairbanks-Morse company.  Two Words.  Train Master.

This story began decades ago, long before The Shifter.  Facing the big Five-Oh soon I decided to revisit some old projects.  This quickly rose to the top of the list.  Look for more posts about this pair of locomotives in the next few months.

 

Full Circle

This is blog post number 200.  Rather than write a big blog recap or make some major announcement, I decided to spin a yarn about a mystery solved.  Let's start with this image:

I snipped this sliver from one of John Allen's photos of a scene at Port on his Gorre and Daphetid railroad, taken in 1971.  Yup.  That's all you get.  Running the image through Google image search gives you all manner of fun things, none of which help in this situation.  All I could make out was some text along the bottom beneath that colored logo, "Bay RR".  However, I could tell the steps are molded on, the side appears to be simulated wood and the roof walk tells me its a box car.  That's it.  Maybe another image might help:

This full-side view is from a John Allen photo of a train on the high bridge over Squawbottom, 1972.  Now the overall shape of that herald is clearer and some general text is emerging on the left side.  Perhaps a road name up high and a slogan below?  The images above are all I could find of this particular car and offered no definitive answers to what the full road name was.  That is, until I was searching for other surviving relatives of a totally different car:

More is known about the Virginia Midland, though not much more.  Still, I was trolling eBay, as one does when on the hunt for vintage models, when I found a listing for a Virginia Midland hopper.  I was not entirely sure it was the same VM as the box car on the G&D, but I figured if the seller has one private road name car, there may be more.  And I was right.  Check this out:

Look familiar?  This is a picture from the eBay listing and the photo quality is not the best, but it was certainly good enough to make out the relevant text!  Until this point I had no hope of ever identifying that mystery car I had been calling the "X Bay RR".  Now I knew it was the Seaford and Oyster Bay RR, "Trail to the Sunrise"! I was ecstatic. 

Fine.  Mystery solved, right?  Not so fast.  Whose railroad was this?  How did one of their boxcars come to be on the G&D?  That's hallowed ground on which not just any car trod, er, rolled.  How was it hitched into a train alongside such famous lines as the Alturas and Lone Pine or the Texas and Rio Grande Western?  Perhaps the internet, that great oracle of our age, could tell me more.

After a string of fruitless searches I found the goods but it wasn't a direct route.  However New York State Route 135 appears to be.  This road is commonly known as the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway.  We're getting warmer.  Model Railroader database?  Nothing, except that Seaford is mentioned in connection with the NorthEastern Region of the NMRA.  Hmmm.

Adding NMRA and NER to the search term "Seaford and Oyster Bay" brings me to "The Coupler", the publication of the NER, specifically the Summer 1981 issue.  There on page three is a fine article about newly minted Master Model Railroader #85, Frank Murray.  Click here for a link to the full issue, however this snip answers most of the pertinent questions:

That last line brings it full circle.  There it is.  "Trail to the Sunrise"?  A nod to the Sunrise Trail Division of the NorthEastern Region of the NMRA.  "A number of years ago" was probably at least 10, since the earliest image I could find of an SOB car was from 1971 and Frank completed his MMR certification in 1981.  

Only a few details remain and they're perhaps less important.  Did Frank mail his car to John or bring it with him on the "vacation"?  Oh, and there's a bonus G&D connection; in the same article are names of other modelers in the Sunrise Trail Division who had achieved MMR.  One in particular stood out: Waty House (#5).  Did Watson House have anything to do with securing an invitation to the G&D for Frank?  John considered House enough of a friend to name a major structure on the G&D after him.

The world may never know any more than what's been discovered and shared here, and that's okay.  And the car I found on eBay?  Why I bid on it of course!  And won, along with another private road name car, a reefer lettered for the "Busted and Maimed", Route of the Busted Pine.  No, I don't have any clue to its origins.  Yet.

Thanks to all who regularly read this blog, and any who stop by occasionally or stumble across it.  However you find it, if you would consider following along I'd appreciate it and as always, leave any comments or questions down below.  There will be more to come.
 

Patience, Risk, Reward

 

Work on the "Putnam", the 2-8-0 kitbash I had begun a couple years back and recently resumed, had stalled.  The nature of this hobby and the flow of my daily life during the summer had conspired again to remove me from the workbench and shift my focus elsewhere.  But truthfully I wasn't in the mood to do wiring, or really anything, on this engine.  

That's okay.  This isn't a race to some finish line, though I find competitions challenging and deadlines helpful now and again.  This is a hobby that can breed patience if a person sticks with it.  I may groan a little about projects that have been on-again-off-again for years but at the end of the day I don't mind.  As long as I'm engaged regularly with model trains in a hands-on way, I'm content.

Getting back to work on the engine meant tackling a risky wiring job.  I needed to splice in a micro-connector in order to install the headlight and separate the boiler from the chassis.  I've installed DCC decoders before and have done similar work with tiny wires, but this case was particularly risky.  I needed to strip and solder the wires and I only had so much wire to work with.  Thankfully the procedure went as well as I could have hoped, with no hitches or hangups.

The reward was not only a successfully wired connector but a return to the workbench, to a stalled project.  I once asked a fellow modeler how he managed to create such exquisitely detailed steam locomotives.  He replied, by sitting down at the bench and doing something - drilling the next hole, adding the next part, step by step until it is done.  Even if all you do that day is install the smallest rivet, count it as a victory and do it again the next day.  Eventually you'll have a completed model.

I would add one thing to this advice, a step that's crucial for me in overcoming inertia and restarting the modeling momentum.  The locomotive on the bench wasn't sitting idle alone.  All the parts to do the next step were out and ready.  The soldering iron, solder, flux, extra hands with magnifier, micro-connector, wire stripper, side cutters and heat-shrink tubing were all there too.  Setting out all these parts was a vital step, a necessary prologue.