Gilded Age

Here is a box car I've been building.  It has reached the stage that I think is the pinnacle of beauty - detailed but not yet primed, painted, lettered and weathered.  No doubt it will be a beautiful car at that completed stage also, but at this point all the hard work that has gone into building it is still visible.  In a kit like this, that means all the details are evident due to the variety of materials.

I consider older kits like this to be craftsman kits.  A box of wood structural shapes, white metal castings, stamped brass and styrene parts becomes a box car.  I have taken this car a little further than the manufacturer intended by adding a few details beyond what is included with the kit.  I substituted fishing line and Tichy turnbuckles for the wire truss rods and brass crimp-on turnbuckles included. I also added Tichy truss-rod n-b-w 'ends' to each end of the car.  The wire truss rods, incidentally, were pulled in a vise to straighten them, then bent and cut and bent again into the new grab irons for the car sides and ends.

I also added Cal Scale plastic brake levers, styrene supports for the brake rigging, and I used the staple stirrup steps as brake lever supports.  Inside the car I used adhesive caulk to affix a found-item weight.  When I came across that hunk of metal on the side of the road I just knew it would fit inside a car someday...that day has come.  As I took the photos for this posting I realized I still need to add a grab iron on each roof walk end, new stirrup steps on the corners, and possibly a door stop on each side.

This car will become the first Ocali Creek Railway box car, and as such, will be most often seen at the freight houses and team tracks along the line delivering LCL freight.  Not sure I'll get it painted before Xmas.  I may just run it like this for a while and enjoy all the bits and pieces.

Recent Rescues

I didn't want to go, but I went anyway to the Great Train Expo at Puyallup (that's Pew-AL-up, in case you're wondering).  The main reason I didn't want to go was because I knew I'd spend money.  You see, I'm a sucker for a stray car in need of a good home.  And I don't mean any old car that strikes my fancy, but real basket-cases, in rough shape, in need of some TLC, well, you get the idea.  Somehow I'm drawn to the love that went into building these vintage beauties, and I can't bear the thought of them spending another night in a cardboard tray, being schlepped from show to show and passed over by time and again.

So here are the recent rescues I brought home, in no particular order:

How could anyone say no?  Backup and Push?  Seriously?  Saw this for 5 bucks and didn't think twice.  If anyone out there has any leads as to the origins of the car, PLEASE let me know.  I'd love to find out more.  A cursory internet search yielded nada...  This car is lettered outside my era, and built with AB brakes, but I dare not change it and it will be run for fun occasionally.  Next:

I was surprised to learn there really was a Warrior River Terminal, and pleasantly surprised to learn it was in the South (Alabama).  Someone did a fine job building what appears to be a Silver Streak or Ulrich (early) truss rod box car.  Kadee arch bar trucks and couplers, though one set of trucks had plastic wheels.  A quick swap for a pair of ribbed-back P2K's and this car was pressed into service retrieving a load of lumber from the interchange at Pinto.  It will need some paint touch up, a new brake staff, wheel and stand, and a little chip repair on the roof end.  Next:

This car IS appropriate for my era, with perhaps the exception of the trucks.  A nice double-sheathed boxcar, and I'm guessing here that it is a VERY early Silver Streak kit.  The clues - no cross beams on the underframe, and no gaps in the center sill for them!  Micro Motive trucks - how cool!  Real rubber spring inserts that still have give.  MR ads from the late 40's indicate these were an option with Silver Streak kits.  Here's a closer look:

I will most likely carefully RE-kit this car and then rebuild with a nice pair of Andrews trucks.  Finally, a flat:

Saw this at the show in Chehalis and didn't buy it then.  Same dealer had the same car at Puyallup and I brought home an exquisitely built unlettered flat car.  I'm guessing it is a Labelle kit, as it appears to be wood construction with Tichy or Grandt Line details.  Looks like IHC trucks, but at least they're arch bars.  I plan to finish the brake rigging, (only the cylinder was in place), swap the trucks for Kadee 501's, then add weight - plenty of room between the beams under the floor.  Not sure if this will be a BTLC car or an OCRY car.  Still time to think.

Currently on the workbench is a kitbashed handcar shed that matches the Pinto depot and Freight house, and my own Silver Streak 929-900 Truss rod box car that will become an Ocali Creek car, used in LCL service.

Big update, long overdue.  Thanks for reading, and happy train season!

Galen

Back to the Mine!

To me, that phrase, "Back to the mine!" evokes ideas of drudgery and hard, back-breaking work.  I suppose I indulged in a little drudgery this morning but it was far from back-breaking.  Mind numbing, perhaps, if I set out to do it all in one sitting, but not so much when broken down into manageable chunks.  Good thing this is a hobby and there are no deadlines!

Here is the mine in question, sitting on my portable workbench, at my dining room table:

BTW, the beautiful girl with the big hair in the picture at the back of my workbench is my wife, long before we knew each other.  In that picture she was doing her hair for some formal event.  Yes, I keep a picture of my wife on my workbench.

Anyway, I had set the mine aside for a long time, well over a year, I think.  The workbench had some serious dust on it, which I used to my advantage.  The next step in this model was/is the application of rafter tails.  Tiny little bits of wood that stick out under the eaves.  TINY.  But this work is made easier with a NWSL chopper to cut the little buggers all to the same length, and a piece of masking tape with guide lines drawn on it.  In order to keep the tape from pulling up the paint and rust from the roof panels, and possibly the panels themselves, I stuck the tape in the workbench dust to reduce the tackiness.

Speaking of tacky, if you're a Weird Al Yankovic fan, you should check out this music video.

Here's the tape in place and a few rafter tails applied:

I did a dozen this morning and it took about a half hour, including the set-up time for the chopper and tape.  I had to make a fresh jar of Titebond carpenter's glue since the old had gotten dry months ago.  The next dozen are cut and shouldn't take as long to apply.  I will cut and place the remaining tails on the FRONT of the building, but it is doubtful that I will do the back.  We'll see. 

It may be that life is too short to put rafter tails on the back of the Red Mountain Mine.

Pinto Potential (and Problems)

Pinto is one 'end' of the Ocali Creek Railway.  Fictionally, it is the place where the OCRy interchanges with the Big Tujunga Lumber Company.  Functionally, it provides switching opportunities and off-layout traffic.  Trains will be shoved up the hill to Pinto from Watson, the next town down the line where trains will typically be turned for their return trip to staging, and Pinto will be worked by a once or twice daily turn.

However, this post isn't about the operational characteristics, but rather the potential projects to be done at Pinto, and the scenic problems the physical location presents.  This image illustrates the point:

The first problem is lighting.  The hallway light in the top right of the image is a different 'color' than the rest of the layout room lighting.  This makes for challenging photography.  I have a solution - I recently purchased more bulbs that match the color intensity of the layout lighting, and I'll change out the hallway lights...eventually.


The second problem is depth.  The layout here is 24" deep - plenty for many, but challenging to try and squeeze in all the scenery and structures I want to include.  But therein is the potential for some creative construction and forced perspective.  As you can see I have been playing with photo cut-outs (from old NS train calendars - Thanks, Paw Paw!) for the backdrop.

In place are two structures kitbashed from one source kit.  Bonus points if you can tell me the kit!  Here's a closeup of the passenger depot:

 

Can you see the color difference?  Look at the orange-ish cast on the far right wall vs the brighter, blue-er color on the rest of the scene.  Hopefully the new lights will help.

There is great potential for detail in this scene.  I had 'poured' some Durham's water putty, planning to carve some brick detail into the platform, but changed my mind when I found some great Herringbone laser-cut material, and have since changed my mind again and plan to make the platform a timber frame with tamped cinders inside.  Beyond just this scene, I have several structures to build, scenery to place, a backdrop to create, and loads of detail to add.  Hours of fun!

Finally, I leave you with a link to a set of videos I have watched several times; a clinic given by Earl Smallshaw about using forced perspective to create a town in a small space.  Earl Smallshaw's wit and wisdom shone through his modeling on his Middletown and Mystic Mines Railway.   Thanks to Model Railroad Hobbyist for putting this clinic online.  Perhaps there's some potential to use these techniques at Pinto?

Next month I hope to not only write a blog post, but there's a special project in the works...pictures...that move!

New Vise and a Cheap Tool

Two tools and a link, today.

First, the link.  Take a couple minutes and read over this information page on "Twisting Wire for Great Grab Irons" at the Labelle Models site.  (The page will open in a new window, and then you'll need to open the pdf file.  It's FREE!)  Don't get distracted reading all the other great articles - come back here and finish this page first.

Next, my new cool tool, a really great mini-vise from Micro Mark.

Sure, you can probably buy one cheaper on ebay, but this is one case where you really do get what you pay for.  I got mine on sale!  This little vise is very well made from cast steel, not aluminum, in Japan.  Think Samurai swords.  These guys know what they're doing.  I trued the jaws with a few swipes of a file, but it was already very close to begin with.  I left the sticker on the side because I think it looks cool, and I'm even considering weathering it.

The other tool is so cheap, it's free if you know where to look.

My grab iron jig is a coffee stir stick.  It just happens to be the right size in a couple dimensions:

First, it's a width gauge for setting tape on the jaws of a pair of pliers I use to bend the basic shape of the handrail.  As you can see, it lays nicely between the locating marks (+____+) on the side of the CV car.  It also serves as a means of setting the depth for the handrail's first break. 

I've got a large vintage vise on a home-built stand down in the garage.  And, I've used it to make grabs in this manor before.  However, there was a lot of slop in the jaws, and being used, they weren't that sharp.  Plus, my modeling desk is upstairs and I'd like to be able to sit down and bend a grab iron when I've got a few minutes before I have to get the kiddo to preschool, or before dinner is ready, etc.

I can bend a grab from straight wire to ready-to-mount in 2-3 minutes.  That adds up to over an hour for a car like the current ventilated car.  I'd rather break that tedium into smaller bites.  Even so, I consider it time well spent towards realism and that fine-scale appearance that I believe contribute so much when upgrading a classic kit.

I managed to get my second April post in just under the wire.  Next month I hope to show the completed ventilated box car and some progress on the second CV kit.

Central Valley Kits and Bits

March is a busy time, what with Lent, but I still made time for modeling.  A few minutes every day adds up, and when the kit comes with good step-by-step instructions it is easy to do just that and take small steps.  Small, enjoyable steps.

With a Central Valley Old Timer, that's exactly what I get - enjoyable steps adding up to a beautiful little model.  Even before construction begins, the kit itself is a thing of beauty.  Every thing in place, ready to go.

Each little package of parts carefully slipped into a slot in the cardboard spacing, the inner wood bits neatly bundled in their slot on the side, the printed sides and ends wrapped in a protective plastic sleeve, all ready to begin.  So that's what I did.

The printing on the car sides and ends may not be as crisp and clean as some of today's models, but the quality of the fine-grained, scribed plywood is excellent even after many years in storage.  Click on the picture of the interior for a close-up view.  There are lines for oats, corn and wheat; appropriate for a box car, but especially one with 'grain' printed on the solid sliding door.

As of this post I'm nearing completion of this kit.  I'll discuss a few more of the minor modifications I've made along the way to upgrade the car in the next post.  I'm waiting for a special delivery from Micro-Mark in order to do the next step at my workbench instead of the garage.  Until then, I have a second CV kit that's in need of some care and attention.

This is a bargain I found on eBay; an 'Arctic Oil Works' CV Old Timer box car.  No trucks or couplers, and in pretty rough shape, so I was able to make an offer and purchase it at a reduced price.  That's fine since it's going to need a lot of work.  The trucks you see in the picture were a find at a recent train show.  Always check the bargain boxes under the table.  These trucks were on a beat-up, poorly constructed Mainline Models GN boxcar.  I paid a dollar.  That's right, wahn dahlah.

I can salvage the roof, end blocks, details and grab irons for a future project.  The other trucks pictured above are CV T-57 Hi-speed roller bearing trucks and Kadee 501 Arch Bar trucks, each obtained under similar bargain bin cars for $2.50 each.  Not sure if I can use the T-57s in my era, so they'll be saved or sold if not, but the car they were attached to can most likely be used.  The Kadee trucks were under an ARA SP car which will not be used on the current layout, but the trucks will be.

Long post this time since I had planned to post monthly and I just missed March by a couple days.  But like I said, March is a busy month for ministry and this one has been especially so for many reasons.  I'm glad I have a hobby to help me relax.

Poster Posted FINALLY!!

(click for a BIG image)

This poor poster has languished and, unfortunately, suffered minor moisture damage in a cardboard tube over the last twelve or thirteen years.  I bought it at Disneyland in the store above the shops in New Orleans Square.  What prompted me to pull it out and put it up was the creation of my 'Unfinished List'.  That is, a list of unfinished projects which have been hanging over my head.  I've been gradually implementing David Allen's GTD, or Getting Things Done system in order to work through this list and, well, get these things done!

What enabled me to accomplish this project are the financial gifts I received at Christmas.  I originally had designs on saving for a table saw.  I decided instead to direct the benevolence toward a poster frame.  To have a poster this large custom framed at an art store could easily run several hundred dollars.  One estimate I got a couple years back was $400, with a coupon!  The internet, once again, provided the means to complete the work.

Poster Frame Depot (.com) is the company I used to produce my frame.  There's another site with different shipping options and an identical selection matrix, but this site was about $10 cheaper in the end.  I can highly recommend this company for the quality of the frame, the solid packaging, and the ease of use of the website.  Everything went together easily and with Kristi's help I managed to wrangle such a large poster into a giant frame.

The poster itself is 36 inches by 53-1/2 inches.  I suspect it is actually 36 x 54 (the same size as the posters in the entry tunnels at Disneyland), but it shrank a bit over the years of storage.  The water damage is only evident if you know where to look and I may have been able to iron it out, but I was afraid I'd damage the image if I tried.  I added a 'frame strap' to the order for a few dollars more - the total was right around $175 - and all the hardware to hang it was included.

After two weeks of hanging in my office, I've gotten some great comments from folks who have seen the poster.  Most notice the color - it is certainly vivid.  I'm thrilled to have been able to get this long-overdue project completed, and to have such a beautiful piece of art hanging in my office.  Thanks to all the family financiers, without whom I would not have been able to accomplish this.

The Saga of Shay #5

I finally got around to working on my Bachmann Spectrum 80 ton three-truck shay.  If you have one of these, you may have an idea already what I mean by 'working on'.  Ha.  When I bought this little beauty almost 15 years ago, it ran like a Swiss watch.  I really ran it hard on the Orange County Module Railroaders layout, much to the chagrin of folks in the club who wanted to follow it around the layout with another train.  The engine's top speed was a crawl compared to the standard steamer or diesel lash-up, as it should be!

But I think that caused some excess wear on the gears and maybe pushed the motor too hard.  Since pulling it out of storage it has had an excessive whine.  Also, I noticed that it has the same problem as many (most?) other Bachmann shays - cracked drive shaft gears.  A couple years back I purchased a NWSL regear kit, anticipating sitting down with the engine and changing out the cracked gears on the drive shaft.  Over the Christmas 2013 break I finally set out to do just that, and perhaps determine the source of the whine.

Before changing the gears, or even opening the NWSL package, WATCH THIS VIDEO.  If the link is broken, please search Youtube for 'DCC HO Scale 3 truck Shay upgrade 4-1-13' by tsgmultimedia.  Then, read the directions that come with the NWSL kit, then read them again.  You decide if you are comfortable pushing on plastic parts with pliers and possibly breaking them, OR pushing them out of their press-fit holes and possibly breaking them.  Slippery is an understatement!  Fortunately good old CA superglue will glue them back together, whatever choice you make.  Ask me how I know.

So I got the gears changed and installed a DCC decoder in the engine.  Easy peasy (the decoder).  Put her on the rails and she ran well.  But that whine was still there.  Think 'tie-fighter' and you've got it.  So after stepping away from the project for a day I decided to go ahead and dismantle the engine and clean the main internal gears.  Sure enough, plenty of white factory grease in the gearbox, but black residue on the gears and very little grease.  I cleaned out the old grease, cleaned off the gears, and applied some Labelle 102, my go-to gear grease. 

After a frustrating reassembly, I put her back on the track and the whine was...reduced considerably.  In fact, the whine is gone, but there remains a grinding growl.  I am now left wondering if there is further internal gear damage, slop in the internal gears, or motor damage.  I am not in the place where I can bench test this thoroughly - my power supply is attached to the layout on the opposite side of the room from my workbench - doh! - so I'll just run it for now and enjoy switching Pinto when I need a train running fix.

The other work I've done on the shay was to letter the water tender for the 'Big Tujunga Lumber Company' and put a great big number 5 on the coal tender.  Some of my dry transfer lettering was a little older than the rest, and had a tendency to pick up bits from letters I'd just put down.  GRRR.....  But after a few sessions, little by little, I managed to create this:

On one side I actually had to create the 'M's from parts of an N, a V and an H, in that order.  Eventually I'll touch up the paint on this engine and weather it.  I've got a decent fireman figure for the cab, but could use a nicer engineer - both need to be standing, based on the cab setup.

This is a beautiful engine, but a real challenge to repair and maintain.  Good luck with yours, if you've got one in need of repair.  Email if you've got questions or comments.  Thanks for reading!