GM&G Ventilated Boxcar

The Gorre & Daphetid "Heritage Fleet" keeps on growing.  I suspect I have nine or ten cars, total, that are identical in make and model to John's cars, and another half dozen cars from private roads that ran on the G&D but don't match the car type.  This latest car fits the first category, being a Central Valley ventilated boxcar lettered for the Georgia, Midland and Gulf, number 1254, as seen on the G&D.  However, I didn't set out to build a replica of John's car.  

A while back I built one of these cars lettered for the Mobile & Ohio and had such an enjoyable time that I decided to look for more.  More were found and procured with the intent of making a fleet for the Ocali Creek Railway.  Of the cars I found in various states of disrepair, this one - GM&G 1254 - just happened to have the nicest 'bones' and was close to complete.  Donor parts from the other cars made up the lost parts.  I even decided to use the Central Valley dress-snap truck attachment, not knowing for sure what John did but guessing he might have used the original kit parts.

One bonus specific to this car; it fits my 1920s era perfectly and can see regular operation hauling perishables on the Ocali Creek Railway.  Enjoy the images below from the reconstruction process and a picture of the car with its Heritage Fleet brethren. 

Ocali Creek Mogul 145 does the honors, pulling the current G&D Heritage Fleet cars tailed by an Ocali Creek caboose.

 

The One and Only Covered Hopper

One, and only one.  As best I can tell John Allen only ever rostered one covered hopper in his entire fleet of rolling stock.  And, based on scant evidence, admittedly, my best guess for that car's road name is "Jack Frost" Cane Sugar.  More confidently I can say the make of the car was an MDC Roundhouse 2 Bay Covered Hopper.  The rib spacing, round hatches and body shape tell that story pretty clearly.  Beyond that we get into the realm of speculation.

A close-up crop from the Optimum Use of Space slide show.  Note: this is a reflection - you're looking at the left end of the car on the right side of the image.  The proof of this is the G&D boxcar to the right, whose lettering is reversed.  Original photo by John Allen.

Dating it on the G&D is difficult since it shows up so infrequently.  The best color image comes from John's clinic on the Optimum Use of Space.  Even then it doesn't clearly show the full side and is only seen reflected in the mirror at Great Divide behind a bridge column.  If you've got the Westcott book you can see it on page 4 but only a top view.  Jerry Drake's clinic on the G&D includes a full side view - completely shaded almost to the point of silhouette.  And so it goes.  Still, unless new evidence surfaces, I remain convinced it is a Jack Frost car based on the schemes of what was available in the model train marketplace during the 1960s.  I'll let you visit the gdlines.org site and dig around to see if you can find it on your own.

"Lagoon Blue" was nearly an exact match.  Trucks are metal and sprung to match what would have been under the car originally though the MR review notes the wheels were plastic.

Model Railroader reviewed the car, new, in August 1962.  There seem to be two variations in the lettering - the key difference being the position of the 'sugar baby', either next to the Jack Frost lettering or beneath it.  Without knowing when the car appeared on the G&D or when Roundhouse changed the lettering I had no guidance on which version to look for.  Being the G&D aficionado I am I had to have one for my Heritage Fleet - my own roster of cars found on fallen flag model railroads.  The car was surprisingly difficult to find on the second hand market as a complete, unbuilt kit.  Though I suspect the version I selected is not the oldest, it more closely matches the lettering on a prototype image I found, for what that's worth.  

Tamiya black panel liner provides a shadow effect to make the best of the thick plastic running board.  My acrylic weathering sludge in the cup is a mix of charcoal gray, tan and a drop of rust.

The MR review states this was an easy kit to build.  I struggled to get the hopper door braces cut to length and glued in place, and needed to spend a while with a set of files to get the underframe to fit correctly.  Roundhouse suggests painting the underframe black but I chose to match the brilliant blue of the sides, as that seems to be what the prototype did (again, that matters less than trying to match how John built his, but that's impossible to know with current images).  Where I tried to more closely follow John's practices was with the weathering.  There having a good prototype image IS important, as this is what John followed when weathering his cars, though his results often appear quite heavy handed.

 

Overall I'm pleased with the result, both in terms of adding another car to the G&D Heritage Fleet and on its own merit as a bright and colorful car.  As of writing this post, the next heritage car under construction is a GM&G ventilated box car, for which there is far better photographic evidence!  Thanks for reading.  Feel free to comment or ask questions.

 

Garage Update

We've been in this house three years now.  When we first moved in I wrote about my detached garage, and the possibilities for using the space for hobby purposes.  By September of 2022 I had settled in enough to set up a workbench there alongside the layout, still hopeful that the space could be used.  But by September of 2023 I had determined the garage was not a suitable place for model trains, beyond storage - and even that's less than ideal.  Since then I have said nothing more about it but work on the space has resumed so it is time for an update.

Let's start here:

Eagle eyed among you might see it says "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here"...ha.  No, it says "2 110V circ 20A w/switch leg".  I braved the crawl space to find the junction box where the wiring comes from the garage into the house.  I was rewarded with the solution to a mystery we have pondered since we moved in, a light switch with no apparent function.  Now we know.  A cable run in the garage that seemed to go nowhere and connect to nothing actually connects to that light switch in the den, and will allow a person to operate a garage light from the house.  Neat.  But I digress.

What led me under the house was the garage wiring, specifically that mystery cable.  But the mystery cable wasn't a mystery until we started examining the garage wiring in more detail.  That room needs additional outlets and better lighting.  We (me, my son, and retired electrician Jack) were looking at options and plotting the current system.  Turns out there's enough room on the circuit to add all the lighting I want and the outlets I'll need.  Great.  But I'm still burying the lead.

Why now?  Why after all this time have I returned to the garage project?  Because I have finally arrived at a place of...well, let's not say peace, but acceptance.  The beginning of peace.  I accept this space will make a decent shop for cutting, sanding, painting, plastering, etc..  I accept this will likely never be a space for a large, beautifully scenicked layout populated with craftsman structures and vintage rolling stock.  I had suspected this would be the case last year but now I have come to terms with this idea.

That acceptance broke the log jam that had stymied any real progress on restructuring that area.  Sure, I had tinkered around with some decluttering, having a successful yard sale, clearing out items that could live elsewhere, but with no clear picture of what the space would be beyond a cluttered storage unit with some tools and supplies strewn about.  Accepting that this room will, for the foreseeable future, be primarily a shop for "messy" projects, with a well-organized storage space, and secondarily a home for the family bicycles, allowed me to make concrete choices to move the space in that direction.

One such choice is depicted below in a sequence of images:

 

Going, going, gone!  These built-in shelves served their purpose but have now been deemed surplus to requirements.  The window is likely original to the structure (1930s) and is a feature of the room, in my opinion.  My workbench will live there beneath it, with storage racks on either side.  The redwood planks that made up the shelves - former roof boards from the garage's original roof - will be repurposed.  The outlet in the image above will be shifted closer to that window and the extension cord leading up to the ceiling will go away once new lighting is installed.

I'm excited about the possibilities for this space, a feeling I haven't had since I moved in.  Now those possibilities aren't some distant dream of what might be, rather, they're a set of steps I can take right away to improve this room and build a shop that supports my hobbies and meets my family's needs.  Look for future updates as the work continues.  Thanks for reading.

Towards a G&D 2-8-0

No, this isn't a post about the "Putnam" 2-8-0 kit-mingle, but a new 2-8-0 project - at least the research stage.  A few years back a friend of a friend needed to sell some trains to make a little traveling cash - I know, this sounds sketchy but it's all above board, I promise.  I nearly made the mistake of buying another Spectrum 4-6-0 but narrowly avoided that fate after spotting the wheel lope; I swear half of those must be lemons.  Instead, I purchased the most reliable runner Bachmann ever made, in my opinion, the "evergreen" Spectrum 2-8-0, as Iain Rice once dubbed it.

Before the cash had even changed hands I had begun to formulate a plan for what this engine might become.  Readers who have been with this blog a while know I can't leave well enough alone and must modify and manipulate a locomotive, rarely leaving it in an un-molested state as the manufacturer designed it.  My first consideration was an ET&WNC 2-8-0, detailed to match one of their two ex-Southern standard gauge engines (one still steaming today and another under restoration).  However that option had too many compromises and difficulties.

After a bit more cogitating I decided it would make a fine Gorre & Daphetid tribute locomotive.  John Allen was fond of the 2-8-0 wheel arrangement, owning four of them, three from different railroads but redetailed or at least repainted for the G&D.  I wouldn't be attempting to make the Bachmann model match a specific 2-8-0 from the G&D stable, but a plausible G&D 2-8-0.  All I'd need to do is modify a few details to disguise the look of the Bachmann model and give it a G&D "family" appearance.  A high headlight, tender coal bunker extensions, maybe a cinder catcher on the stack, and other small details here and there should do it.  Now to find a similar prototype from which I could gain some guidance...

See this site for similar images: https://snyrr.com/category/uncategorized/116/

Susquehanna & New York number 116 fits the bill, but almost...needs a few more modifications...let's see...

This photo is available for purchase from Taplines at https://www.ebay.com/str/taplinesrailroadphotography

S&NY 116 became Meridian & Bigbee River 116 and is preserved on display in Meridian, Mississippi.  The Taplines image above (I'm hoping the link to the listing will be enough to justify its use here...) shows the engine sans spark arrestor and with a lowered headlight.  If I were happy with the look of the Bachmann headlight, (and its dim glow), I could just leave it where it is, but I like it up high and that matches the G&D style.  Point being, there's plenty of flexibility in detail options not only because I'm modeling a plausible locomotive from a freelanced railroad but also in terms of the prototype practices.  Just because it's freelanced doesn't give a modeler license to stray from the practical realities of railroading.  I would argue it makes the freelancer's task that much more challenging; otherwise, you're wandering into the artist's realm of fantasy and out of the real-world grounding that railroads have provided for modelers.

As mentioned above, this project is really just in the research stage and that's fine for now.  When it finally comes time to modify the Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0, I'll have plenty of prototype practice and modeler's imagery to guide me through the work.  I've got most, if not all, of the parts, paint and details I'll need to do the conversion, and the engine is a smooth-running example of Bachmann's early Spectrum products before gears started splitting.  Some day this will make a fine tribute loco to pull a train of heritage cars.