Trail Drive 2020 Complete!

HeeYAH! (make your own whip cracking noise here.  Humming the theme from "Rawhide" quietly to yourself while you read this is entirely up to you).  The Trail Drive which began in 2020 has now reached the end. 

Engine #145, an IHC Mehano 2-6-0, has been customized, rebuilt, detailed, painted, lettered and weathered.  Two Comet refrigerator cars were built; one from a complete kit, another from a basket case.  Each was upgraded with additional weight and better parts selected to be in keeping with the age of the cars (nearly 80 years old).  Finally, two toy-train quality Model Power cabooses were rebuilt with new cupolas, end details and trucks plus assorted other details to become the Ocali Creek Railway's first official crummies.

This engine gave me fits at times.  I would not recommend this as a first-time rebuilding project.  The IHC mechanism is fine but on this particular model the frame is ever so slightly warped and has a couple minor design flaws acceptable for a toy train but not for a more refined model expected to operate.  Pulling power is low, as others have reported, but adequate for this engine's duties.  For now on this railroad it will be serving the industries at Ocala Spings on extras or replacing 158 when it is in the shops.  Eventually when the rest of the branch is built it will haul the daily passenger train...once the passenger cars are built, that is.

This is the former basket case.  Now I believe it is one of the most unique and characterful models I own.  Accurate for the 1920s (to the best of my knowledge), it is emblematic of the reasons I chose to model this era.  Matching the color was nearly impossible but rebuilding the car and adding details was all fun.  I'm especially pleased with the open ice hatches.

Oh how I hated to weather this car, but boy howdy am I happy with how it turned out.  Thanks to Eric Hansmann for posting a great prototype photo on his blog.  From that image I learned that for my era the ends of the car should be white, the number of roof panels (and other details) varied from car to car, and just how filthy these cars would get in service.  There were many of these cars in service so having one is just about essential.  Comet kits can build up into nice cars IF you substitute better parts for the underbody, roof, ice hatches, well, just about everything except the core and the sides.

Finally the cabooses.  Cabeese.  Cabeeses?  Two of 'em.  I didn't set out to build two but early on acquired a second kit and from that point began collecting the parts for the upgrades.  I chose #3 and #4 to contribute to the story of the railroad's history.  Purchased second hand (like engine 145) they were rebuilt in the Ocali Creek's shops as the railroad grew.  At some point I'll model #1, probably a 4-wheel bobber, and maybe #2...or maybe #2 got wrecked...we'll see.  Anyway, this car and its twin will work the "Park Shifter", based out of East Ocala yard and serving the industries at Ocala Springs.

While I started this personal challenge back around Christmas, each of these projects had begun much earlier, with the caboose project reaching back over four years ago before we moved back to California.  It feels great to have hit this milestone and I really like the idea of completing a set of trains - an engine, rolling stock and caboose.  I'm not sure when the next Trail Drive will happen, but I already have some ideas for what I'll work on; the Pan Handle Rusty Route equipment I purchased a couple years ago and my own Shifter project I started back in the early 2000s.   Or perhaps a passenger train?  Who knows.  For now the focus shifts to structures and scenery for the railroad.

Trail Drive Nearing Completion

 

Next stop, WEATHERING!  The freezers are ready to roll, the cabeese still need window glass but won't get it until the weathering has been applied, and the steamer will receive a bell cord and whistle cord after weathering.  Note the coal load in the tender.  I will be using multiple techniques; brush painting, air brushing, and adhesive powders, as required, to get the look I'm after.  I may also include a few other cars that need weathering, or maybe not.  We'll see.

Gaining Weight

Work on the IHC Mehano 2-6-0 cylinder issue has opened up a new possibility, pun intended.  While searching for reference photos of other locos with the same issue (and perhaps someone who has solved it), I came across a model that someone had customized, including little bits of weight crammed in all sorts of places.  I had already concealed some on this engine by filling out the air tank detail as seen in this image from a couple years ago:

John Allen once said he'd rather have a lighter but well balanced locomotive with the weight over the drivers than a heavy engine with the weight at one end.  This engine has a whacking great slug in the boiler down near the front and originally had more weight in the cab and behind the motor, both of which I've had to reduce in order to accommodate wiring and a crew in the cab.  So any weight I can return to the locomotive, especially toward the rear, is important for good tractive effort.

Here's the latest addition:

Doesn't look like much, but it's lead and it's down low where it counts. (It is the little gray bits on the foam next to the engine, and will go into the frame near the axles.)  I may try to squeeze in a bit more under the cab while I've got this gal in the shop.  By the way, the cylinders are now level, at least as level as they're going to be.  The critical point was where the steam pipes from the cylinders met the side flange on the smokebox - it has never lined up and for some reason I guess I just figured it would correct itself over time, or maybe I was ignoring the problem.  I couldn't any longer.  This seems to be a design flaw on some of these 2-6-0s, but not others.  The frame is also slightly warped at the pilot deck which causes that coupler to sit low.  However, I'm not going to try and correct that, only make sure that the coupler is set at the correct height.

Also, without much fanfare, this is my 100th post on the blog.  Hopefully it won't take me so long to make the next 100.  Thank you to all the readers and commenters. 

Twelve Days Trail Drive!

Howdy Pardners!  Set a spell - this may take some time.

No, I've not gone Quarantine Crazy, I'm channeling my inner cowboy.  One of my earliest memories as a child was playing a card game with my mom called "Trail Drive".  The cards were pictures of cowboys, cattle, chuck wagons, rustlers and sheriffs.  The game was simple - designed for young children - but I remember the vividly colored characters, and getting frustrated losing.  Good times.  

Anyway, it's the concept of the game I'm referring to here.  To get a trail drive started you needed a chuck wagon and two cowboys in your hand.  After that you collected cattle, as many as you could - but watch out - a rustler could stop the drive and you'd be stuck until you were dealt a sheriff.  The concept of needing a few elements to get started before expanding is simple, but crucial to the game.

At the same time I've been reading through Model Railroader back-issues from the '40s.  It seems many model rails would write in describing their pikes and listing off their rolling stock and stable of locomotives.  There was a sense of early beginnings that was palpable in these letters.  Usually there was an indication that the budding magnate had plans to purchase a certain engine or set of passenger equipment, etc. to increase the fun, of course.  There were also mentions of seeking a land grant from the spouse to extend the road, but I want to focus on the equipment.

I view my current situation as a bit of a Trail Drive game.  Most of the trains from my modular club days are packed away because I've narrowed my focus and scope down to a relatively small railroad setting.  Physically I've limited myself to a 4'x6' pike with the 2' aisle space all around (see my post Garage Railroad Plan for more thoughts on this choice).

But the limitation is also applied to locomotives and rolling stock.  I purchased my 2-6-0 and began modifying it in order to have a unique, fine-running locomotive.  Likewise I had purchased long before the mogul a pair of cabeese with parts to customize them as well.  See where this is heading, pardner?  The rolling stock - even if they're not stock cars - are the cattle, so to speak, while the engine and hacks are the chuck wagon and cowboys (you decide which is which - I'll carry the analogy only so far).

Now I've been working on these cabeese and this locomotive for a while.  I started the caboose project back in Washington just over four years ago.  The engine has been running well but recently I decided to deal with the leaning cylinders that have been bothering me, as well as get a coal load in the tender...and tick the boxes on the remaining details like the bell and whistle cords.

Technically the twelve days of Christmas run from the 25th to Epiphany on the 6th of January.  But I'm looking at twelve days UNTIL Christmas and feeling like I might just be able to get a Trail Drive going with my Mogul, the Cabeese, and this here pair of freezers I've been building.  Can I do it?  With parts to add, paint to dry, decals, maybe some weathering...hmmm...as long as no rustlers show up I may just pull it off.

A Gift Put to Use

I was given a Peco Loco Lift for Christmas.  It is a gift I had asked for, and was very happy to receive.  Here it is being used to remove the Mogul from the main line:

Eventually there may be a staging track abutting the railroad here, but for now the Lift works well.  And, once the staging is in place the Loco Lift will likely still be used for the engines and more delicate rolling stock.

For now, its sole job is to hold this locomotive.  When I bought this Mehano 2-6-0 it came without a box.  I need to make one, ideally before I finish the fine detailing. 

Now We're Rolling!

Ocali Creek Railway 2-6-0 number 145 speeds a train of reefers loaded with Florida citrus toward Northern markets at Christmastime.  Oranges at Christmas have become a tradition for many during this season, thanks to fast, dependable transportation provided by railroads spanning the sunshine state.  The orange and green Shepaug Valley car behind the locomotive is likely headed for Connecticut.  The Ocali Creek is a short line tapping the riches of central Florida.  This train will speed through the tall pine forests to a connection with the Florida East Coast.

Finished the Mogul to a state where I can run it for a while before adding weathering and final details.  In fact, I will likely finish the OCRY cabeese before I weather this locomotive along with the cabeese and some other too-clean rolling stock.  Neither the bell nor whistle cords have been added, and there's no coal in the tender.  That's okay as there are no handrails to pull yourself up into the cab either.  Those are the last details to add.  The railings will go on before I weather, the cords and coal after.

Note how the pure black paint obscures the details in this poor garage light.  HA.  Just kidding.  I hope this photo goes to show that a glossy black paint job looks beautiful and actually highlights the detail, most of which is molded on and not separately applied.  The poor garage light is a basic florescent shop light.  The image was captured with a digital camera set to auto ISO and a close-up macro with no flash.

Mogul Update

I have been making steady progress on the IHC 2-6-0 rebuild, reaching the painting and decal stage.  Now all that's left is to wire the LEDs.  The headlight will be wired to two connector pins and the resistors will be wired in the tender, along with the rear light.  The LEDs are prewired nano LEDs from Evan Designs, set into holes drilled into cast brass light housings.

Paint is all acrylic except for the brass bits.  The graphite is a craft paint called 'tin' and the red is called 'lipstick'.  The black is BLACK - not gray, or weathered black, or black warmed with red and softened with white a la John Allen, but BLACK.  I've never been a fan of painting a locomotive any color other than what it was or is in real life.  Funnily enough, I freelance.  Still, black is black.

I got a bit of an orange peel finish on the cab roof, due to the gloss varnish not going on thick enough.  I'm not happy with the way the gloss behaved - some of the paint buckled and wrinkled, but it wasn't in a place where it will be seen.  Overall the finish is fine, but I am going to look into the Tamiya varnishes as I've heard great things about them.

Once the LEDs are wired I will reassemble the loco and add final touches like the crew, coal load and bell and whistle cords.  I have cleaned paint from the tender trucks but will run the engine on DC to turn the drivers.  Weathering is something that'll happen down the road, most likely.

BTW - my most recent post on "What Vintage" has far and away surpassed any other post I've made on this blog.  Welcome to all the new readers who came by for that post.  Stick around and check out some of the other posts and feel free to comment!

Details I Didn't Think I'd Do

Here are two things I did to the 2-6-0 that I hadn't planned on doing.  The first is a stand, made simply from two bent pieces of flat brass strip, for the rear light on the tender.

Shown above are the finished light, the little block of plastic I was going to use initially, and a third 'leg' I bent.  I bent enough legs to get two that matched in height.  In this image the LED is not in the casting.  It has since been added and the wires are run down behind one of the legs.

The second unplanned detail is less detail and more functional addition.  Note the bits of metal in this image.

While I chose to not replace the cast-on power reverse or air compressor assembly, I did fill-in the back side of the air tanks.  Since I removed some weight from inside the boiler to make room for wiring, I decided to replace a little with these bits.  I had these cut-offs from another steam project in which I had removed the cast metal clunky air tanks and replaced them with scratchbuilt parts.  The metal is ZAMAC, most likely, so it is heavy.  Though it is not that visible, it adds a tiny bit of weight and that helps the overall performance of this locomotive.

As of this post, this engine is fully detailed and ready for paint.

Steam Status

Here is where the 2-6-0 stands at present:

I have been occasionally sanding the joint on the tender sides with a very tiny piece of very fine sandpaper glued to a stick, in order to avoid sanding away the rivets.  However, I have sanded away all the rivets on the rear of the tender.  I did this when I removed the cast-on ladder.  I will replace the rivets with Micro Mark rivet decals similar to the double rows that were there, and the ladder with a brass casting from Wiseman.  Also on the tender I will be adding a platform for the back-up light.

All that remains on the locomotive itself is to add a pair of handrail stanchions just in front of the cab wall, and a bit of fake wiring conduit to replace where I shaved some off while removing another detail.  After that it is a matter of determining what value resistor to use for the LED's and then wiring them in place.

After these final details are complete I can paint and letter the engine.  We are still having warm, dry afternoons here so I want to get it painted before the temperature drops much and the air gets moist.

You Never Do a Project...

...You Only Do the Next Step

Take, for example, this next step.  Pictured are a paint brush, stir stick, paper towel, silver paint, cup of water and two headlight castings.  All I did was paint the inside of the reflector silver.  That's it.

However, before I could get to that step I had to drill out the casting both through the center of the reflector and from below.  This will allow me to place a VERY tiny LED inside the casting which I can do now that the reflector has been painted.

The next step, however, is not to insert the LED, but to test the LEDs with the decoder and resistors to determine how bright I want them to appear.  Then I can insert the front LED and mount it to the boiler.  The rear light will need a bracket to be built before I can place it on the tender, but before I can do that I need to build the tender bunker and prime the tender to check the joints, etc. 

All these 'next steps' add up to a completed project - a beautiful locomotive I'm pleased to operate...but that means I need a layout to run it on, and rolling stock to pull, and industries to switch, etc.  There are many more next steps to come!

Put a Smile on Your Face

I had originally thought I might replace the boiler front, or smokebox door.  However, my desire to use as many original parts as possible won the day and I began to work on the factory installed part.  I carefully trimmed away the cast wiring conduit for the former headlight.  A paper punch provided the right diameter styrene circle to fill the opening left by the headlight.  I had a brass number plate casting in my parts box. 

Finally, I used a brass wire and three brass stanchions to make the handrail.  That solved a problem I wasn't sure how to deal with, at first.  The face had three "dimples".  They looked like injector pin marks from the casting process, but it made no sense that they'd be on that side of the casting.  Usually such things are designed to be hidden on the back or inside surface.  I realized they were most likely spots where, on a different model using the same face, a trio of stanchions would be used for a handrail.  So, that's what I did.  Problem solved.

Tender Cuts

I didn't like the long look of the tender as it was, so I decided to chop out a section and shorten the length.  I used the decals that would grace the sides as a gauge of just how much I could cut and still fit "OCALI CREEK".  With this measurement, I determined I could remove about an inch.

Using a hobby saw, I made the cuts as shown below:

After checking with a square, sanding, checking, more sanding, checking again, and still more sanding, I was able to arrive at mostly square and straight cut ends which mated well.

I bonded the joint with Testors liquid cement for plastic and braced it with the plastic modeler's secret scrap; a bit of bread clip.  The tender floor and underframe was secured with the same cement, but braced with small styrene strips along the length.

While I don't have much planned for the locomotive itself apart from a few minor detail changes, the tender modifications are quite extensive.  It will need pads in the shell for screws to attach it to the frame, a soldering board on which the decoder and all the wiring come together, plus details, some of which will be scratchbuilt.  This is shaping up to be a fine project.

Green Steam II

What happens when you strip the Southern Green paint off an IHC Mogul?  You find green plastic underneath that green paint!

Notice the silver smokebox and firebox paint didn't come off completely.  I may have been able to get more to release had I soaked it longer.  What you see here is the result of a couple hours in 91% rubbing alcohol.  I finished removing the silver with a scraper.  The only other green plastic is the cylinders and saddle, not shown here.  The rest - basically the frame - is molded in black plastic, and was unpainted.

Green Steam

I had big plans for my Bachmann Spectrum 4-6-0.  Ever since I had purchased it, it was going to be my branch line steamer, hauling a classic mixed train.  But that's the fantasy...the reality is, it never worked right.  I should have exchanged it right after I got it, back when Bachmann was still making it.  Instead, it sat in its box for years before I decided to have a crack at fixing it.  The newer model they've released apparently doesn't have the flaws mine has, though it does not have all the beautiful, separately applied details. 

So when it didn't work I turned to a second option.  A friend had given to me three steamers; vintage models by Aristo-Craft back when they made HO.  These were "New One" models from Japan, thirty years older than the Spectrum engine.  I was disappointed but not surprised when the pretty little 2-8-0 had the same flaw: the drivers were pressed onto the geared axle slightly less than perpendicular.  That means the engine will have a lope; a wobble; a hitch in its getalong.

With both of these options off the table (and considerable time spent fiddling with them to try and make them better) I calmly decided I was going to do the right thing and purchase a reliable, dependable locomotive.  I had watched throughout the Christmas season as a USRA 2-8-2 chugged around the tree hauling a string of hoppers.  This stalwart steamer was made in Slovenia by Mehano for IHC. 

I got on eBay and found that apparently I wasn't the only person looking for great performance at a reasonable price.  But after a while I was able to land a deal on a 2-6-0, an ideal locomotive for hauling a freight or mixed train down a branch.  Sure, the detail wasn't as nice as my Bachmann Spectrum, but it runs (well!) and is a great platform for detailing.  If John Pryke considered it worthy of conversion into a New Haven K-1-B Mogul*, I figured I'd be able to do something with this little green steamer.

Upcoming blog posts will be progress updates on this project.

*see Model Railroader, August 2008, pg. 66