Painting in August

Several weeks ago I painted for several hours. I did not get much finished, but I have 8 models ready to decal. So someday soon I will have to get in the mood to decal all day.

This is an Ambroid kit based on the StPM&M prototype from the late 1800’s, I am going to reletter it for my home road M of W department. This is a double decker dormitory car. The cables hanging on the sides were used to tie the car down so it would not blow over. Also note the shelf for storage under the car. Ambroid kits are mostly wood with some metal castings. The kit, as supplied, came with windows printed in black on clear plastic. I thought that looked very poor, so I made each window individually, from styrene strip. There are 16 double hung windows on the lower lever and each contains 16 parts, and the 32 upper windows have 12 pieces each, or a total of 356 pieces. Building and installing windows probably took longer to build than all the rest of the project. I think I am going to glaze the windows with Microscale Krystal Clear, and add another stove to the other end to “modernize” the car for the Nirvana Valley Railroad.

Below is a Silver Streak Frisco box car, this was assembled by Mike Stephens of beautiful Joplin, MO.

I did a little touch-up and weathering. It is really a nice vintage piece.

Speaking of vintage, this is a Megow kit. Probably dates back to the 40’s? This kit was comprised of paper sides and ends, zinc hopper castings and trucks and wood for most other pieces. I, however, did not use any wood. I laminated the sides to styrene, and used styrene strips for all the wood parts except the main floor piece. The main floor is made of a piece of 1/8” steel with styrene strips glued around the edge. This provided weight and a good gluing surface. I have lots of construction pictures for this project, and hope to post those later, and have a clinic on building old wood, metal and papaer side craftsman kits.

Getting Ready for the Turkey Creek Show

I am sharing a table at the Turkey Creek NMRA show this weekend, so I am getting some stuff ready to sell. I am trying to finish up lots of projects, some that I started 12 years ago. I may enter something in the model contests, an that would be the first time since the NMRA National in Minneapolis.

This is a Pickle car I scratch built based on an old magazine article. I labeled it for Ralph Sechler & Son, a real company that was in business in 1949. I have no idea if they had any rail cars, but I doubt it.

These are AHM models, pretty much straight out of the box. I already had one when I picked these two up, and one was already heavily weathered. I changed their road numbers, and weathered them both.

This Great Northern Box car was assembled by Mike Stephens. All I did was add a couple final pieces and weather it. This is a Marker Light Models kit. Not a kit I have ever run into before.

Last weekend

I applied paint to sixteen different models last weekend. I have to apply most paints when the wife is away, as many smells bother her. I really did not finish very many, but I sure made a lot of progress.

The pipe load, an item interchanged with the River Road, was weathered lightly and dullcoated

I am not done with this RS-2 yet, but I did want to prove I do have some motive power. This is an Roundhouse RS-3 unit that I back dated to an RS-2 by moving the battery box and adding fuel site glass and fueling inlet to the right side of the cab. FWIW, the RS-2's were meant to be run long hood forward.

I am getting some stuff ready to sell at the Turkey Creek Train show next weekend and I am going to offer some stuff up to the Yahoo Vintage Group if they will just pay the freight and get it off my hands.

Newest Completed Models

A wine tank car based on European prototypes and lettered for the Sardou Winery. I started with an Roundhouse shorty flat car and added G scale barrels. I made the yokes from styrene and used chart tape for the metal strapping. I added Grandt Line nut, bolt and washer casting to hold the straps tight against the tanks.






A standard Athearn box car with a Westerfield end spliced on. A fairly simple project. These first three models I actually started 10 years ago, and now, finally getting back in to the swing of life, I am getting some of these done.










This is a basic Athearn kit with a modified dome based on an article in the September 1989 Railmodel Journal. The lettering for "Texas Natural Gasoline Corp", and "Tulsa, Oklahoma" was done with decals, one letter at a time, as there are not decals available for this prototype. AND it there are decals available, please don't tell me now.

An old Mantua kit obtained from the River Road. I added weight, some details and light weathering. As you can see, I tend to lean toward the older kits.

A 50' flat car kit from A-C. I placed a 1/8" piece of steel under the floor instead of the wood supplied. The finished weight of this car is 5.4 oz.

This is a A-C kit, supplied with metal sides and sills, cardboard for the center section, and wood end sections. I put steel inserts under the raised ends for weight, and then glued scribed wood on top. For the center section I drilled out sheet brass to replace the cardboard that was supplied. This model weighs in at 3.4 oz without a load. I built up the sloped area with styrene and used styrene for the anchor points.

Promintory Point

I walked the Bill Fill trail, and then some. The trail follows the old Central Pacific and Union Pacific rail beds. On the aerial picture below, the Big Fill, the Central Pacific grade, is on the left and the abutments for the Union Pacific trestle can be see on the right.From the trail, looking West, just West of the Big Fill. To the right is the CP grade, and down and to the left is the UP grade.

Imagine making these cuts in the rock with dynamite, pick and shovel.

This is taken standing on the UP grade, looking East, as the CP grade is the level grade to the left

Helper, UT Railroad & Mining Museum

Posting only the rail related picts. I took pictures (over one hundred pictures) of every piece of mine and railroad equipment they had.

These are Muckers that are on display at the wonderfull museum in Helper, UT. The first one is an 18" gauge unit and the second on is a 3' gauge.

These two are actually not at the Museum, but they are down the road at the Holiday Inn in Price, UT. They are 40" gauge.

Selling off some stuff

I have put a bunch of stuff up on the Yahoo group HOYARDSALE, and put pictures of all the items at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvrr49/ . Just trying to make more room and get rid of things I will never use.

Also trying to finish a Diorama for the Turkcy Creek June contest and meeting.