As many of you know Nguager & Myself have promoted MRR open house schedules for several years now. I have not taken part in the local one for a couple of years now as it is rather difficult for me to do now. Last week I spoke with some local MRR guys and I now have 3 guys that are going to help me get my layout in top shape mechanically and scenically so I can participate this year. Two of them stopped in this evening and we did some minor cleaning and ran some trains for a few hours. Had a blast! Any way I hope I can be on the schedule again for several more years now.

I got to ask everyone for a favor. Stanley tools is running a contest called "Build your America " . My historical society is one of the entries in it, and we need all the votes we can get. If you can go stanley tools Facebook page and vote for us ( the anthracite railroads historical society ) on page 13 of the contest I would be very grateful. This is for a $10,000 prize that will be used in the up keep and repair of our locomotives.

Thanks a bunch. Steve O. ( E-paw)

Here's a find from the "used" section at my LHS (Just Train Crazy, in Beamsville, Ontario). An Accurail car in Pennsy paint, the previous owner apparently had a little difficulty assembling it, and manage to get a fair amount of ca on one end, despite the fact that the end wasn't installed properly. A couple of the sill steps were missing, too, and the build date on the car's sides was too new for my late '30s era layout. The car did have Kadee sprung trucks and Kadee scale couplers, though, and at six bucks, I couldn't pass it up.
I disassembled the car (the floor and weight were installed wrong) and then scraped off as much of the ca as possible, then modified the underside at the ends so that I could install A-Line sill steps. While I had the X-Acto and drill bits out, I also shaved off the cast-on grabirons and replaced them with custom-bent wire ones.
The newly-installed details, along with the remnants of ca on one end, were touched-up using a brush, then it was off to the paint shop for some weathering.
Once the car looked suitably used, the "BLT." date was covered with a patch of painted decal film, as were the last three digits of the "LD. LMT." and "LT. WT.", along with "NEW 8-41". I then re-decalled those areas with more suitable lettering, and, once dry, used a brush to cover those areas with thinned Dulcote.
The next day, the car received a little more weathering to blend in the re-done areas, although the re-weigh data was left cleaner than the back-dated "BLT." date.
A decent-looking car now, I think, and lots of modelling enjoyment....for just six bucks!



Wayne

Have a updated "what-I-did" of the 2006 web article about lowering Mantua's 1860's boxcar to the more common side height.

http://www.chainsawjunction.com/1879/car...ng_mantua/

The update has mounting better trucks that are from the era:





The article is at my new domain name and not the old Pacific Coast Line Railway website.

Thank you if you visit
Harold

I would like to give you another idea of some of the changes here.
The first thing is the second track under the hill/mountain that I added a short time back.
That was a pain to do without tearing out the hill over the top it. And, yes, there is more clearance there than it looks.

Hi,

I'm looking for a Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 for an heavy kitbashing projet. I don't mind if it's not cosmetically in good shape or if small parts or ladders are broken. As long as the drive is in perfect condition and run smooth, that's enough for me. I'd rather buy a DCC-ready version than the older DC version to make my life easier later. But I won't snob DC locomotives if they suits my needs.

Best regards,

Matt

Yes, it's not a typo, you definitely read "Canadian Northern" and not it's successor Canadian National.

Over the last few days, I tried to find models of pre-CNR locomotives... The results are abysmall. I only found 1 model online of a generic 4-4-0 repainted in a Canadian Pacific and, from someone I know, a Tyco/Mantua painted in very approximative Canadian Northern colors.

I'm always mesmerized by the sheer lack of pre-CNR models. For some unknown reason, people aren't not attracted to the 1900s-1920s while it's not very hard to assemble a credible fleet. It's why I decided to take up the challenge of kitbashing such a locomotive.

With the help of Doctorwayne, we treaded for a few days the ghosts of CNR to find out suitable models. In fact, a lot of candidate are out there and among them, very attractive Grand Trunk locomotives with Russian iron boiler jacket, glossy black paint and white tires.

I have a Bachmann Spectrum Maine Central 2-8-0 sitting idle on my shelves and decided to convert it into something more glamour. There was two options possible to me:

1) Grand Trunk (CNR class N-4 and N-5) with the first ones built in 1906.

2) Canadian Northern (CNR class N-1 and N-2) built from 1912 to 1918.





No decals are available and I couldn't locate CDS Lettering Grand Trunk 1913 dry transfer. Out of stock everywhere. Quite funny when you think you will never see a picture of a HO scale model! ;-)

That said, I decided that both are great and are extremely close to Bachmann specs.It's a matter of 2 mm and I can live with that. For the moment, I'll start with a Canadian Northern (N-1-a ) as it looked like at the dawn of WW1 when freshly built by Canada Foundry. Here's the beast: http://silverhawkauthor.com/images/site_...516147.jpg.

If you remember my CNR 2-8-0 #2500, it is basically the same engine sharing common specs. Howerver, it will be easier to model because there was far less appliances on it back then before CNR reshopped and upgraded it over the years. http://www.cnrphotos.com/gallery2/main.p...emId=59700

Matt

Here are before and after shots of the outdoor tunnel.





And an overall shot of the project. Still need to do the landscaping.




Tom

In Model Railroader’s October 1976 issue, Russ Cain came up with an Atlas Snap Track Timesaver measuring 68x10 inches with a folding & portable benchwork that has 17x10 inch wings on the ends that collapsed the layout into a 34x10 inch easy to carry layout. I then saw someone built the layout while I was attending an NMRA Sunrise Trail Division meet a few years back.

In my drawings, I expanded the layout to 7x1 foot (folds into 42x12 inches) and 8x1 foot (folds into 48x12 inches) variations. I plan to make the layout especially portable by using the benchwork to store the rolling stock, power pack, and layout legs inside the framework. The turnouts will be my specialty, 18 inch radius Snap Track turnouts.

I figure that I will use between 2 and 4 cars during an operating session


7x1 foot (folds into 42x12 inches)

   

8x1 foot (folds into 48x12 inches)