I noticed in the news that Canadian Pacific and CSX are negotiating a possible merger which, if it goes through, would make the nearly as large as Buffet's Up -BNSF merger. Probably open up a few new markets, too.

I learned yesterday as many probably have learned that Truck Stop Models is closing it doors. They were a excellent source of HO gauge vehicles. The owner and his wife have decided to pursue other interests.



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Larry

My other, door-sized thread has sorta died, but I'm going to take up a portion of the garage in my new space ad plan to set up a L-shape on a pair of hollow core doors either 30x80 to 36x80, so I'll have betwen an 80x110 and an 80x116 space.

we don't close on the house until December, so It;ll be a bit.

Givens remain the same as before: long mainline run, big mountain w/ tunnels made from foam, with possibly a newspaper and plaster peak. I'm thinking of taking the basics of my inglenook and industrial switch zone layout, and unfolding it to make a branch/short line off the mains

Fat City during the exhibition Model Hobby & Game in Leipzig Germany...

Here is a short video

http://vimeo.com/108595717

More information to the Layout

http://www.frankenmodell.de/dh.html



Alexander

Hi guys,

I know I will probably need to take pictures of this thing, but bascially, I have a brass New York Central T3 Electric, produced by Alco models, that has a Spring-Belt drive.

Essentially, the electric has a wheel arrangement of B-B+B-B. The two center trucks are powered, and the outer ones are dummies (all were powered on the prototype).

Located in the boxcab is a motor with a pair of pulleys on each end. These pulleys are grooved and have a pair of spring belts (for a total of 4, 2 in each truck) that travel down through the frame into the truck and connect to another pulley, which drives the worm gears and wheels.

The problem is that the spring belts seem to be catching on something, and so the pulley slips underneath the springs on the motor end. This drive is so weak that the model can barely propel itself on one truck (and I'm starting to doubt it can move very far even if both trucks got rolling).

The prototype was able to haul some fairly long trains (such as the 20th Century Limited) into Grand Central Terminal, so I wanted to try and at least get close to a respectable passenger consist.

Is it possible to modify or upgrade the spring drives, or will I need to do something more dramatic?


Ken Lawerence, who appeared in RMC a couple times, rebuilt this make and type of locomotive with a pair of Bull-Ant powered trucks, but these are $93 a piece, and they are shipped from Australia! It would be very expensive to do this (almost as much as the model!), and it would require some surgery.

Here is Ken's Westchester & Northern. It used to have Catenary on it and New Haven style electrics, but it looks like he converted to third rail!

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Here are a pair of photos on the the Hollywood Foundary site of the conversion. I'd need to cut a pretty big hole in the floor, and then I'd need to solder in the bolsters. Supposedly there was an RMC article with more details, but I can't find it. I'm POSITIVE I saw it online once, but I cannot find it there either.

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I've always liked the 40-foot modernized boxcar that Roundhouse originally did in the 1980s. It reminds me of the time in the mid-1960s when I started seriously railfanning and roofwalks were starting to come off freight cars. I recently found one of the slightly updated Athearn RTR cars at a swap meet:

   

This product had been dormant since the original Roundhouse runs, and Athearn RTR brought them out again after it took over Roundhouse. This past week I found what must be the earliest version of Roundhouse cars on the bargain table at a hobby shop. For $3, how could I resist?

   

This had no end lettering, incorrect enclosed-bearing roller bearing trucks, a clunky brake wheel, and clunky steps. I painted the roof silver, added brake details to the underframe, changed out the trucks, added a better brake wheel from the junk box, and added A-Line stirrups:

   

I note that Roundhouse apparently made changes to the tooling when it was originally producing these cars. The SOU car has a tabbed side sill, but a later Roundhouse version has the straight sill.

   

The car still has a big tooling error -- the side ladder on the B end should be full-height, not cut down. (The cut down side ladder on the A end is correct.) I'll accept this for the nice paint, especially on the Athearn RTR cars.

Several times, I've read that glass-fibre pencils are excellent tools for cleaning track. Most (or all?) of the time, I've only seen this in British publications, such as a special issue of Model Rail that I've been reading where this tool was recommended again.

Yet, whenever I google "glass-fibre pencil", all the websites that come are mainly UK sites. Just curious if any on my North American colleagues have heard of this tool or if they've used it ... perhaps it is called something else over here? Here's a link to one shop that sells them: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/abrasive-fibreglass-pencil-kr61r">http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/abrasive-fibr ... ncil-kr61r</a><!-- m -->

They don't cost much so I'm thinking of ordering one directly from the UK. Thanks for any feedback!

Well I finally done it my first rebuild, doc will know this loco. I bought an set of RS11's on here a while back one powered and one not. I took the dummy and completely tore what was inside and rebuilt it with a new motor and trucks from an ft locomotive. 604 is now a powered locomotive known to the HBL as a RS11-2.

True Line CN wood caboose is a nice model out of the box, but a little bit shiny. Feels like a cheap plastic model in term of paint finish. Thus, it needs a little bit of weathering to look decent on any layout.

First, looking at picture of the actual prototype, it became quickly evident most had their steps painted in CN Orange and not black as the model. I decided to rectify this and used True Line paint to touch up the steps. The color match was perfect! I also had to paint in white a few railings.



Model was then dullcoted before applying any weathering effect. This time, I decided to use Citadel Paints washes. They call them "shade". I'm not the kind of guy to buy readymade stuff, but a friend of mine, Charles Bédard, introduced me to these shade earlier this summer when we painted an entire army of Warhammer 40 000 figures. I was particularly impressed how the shade would creeps in all the crannies and nooks without effort. The stuff is a little bit strong and should be applied lightly in several coats.

When weathering, I always like to work from a prototype picture to inspire myself. Caboose CN 79021 http://www.cnrphotos.com/gallery2/main.p...emId=19173 - mine is 79026 - shown a very nice weathering pattern that made the wood siding really stand out. The caboose itself isn't in a rotten state, but you can feel it has lots of miles under the wheels. I think it fits well a wood caboose during the mid-80s and nearing its demise.

First step, I used a very light oil paint wash of titanium white and raw sienna all over the model to fade down the color. I found this particular mix is very effective to fade down colors without having to fire up the airbrush. When done and dry, I dullcoted the model again.



I choosed a wash called Agrax Earthshade. It is a dirty brownish dark color that fits vehicles really well. Two coats were needed to get the desired effect. I accelerated the drying time with my trusty hairdrier.

The stack was painted a dirty aluminium color then shaded using Agrax Earthshade. Citadel Null Oil is also a good choice when you want to bring life to metallic color having seen a lot of stress. Splash of black were added at the stacks protuding ends to simulate sooth.

Finally, pastel chalk was used to add dirt along the frame and the steps. I used black pastel. Trucks were painted a warm dark grey and weathered with pastel. Wheels received a brownish coat of paint and rust colored pastel.

I didn't feel I needed to seal the chalk because it always kills the realistic dusty effect of pastel chalk powder. I try to keep things as they are at this point. I'll see under operation if I need to dullcote the model but won't do it until I have stong evidence the weathering is getting away.

The entire project took about an afternoon. I just need to add the marker lamps and the ACI label and I'm in business.



This caboose is gonna see a lot of action before I get my hand on PSC cabooses... We will see if True Line will deliver in time their new stuff.

Gathering some info for color matches for CNJ diesels. Whats a close color match for the green the CNJ used on their SD35 diesels and who makes it? Would this also be a good match for an F3? And the blue that was used on the SD40 diesel(I think these were obtain in the "almost merged" period with the B&O, so it's probably a blue the B&O used). What's a good match for this blue? Lastly, there seems to be at least one SD40 that was painted red. What is a good match for this red? Thanks for your help


Mark