Back Story (August 2013)
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Today - 12-31-13:
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<<<sigh>>>

I'm liking the anniversary logo guys! I'm not sure when it was posted, but I only noticed it today :-)

We need some decal sheets, or a big blue anniversary car auction again! hint hint ;-)

Happy new year to all!

Koos

The publishers of Trains magazine are holding a contest with a $1,000 prize to the preservation group that gets the most likes Facebook. In our case the money will go to the replacement of the air compressor of F-3a # 663. On our first excursion of the season last year the compressor failed and sidelined the unit for the rest of the season. Please Go to the Facebook for the Anthracite railroads historical society ( ARHS ) , The group that I belong to, and click the like under Mike Del Vecchio post on the contest. He has posted a link to the Trains Magazine contest there. Thanks so much for your support on the matter and you can always fallow my thread on the restoration and excursions of the A-B-A F-3 trio here----- <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://bigbluetrains.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5061">viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5061</a><!-- l -->

Hello,

There is a technique for building freight cars which has been brought to my attention over the last few months, and I've finally decided to give it a try.

Over here in the UK, there is a gentleman who is known for scratch building 7mm scale British outline freight stock from card, and they are truly outstanding. His layout is populated by stock built for a fraction of the cost of buying the models ready to run or even in kit form.

I thought the process could easily be applied to N scale, so I have begun to build some freight cars for my own budding US outline layout. Only the trucks, couplers and wheels will be ready made, the rest of the cars will be entirely scratch built from card.

The method is to print out scale drawings of the subject and glue them to thick card, the kind you find on the back of paper refill pads from stationary stores. You then cover the whole thing in a few coats of shellac, which turns the card into a very rigid building material.

Cut out the drawings and assemble them, building up in layers to get the detail. In N scale I found it easier to assemble the cars first, then coat them with shellac when built up - to give strength to the joints.

I will now show some photographs of my progress so far at various stages along the way. Hopefully this will prove useful to anyone who is thinking of making their own freight cars at some point - or maybe even inspire people to have a go themselves anyway!

My first effort to see if this would work was a high-sided gondola car - nothing simpler than a gondola, right?





Whilst the gondola was coated in shellac and left to dry, I started on a box car and a pair of pulpwood flat cars:



The box car has been the focus of my attention over the last couple of days, and is now at this stage - just needs one end and the roof detailing and it will be ready for the shellac:


This is as far as I have gotten so far, but I am picking up a quantity of trucks and wheels from a friend tomorrow, so should be able to get the underframes and the truck mounting points done later this week.

Let me know what you think.

Hey there, all - just registered, after a friend of mine directed me over here because of the great layout discussions. I just moved our family into a new home, and the wife has granted me trackage rights in a small room in our house thats 7' x 16'. I have been looking over the thread for the Bushwick Terminal, and its such a great track plan, I think it will be a perfect "anchor" to the layout, which will be along a single wall in the space for now, with a couple of small staging tracks extending around a corner on one end.

I am planning to fit out the room first, using 2 strips of track lights recycled from the kitchen ( ugly in there, functional for a train room! ) and then shop lights for general lighting in the room. The space is technically non-conditioned, as it is a raised slab between the garage and the house with insulated sliding glass doors on both ends, but it stays warm enough that only a small space heater is needed to make it comfortable while I am out there. There's a bit of humidity especially when its damp outside, nothing crazy though. So my question is, what to use for the top on the benchwork? I will be making the structure from birch plywood for stability, and was thinking of using homasote for the top - easy to tack or glue track right down, and pretty forgiving when it comes to any changes down the road. Any thoughts on this?

- Jered

Guys, let me know what you think between the two, HH & NWSL? Which do you prefer for motor and gear replacements? Which provides smoother operation? Higher RPM's? Just trying to gain some experience.


Mark

I have 50 different HO scale Quality Craft and Ambroid wood crafstman kits. Before I start to individually list what I have, I need to know if there is any interest in them. If I can not move them here, I will most likely put them on eBay.
I also have 3 N scale Quality Craft kits.

If anyone is interested in knowing what I have, reply to the thread and I will list all of what I have.

I've noticed on a couple of the recent threads, notably Reinhard's new 2014 thread has highlighted links to advertisements...something new????

I noticed in Chicago several streets where it looks like the street is at a higher level than the ground. Like on a levy. Most houses reach the sidewalk at level, some with a little bridge and some with a few steps. If you look between the houses you can see the ground is below street level. Surprisingly is the ground back to street level when you go to the next intersection.
Can a Chicago resident shed some light on that surprising effect?

This is just one example. Peek on both sides of the street between the houses.
https://maps.google.de/maps?q=chicago+il...54,,0,4.92