Hi folks,

I had recently an interesting discussion with some old acquaintance about oil tank cars in the early 1970s in Canada. He recalled a lot of them were small and old design from the 30s and 40s. I know at that time most oil company fleets were transferred to CGTZ and other leasers.

What were the common cars in that time? Color scheme? Any pictures welcomed!

I've seen pictures of old B-A cars keeping their paint scheme but renumbered to CGTX.

Matt

Up and at it early this morning so I will start off with a steam photo this week.
A pair of PRR M-1 locomotives are almost to the top of the grade.
  working the gradebw.jpg (Size: 123.94 KB / Downloads: 1755)
Charlie

I assume everyone by now knows about the visit over-the-hill rocker Rod Stewart paid to George Sellios's Franklin & South Manchester <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/north/10012433039643/rod-stewart-visits-peabody-model-train-collector/">http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/loca ... collector/</a><!-- m --> It probably isn't so bad that celebrities, even those well past their prime, "come out" as model railroad hobbyists, although Stewart isn't the first by any means (Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, and Tom Snyder at least were known to have model railroads of various kinds; Torme endorsed Fleischmann in ads in the 1950s.) It's interesting that Sellios would be the one actually to draw the attention of a real Hollywood celeb, since I have the impression that he's the humblest of the first-tier well-known hobbyists, like Tony Koester, Lance Mindheim, or Tony Thompson. Of course, nobody in LA is ever going to get past Stewart's security and entourage to get in to see Stewart's own layout. But think about this: Stewart's visit to Sellios came only after Sellios retired from the kit business. Presumably he's not going to sell any more kits, for any more money, because Stewart paid him a visit and was photographed with his arm around Sellios's shoulders. Says a lot about Sellios, I think.

Then there's the second tier. I got in a certain amount of trouble on Lance Mindheim's blog <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.lancemindheim.com/blog.htm">http://www.lancemindheim.com/blog.htm</a><!-- m --> (scroll down to November 30) for a post I made as JWB on another forum, raising some questions about his approach to the hobby and second-tier hobby celebrity status. He also got bent out of shape at a letter-to-the-editor I sent to MR in which I noted a problem in Mindheim's article in the December 2013 MR -- a reference to "checken in a bag", whereby voodoo practitioners would place a live chicken in a bag, together with some money, to be squashed by a train as some sort of sacrifice. I suggested this was revolting cruelty to animals that shouldn't appear in a family magazine. MR apparently copied Mindheim on my letter, and Mindheim was upset enough about it to post on his blog. (Thinking further about this, I realized that this sort of thing is a felony in Florida. Lots of felonies take place in Miami -- why bring them in on model railroad layouts?)

I've gotten in some amount of trouble from time to time raising reasonable questions about hobby celebrities. The forum where I made the original post that got Mindheim upset wound up reviving the thread but, not banning me from posting in the rest of the forum, banned me from any more posts in the thread! They were much upset that I pointed out that cruelty to animals is a felony in Florida (and most other places, of course). I got in trouble on another forum several years ago for questioning a statement by Tony Thompson as to factuality. And not just on the forum -- guys have been angry with me for ten years or so about it!

Rod Stewart, at least, doesn't mind what's been said about him for 40 years. George Sellios no doubt knows that, while his modeling is top notch, not everyone has found his layout their cup of tea. Then there's the second tier. In the post where he complains about me, Mindheim compares himself to Miley Cyrus, of all people, so I guess he think's he is some sort of celleb. It's amazing how insecure some of these guys are. If you want to be a celebrity, it seems to me, you've got to take the stuff that goes with the territory.

Wondering if anyone has used this Nikon " Coolpix" S31 . My old Kodak Easy Share C1013 ( 10.3 mega pixels ) bit the dust and I just picked up the Nikon . I'm really a low level photog at the best of times so I bought it for occasional family/dog/mrring pics .

Anyone used this camera ? Comments ?

T

Hi folks!

Since I'm recovering from a nasty cold, I'm decided to spend some time on an old project. My interest was sparked when I saw picture of Limoilou yard in the 70s with some nice RS18.

I'm planning to build two of these engines, using an Atlas/Kato and an Atlas Classic as a start. I'm aware about the incorrect wheelbase on the older version but it should bother anyone at the club. I think it's almost trivial compared to P1K RS10/18 obvious carbody incorrect dimensions.

Both locomotives will be built as modified in the 60s. They should need too much chirurgy to be decent models. My goal: straighforward process, fairly realistic, using easily available parts and under 50$ in new parts and paint.



First one: Kato/Atlas. The paint isn't attacked by alcohol. I know people used brake fluid and other nasty chemicals, I try to keep myself far from them. However, alcohol dissolve well the pad printed numbers and lines. So I erased them easily with a cotton swab. I won't stripe the model, just erase the lettring to be sure no ghosting occured when it is repainted. However, I'll remove paint were lots of modification are needed to ensure perfect seams.





I shaved cast-on grabirons on short and long hood. MLW had a very different pattern for them. I also removed the headlight (too high according to prototype), the sand hatch and number boards. Everything was sanded down to get an even surface.



Then I laminated styrene sheets to built up enough material to be able to sculpt the correct MLW un-notched ends. I had Miniature By Eric brass parts to fill up those notches, but thought they fit, I feel they will be a lot of pain to work with an get a perfect and invisible alignment. Also, I would need to drill them to install new number boards and classification lights: a lot of useless trouble IMHO. I prefer plastic soldered/cemented to plastic.







BTW, anybody got an idea how to make classification lights? I tried to salvage without success the original one on the model. Maybe drilling a hole and inserting some tubing in it?

Matt

I've run into a tough problem.

One of my locomotives (an atlas ALP44) cannot travel a single lap around the club's layout without accumulating a significant amount of grime and gunk. I find myself cleaning the wheels every two laps, and it barely gets though those laps without loosing power due to grime.

No other locomotives are having this problem, just my ALP44. It is very frustrating, as this ALP44 was one of my more reliable locomotives. I've had this locomotive for years and its never done this before!

I first ran the wheels on a paper towel dampened with Goo Gone. I did this twice, and then i removed the wheel sets and cleaned them by hand with a bright boy, and still, it hardly makes it around. I dried the wheels on a paper towel prior to running on the mainline. One wheelset had Bullfrog snot on it, but I removed it.

Any advice for very thoroughly cleaning the wheels? Is there maybe something I'm doing wrong?

I'm looking into hiding the underneath portion of the bench work . The club I used to belong to used a black fabric for their layout ( when having a showing or open house ) and it had it's good and bad points ......any other suggestions on ways to cover the front of the layout ? I'll be storing various bins underneath and want to hide them while still having access if need be .

T

I had a free trial about a year ago , messed with it a bit , but had a computer self destruct , got a new laptop , and haven't acted upon Sketch-Up's periodic emails essentially asking me to buy their product .

I have mixed feelings ...essentially , is it worth it ??

T