Hey folks,
Sorry for the delay in the October Train Exchange Schedule. It's been a busy 2 weeks here. Anyway, here's the October Train Exchange Schedule:

MNX 2254 is an empty RSM meat reefer being switched out to head over to Pioneer Packing to get a load on Chet's Logan Valley layout. (Chet I hope I have the road name correct here, let me know if not!)

Chet's original partner had a delay, so I'm sending Chet a car to fill the gap. We definitely have room for more participants, so anyone who'd like to jump in is welcome to do so at any time. I think the guys who've participated so far have found this very rewarding.

Living in the west, sagebrush is quite common and make excellent tree armatures. These trees take about a half hour to make and probably use 50 cents worth of Woodland Scenics clump foam for the foliage.

Attached Files

  IMAG0039_BURST002_zps6de20f05[1].jpg (Size: 123.48 KB / Downloads: 2593)
  IMAG0017_zps89390f93[1].jpg (Size: 114.63 KB / Downloads: 2711)

  IMAG0126_BURST002_zpsa1be5e97[1].jpg (Size: 108.26 KB / Downloads: 1357) I model a rather rural area set in 1957. At that time, there was no UPS or FedEX, and over the road trucking wasn't around yet, so the freighthouse was a very important place. Most every day items, from clothes, food products, machinery, building supplies, and most other items came into town to the freighthouse, where REA or local trucking companies would pick up and deliver these commodities.

I couldn't find any kits that interested me so into the wood box I went and scratch built this freight house which also has some interior details and is also lit.

Attached Files

  IMAG0010_zpsceac543d[1].jpg (Size: 83.04 KB / Downloads: 1223)

Some Photos of scratchbuilding the A- and B-unit:
Turning this


and this


via this


into that


and that


Detailing the shell with batten & rivets will follow this autumn /winter
Currently the aux-power/baggage car #11700 is under construction.

Regards
Norman

I got this in my e-mail this morning:

Polk’s Will Close Its Doors 12-31-13

Sent: October 1st, 2013

Since 1935, we have provided service and innovation to the Hobby industry. In this latest downturn, we cut back staff to the minimum required to survive. Then the government battle over the debt ceiling drove the consumer market down even further.

We’ve managed to stay in business, but the continued depression for the consumer has caused us to fall into debt that is unsustainable. We have put several million dollars into product development over recent years, but the need for customers to cut back on non-essentials has caused this investment to be lacking in returns.

We have seen leisure activities like golf courses plunge in popularity, as funds for such recreation have dried up. It seems to be the same for hobby time investments. Our products are no longer inexpensive as they were in the 1930s-era Depression. The cost of manufacturing along with minimum production runs and long lead times has caused a lack of ability to continue as a sustainable entity. It’s no longer a business!

It has been a pleasure to help our creative consumer base to enjoy their hobby and we have no regrets in doing so. Our business grew every year until the 2008 as the recession caused a shrinking of the mindset to stay active in our large-scale model train arena. We know that smaller scales have remained viable, but the higher cost of Large Scale trains and the space required to run them have not maintained their share of the market. Our airplane R/C portion of our business was lost when our patented frequency changer was lost to the 2.4Ghz portion of the marketplace, with no frequency compounds needed any longer.

For 80 years, the Polk family has made a fair living in the Hobby industry. I can’t help but remember the scores of co-workers that have helped make this organization as special as it was. Thanks to them all, but notably: Gil Rose, B.M. Song, J.K. Kim, Sam Kimm, Tom Flynn, Cliff Crane, Charlie Binder, Marvin Binder, John and Sherry Shievdayal, Aixa Lebron, Joe Bamberger, David Newell, Walter Matuch, John Mikesh, Navin Shievdayal, Marguerite Hubert (Rose), Michael J. Vickey, Jonathan Polk, Scott Polk, Fred Polk, Irwin Polk, Nathan Polk, Maryann Polk Bob Calandra, George Adams, Michael Hauptmann and so many others, it would take a book to list them all. While I can’t list all the hundreds that were part of the team, they remain in my heart and mind.

Our humble thanks to our loyal customers. Our apologies for not being able to keep this almost 80-year-old business going. It’s a heartbreaker for us all.

All the best,

The Polk Family
Polk's Hobby
698 S. 21st St.
Irvington New Jersey 07111
United States

Model Railroads Of Southern California’s next layout tour will be a one-man show but we have a very good layout to offer and it is located just a few miles west of the Banning Train Festival venue.

Werner Brandt’s HO scale Gateway to the Sunset Route will be open October 19 and 20 (Saturday & Sunday, same days as the Festival) from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The address is 1243 Massachusetts Avenue, Beaumont. This is just north of Interstate 10. Massachusetts Avenue is only accessible from 13th Street.

This layout is appearing for the first time on our layout tour program and recently was featured (with operating sessions) during the PSR/NMRA Convention in the Inland Empire.

The Gateway to the Sunset Route layout is designed for operation. Set in Southern California in 1973, it traces the Southern Pacific’s route from an imaginary Taylor Yard east through Fontana, Colton Yard, Beaumont Hill and into the Coachella Valley. There is an active branch to the iron ore mine at Eagle Mountain.

The layout also features a shared Santa Fe and Union Pacific route from the Los Angeles basin to Riverside and San Bernardino with the San Jacinto Branch down to Hemet. In addition to the three freight railroads the tracks often see Amtrak plus the fictional Eagle Mountain and Hemet Valley Railroads.

The design features two large loops, each with East and West staging yards. The two levels are connected by three helixes. With the 5:1 fast clock and at operational speeds the SP loop is about twenty-two scale miles, while the Santa Fe loop is about fifteen scale miles. A time table is used for all scheduled trains with track orders for extras (Form 19 only to keep it simple). Car forwarding is accomplished with car cards and four-cycle waybills.

The trains are controlled by MRC DCC, with up to thirteen radio cabs and two tethered cabs. Most scenery is completed and many permanent structures are in place.

If the PSR Convention website is still up you can see images of this layout at the bottom of the page:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.psrconvention.org/sb13/OpsSession.htm">http://www.psrconvention.org/sb13/OpsSession.htm</a><!-- m -->

Be advised that there is a duck-under at the entrance to the layout room.

Banning Train Festival Website:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://banning100birthday.com/2013/09/24/celebrate-train-history/">http://banning100birthday.com/2013/09/2 ... n-history/</a><!-- m -->

Bob Chaparro
Moderator
Model Railroads Of Southern California
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/">http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Mode ... alifornia/</a><!-- m -->

i am looking for pictures of a real oil refinery so I can duplicate on my HO scale layout

Hello friends
I'm from Brazil and will be visiting New York City with my wife for the second time in january 2014
This time I'm planning to try some railfanning around Brooklyn in the NYNJRAIL specially around area on Bush terminal along 1st Avenue
Does anyone can give some tips regarding train and switching frequency on the area? Also is the area safe during daylight time?
Thanks a lot for any helping
Greetings from Brazil
Ricardo

...of my supply of freight cars to build or re-build. I hope to move on to locomotives next, or perhaps cabooses, passenger cars, or even some work on the layout. First, though, the freight cars.

First up is this Tichy tank car. There are actually three of them, all bought recently and while building them, I decided to finish off the older "used" cars on the shelf, too.

Here's one of them, built with a few modifications - mostly metal grab irons and sill steps in place of the plastic ones which came with the kit.



...some strip styrene behind the sidesills provided extra drilling surface for the A-Line sill steps:



The first one is equipped with a 54" dome, and I used Black Cat decals to letter it for GATX. As an American car, its nominal capacity is 10,000 gallons:



Except for the 60" dome on this car, it is identical to the GATX car. However, as a Canadian-built car, its nominal capacity is 8,000 gallons (Imperial). Decals are again from Black Cat:



The third car, also Canadian-built, is identical to the BAOX car and was also lettered with Black Cat decals:



This boxcar, an old Front Range Products car, was picked-up "used" from the LHS. It was pretty-much as you see it here: built, but un-painted. I added metal grabs and sill steps, a new brake wheel, and some improved brake gear, plus the tack boards on the doors:



Since it seems very similar to the 1937 AAR steel boxcar, I modelled it as an almost-new car, with only minimal weathering. The John Galt Lines herald was supplied by my good friend Gary (jglfan), while all other lettering is from Champ:



This next car is by MDC, and was originally lettered for Great Northern. While it also had a pretty-decent weathering job, I have enough GN cars, so I decided to re-do it to match a photo in Ted Culotta's book on Essential Freight Cars. After stripping the paint, I cut away the deep side sills below the doors, then modified the fishbelly underframe's crossbearers to suit. All of the grab irons were shaved off and replaced with wire ones, although I omitted the second ones near the left end of the sides, as they would have been a late '30s or even later upgrade. The sill steps were also replaced with ones from A-Line, and new roofwalk corner grabs were fashioned from brass wire. This car is still being lettered, so only a photo of the car before painting at this time:




It seems that I've exceed my character limit for this post, so it will continue below.....

Wayne