(Editor's note - started the idea for this thread in my "Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge" thread for my layout and decided to dedicate this thread to that project).

I run Conrail and Delaware & Hudson on my Lehigh Valley Gorge layout, circa August 1976.

Until last year, my typical D&H consist was two C628's and two RS36's, all in Blue Lighting stripe.  Conventional, all Alco - the D&H pretty much up until the formation of Conrail.  

A funny thing happened when Conrail was stood up - the U.S. Government wanted to at least have the appearance that there was still competition in the northeast for rail traffic after the formation of a giant amalgamation of 5 Class I railroads.  The poor little D&H was to be that competition.  The D&H was granted trackage rights from Washington D.C. up through Buffalo, given responsibility for running TOFC trains (one of the few lucrative freight packages in 1976), and given GP39-2's (Reading's last new locomotives), some GP38's from the Lehigh Valley (last power purchases by the LV), and some C420's.

Forced into this role, things got a little insane for the little D&H.  The red LV and green RR locomotives got quickly patched and immediately placed into service.  And some of those locomotives kept their original colors and initial patches for years.

I always liked the green dip paint scheme that the Reading used on their GP39-2's, and I have a deep affection for anything in LV livery.  

2 years ago I saw that Athearn was releasing some GP39-2's, and one of them was a patched Reading unit for the D&H.  I decided I had to get that one, and for Christmas last year I spent more money than I ever have on a locomotive, aided by a couple of gift certificates from my wife.

In recent months I began to get the itch to get a LV GP38 and turn it into a patched D&H.

Problem was, a lot of the LV GP38's offered out there on the used market are pretty poor representations.  However, Athearn had released a DC unit about 20 years ago, and I saw a couple for sale at what I thought was a somewhat reasonable cost.  Decided if I won the auction that I would turn it into a DCC model with the necessary D&H patching.

Won this one last week:

   

I have a Digitrax DH126P decoder that I'd like to put in it, and aside from the patching, there are a few other additions I'd like to make.  You're invited for the ride!

Tasks: 

1)  Remove the DC-related hardware
2)  Add the decoder for motor control
3)  Add LED's for the front and rear lights
4)  Paint over the LV logos on the front and rear diamonds and long hood
5)  Add a "7" in front of the road number on the cab
6)  Redo the road numbers on the top of the cabs at both ends
7)  Add a plow
8)  Add MU hoses
9)  Weather the whole locomotive

I made some purchases.  LV decals (for the "7"), D&H patch decals (GP39-specific, but I think they can work just fine for what I want to use them for).  Also rooted through my stock and pulled out a snow plow, the decoder, the wiring harness, and the MU hoses.

The end result will be something very close to this: RailPictures.Net Photo: D&H 7324 Delaware & Hudson EMD GP38-2 at Enola, Pennsylvania by George W. Hamlin

Stay tuned for some progress and pictures.

anyone here assembled a DPM series 2 kit , if so were you shocked to find that the separate doors and windows were a scale 12 or 13 inches thick , just cant  live with the glazing that far back so i modified some Tichy windows to fit openings but could not find doors that would work so i set doors up in mill and took mullins down to 2 inches, improved looks. ant one else had this problem with the series 2 kits?
Jim

Over the years I have taken several photos of rail and track work so I think it is time to share them. Todd is weathering his rail on his track and I thought these photos would be of interest to other people. I find it easier to caption with edits so standby while I finish the post. Charlie 
This is a picture of the rail on the KJR and the ballast is about 9 years old. Notice the rust from the rail and tie plates is also running onto the stone.      This one shows the general track and the rust that ocurs. This is class one track, good for 10 MPH freight and 15MPH passenger.      The next 2 show 130 pound (per yard) Pennsylvania Standard rail rolled in 1928. The slashes indicate the month        

A C40-8 leads a Conrail coal train passing through Chestnut Neck.

Bruce

   

OK folks; let me give it to you straight up. We started Big Blue over 14 years ago when we broke free of what was once The Gauge, and eventually, Zealot which quickly became riddled with ads. We did so with the promise that we would never allow advertising nor take on a sponsor, and so far, we’ve lived up to those promises. There is nothing that will ever make that change, so keep that in mind.
 
We’ve supported Big Blue all these years from out-of-pocket when necessary, donations, sales of contributed train gear and by holding auctions. We’ve been successful enough to keep things running and so Mikey and I kind of let things ride as they were, not that we were flush with cash, but because we don’t like leaning on our members when we could get by with what we had. Well, our renewal just came up and we had to empty the treasury to keep us going, literally. Our costs went up a good 10% and so we are at best, broke. We have reached the bottom of the cookie jar, only a few crumbs left!
 
Membership has dwindled over the years as it has throughout most forums, but there are still enough people here interested in what Big Blue has to offer to continue running. We have a lot of wonderful information here and some very talented modelers eager to help, no membership fees for anyone, but it’s no surprise, GoDaddy and the Internet folks just won’t give us a free ride regardless.
 
Where are we going with this? I’m sure you can guess; we have a year to get our treasury back up so when the bills come due, we can pay them. If we can’t make the rent, we’re going to be thrown out on the street without delay. Big Blue will cease to exist and all this valuable information will be lost, and we don’t want that to happen.
 
Out-and-out donations are super, and are always very much appreciated, but we like to give back too when we can, so we’re going to try to open a fund drive all through this year and do our best to make it a fun fund drive. That might include:

• Holding auctions
  
• Holding sales of donated items
  
• Just regular cash donations
  
• Holding someone hostage for ransom (won’t happen)
  
• Buying lottery tickets with the last remaining few bucks we do have (can’t happen)
  
• And lastly, some bright ideas coming from our loyal members (needs to happen!)
  

• Got some duplicate pieces of gear that you’d like to donate that we can either sell or auction off?
  
• Have any memorabilia lying around that it’s time to let go of?
  
• Would you be interested in decorating a car with the Big Blue logo so we can auction it off?
  
• Would you be interested in bidding on this or anything else if we were to hold auctions?
  
• Can you suggest what we could auction, such as prototype (collectable) items, or books?
  
• Want to buy in as a partner? (Just kidding)
  

Been a while since I did any woodworking worth posting, but I bought a gun a while back that needed a new stock added. I could buy many different ones starting at around $50 up to several hundred, then another $50 would get me the required adapter ring to fit it to my gun. I've been wanting a new bandsaw since I sold mine during a move years ago, so this was my chance. Bought one for $160 and I had some scrap maple and everything else I needed so what a delight to get something practical done. Here's the whole project in one post:

Cut the blank on the bandsaw, note the pencil line. I cut the blank in two so I could cut the tapers and basic shape with the saw.

   

After cutting the basic shape on the bandsaw, I glued the parts back together, then sanded it smooth with a belt sander. I used a circle cutter and a Dremel tool to cut the groove that fit on the end of the gun in place of the adapter.

   
   

I spray painted the wood stock black to match the gun

   

Here it is attached to the end of the gun. Added a rubber butt pad to cushion any recoil.

   

So, for a little bit over the cost of the stock and adapter, I wound up with that plus a bandsaw, and had fun building it.

Hostlers are bringing the power for the transfer run to Camden around to the departure track at Mannheim Yard.

Bruce

   

Hi everyone---last week there were some great contributions to WPF---hopefully this week will be even better.To start the week I found this photo taken from Barney Secord's plane as the daily Niagara Peninsula RR passenger train approaches Christophers Landing. 

   

New to the Forum, so hi there everybody!

So, I got to this forum through a YouTube video from The Pixel Depot that took inspiration from a layout here: 59th and Rust
Now I would like to document and discuss my journey into making my own layout.
I am living in Germany and my "play" layout will be modeling a fictional place here, but still decided to post here for the reasons above.
Hoping it could be interesting and would love to get any feedback.

As a kid, I inherited a simple analog layout with one siding that I ended up passing on to my nephew.
Back then, I did barely have the skills to build together a simple plastic kit without modifications.
Frankly, only driving in circles started to bore me to tears.

This time around I have the following:
- a 2m * 60cm baseplate (6,56 foot * 1,97 foot / 78,74 inch * 23,6 inch, what do you use?)
- a V60 small Diesel Shunting locomotive
- Some freight wagons (6 running, 3 needing DC wheels, 5 bought)
- Too many tools, but no clue


  Scarm.bmp (Size: 489.01 KB / Downloads: 1238)

The idea for my layout is a small shunting yard a little off the main line.
Once having only a small woodworking shop in the basement of a house, it grew.
Now holding a larger woodworking shop, a brewery, a small good shed and a team track.
Easy to see that this yard is too small for the amount of traffic.

Hoping the pictures want to attach, and happy to no longer be lurking only
Kitty

[attachment=39810]        

Don't know if anyone here has assembled one of these, but it's a challenge. There is a step-by-step with parts identified, but no tips on how to keep some sub-assemblies together while waiting to use them in a further step. Looking at the Internet, there are many makers, some look like an hour's assembly time for a five-year old, to hours and hours like with the one I have. This one had 290 parts all wood except for the motor spring, some rods and a bell. No glue, just one suggestion, "if part broke, bring glue". So far I've only broken one part, did not bring glue, just made a new one out of scraps.

This is a sketch of the finished engine, I'm assuming that the wheel on one side of the cab allows you to wind the motor, not sure if there's an on/off switch or what, but I'll find out sooner or later. So far I think I've got about six hours into it, that includes about three hours repeating step 1 about 42 times because there's no way to hold 11 tiny pieces of wood together until you figure out a place for a rubber band that won't get in the way.   No estimate time to get it finished, if one part goes in wrong, it has to be disassembled back down to that part . I'm just hoping I get it finished in time to put under the Christmas tree this year....

   

Here are shots of a typical sheet of laser-cut plywood. Some sheets are thicker than others. I found that out when I made the new part.

   

Here I am at step 9, only 38 to go. some steps require at least four hands to complete, others, four hands and two feet, like step 10 where I need to mate the two sides, both sides attach to each other with gears and rods.

   

Also, a pile left to put together steps 10-47