This is as good a time as any for me to "revive" my old Tru-Scale crane, and create a boom car, and a fuel and water car...(crane tender), to go with it.
The crane was originally backdated to steam in 1959, using the Ron Christison article, "Powering the Tru-Scale Crane", in the September 1959 Model Railroader. I was 15 at the time, and wasn't quite as skilled a modeler as I would have wished. Needless to say, the crane sat in a box all these years, and now has a chance to be seen again.
The first two pics are of the crane:
   
   
The boom car and crane tender are based on a pair of underframes from Model Diecasting "Old Time Boxcar" kits that were bashed into narrow gauge cars. I have several of these frames in the junk box.
   

Here is the car that inspired the challenge:
   
   

This is Bachmann 3-dome tank car, made in China. I am not even sure how it got into my possession. Nevertheless, it has been in my junk box for many years and at one time I had considered liberating the tank to use as an oil storage facility. I have decided to try and make a respectable model out of it, and hopefully I can get it to resemble this image that I found online:



The Bachmann car has some major flaws. In fact, it is one of the lousiest cars I have ever seen. Problems include:
1) Flash, and lots of it. Nearly every piece has extensive flash on the mold parting line.
2) Missing trucks and couplers. That's okay, because I would have replaced them anyway.
3) Cast on grab irons.
4) A flimsy underframe that doesn't fit together correctly. The underframe is also too weak and flimsy to support couplers. The car originally had couplers attached to the trucks, and I assume Bachmann made the frame thinner at the ends to accommodate the coupler swing.

I am not even sure what prototype (if any) the Bachmann car is following or how its dimensions scale out. It does look close enough to the prototype photo I found, so I think I can create a credible model.

Here's some detail pics of B&M Drop Bottom Gondola WC610.
Side view show the bottom latches.
   
Close up view of one of the latches.
   
Poling pocket detail.
   
Underframe detail. Note the rivet construction.
   
Info plate showing(I'm guessing) brake rod lengths or rod lengths for the bottom latches. Note the "50 Ton Gon" marking.
   
Brake wheel. The far one is the B&M's. Near one is from the PC gon coupled to it.
   
The last picture also shows the different type of construction between the PC unit and the B&M unit. The PC unit's end looks like it was stamped in one piece, where as the B&M unit is riveted.

My 7 year old figured out that he could turn my train layout into a marble racetrack today. He would put two marbles at the top of the grade, one on each mainline, and race them down to the bottom of the grade. When I took the pictures, he was putting several on one track to create a train of marbles.

Here we go, a new challenge based on a suggestion from Nachoman. The challenge: Take a car, old or new, (the junkier, the better) and bash it into something else. It’s that simple. For those who are more energetic, you can do this to more than one car. The only restriction there is that each car that is bashed must be a different type than the others you bashed.

Here's how it's going to work:

1. Find a car that you want to bash, perhaps an old one that you can’t or won’t run for some reason. If you can’t find an old one, a new one will do just fine; but as Nachoman suggested, use what you have lying around, try not to buy something “Just to join in” – unless you really want to or you don’t have anything that can be categorized as “junk”. We need not explain any further, since a lot of you have already formulated what you’re going to do.
   
2. Start a thread in this forum, "Your Screen Name, 2010 Spring Bash challenge." If you are entering more than one item, start separate threads for each project. ie: "Your Screen Name, 2010 Spring Bash challenge 2" (then 3, 4 etc.)
   
3. Tell us what you intend to do as part of your challenge. As usual, provide us with lots of pictures of your progress. At a minimum, a before and an after one will suffice.
   
4. You may do as many cars as you like, just that you cannot do more than one of any type.
   
5. Since we never give anything of value away, this challenge is open to all registered members of the Big Blue Train Forum, including the staff.
   
6. Since this challenge is all about the project, you must do a substantial amount of the work, but you or someone else can take the photos.

I am in that stage of my layout where I need to imitate some trees on my backdrop.I have painted the backdrop light blue for sky and a dark grey to imitate the distant hills. I wolud like ot give the illusion of trees and foilage in the distance. Anyone with any painting tips for this would be greatly appreciated. I am not a telented painter when it comes to this sort of thing...so....help! Thanks in advance....Dave

...is the reason for the name of my newest module "The Culvert". It has the same footprint as last weeks "Interstate"
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Links in red are a bit difficult to read, with these tired old eyes. Can we use, say, a highlight of another color, with the link itself in white?

I have not seen any EL pictures posted, so I guess I will share a few as time goes by.
Youngstown, Ohio
Charlie

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