As some of you know, I write an article every month for a newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio titled, "Out Arizona Way". They are, as you may have guessed, all about life in Arizona as I have experienced it. I've never been to Cincinnati, but I made friends with its publisher a number of years ago and have been writing these articles over eight years now. Usually, my December article is about Christmas and the holiday. Here's the one I wrote for last year, and yes, it does have a train theme to it.

Quote:

OUT ARIZONA WAY: By Don Day

Trains and the holidays
Railroading and the holidays seem to go together regardless of where you are. Some of you may not know this, but I’m somewhat of a railroad buff having admired anything railroad since I was a kid. I didn’t get into model railroading until after I “retired,” there was just not enough time to allow myself a hobby before then. I remember when train stations were brimming with holiday travelers. Some were heading home to be with family, some just barreling out of town for a respite from the hustle and bustle of the season. Surely though, this was also the time for anyone with a train set to pull it out and set it up under the Christmas tree. I grew up in New Jersey and I remember getting the price of bus fare to head downtown to see the trains running in the department store windows. Gone were the mannequins wearing the latest fall or winter fashions, now they were decorated with animated figures, usually it was Santa surrounded by snow-clad scenery, sleds, bikes, gift packages under trees and a train in just about every window. We’d head upstairs to the huge, almost full-story toy department and sure enough, there was another Lionel train running with just about every accessory possible. Miniature people and things that did something, like the conductor that would pop out of the little house with a lit lantern every time the train passed by. We’d strain our necks to see the logs that would load when a freight train stopped to pick them up, what a delight for a young boy. I imagine there were many an adult mesmerized by the trains as they circled around billowing smoke out their stack and blowing their whistles. Yeah, I remember having to squeeze between these looming figures on my tiptoes, just to get a glimpse of all that action.

All that was great to help create the holiday spirit, but the practical matter is, that it’s all there to sell stuff, toys for sure, including train sets. Usually these sets were presents, sitting unused for the rest of the year, until the Christmas tree was put up once again and then the tracks were placed around it. Sometimes kids, with their parent’s help, had a train layout in the basement or attic; these too would wind up around the tree just because that’s what you do at Christmastime. I model the very small N scale; in recent years though, I’ve been putting my one and only much larger G scale train under the tree. It’s easier to get things back on the tracks when our grown boys or our grandchildren cause a derailment.

Well, here in Arizona, we don’t have those huge department stores with all those windows facing busy streets, what we have are the malls. If we’re lucky, some model railroad club will be granted some precious space around the mall or inside a store to set up their display. Usually though, it isn’t one specifically for Christmas, or at best, anything like what I was used to when I was growing up. No, if it were even close, you’d find me hanging around the malls jumping up and down to look over shoulders, just to renew those old memories.

There’s much more to do train-wise around the holiday here other than setting up you trains, or ogling someone else’s. How about a full-size adventure? Head up north where the Grand Canyon Railroad normally takes riders between Williams and the Canyon. However, they change routes in December and some of their trains head right to the North Pole. Yep, you can enjoy and evening ride on their “Polar Express” which includes a stop to be greeted by Santa, along with sleighs, elves and snow. There’s plenty of hot chocolate and cookies on the way as someone reads the Polar Express story. Each child receives a silver bell as they board the train, and trying to be true to the story, they are encouraged to wear their pajamas.

Christmas is all about creating memories; we all have them. Some of the kids of today will remember riding the Polar Express to the North Pole; those of the future may have an entirely different memory to share. My memories go back to those Christmas window displays, the trains and all that attention to those fascinating details. Whatever you fondest Christmas memories are, they need to be cherished and shared, for the new ones may not always bring the same satisfaction.

The storm that blew from California right across the continent is now in Ottawa, and the snow is starting to pile up!

Hope you are all doing ok!

Andrew

I'm certainly not far advanced enough to make use of this, but Rob Paisley's site seems to have a wealth of electronic info and ideas. It's mostly about non-DCC circuits (crossing gate/signal activator, detection/signal circuits, etc. http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/Circuit...l#REVISION...for your edification and aid with technical problems, and he includes his e-mail addy (if you're really stuck, perhaps he will assist). I tripped on the site & was just enjoying some of the ideas he shows. Happy Wiring. Bob C.

Just a neat old clip of the birth of CP 3100 & 3101 courtesy of the canadian Pacific Archives. Even being a flatlander Californian on the WP, I really enjoyed this and figured my friends here both north and south of the border would enjoy it too.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.cinemamuetquebec.ca/content/movies/23?lang=en">http://www.cinemamuetquebec.ca/content/ ... 23?lang=en</a><!-- m -->

While neither a scratchbuild nor a kitbash, here are some pictures showing some changes made to a kit boxcar in order to make it more closely resemble its prototype.

Here's the prototype, an ex-Pennsylvania RR X-29 boxcar, used in express service by REA, and later in MoW service by Penn Central. Like a cat with nine lives, she's still earning her keep as a HEP car for the Kiski Junction's passenger trains.


The Pennsy's X-29 boxcar has long been one of my favourites, and when my friend Charlie Bowyer, a Pennsy fan himself, announced his intention to retire as Supervisor of Operations for the Kiski Junction RR at the end of this year, I felt that a model of the KJRR's boxcar, returned to its former livery, would make a perfect retirement gift. Another good friend, cn nutbar, was in on this project, too, in the form of funding, so I ended-up making three versions of the car, one for each of us.

Fortunately, the car's original number was still stencilled on the interior face of the door:


The starting point was Red Caboose's version of the X-29 most suitable, the 1924 style, with plate ends, patched side sills, and an REA detail package. (These kits appear to be no longer available.) The prototype car shows BLT. 7-34 on its sidesill, even though the plate ends clearly identify it as a 1924-style car, not the 1928 and later style, which used Dreadnaught-style (ribbed) ends.


After adding brake gear to the models, I learned that many of the cars converted to express service had their underframes rebuilt to incorporated two steel stringers per side, replacing the single wooden stringer per side with which the cars were originally built. This type of rebuild involving the frame explains (at least to me ) the 7-34 built-date on the original. I didn't, as you can see below, modify the underframe of the models.

The three cars which I built are almost identical (save for weathering and re-weigh dates), but one of the differences is in the brake gear. These cars were originally built with K-style brakes, as illustrated by the photo, below, of another car:


K-type brakes came in several versions, most utilising one or two major underbody components, as shown above, while more modern AB brakes were comprised of three components, the reservoir, AB control valve, and the brake cylinder:


Some early conversions used mounting hardware from the earlier K-style brakes, the option chosen for my late-'30s version of the car. Pennsy used an extra actuating lever, pivoting at the sidesill, as shown below...


...while later versions used the standard set-up:


As shown above, I added only the basic piping and actuating levers that would be seen under close scrutiny from trackside. Hopefully, there'll be no major in-service wrecks that will allow closer inspection.

Here's a view of the prototype's "B" end:


Red Caboose provides plastic parts for most of these details, but I felt that metal would be a better choice, especially for the grab irons and tack board mounting straps. No cut levers were supplied, so I fabricated ones from brass wire, along with four-piece mounting brackets, which I added beneath the poling pockets. The plastic grab irons were installed as per the kit's instructions, then the actual grab iron section was trimmed away from the support brackets (there are two styles of brackets supplied with the kit, both vertical and horizontal). Next, the remaining brackets were drilled to accept .012" brass wire, which was bent to suit, inserted into the holes, and secured with ca from inside the body.
The mounting straps for the end tack boards are rather unique, not at all like the plastic ones supplied with the kit, but because they're so unique, I felt it worthwhile to attempt to replicate them.
I started with Detail Associates .010"x.030" brass bar (not exactly "to-scale", but an expedient compromise), cutting and bending a test piece until I arrived at a suitable length. Both ends of each strip were drilled to accept .012" wire, which was then soldered in place. The long ends were inserted into holes drilled into the cars' ends, bent-over, then fixed in place with ca, while the visible ends were trimmed to represent bolt heads, using a cut-off disc in my Dremel. I also drilled holes (again, before bending and installing the straps) for the upper grab iron, soldering it in place after the straps had been installed on the car.






Also visible in the photos above are the new platforms at the brake wheel and lower right-hand corner of the end (the kit's originals were solid plain styrene, while the replacements were cut from a Tichy open grid roofwalk), the scratchbuilt reinforcement gussets over the coupler pocket, and the bolt details added to the lower grab on the right side of the car's end (the proper style wasn't included in the kit). The mounting brackets for marker lights were included with the kit and can be seen protruding from the car's corners, about half-way up the side.

Similar changes were required on the "A" end:




The modified drop step, with the extra rung, can be seen in the second photo. The steps are from A-Line, with the extra rung made from D.A. brass bar and soldered in place.

While the kits' trucks are unsprung, they are self-equalising, so I added sheet lead inside the car to bring it up to just slightly more than the NMRA recommendations. When the car is first placed on the tracks, it's a good idea to press down on it once it's on the rails - this aligns all of the sideframes properly, allowing the interior weight to return the sideframes to their proper position as the car rolls over any minor irregularities in the track.


Another area where the kit details didn't match the prototype (this is in no way meant to be a put-down of the kit - it's an excellent kit with a good detail package) is the door latch mechanism. The lower latch detail, both on the doors and the carside are fine for a freight-service car, but the REA cars had an additional latch, mounted a little higher:


I couldn't find similar detail parts, and was going to omit this feature. Eventually, though, I decided to scratchbuild something reasonably suitable:


Including the piece on the door, each latch is comprised of eight pieces, mostly .010" styrene. Also visible to the left of the door is a placard holder, constructed from a piece of stainless steel grill work (from Detail Associates) intended for F-units.

All three cars have one working door, with latches in the unlatched position...




with the other closed and latched:


As you can see by the three photos above, the LD.LMT. and LT.WT. figures have been omitted: they were added after the initial weathering was completed.
A few more photos of the un-weathered cars:




Here are a few in-service shots. The lettering is from Champ, with all cars receiving a light wash using well-thinned PollyScale, followed by various colours of airbrushed Floquil.

Here's 6866 rolling through Dunnville, empty, some time in the late '30s - note the January 1937 re-weigh date, with the work performed at East Altoona:

I really like using Peco Code 100 FlexTrack for my small layouts. Yet, I've always struggled with how to join it onto either other pieces of FlexTrack or set-track, without ending up with an uneven join or kink in the track -- this can cause trains to derail or not run smoothly through the join.

Would it work if I were to join two pieces of FlexTrack together (using rail joiners), soldering them together, and then try to create the curve -- or would this still result with an uneven join?

I'm open to any suggestions here. FlexTrack works great but it's laying the track and joining it to other pieces of track that is the tricky part (at least for me!).

Thanks in advance,

Rob

I know this has been discussed before, but what are the cons of using code 55 track in regards to wheel profiles. I seem to recall that some locos and rolling stock are not compatible.

Once I have a finished structure, can I shoot the whole thing with Dull Cote or will that mess up the windows?

Has there been any progress made with adding a "view new posts" button to the tops of all forum pages with the "new" color schemes? I had mentioned this a little while back when the new color scheme options were uploaded to Big Blue, but havnt seen the addition of the button yet

Its not a big deal, but it would be more convenient to have the "view new posts" button added to the top next to the "view your posts" like on the older color scheme. I find myself having to navigate to the main board index to click on the "view new posts" button every time which kinda makes it a pain when your in a hurry LOL

Sometimes i just hit the "delete" key and firefox brings me back one page each click, but this does not re-fresh the page if new posts have been made....

Hey guys,

I need to match the paint on this EMD Demo unit i just got in the mail this afternoon. Its a Athearn Genesis (older run) so i have to apply the details myself, and well i need to paint the grab irons to match the colors of the unit. Whats going to be the easiest way to do this?

I need to match the deep red, dark gray, and silver colors for the grab irons....

Here is a pic of the unit: