Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Saturday, 27 October 2018
Woodstock Last Sunday, a Citirail, and a little JSSX This Week 10/27
I mentioned last week that I'd be attending the Woodstock Train Show on Sunday. I was selling a number of items that simply never make their way out from my storage cabinet and onto the layout. Shortly before the doors to the show were opened, friend George Dutka from the White River Division came along, with his camera. He asked if he could take a picture of me and my table. George was kind enough to send me the picture later, so here it is:
I had a real good day at the show, as almost all of these items were sold by the end of the day, plus quite a number of other things that weren't out on the table by the time the picture was taken. It's funny how some of the things you'd think no one would want get sold, and some of the things you think will sell quickly end up coming back home with you.
I was at the show by myself, so I didn't have much opportunity to look around. However, for 10 dollars I did buy a GT coil car kit to put together. All the parts appear to be there, but I'll have to change it to metal wheels and better couplers.
On the JSSX this week, I've become tired of looking at this corner area, which sits at the end of the street scene area. It very clearly has to be filled in and upgraded.
Here's the area after I've trimmed a few inches from the end of the track that would be the industry spur and done some basic scenery.
I first painted the area with brown craft acrylic paint, followed with ground foam and static grass. After that, sifted dirt (thanks Brian),gravel, and track ballast were added. I've also quickly roughed in a couple of oil storage tanks as a start. I haven't had anywhere for tank cars to go. Subject to change of course, but this is the general idea. There will still be a ways to go in this area.
And I'll wrap things up this week with westbound train 501 on it's way to the St.Clair Tunnel last Saturday afternoon. CitiRail ES44AC lease engine 1511 is trailing CN's ET44AC 3070.
I guess the difference between an ES and an ET model is that the ET model meets the higher EPA Tier 4 emission standard. Not that I can tell from the appearance of the engines though. I had to look that up.
The train was hauling auto frames, LPG tank cars, and plastic pellets among other things, plus brand new intermodal well cars and brand new 2 bay covered hoppers from NSC in Hamilton. I've never considered my JSSX layout to be large enough to justify having any models of these types of engines.
I was at the show by myself, so I didn't have much opportunity to look around. However, for 10 dollars I did buy a GT coil car kit to put together. All the parts appear to be there, but I'll have to change it to metal wheels and better couplers.
On the JSSX this week, I've become tired of looking at this corner area, which sits at the end of the street scene area. It very clearly has to be filled in and upgraded.
Here's the area after I've trimmed a few inches from the end of the track that would be the industry spur and done some basic scenery.
I first painted the area with brown craft acrylic paint, followed with ground foam and static grass. After that, sifted dirt (thanks Brian),gravel, and track ballast were added. I've also quickly roughed in a couple of oil storage tanks as a start. I haven't had anywhere for tank cars to go. Subject to change of course, but this is the general idea. There will still be a ways to go in this area.
And I'll wrap things up this week with westbound train 501 on it's way to the St.Clair Tunnel last Saturday afternoon. CitiRail ES44AC lease engine 1511 is trailing CN's ET44AC 3070.
I guess the difference between an ES and an ET model is that the ET model meets the higher EPA Tier 4 emission standard. Not that I can tell from the appearance of the engines though. I had to look that up.
The train was hauling auto frames, LPG tank cars, and plastic pellets among other things, plus brand new intermodal well cars and brand new 2 bay covered hoppers from NSC in Hamilton. I've never considered my JSSX layout to be large enough to justify having any models of these types of engines.
Saturday, 20 October 2018
The Woodstock Train Show, and a Milwaukee Road boxcar weathered
I've spent time this week getting a number of items together to bring to the Woodstock Model Train Show at the fairgrounds in Woodstock,Ontario. The show is tomorrow, October 21, and I've gotten myself a table there to try to sell a few things.
On the internet I found this photo, taken by Joe Pusey, of a boxcar that is somewhat similar to one I've had in my storage cupboard. The one difference that I notice is the greater number of waffles on the sides of the model. On the prototype, I particularly liked the dark rust areas on the doors.
Sooooo...using the photo above as an example, I weathered my ExactRail waffle sided high-cube boxcar over the course about 10 days or so. It can take quite a while for the rust coloured paints that I use to dry, and I prefer to wait for that before before I move on to the next layer. This boxcar had a cameo appearance in this photo at the end of last week's blog.
This is actually the 2nd time that I've weathered this particular car. I was never very happy with the way it turned out the first time, and got motivated to re-do it when I saw the photo that Joe had shared. I removed all of the previous weathering by use of Q-Tips dampened with 91% iso-propyl alcohol.
The yellow is still a little too bright I think, but I stopped applying the flat haze after about 6 layers because I didn't want the product to begin to turn the car white, or "frosty" looking.
On the internet I found this photo, taken by Joe Pusey, of a boxcar that is somewhat similar to one I've had in my storage cupboard. The one difference that I notice is the greater number of waffles on the sides of the model. On the prototype, I particularly liked the dark rust areas on the doors.
Sooooo...using the photo above as an example, I weathered my ExactRail waffle sided high-cube boxcar over the course about 10 days or so. It can take quite a while for the rust coloured paints that I use to dry, and I prefer to wait for that before before I move on to the next layer. This boxcar had a cameo appearance in this photo at the end of last week's blog.
This is actually the 2nd time that I've weathered this particular car. I was never very happy with the way it turned out the first time, and got motivated to re-do it when I saw the photo that Joe had shared. I removed all of the previous weathering by use of Q-Tips dampened with 91% iso-propyl alcohol.
I faded the too-bright yellow paint with ProtoPaint Flat Haze sprayed through my airbrush. For the blackish areas on the doors and door tracks I mixed a bit of black into burnt umber oil paint and dabbed it on with a small brush. The rust streaks are done with burnt sienna and burnt umber, thinned, and applied with a flat brush. I patched over the original reporting marks with yellow trim film, but didn't change the number. I also used some of the trim film on a few panels on one side of the car.
The yellow is still a little too bright I think, but I stopped applying the flat haze after about 6 layers because I didn't want the product to begin to turn the car white, or "frosty" looking.
I wanted to include the end of the waffle car here to show that I had patched the reporting mark there as well, so I snapped a quick picture. But now I kind of wish I hadn't...oh well...I suppose the maintenance crew will be along shortly...and maybe the city street maintenance guys too.
Saturday, 13 October 2018
The JSSX This Week 10/13
On the JSSX this week, the view, from behind the bumper stop, looking down a street side rail siding at a storage warehouse. There's a fairly wide gravel area between the street and the fence line where 53 foot highway trailers often stop temporarily before being brought to the truck dock.
I've cut up tiny bits of brown paper bag, envelope paper, etc. as litter, and small strips of black tape to represent steel strapping. This is all scattered along the track and fence line, more heavily so in front of the loading doors where debris and stuff would be likely to be swept out of boxcars. There's a broken wooden pallet or two laying along there as well.
That orange Schneider trailer and a few boxcars have been moved, giving us a better view of the warehouse. There are 6 rail doors, but really, only 3 can be occupied at a time. The structure walls are built of fibreboard that came with a white coating on it. The pillars are made of Evergreen styrene strip.
The rail loading doors are photos of real loading doors that I downloaded from Lance Mindheim's website - hey, he invites us to use them, so I thought I'd give it a try. I just printed the photos onto regular paper and used 3M's Super 777 adhesive to attach them to the walls. I've framed them in with some pretty small styrene strips, but I think I can do a bit better job of that, and one of these days - hopefully fairly soon - I'm going to get around to re-doing them.
I've moved the warehouse over to the workbench to get a close-up of a couple of Lance's doors photos that I used. The little bit of grime streaking down the walls is done with thinned artist oil paints and a flat brush.
With half of the foam board roof removed for clarity, you can see the plywood base and scraps of 1 x 2 that I cut for roof and wall supports. This back side of the structure actually is situated along the layout aisle.
I wanted reasonably modern truck docks, so I searched google for photos and found one I liked. I printed it 3 times, cut them out and applied them to the end of the warehouse. The trailer parking area is spackling painted with weathered black acrylic.
One more shot from across the street, with a high cube boxcar spotted at door #6.
I've moved the warehouse over to the workbench to get a close-up of a couple of Lance's doors photos that I used. The little bit of grime streaking down the walls is done with thinned artist oil paints and a flat brush.
With half of the foam board roof removed for clarity, you can see the plywood base and scraps of 1 x 2 that I cut for roof and wall supports. This back side of the structure actually is situated along the layout aisle.
I wanted reasonably modern truck docks, so I searched google for photos and found one I liked. I printed it 3 times, cut them out and applied them to the end of the warehouse. The trailer parking area is spackling painted with weathered black acrylic.
One more shot from across the street, with a high cube boxcar spotted at door #6.
Saturday, 6 October 2018
The JSSX This Week 10/06
First up this week, I've added a site to my "Blogs I Follow" section. The new addition is a link to Chris Vanderheide's Algoma Central in HO Scale blog. Chris adds to his blog all the time and he has mad skills in modeling and offers lots of knowledge, so be sure to check it out if you haven't already. He also maintains another excellent site - Canadian Freight Railcar Gallery - a terrific resource for the rest of us modelers.
On a trip to the station on Monday, I saw this former UP C40-8W, now GECX leaser 9382, as it was getting ready to head west through the St.Clair River tunnel to Michigan at about 1:pm.
Lease engines are kind of my favourites, and this one didn't disappoint. I like the wide flat black paint-out of the UNION PACIFIC on the sides. I also like that barely noticeable below the "2" in the locomotive number is the white GECX re-lettering stencil. I'm really enjoying this power shortage that's been going on.
Then, on the same train the next day was another GECX C40-8W leaser, trailing this time. Number 7336 is an ex-CSX engine, and according to rrpicturearchives.net it was a Conrail unit before that. This one also has the small stencilled GECX re-lettering below the cab.
As for my JSSX this week, I finally got around to installing the short section of Rix Products roadway guardrail that I had shown a few weeks back. I've put this piece in front of a closed driveway entrance. The chain link gate behind it is also new. It's not much progress, but it's something.
On a trip to the station on Monday, I saw this former UP C40-8W, now GECX leaser 9382, as it was getting ready to head west through the St.Clair River tunnel to Michigan at about 1:pm.
Lease engines are kind of my favourites, and this one didn't disappoint. I like the wide flat black paint-out of the UNION PACIFIC on the sides. I also like that barely noticeable below the "2" in the locomotive number is the white GECX re-lettering stencil. I'm really enjoying this power shortage that's been going on.
Then, on the same train the next day was another GECX C40-8W leaser, trailing this time. Number 7336 is an ex-CSX engine, and according to rrpicturearchives.net it was a Conrail unit before that. This one also has the small stencilled GECX re-lettering below the cab.
As for my JSSX this week, I finally got around to installing the short section of Rix Products roadway guardrail that I had shown a few weeks back. I've put this piece in front of a closed driveway entrance. The chain link gate behind it is also new. It's not much progress, but it's something.
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