Two Small Projects Underway for the Layout

Started working on a couple of minor projects for the layout this week.  First up here is some chain-link fence, using the fence posts from Walthers kit.  I tried to use the metal wire that comes with the kit for the top and bottom horizontal chords, but the pieces are rather short, and they're not straight so they are a bit difficult to work with.  So, I'm using used guitar B-strings instead.A look at what is included in the Walthers Chain-Link kit. Their short pieces of wire, underneath that is the fabric chain link mesh provided, and the plastic fence posts and gates.

This is the fence jig that Brian Smith made for me some years ago.  It's real handy to have around to help get the fence posts evenly spaced.  Also in the photo is a section of fence that I did make using the wire and mesh that comes in the Walthers kit.  And above that is the piece that is still in progress using the guitar string for the horizontal chord.

The fence I'm making is intended to be put in front of my Tri-State Paper industry, so it'll be about about 49 inches or so in length.  I don't think combined the two pieces above are going to be quite long enough to cover the entire length needed.

A look at the Tri-State building.  Some fencing here should really improve the appearance.

When I do get the fencing installed between the GTW main and the paper plant spur I think the Tri-State Paper industry will look at least a little more convincing. And I'll probably add an entrance gate across the railroad spur as well.  I'll be working on this more in the week ahead.

And the 2nd little project underway here is an oil tank.  This simple Rix kit has been lying around here for too long, so I've finally put it together.

Here's a quick look at where things stand with this project so far...

I didn't build it as the 43 foot height.  I went with just 4 sections vertically, which totals up to about 28 scale feet in height.

With the tank assembled, it'll be time for paint.

Sprayed with a nice flat white, and then added the weathering.

I'll be putting together a bit of piping as well to go with the tank.

Have a good week everybody.

RBOX 31224

I recently came across this RBOX photo by Colin Reinhart.  I liked the white paint-out across the bottom portion of the boxcar, and the white spray painted reporting mark, and thought I could maybe try to do something like this with one of my RBOX's.

The car I used is clearly not the same model, but I'll just call this modelers license and plunge ahead with it.

The number of panels/ribs is different than the prototype photo, but the colouring of the car is about right from my previous weathering of it.  As a first step, I painted black overtop of that red primer that I had on the door.

I made this styrene mask to help soften the upper edge of the white paint patches.  The styrene spacers, which I've outlined in black here just so you could see them, fit in between the boxcar ribs and raise the edge just a bit off of the model.  Flat white for the paint.

In this view, I've sprayed the flat white on the right side of the model, and it's taped in place on the left.  Also the door is masked so as to not get white paint on the black 'cuz that wouldn't be good

Some looks at the finished project...

I used a white paint pen and some patience to try to sort of emulate the similar scribbled marks on the prototype picture.

The graffiti is decals by Blair Line.  The reporting marks are decals from the Microscale Stencil Lettering set.

A look from the B-end.

To finish up, I also darkened the tack boards to show some wear, and added rust on and below the door track.

That'll be all for now.

Double-Door Boxcar

I used to see PDRR boxcars going to and from the paper plant in Port Huron, Michigan fairly often.  As I remember though, they were painted in a boxcar red or sometimes in yellow. Most of the prototype PeeDee River boxcars are now owned by UP and marked BKTY.

This one of mine is an old Roundhouse model that I weathered.  I didn't follow any prototype photo for the weathering, but I think it looks believable, so I'm more than pleased with the way it turned out.

Happened to catch this PeeDee River RailRoad boxcar this week at door #4 at Tri-State Paper.

Below are a few more photos of this boxcar from my files:

 This view shows lets us see some graffiti on the inside of the boxcar

 

It makes for kind of a nice change for the layout to have a freight car rolling around with the doors open

A view of the brake end of the boxcar as it sits at the local team track

I like this particular photo even thought the boxcar is on the other side of the chain link fence.

I'll close out with this view

The roof is certainly showing it's age

And that'll be all for this week.

A Short Train (Part 3)

Continuing on with the work along the South Industrial, JSSX 815 has grabbed the RBOX, pulled it out and then shoved the two high-cube boxcars into the customer's spur.

In this view, there's a crewman that's just uncoupled the trains two high-cube boxcars from each other.

I've often wondered just what train crews might think of having their pictures taken while they're working.  I don't know if I would have thought much of anyone taking my picture while I was doing my job.

815 starting to pull back after spotting the two boxcars at the loading doors.  The short train of 2 boxcars that we started out with is going to be even shorter now with just the one car for the trip back to the yard

On the return trip to the yard now.  Utility poles kind of got in the way of the photograph, much like they do along the prototype railways.

That RBOX is looking a little the worse for wear.

Running around the bend, passing by a couple of plastic pellet hoppers at MidWest Plastics over on the GTW.

I'll finish up this series now with this view of 815 passing by brother 813 as it switches a couple of tank cars at the transloading facility.

Thanks for following along as I've tried give a little insight into how part of the JSSX operates for these three posts.  I hope you've enjoyed them.

A Short Train (Part 2)

Here's a question... Do you all know that if you click on the pictures in the blog(s), the pictures will enlarge to full size so you can get a much better look at them. The written text doesn't appear though. Small thumbnails of the pictures will appear at the bottom of your screen so you can just sort of cursor along through those and see the images enlarged if you'd like.  But I hope you'd still want to read the text too.

Picking up sort of where I left off with last week's post, here's some more of that short JSSX train continuing on it's way.  Looks like it's heading to the South Industrial job.

The first of the two boxcars passing under Gratiot Ave.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that I needed to give one of the layout's switch ground throws a touch-up with some Rust Texture to cover over the shine of it's black plastic. I did just that to the one in the picture, and I think also to 22 others that are spread around the layout.

And the 2nd car of the train as it rolls beneath the overpass as well. 

We have to look closely between the two buildings, but there's 815 passing behind ACME Welding and the closed down Jimbo's BBQ.  ACME Welding was scratch-built by me, inspired by the real business on Bridges Street in London, Ont.

Made it onto the roadway on South Industrial Blvd., and there's a RailBox that'll be picked up

In this street level view, looks like maybe the 815 had to wait for the transport driver to get clear of the switch in the road before the railroad could begin it's runaround and lift of the RBOX.

With it's boxcars dropped on the street for a few minutes, 815 is now onto the spur to pick up the RBOX.

And that'll be all for now.  More next time.  Have a good week.

A Short Train

It gets a little challenging sometimes to come up with different views or things to post on the blog.  The layout really isn't all that big, and viewing angles get a bit limited. Anyway, I thought we'd try to follow a short (2 cars) train part way around the JSSX.

Here's JSSX 815, a GP38 of course, setting out from the shortline's yard with a couple of high-cube boxcars in tow.  The track at the right-hand corner of the photo is the interchange from the GTW yard (it's only 3 tracks wide) to the JSSX yard (also 3 tracks).

That track drops just 1/4" from the GTW down to the JSSX yard over a distance of maybe 16" or so.  In other words, it drops from the the thickness of cork roadbed under the GTW to the table top level of the JSSX yard. When I made this, I just let a piece of flex track fall naturally from the cork to see where it landed, and then put that switch we see on the right at that spot.

Moving along, here comes 815 around the far side of the 180 curve after leaving the yard.  

That Schneider trailer on the left is the one I showed here a few weeks back after I had bought it the train show in Woodstock.  The trailer is weathered now, but maybe I went a bit too heavy with the exhaust soot at the corners.

A view taken from beneath the roadway overpass.  I think I'll start referring to that as the Route 25 overpass, because why not, and plus I haven't thought of anything else to call it.

And just after coming out from under the Route 25 overpass

Passing by some heavy equipment riding on a lowboy trailer.

And changing from 1:87 to 1:1 scale, here's an aerial view I ran across of Delray Tower in Detroit from 2023

I found the image on Facebook this week, shows CSX train Y194 on it's way to Zug Island according to photographer Craig Hensley.

That'll be it for now.  Enjoy your week.

This and That for May

Friday already.  I've spent precious little time around the layout this past week or so, so I'll just post up a bit of an assortment of views here. Some might have been posted before. Sorry if they're redundant.

Good ol' workhorse 815 in it's grey colour pulling a pair of similarly coloured tank cars around the first curve on the JSSX

This TBOX was in the process of being lifted when I noticed this view.  I've since put a bit of of Rust Texture paint on the switch machine.  It can wear off after a while and then the black plastic looks too shiny so periodically those things need a touch-up.

Ex-DT&I SD40 moving auto-parts cars around on the GTW.  Those two DT&I boxcars aren't here any more as I've sold them to another modeler.

There's the GTW parts train again, albeit on a different day.  And a pair of beaten up SOO boxcars at Tri-State Paper.

SD40 leaser engine on South Industrial Blvd.  Two years in a row I looked at this Kato engine when it was for sale at the Woodstock Train Show, before I finally bought it the 3rd year when I saw it.  I did the weathering and patching, and had someone else put the LED's and ditch lights on it for me.

Light weathering on this covered hopper  done for another modeler. I put a dab of flat chrome paint on the tip of the coupler's trip pins to try to help simulate it being an air line connection glad hand.  Sometimes I add a really light touch of brown to help it appear a bit weather-worn.

That's going to have to do for now.  Have a good week everybody.

LRS 7550 cu ft. Boxcar

One of the sort of goals I have here is for the layout is to get everything on the layout to blend in together, and to not let anything really stand out on it's own too much.  This Aurora Miniatures 60 foot high-cube Greenbriar boxcar that I've had for over a year now has finally had it's turn getting some weathering. A really nice model, I've just thought it to be more bright and shiny than I think it should be.

Laurenburg & Southern 141060, leased from GATX,  in it's as-new condition.  I'm not going to call it a sore thumb, but the bright blue of this boxcar stands out on the layout too much for my liking.

Spotted in a different location also illustrating how the car kind of jumps out of a scene

An overall fade of the boxcar's blue paint done with a spray of thinned Concrete Gray as the first step to dull down the brightness of the blue.  I then put a coat of clear gloss along the bottom portion of the car in advance of applying graffiti decals.

A little bit of rust staining is running down from the door stops, and then a very light spray of Grimy Black along with a good coat of Tamiya Clear Flat really takes down that shine that the boxcar had.

Spotted at Door 5 of Tri-State Paper, along with the CN combination door paper car at Door 4.

I like this particular low angle view, which was shot from beneath my Gratiot Ave. overpass.  The support pillars frame the boxcar nicely.  Also, notice that the modern higher reporting marks placement seems to have kept the taggers from painting over them.

Have a good week everybody.