Accurail CN AutoRack

Last year at the train show in Woodstock, I bought an old Accurail kit of an open CN auto rack.  I can't really explain why, other than the sellers' price was acceptable and it looked like kind of a fun little project for me to do sometime.  And it was.  It doesn't fit my more modern era, and I don't have any vehicles to put on it, and am unlikely to go looking for any.  My understanding just from looking around on the internet is that the tooling for this car now belongs to Walthers.

Here are all of the kit parts laid out.  Doesn't look too complicated.  The most challenging thing about assembly turned out to be the instructions sheet, which was a somewhat cryptic exploded diagram.

The kit can be built as either a bi-level or tri-level car.  I went for the tri-level model, because why not?  Here I have all of the vertical posts in place on one side, and the others are cut out and ready to go for the 2nd side.  Then it'll be the triangular gusset pieces and the rest of the parts.

It took me a few minutes to figure out that the "X-braces" that are included in the kit aren't intended to go on the tri-level car model.  That despite that I found a couple of photos online of CN tri-level racks with that bracing.  Oh well.

Jumping ahead, here's my completed tri-level. I confess that in three or four areas, I managed to leave glue spots visible on the posts.  I sanded those off best I could, and then sprayed Tamiya Rubber Black, which is a pretty flat finish, over those bad spots and then over most of the car to blend it all in.

Here we are out on the layout.  If you're noticing a little bit of reddish colour on the decks, that's good because I had sprayed them with a little bit of red primer colour before I started assembly, just to try to show some wearing of the paint where the vehicle tires would roll.

The model came with Accumate couplers, but I put Kadee #5 couplers on it because I had them available and they're better anyways.  It also came with 36" plastic wheels, but I haven't changed them to metal ones yet simply because I don't have any.  And besides, this car won't likely see a whole lot of time on the layout.

I saw a photo of a CN autorack that was kind of like this but not really the same, and it had some posts along the top level with cable strung through them.  My guess is a safety thing in an effort to keep a worker from falliing.  So that might make for a nice modification sometime.

But that's going to do it for now.  A pretty nice model that went together well.

Happy Boxing Day out there, and everybody have a Happy New Year.

Conrail Auto Parts Boxcar

I bought this Class One Model Works auto parts car a year or so ago, and just a couple of weeks ago I got around to doing the weathering on it.  And that means it will finally be able to go out on the layout.

The fresh out of the box freight car.

 

First side done...with some paint fading, acrylic artist's paint for rust and grime streaks, and a couple of small paint patches done with decal film.  There are also a couple of small graffiti decals and I've applied SmokeBox Graphics reflective yellow stripes.

And the 2nd side is much the same.  I had a picture of a similar Conrail car (different number) that shows some paint wearing away at the top of 2 of the doors, so I  sprayed those same areas with a little bit of primer gray in a similar pattern.

And so here's the boxcar out on the rails...

Posed to show the first side

And the 2nd side

And there's my weathered boxcar spotted on the spur at my parts plant.

Last one (for now anyway) has CR 238012 coupled to a Tangent model Conrail car.  Now I wouldn't really mind picking up another one of these Class One models to go with this one.

And that's it for this time.  Have Merry Christmas everybody!

GP40 9302 Re-Weathered

A few weeks ago, I showed this GP40 that I had picked up through an internet sale and said that I was intending to re-do the weathering on it.  After a slow start, this one is all finished up now, so here it is...

First, the original photo (again):

The original rooftop weathering came off easily enough using some isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab.

I tried to weather the sides to appear as the stripes and some of the black had worn off, but to be honest, that didn't work out very well for me, so I stripped that off with the alcohol as well.  I really didn't like the white of the stripes either, so I painted over them with flat black and put on new stripes using an old Microscale decal set that I've had for years.

The decal stripes aren't as white as the original paint, and I like them better.  They are however just a little tiny bit narrower than the original, but you have to look pretty closely to be able to notice the difference.  I'm going to live with it.

I faded the cab with some of my usual Concrete Gray, and also sprayed some of it to on the long hood to flatten the black a little bit.  Some dark weathering streaks are hand brushed onto the cab, as well as some panel line black to some of the doors on the long hood

Here you can see that there's some red primer that I dabbed onto the fuel tank, and some wear appearing on the walkway that was done with a bit of brown and black Panel Line.

And a few views out on the layout for the first time...

Coupling onto a pair of boxcars behind the fencing at the Tri-State Paper spur.

A less obstructed view of 9302 at work.

9302 lifting a couple of boxcars from Tri-State Paper.  I like this view.

The engineer's side

That'll be all for this time.

December This and That.

Next to nothing done or accomplished on the actual layout this week.  However, I have been trying to figure out whether I can find a way to use this image that I found online somewhere on the backdrop of the layout.

I don't know where it is or what this building is used for.

First step though is to try to square it up a bit

I used the straighten and perspective tools on my Paintshop program to get this far along, but when doing so a bit of the top right corner of the building's elevator shaft is lost.  More on this if or when I get any further along on it.

But in the meantime, as I try to figure that all out, here's a photo that Brian Smith sent me from his layout.  A real nice look through open boxcar doors of a worker moving freight on the loading dock.

Good stuff here Brian.

I received these few items from Otter Valley Railroad.  Two ESU decoders, Kadee #158 couplers because I had run out of them, and a bottle of Plastruct Plastic Weld just in case I ever get around to building a couple of kits that I've had waiting to be put together.

The decoders are pretty basic 8-pin decoders, not for sound equipped engines.

It was hard not to notice this boxcar rolling around on the layout this week.  This one makes an occasional appearance since I painted and lettered it about 3 or so years ago, and then weathered it sometime after that.

I've often wished this was an 86 footer in the 8-door variety, although I don't really think the AnnArbor had any like that.  I'm not too sure how I could lay out these decals on an 8-door car anyway.

And a look at GT 6212 which was leading the auto parts cars

That'll have to be all for now.  Happy December everybody.  Stay warm.

Some Views From Around the Layout

 Just a few random views of what's been out and about around the layout recently...

A Walthers gondola that I repainted to GTW and have loaded with scrap metal (it's styrene actually)  The load of scrap is easily removable so the gondola can be spotted empty into  

JSSX 813 with a pretty well-aged (Exactrail) boxcar.  Two of my favourites in one picture.

SD40 beneath the overpass is shoving parts boxcars into place.

Same engine and location, different angle of view

A sharp looking 3-bay plastic pellets hopper out there this past week.  Painted this one myself.  Thinking of maybe selling this one, as I have two more that are the same paint scheme (different numbers).

I noticed WC 12125 showing some wear and tear as it was passing by on the GTW.

Plastic Pellet hopper car patched and with some mild weathering.

That's all I've got to show this week.

Fork Lift Trucks for the Layout

First off, I picked up a copy of the December MR at WalMart, and found a really nice article written in there by Don Janes about his layout.  Check it out.

As for my week, I spent time painting the 2 fork lifts that Brian's friend Leo 3D printed for me.  I needed to do just a little bit of filing on them, which only took a couple of minutes.  I showed the raw prints last week, but here's one of those photos again anyway:

Now please excuse me as I digress into a story about a fork lift incident back when I was supervising a shift in the factory I worked in, some of the guys left a bit to be desired as far as work habits and ethic was concerned.

One night, there was an unexpected and very loud crash and bang.  Upon looking into whatever might have caused that, I didn't have to look too far.  One of the guys was driving a forklift and had turned the corner from the loading dock into the plant and drove through - and I mean through - a roll-up style door.  He was thankfully un-injured.  He said afterward that he didn't know the door was there.  The door had been there for longer than the 6 or 7 years he had been an employee.

Now back to my painted models.  Truth is, it never occurred to me 'til now that I ought to weather them a little bit.And there's the paints I used as well.  I've painted the 2 pallets that were included too.

And on the outside dock at Gray Warehousing.

At an open door at Tri-State Paper.  I should sometime try to find a seated figure for these now, and add some wear and tear on the fork lifts as well.

That's it for now.  Have yourself a good week.

A Couple of New Items for the Layout

I've received a couple of new items for the layout this week.

First up I have this Atlas Master Series GP40 in CN striped scheme, which I bought as a used item through facebook's Canadian Railway Modellers Buy/Sell group.

The model arrived from Montreal in good condition on Thursday.

I removed the body shell to install a decoder, an ESU LokPilot, successfully tested it with the body off, and then put 'er back together.  Took only a couple minutes and done.  Runs great and the lights all work as they should too.

The previous owner had done a little weathering, mainly on the top surfaces.  I'm not crazy about the way it looks right now, so I'll either remove that weathering it, or if that doesn't work out my plan B would be to just paint black right overtop of it.

Also this week, I received these two HO scale 3D printed forklifts.

My friend Brian asked a friend of his if he would print these for me.  They turned out great !

Once I get these painted, they should look great in the doorways of a couple of the loading docks along the railroad here.  So special thanks to Brian and Leo for creating these for me.

That's all for this time.  I hope you all have a good week.  I gotta go rake some leaves outside.

BKTY 153277 All Finished Up

Well, after close to 3 weeks of chipping away at boxcar BKTY 153277, I'm calling this one done.  Mostly done few minutes at a time here and there.

Anyway, here's my finished boxcar in few locations around the layout:

Since last time, I dirtied up the doors with PanPastel Burnt Umber, and sprayed a few really light coats of Roof Brown along the boxcars' lower areas.

Same side, different angle.

The other side received the same treatment with the Pan Pastel Burnt Umber on the door, and the Roof Brown spray.  I find that brown works really well to flatten down bright colours.

I painted all 4 tack boards with an aged wood colour, then added a really light touch of thinned Dark Gray Vallejo wash.

I had mentioned before about painting sealant on to the panel seams on the roof, so here's how that turned out.  I used Primer Grey and a 0000 brush, also adding sealant above the door.  And a light touch of the Pan Pastel onto the panels, which I had already painted with Vallejo Rust Texture.

I'll close this out now with a look at the B-end of the boxcar.  Those reporting marks at the top were time-consuming decaling work.  10 individual decals on each end.  Cutting out 20 letters and numbers which I could barely see was tricky, and then getting them to settle straight on the model was touchy too.  Never had to get any stitches in my fingers though, so that's a win.

That's it.  On to the next project, whatever that might be.  Have a good week, and thanks for looking in.

MTW Boxcar Weathering Progress

I've had quite a cold all week and I'm not happy about it, and haven't really felt like doing much.  But, I've made a little more progress on that (now former) MTW boxcar.  I've got the other side of it mostly weathered now, with Fusion Scale Graphics graffiti decals added as well.

I really try to take my time with weathering, doing it in layers and allowing a couple of days to dry in between.  It's slow, but it seems to work out better in the end.

Here's what the 2nd side of the boxcar looks like now:

I've also patched over the original MTW reporting marks and changed them to BKTY.  I just made up the number, but it's at least in the correct number range for the prototype.  Also, I've added the yellow reflective stickers along the lower sills on both sides. 

Here's the first side again, but with the reporting marks patched.  I still have to get the data decals added, and to paint on the roof sealant like I referred to last week.  Then some overall grime and of course a clear flat to be sprayed to finish up.

Just as a reminder, here's how the car looked when fresh out of the box:

That's what's accomplished on this freight car project so far.  It's not a lot for this posting.

So I thought I'd add just a couple of older pictures from the layout to this post:

My duo of SW1200's alongside the maintenance building

And a drone view of the maintenance area.

So that's actually all I've got for this time.  Have a good week out there everybody.

Game 7 tonight.  Go Blue Jays!