Follow-Up To Last Week

Went to the train show in Woodstock last Sunday, driving an hour and a half through rain.  The admission price was still $5. But I was pretty surprised to see the first 2 rooms were full of Pokemon cards vendors, so just the main room had model train sale tables.  Oh well, I did come away with these couple of freight cars:

The WC Branchline kit and an ExactRail waffle boxcar both looked like they had never been out of their boxes until now.

Drove through the rain all the way home too.

Now, here's some follow-up views of the MTW boxcar I'd shown last time.

After the fading of the original green colour last week, I masked most of the boxcar and sprayed a primer colour along the bottom area of the door.

So here's that, along with some of the primer freehanded on one of the horizontal seams of the door and a bit on the lower door track.  Can't really see it well here, but the roof has been painted with Rust Texture.

This is actually the other side of the boxcar with some graffiti decals added, as well as rust spots and streaks.  It still needs some finishing up that I've not gotten too yet.

A better look at the roof.  I think I'll be adding some sealant to the panel seams as well

That'll do for this week.

Go Blue Jays !

October This and That

Starting off the post this time with a couple of views from the layout

A couple of SOO boxcars that have spent a little time on the layout.

Here's a view looking south down South Industrial Blvd.

That's GMTX leaser 2001 on the street trackage

Changing to my next project now:  I ran across this photo of a really nicely done model on the internet somewhere quite a while back, and saved it at that time to use as future reference.

Stinger Arthaus model

Well, the time has come as I've pulled this brand new boxcar out of my storage cupboard to weather.

I've only just gotten started on this one, using several light coats of thinned Concrete Gray to fade down the green.

I know it doesn't look like much now, but there'll be more to come on this one.  The intent is not to copy the Stinger Art model, but to do something similar.

Woodstock train Show is this weekend on Sunday.  I had been thinking of getting a table at the show this time, but decided against that, so I'm figuring on just attending as one of the many, many customers hoping to find a bargain.

That's it for this time.  Have a good week.

Switching Auto Parts Cars at the Plant

Haven't really done a whole lot of switching on the layout in recent weeks, so I thought I'd better get going on that.  I knew that 3 boxcars (86 footers) in particular had been in the same spot for at least a couple of months, so I decided I'd better get busy there.

A view of CSXT (former L&N), an old Athearn BlueBox model, on the spur at the parts plant.  I like the view looking underneath the overpass, as I think it helps to frame the boxcar and also kind helps helps add a bit of context to the industrial area.

The next car on the spur...

The Conrail boxcar is a Tangent model.  I weathered it somewhat similar to a prototype photo that I had found online.

I know I said there are 3 boxcars at the parts factory, but I've failed to get a good picture of the GTW car at the far end of the spur.  I meant to show it, but somehow managed to blur the picture, so we won't get a clear view of that one here today.

There's the nose of the SD40 that's doing the switching as the engine creeps in on the boxcars

A good look at GTW 5931 moving in to begin switching the plant

A low angle view with 5931 still in the shadow of the overpass as switching begins.  And there's that 3rd boxcar way down at the far end.  

Next time, I'll see if I can show the replacement cars going in.  What I can tell you now is that these ones being lifted are all 4-door 86 footers, and the ones going in will all be of the 8-door variety.

To everybody in Canada, have a Happy Thanksgiving this weekend.

Engine 812 Warehouse Switching

First, this picture from the top of the blog shows my version of ZVBX 97337 (Ferrous Processing & Trading 97337) gondola after it's been loaded and picked up from the local scrap metals yard.

The gondola's bulged panels are .010 styrene cut to size and laid over top of the original panels.  Painted with a mix of SP Gray and Grimy Black.  And the load was made by Chooch Industries.

And here's a look at the warehouse switching of this weeks' post title:

View down the empty tracks at the Gray Warehouse on the JSSX.  There should be a car or two there in a minute...

A better view of the warehouse

JSSX 812 has arrived and is now shoving a couple of boxcars into position along the warehouse dock.

Another view of 812 switching.  Sorry we can see the edge of the layout.  It is what it is.

Saw this photo below from modeler Martin Kamenicky on facebook the other day.  

I thought to myself that if that engine is 1:1 scale, somebody is going to have to call in the armed forces to take down that monster.

And I thought I'd finish off the post with this: Here in Canada we are over a week into the throes of yet another mail strike, the 2nd one in less than a year.  The owner of Otter Valley Railway in Tillsonburg, Ontario is Lorne James, and he was featured a few days ago in a CBC television interview about the impact of the strike(s) on his business and customers.  

Lorne James Interview

Above is the link to that interview. Click on it and it should open in a separate window for you.  It's a long segment from the news broadcast, so you might prefer to skip forward to about the 17:45 mark for Lorne's actual portion of the story.

Have a good week everybody.

Dumb Mistake Leads Me to Some Photo Do-Overs

Some time back I posted a picture of my JSSX 813 on a Facebook group for a front End Friday post as I occasionally do.  Someone commented on my photo that I had the fuel tank backwards on the engine.  My reaction was quite an emphatic "What ?!!" to myself.  But it was true.  I had never noticed that I had done that. The fuel tank had been that for years.

Turning the fuel tank around was a quick and easy fix.  So, I've set out now to try to correct some of the photos I've taken with the fuel tank placed improperly.  Have a look at a few before and after pictures where I've set up engine 813 and backgrounds about as best I could to recreate the original pictures. 

Before

After.  But with 813's lights switched on.

Before

After. But I didn't quite get the pole in the same location.  And the white tanks that were in the background  building have been replaced with a couple of silos.

Before

After. This one is in the same location and is with the same tank cars, but I've had the industrial building in the background changed out for some time now.

That's enough of these before and after photos for now.  Maybe I'll do some more another time.

I scanned this mid 90's photo of the former CSX ferry apron/ramp in Sarnia that I took way back then. Most of the rails are still there as far as I know.  Some were lifted to prevent anything from accidentally rolling into the river.  I don't know the name of the ship that was travelling up-river that day, but I can tell you that the coal-fired Detroit Edison plant on the left-hand side of the picture was imploded a few years ago.

The original picture doesn't look this dark.  I tried to brighten things up after I scanned it, but nothing i did seemed to help the image.

A Trio of TBOX's

I often look at the Tower 26 webcam in Houston to watch trains roll by.  I've often seen long trains with lots and lots of TBOX boxcars.  Many of these modern high-cube boxcars seem to have their yellow paint somewhat faded, with generally light weathering otherwise, and lots and lots of graffiti.

Here's a look at 3 models that I've done with all that in in mind...  

TBOX 662786 with faded paint and a fresh paint patch.

Opposite side of the same car, but in the layout setting

Here's TBOX 661273 but maybe not quite as much fade on the paint as on the first car

And 661273 out in the wilds of the layout here

TBOX 660959

And same car posed along the track.

That's all I've got for now.  Have a good week.

Gondola Scrap Loads

Last time I mentioned that I'd have more about the scrap loads for my gondolas.  Here a a few pictures of the ones that I've got finished up.  I've done or re-done five of these - so far - with scraps of plastic and styrene.  These are all for 65 foot gondolas from various model manufacturers (Walthers, Athearn, ExactRail).

All five are easily removable from the gondolas.  The only problem is that not all of the gondolas are exactly the same size inside.  They're close, but not all of the loads are completely interchangeable.

Here are the five loads sitting on the workbench.  Different combinations of AK Interactive colours give the variations in tones.  I kind of like the one at the top the best, as it has an overall darker tone.  The one at the bottom also has a bit of rust powders added.

Some looks at the loaded gondolas:

Last time I showed a picture of the scrap yard.  Here's a similar photo, but taken from the opposite end of the recycler's yard.

I'm intending to extend this industry spur.  I believe it can extend roughly another 16 inches or so.  And there's part of my scrap train on the line to the right too.

So that's it for today.  Enjoy your week.

  

Some This and That

Further to fixing up that fence I've shown here in the last couple of posts at the back of the Ferrous Processing scrap metals yard, I've also now sprinkled some track ballast and ground foam "weeds" along the bottom of the fence.So here we see the view down the GTW track now. The switch that 5931 is about to cross is ballasted now too, so that's a bit of an improvement to the layout as well.

Speaking of the scrap metal yard, here's a view from one end of that industry.

The Ferrous Processing industry has been easily able to hold 3 gondolas quite comfortably, and it's one of my favourite industries to switch.  As such, I've been thinking of lengthening the spur track inside so that it could hold one or two more cars and maybe create a little more action there.  More on that another time perhaps.

And speaking of those gondolas, I've also been busy fixing up a couple of removable gondola loads.

Sheet styrene cut to fit inside gondolas and covered with the milling machine "busheling".  With some styrene scraps that I've been saving glued on top, they're ready to take a quick coat of grey primer.

I'll have pictures of the finished loads next time.

Meanwhile this week, Brian Smith sent along this photo from New Brunswick of a couple of covered hoppers, presumably part of a potash train, with some pretty serious weathering going on.I've cropped out the sky and foreground, as well as part of the cars on each end of these two.

That's about it for now.  Have a good week everybody.

Follow Up to a Previous Post (Aug 8)

I think it was 3 weeks ago that I posted this picture (below), and commented that I needed to do some improvement to that side of the fence on the right.  You can't see that side of the fence from the front of the layout, but it does make for poor scenery in photos taken in that area.  The area that is fenced in is the metal recycler Ferrous Processing & Trading site.

So my filing system actually worked (imagine that), and I found my copies of the paper corrugated siding that the fence is "made" from.  The siding is printed paper images made by Paper Creek Model Works and then glued onto .020 styrene to make the fence.  They were given to me years ago by Bruce Peachey.

So, after a couple hours of cutting and gluing, the back of that fence looks like this now:

Much better. Now I'd better put some ground cover between the track and the fence.  I'll have to be careful when I do that though, because if the paper gets wet at all it will discolour the printed image.

Just another similar view, but with a CN gondola in the picture.

Another view from just a bit farther back.  Guess I ought to ballast that switch and the area in the left of the picture also.

As for that gondola I mentioned above, I got started on making up a couple of scrap loads this week.  A piece of styrene sheet cut to fit inside the gondola, some rusty chips from a milling machine, and then some scrap styrene bits and pieces that I've been saving for just this kind of thing.

All glued down with diluted white glue.  Just need some drying time for the glue and then they'll be ready for spraying with the primer.

That'll be all for now.  Happy Labour Day Weekend everybody.