Dual Diameter Tank Car

A look this time at a whalebelly/dual diameter tank car (remember those) that I had for many years.  These tank cars are listed as being 67 feet 5 inches long, so kind of big.  A nifty looking car, I used to see these in the yard here at Sarnia fairly often, sometimes they'd be in short strings.  The prototype cars have all been taken out of service due to safety concerns.

To start, here are a couple of prototype photos that I found on the internet.  Photo credit goes to the photographers and railcarphotos.comSal Crisanti photo, 2007.

Peter Bieber photo, 2006

And so here are a few views of my Atlas model, which I weathered pretty heavily several years ago.  I used thinned Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber artist oils for the rusting.  I've always liked the way ACFX 17440 turned out.

I actually entered this model in a weathering contest on TWS-rustbucket.com after I had finished it.  I didn't win.

 

This tank car very rarely gets out on the layout because I simply don't have anywhere for it to go.  It's better suited to be spotted at a really large industry or refinery and my layout really isn't big enough to have that.

So, I decided last week that I'd see if I maybe could sell this one, thinking that then I could use the proceeds to get something else some other time.

I gave my dual diameter tank car a final ride around the layout as part of a train before I advertised it for sale.

And here are a couple of portrait type photos of ACFX 17440 that I used in the ad I placed in a facebook group.  I generally use these type of views when I want to post something for sale. 

I quickly and easily set these up these photos by laying a sheet of black construction paper on the workbench.

I was kind of sorry to see it go, but ACFX 17440 was sold in a day, and now has a new home in eastern Ontario.

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

Switching at MidWest Plastics.

Spent very little time at the layout this week, but I did take about 20 minutes or so to do some switching at the Midwest Plastics plant.  Here's a few looks at what went on there...

The Midwest Plastics spur is there on the left, with a tank car of resin and a pair of plastic pellet covered hoppers waiting to be lifted out.

And here comes the GTW train (SD40 5931 leading) that's going to switch cars in and out.

The engines beginning their run-around move to get into position to pull the cars out of the industry's spur.

The plant does have one boxcar loading door at the far end. A view from beneath the overpass shows this ex-MTW car as it's being shoved into place.

Here's that same boxcar tucked in behind the fence and quite a bit of overgrowth.

The local railfans (that's me) are happy to see this former DuPont 3-bay covered hopper making an appearance on the line. Plus one, or maybe even two, loaded airslide hoppers as well.

Another look at the covered hoppers as they're entering the industry property.

I failed to get a picture of it in the train, but the GTW also dropped this tank car of resin at the molding plant.  (The tank car was originally labelled as for chlorine service, but I removed that lettering and use these as liquid resin cars - I'm thinking of it as modelers' license.)

And this last shot will be of the engines getting ready to head back the way they came from.  Or maybe they've got some more switching to do at the paper recycler next door to the plastics plant.

That'll be it for now.  Have a nice long weekend everybody.

This and That for May

About all I actually got done on the layout this week was getting just a little bit of scenery materials put down, basically in around the gate area at the end of the scrap yard.  A bit of gravel, some sifted sand and a couple of colours of ground foam all glued in place.This came out looking pretty good.  I had lifted that "sheet metal" fence out to glue down the scenery.  It's really just made of printed paper, and if it gets wet at all the colours will run. I gave the fresh scenery a full 24 hours to dry before putting the fencing back in place.

While I waited for that glue to dry, I stood for a while and stared at the area that I've been thinking of as a trans-loading facility.  But what it really has become is a kind of catch-all where several different kinds of freight cars have been being spotted.  I'm trying to figure out how I might be able to make it look and work a little better.

There's a ramp here for boxcar loading, a loading conveyor for a covered hopper, and 3 large oil tanks for tank car spotting.  I think I want to kind of refine this area next.  That shadowy area at the bottom of the photo is from the highway overpass above.

A different view of the "trans-load".  I'm thinking maybe I'll narrow it down to just tank car and pellet car unloading.  There's already plenty of other docks on the layout for boxcars to go.

In the meantime, I've found a few really little projects to catch up on.  In the photo below there's a weathered whale belly (remember those) tank car that I never use, so I think maybe I'll try to sell that one.  Those two gondolas need one coupler each painted so I'll get to that, and the Ferrous Metals scrap yard sign somehow had one post broken off and needing painted.  The yellow thing in the middle is a piece of painted rail that Iwill be a few feet of safety fence once I get it repaired, 

Also, a gondola scrap load that has had a couple of pieces come loose, a wooden crate that I quickly weathered, and a piece of copper pipe that I painted to perhaps use as a stack on a building somewhere.  That tacky glue is great stuff, as it dries clear.

That's what I've got going on for now.  More about these things another time.

Scrap Yard Part 2

Progress on the extension of the scrap yard.  It's not totally done yet, but getting there.  Here's a few looks at the progress in the area so far:

Here, that pile of scrap metal is set loosely in place and a thin layer of really fine sifted dirt has begun to be spread on the ground.  Where the lighter coloured dirt begins (kind of over near the right-hand corner of the picture) is where the spur track extension begins. I had soldered power leads to the bottom of the rail joiners, so there should be no problems if or when an engine happens to need to run down that far.

The rest of the area has been covered with the sifted dirt, and then I sprinkled the metal "busheling" pieces along the ground and between the rails as well to give the spur a real messy look.  The track ties are pretty well buried in dirt.  Lots of diluted white glue was used all along here to keep all those little bits in place.

More of a close-up view of the area.

A look from the far end shows four gondolas and a GP40 fitting nicely within the scrap yard.  Still work to do on the outside of the fenceline and that roadway.

Now sometimes the engine will actually be able to run deeper into the spur to pick up or to drop off gondolas than before.  I like the look of that.

Same location as above, but this lower angle looks a bit more prototypical.

I'll be trying to get a bit more accomplished on the area in and around the scrap yard soon.

In other news, it was a bit of a whim, but I bought myself a one year subscription to Railroad Model Craftsman this week.  $79 USD worked out to $108 CDN after the currency exchange.  My subscription is scheduled to start with the June issue, which went to press this past Monday, and they expect will be mailed out to me in 2 - 3 weeks, so I'm looking forward to receiving that in the mail.

Have a good week.

Beginning My Scrap Yard Upgrade

Started in on a bit of an improvement at the Ferrous Processing scrap metal yard on the layout recently.  I could spot in at most three gondolas alongside the scrap piles, but two gondolas spotted always seemed to look better.  Along the main line on the left side in this picture we can also see most of my collection of gondolas.  I've been wanting to be able to get another of those gondolas, maybe two, spotted into the scrap yard.  That would be between two and five at a time in there so I've started in on expansion.  This first picture shows the scrap metals recycler as it has been up 'til now.

And so I've just begun a project to expand, or actually extend this industry and the spur that runs inside of it.

The perimeter of the scrap yard is now lengthened by about 6 inches, but the rail spur inside will be about 19 inches longer.  That works out to somewhere around 135 feet or so of added length to the spur, which means that if I want to, I'll able to very nicely spot in two more gondolas than I could until now.

Here's some pictures to show what's happened so far:My first step was to re-set the fencing so that I'd know just how much area I really had to work with.  Following that, the longer spur track is in place as well.  To re-position the fence, I tore up a bit of that roadway which really didn't lead to anywhere before anyway.

A piece of 2 inch pink foam insulation is rough trimmed to the approximate shape to make a new pile of scrap metal.

Here's that same pink foam after I've painted it with brown craft paint and set in place at the scrap yard.  A pair of gondolas are set in place just to get a rough idea of how things are shaping up.

Took the carved foam back over to the bench, and have started adding metal busheling that I have been given by Brian Smith to create the scrap pile.  White glue (and plenty of it) will hold the bits of metal to the painted foam.

With more to come, that's as far along as I've gotten with this project so far.

Changing gears now, here's a single look at a covered plastics pellet hopper that was I saw when down at the Sarnia train station earlier this week.

NCLX 4219 caught my eye because of the light rust streaking and a couple of painted patches.  But no graffiti is visible...at least on this side of the freight car.

That's it for now. Have a nice week.

A Quick Visit to South Industrial Blvd on the JSSX.

This is not an easy angle to take a picture from, as I have to reach out with the camera and can't really see the image in the viewfinder.  So it becomes kind of a "point and hope" shot.  Gotta like the look of the train running in the street in this area though.Not really a great image, as it looks like the train is rolling downhill (which it's not).  And also we can see above the blue backdrop board, and the buildings look like they are leaning over a bit.  So, I'm going to try to do a bit of basic editing just using the simple tools that comes with the Microsoft program that came with my computer.

Here is the same picture after I've "cropped" the top portion a little bit, and "rotated" it a bit to get rid of the leaning  of the buildings.

I guess this image is a little better.  At least the buildings look more vertical.

Here's a couple other views I took of the same train

From the trailing end.  Nice how the telephone poles get in the way of the picture almost like in real life.  That engine needs some weathering to help it "fit in" with everything else.

An FBOX with a bit of graffiti and some stickers or something peeling off.  I like the look of this one.

Another FBOX that's cleaner, but just as faded.

And a way-too-clean-for-my-liking TBOX bringing up the tail end of this short train.

That's all I've got for now.  I really should make some time to work on some models.

JSSX 126 is Done. Finally.

Well, here it is...finally.  My beaten up SD7 is done and lettered for my JSSX shortline.  This engine is of course weathered to look rough, but it runs really well, although it has stumbled a bit on a couple of Atlas switches.

Another trouble with it is that the clips that hold the couplers (Kadee #158's) in place are so tight that the couplers wouldn't swing side to side.  I found some old clips from an Athearn blue box GP38 and tried them, and they're a lot better, although they don't really fit perfectly either.  If anyone has had similar trouble to this and you know a proper solution, I'd really like to hear it.

Oh, and JSSX management (me) has numbered the engine 126 for my late little brother Larry's birthday. Just something I had wanted to do for a long time.

I won't get into a whole review of how things progressed with this project, but here's a picture of what things looked like as it was undecorated coming out of the box.The undecorated shell, chassis, and a bagful of parts.  I tried to count how many detail parts I put on the finished engine, and I think it was 65 separate parts.  But that's plus handrails, window glass, couplers, and decals.  And paint of course.  Seemed like it took forever to get this finished up.

So here's 126 sitting just outside of the JSSX maintenance building.  I removed the white stripes that I had originally applied along the sill and showed last week.  I've replaced them with the ones that we see here, which are just a bit more narrow than that first try.  I feel that these look a little better.

Side view among some of the stuff at my short line's terminal.

126 coming round the bend with a couple of tank cars in tow.

A view of the short end of 126 starting to earn it's keep moving those tank cars.

During a run-around before heading back to the terminal

So, that's about it for now.

Thanks for looking in, and have a good week out there.

Two or Three Things

I received a couple of packages this past week.  First, some modern type graffiti decals were in the mailbox from Circus City Decals.  I'd never used any from that supplier before.  They're look to be pretty nice decals.  I won't be using the skull part of the "ICH" decal, just 'cuz it's kind of a personal policy of mine (long story).  I'll just trim that part off.

The decal at the bottom of the picture here is made to cover pretty much the whole side of a covered hopper. But I do have to figure out which model of covered hopper it might fit best.

I also received these two new RBOX cars that I bought from another modeler through a Facebook group.Two Intermountain RBOX cars.  These two cars have maybe the goofiest couplers I've seen on a model.  All metal, they don't open, or couple.  Or at least I couldn't get them to do that.  Maybe that's why the seller wanted to sell them.  Regardless, some great weathering possibilities here for future projects.

Oh well, if you haven't gotten used to changing out couplers, then you probably haven't been in the hobby for very long.

The SD7 has steadily moved a little closer to being a "finished project.  As a reminder, here's how it looked when I started on it:

And as it sits today, painted and mostly weathered.  So far I've added over 40 of the detail parts that came with the Proto 2000 kit.  And still just a few more to go, including pilots, number boards, and reporting mark decals.

The white stripes look rather overpowering right now, but they will quiet down when I get them sprayed with some grime.  I didn't want to use yellow stripes because the other JSSX engines have white ones and I thought I'd like to keep that consistent.  The green tape on the windows is to keep clear gloss from getting on the "glass" when I spray that in preparation for some  decaling on that grey patch just below the cab windows.

That's all this time.  Happy Easter !