Crossing the Black River...The real one was much longer but I didn't have the room. I forget how many gallons of Enviortex(?) I poured . Of course as soon as I finished it Walthers came out with single track abutments & piers...
Off the bridge...#1256 shows off her new 33" Intermountain wheels...Next time we'll pick up at Lesterville, to be continued ...
Roger, I've never tried it, but I've read of rolling thin brass sheet in a roll on a formed wire support. When painted the apparently gray-ish color that those old canvas sunshades show in photos, it's a reasonably good look. Loving the photos with the narratives; keep 'em coming! Best Regards,
Really enjoying your thread here Roger. Great that you mention what your doing in the posts, pictures are certainly a must! Looks like 1256 is sporting some custom trucks under it too. BTW I have used just plain paper for those shades folded with a thin strip to glue to the loco, painted with craft paint that greyish whitish color, glued on with canopy glue, it dries clear and can be removed without harming anything. If you want I can show you pictures.
Those trucks are from Athearn, I bought a pair years ago to see if they would work out. I got lucky as they fit right under the frame after trimming a bit off the end. Wish I could remember the number I could use some more, I think it was off an express boxcar. I just switch out the trucks as the cabooses come on & off the layout, they are getting new smokestacks & battery boxes from Shapeways at the same time. I did see one GP7 on this website, I think it was built by Andre Ming who sold it to someone, that had the perfect sunshades. I tried cardboard like on the back of the Frisco notepads, but they didn't stick very well. Yes I would like to see your pictures. Roger
I got one of Andre Mings GP7's. The 577 The other GP7's have the paper shades The shades are plastic that it looks like he sanded at an angle painted and glued on. Here is a link to an album that has all the GP7's and many other locos, you will have to go thru the 3 pages to see all the GP7's http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?media/albums/ho-model-diesel-locomotives.152/
Nope it wasn't the 577, it is in B/Y. The one I saw was R/W, I think it was the 549...anyway PICT0021 is a dandy, it's close enough I can work something out. Thanks! Roger
Roger: Yes, I sold off several O&W GP7's "back when". A good portion of them went to a modeler in the NW AR/SW MO area named "Greg" as I recall? I can't really recall the numbers of any of my old GP7's (except for the one that Tom still owns!), but I think I recall that at least one of the O&W GP7's was a 600 series steam generator equipped model. Anyway, yes, the sunshades on my old Front Range GP7 conversions were made of styrene. (Wow... has it really been nearly 30 years since I made those Front Range Geeps???) I can't recall the thickness (.010"?), but Tom is correct in that I filed/sanded a bevel on all the edges to make them appear very thin. The bevel also increased the surface area for the part of the shade that was glued to the bare plastic. (The sunshades were installed before painting so the joint would be plastic-to-plastic and not plastic-to-paint or paint-to-paint.) The result was a sturdy sunshade that looked paper thin. Still, though, one does not need to lay such an engine on it's side for storage, instead, like all completed locomotives, should be stored upright on its wheels. Once the sunshades were ready for paint, I used Floquil "Dark Green" as the base, brushed on straight so it would "craze" the plastic a bit. After the Dark Green was dry, I came back with flat white and "dry brushed" until I got a "faded canvas" look that I liked. The more you dry brushed on white, the more faded it looked. However, I was careful to not overdo the dry brushing with white so the crazed "texture" would show up, helping to make the styrene look like canvas cloth. Over the years there have been engines I wish I would not have sold, most of my old Frisco stuff is on that list. All fer now.
Sorry it's been a while seems like nothing gets done this time of year...continuing on, the southbound Pokey arrives at Lesterville. It has one car of diesel fuel to set out for the local farm coop, this time of year the spring planting season is in full swing and all those combines need a lot of fuel. I choose spring as the time period for my layout but I didn't confined it to an era, I can run steam, f-units or GP40-2's by just switching out adding/removing a few things to suit the era. I had room for one intermediate station between Hoxie & Pocahontas so I chose Lesterville, no special reason just sounded cool. I decided to make the team track one-ended just to make the operation a little more difficult. This is another one of those common areas, today it is diesel fuel distributor just because I wanted to run tank cars. When I want to run boxcars or flats here I swap out the fuel dealer with a loading dock, I'll add a photo of loading dock scenario.
Leaving Lesterville, next stop Hoxie...in the 1st photo you see my attempt to make rows of tilled soil, looks a lot better in photos than real life so I bought the Busch version you see on the other side of the tracks. I still not sure which version to go with...
The Pokey arrives in Hoxie, it will leave it's outbound train here for the Hoxie Turn & cab hop into town to do a little work....originally there was a road that ran from the canal to Lesterville depot but it didn't look right. It was supposed to be the Old County Road that ran along the tracks from East Pocahontas to Lesterville, but it was too far from the tracks & too close to the backdrop so I took it up and put the Busch plowed field in its place.
The Pokey arrives in Hoxie, the DS has them lined into the siding extension so he can run around his caboose. The inbound Hoxie Turn has set out 3 cars for the Arkansas Grocers Association warehouse you see in the background (I really need to get that sign made up). Of course TY has just slapped the cars together in no particular order so the Pokey will have to switch out tracks 1 & 2 to get them. Also the Pokey will be getting a new engine today as the 597 needs to go to TY for service, sometimes the caboose goes to but not today. That's all for now...Roger
Continuing on now that the holidays are over...After the Pokey has run around it's caboose they leave the old power in front of the depot and walk over to the house track to get the new power, an almost new GP15, the Pokey crew isn't used to getting such good power...After unhooking it they run it up the main in front of depot, the crew for southbound Hoxie Turn has just arrived from Thayer, after all the work is done...of course.
While the Pokey is waiting for the southbound Hoxie Turn to get it's paperwork together, they dig the 3 cars out for the Grocer & shove them into the siding extension. At the same time they get the cabooses in the proper position for the trip home using the #597 one last time before the Hoxie Turn grabs it....
Once the Hoxie Turn has mu'ed the 597 to their consist they shove back across the Mop onto the branch to pick up their outbound train...
Now that the Turn is out of the way the Pokey switches out the Grocers & shoves the empties up on the Hoxie siding for the them to pick up on their way out of town...The Pokey then clears up in the yard till they head south...
Once the Pokey is in the clear the DS lines up the Turn up south, hopefully he can make it to the end of double track at Critco before the QLA gets off the bridge but with pickups at Jonesboro, Marked Tree & Harvard that's kinda iffy...
Once the Hoxie Turn is gone the Pokey finishes it's switching at Hoxie, spotting 2 gondolas on the Mop interchange & kicking out 1 extra car for the Grocers before heading home....after they leave the clerks tie up, close the depot & Hoxie goes quiet till the next day...to be continued...
On a side note I never did show how trains enter & leave the layout...Since my basement is so small I cut a hole in the wall & on the other side in the laundry room I have enough room for a 1X4 8' long that I set up like an ironing board...takes about 5" to set up & I store it up on the wall...I'll have to take photo next time I set it up.
