Wednesday again! Over the weekend, I worked on weathering a few old Branchline cars. This one is not super prototypical, but will be good enough for an operator car, depicting a survivor into the 1980s. Terry LaFrance tells me that I missed the white band on the ends for excessive height, so I am working to add that tonight. These cars did not come with numbers on the ends, so I had added with home printed decals. Take care all, Bob T.
Not exactly a workshop item, but I found a small chunk of rail a couple weeks ago. I found a couple bigger pieces last year during tree removal, but they are too big to bring inside. This one is the right size for a book shelf.
I found a couple of those a few years ago laying alongside the BNSF tracks in Minnesota. I had them bead-blasted and then clear coated. They look great. GS
I cleaned this piece with a wire brush attachment on an angle grinder. I had not thought about clear coating it, that is a good idea.
My late father-in-law worked for the Federal Prison Service. His last post was at Lewisburg, PA, where he was chief mechanical officer. The prison had a rail spur at that time, and knowing I was a railfan, he had the date section cut out of one of the rails laying around the prison grounds, about 7 inches worth (1909). He painted it black, put felt on the bottom, and outlined the date in gold paint. A gift I will always treasure, and makes a fine weight for latexing rail down to the roadbed!
In addition to the FRL car (see other thread), I worked on this resin car sent to me by David Husman. I still need to add a few details including a wood interior, but coming along. I have some decals he sent for the car for the Philadelphia and Reading. I added the Tahoe Model Works trucks, 5-foot wheel base arch bar truck. This seems to be a lighter duty than the Westerfield Frisco truss rod gondola. Take Care All, Bob T.
Hey All, A Workshop Wednesday. I have mostly finished up the build for the P&R gondola that Dave Husman sent me. Since this photograph, I added cut levers, brake line hoses, and cut off the Kadee trip pins. I will massage the decals a bit and then clear coat and weather it. Have a good one All, Bob T.
Happy Day After Wednesday, All, Trying to give this thread a bump and see some recent work from the Frisco Nation. I have been working on my "Wichita & Northwestern" freelance/alternate history project, and have been avoiding the truss rod models. Since this project includes the Burrton Sub and the Wichita Sub, we'll say close enough for this forum. I am planning to use the track plan to also model the late 1970s Frisco, but we'll get to that if I can find a GP-15 or something else in O&W. Most recently, I added a second GP18 and did some re-decaling from the Athearn Rock Island model. I used some custom decals from Precision Design (my artwork). and some numbers from a Smokebox Graphics set. The number boards were redone with a custom set that you can get from Fusion Scale models...you just type your loco numbers and you get a decal set with (10?) numbers in sets of 4. These still need some weathering. I also worked on converting a couple of ballast hoppers from MoPac to fit on the W&NW. Again, removed MoPac markings and heralds and replaced with PDC decals. Finally, if you are a Patreon member with TSG Multimedia ($2/month), you can buy the models that are reviewed on the YouTube channel at a reasonable price. I grabbed this caboose (shoving platform...is that a thing?) and re-lettered from NS to the W&NW. Hope that you enjoy this project and not too far out of bounds for our forum... Take Care All, -Bob T.
Addendum: I have also been working on the extension to the Brush Creek diorama, adding another 5-ft section. Here is a photo where I actually include a couple of Frisco models: I call the extension the "Midwest Interchange" This project is keeping me busy until I can actually build the new out building (or house addition) and get the layout going. Yes, I actually built a 3-way turnout... -Bob T.
Bob, glad to see you're making progress with the custom railroad, and with your new layout section. Maybe some day I'll be able to contribute to this thread again instead of rearranging plywood into various shapes and sizes. Do you have a link for the number boards your mentioned? I have several locomotives in need of renumbering at some point.
Bob, Your trackside scenery is the best I have ever seen! Well done. I can feel the chiggers as I wade through the low brush and weeds to get a photo. Ken McElreath
Not Wednesday but.... Added a speaker to GP38-2. (Screenshot) this unit was purchased from our own Meteor910
With apologies to the Frisco nation. I discovered from this thread: https://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/new-tangent-hopper.3610/ that this Tangent model of a PS-4000 hopper would not have survived into the 1980s with the Frisco herald. I modified it for my "Wichita & Northwestern" freelance project this weekend with some custom decals. Hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend. -Bob T.