Workshop Wednesday

Not Wednesday but I got out to take a few pics today. I'm not sure if i am a model railroader or a railroad modeler ???? I am a modeler who happens to like railroad subjects, whichever that makes me? HA
Our local NMRA theme for January is open loads. So the former Tom Holly 3900 HD flat got the call, luckily it was loaded and ready for a special movement. Enjoy a few shots, the fresh snow we got made it bright outside.







yes the caboose windows are wrong

 

Here is some other stuff from the same setup:

 

Get busy!

GS

 

I are!

After getting the RS-3 ready so that it can be sent to Whiz, part of yesterday and today I returned to my Baldwin AS16 that's awaiting parts to do what I can on it as I wait. I furthered it by plugging holes on the pilot ends then smoothing them after the epoxy cured, and on the hood I drilled new holes for the eye pins needed to hold the fabricated .015" hood rails to replace the .040" plastic ones that came with model, and added a .040" x .080" strip of styrene to the bottom of the side sill to fix the way-too-skinny side sill of the stock Stewart model. I now have the side sills sanded and smoothed. Tomorrow I'll drill the epoxy-plugged holes on the pilots to receive the pilot details I will be adding, and I hope to get both pilots detailed to my satisfaction tomorrow.

One side showing a new hood rail...



And a pic from late this afternoon showing a sanded side sill...


I must admit that this project has snowballed on me and I'm ending up fixing a lot more things than I originally envisioned... but it's going to be a cool little unit when finished so it will be worth this extra effort to make the crude Stewart shell look mo' bettuh.

 

Howdy All,

A quick post for this week a bit early. We are having the home internet carrier swapped on Wednesday to improve the working and schooling from home, so no guarantee of internet access on the regular workshop day.

I had hoped to start on the staging yard for the layout and had finally received my flex track order. Unfortunately, I did something to injure my back and lost last week's days off opportunity to do some train fun stuff. A little better today, so worked on a few small projects....maybe will get the table saw out later in the week and start the staging sections.

One project is to clean up the remaining scenery from the modification to the South Weir sections. Today, I worked to replace the grade crossing that was removed.


Needs some stain and re-paving, but now safe for vehicle traffic.

I continued to build up the home road cars using the Accurail varieties of single sheath cars that somewhat match prototype drawings.

These two were for a Frisco friend and went in the mail today (160XXX series with end brake wheel and modified straight frames).



Two more for me from the 150XXX got some weathering. I am starting to use those AK Weathering watercolor pencils for highlighting......



A couple of recent releases for the older end of my modeling era (1910's) also got a start. The new Accurail Cotton Belt (S.S.W.) 36-ft car was a Christmas stocking stuffer, which I put together yesterday. I think these were just released for sale two weeks ago. ''

The K4 Decals site also had a neat Monon set, which I can't quite place in time, but will use for a 1910's-ish model, applied to an Accurail 36-ft car. This 18000 car appears in the 1917 ORER, and was likely one of the last 36ft cars on the Monon. Maybe I will find a picture sometime.

Anyhow, here is the current state. Will get the decals on the C.I.L. car to lay down and then weather these in the next batch with a few other car projects.



Finally, I had this 40-ft DL&W car (Ertle model) that came to me in a batch of cars traded to Tim Moran. It had some strange factory weathering and was way too light. I added some weights and have worked to improve the weathering a bit. Should be a good fit for the layout.



Now back to the workbench. I hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Take Care,

-Bob T.

 

The cars are looking good Bob. Do you like the pencils? Easy to use? Results looked good.

 

Thanks Steve. The pencils are really interesting, and I am getting used to them. The application varies as you can wet them (dip them) and have a fine brush effect, but you can also sharpen them up and use dry for fine lines, like highlighting a seam.

They are watercolors, so you can brush them out (or wet brush over) for a translucent appearance, mostly. The black is really dense and easy to over-do in the wetted form. I have the blacks/grays/white and a rust effects set, and will probably try to find some other colors to use as highlights.

Plenty of room for improvement, but a real bonus for detail/highlights.

EDIT: There is a clinic by Ralph Renzetti (sp) demonstrating these weathering pencils on YouTube from the NMRA-X this past weekend:

(Look for the 1:11 time mark, as there are three or four clinics in this video).

Have a Happy New Year All!

-Bob T.

 

Sure Tom,

AK Interactive AK 10039, Black and White, Shading and Effect Weathering Pencil Modelling Set
AK Interactive Weathering AK10041 Pencil Set - Rust and Streaking

(I was able to get these sets on Amazon).

Enjoy!

-Bob T.

 

Tom, 100% awesome post. That 787 looks pretty menacing.
Steve, you always leave me wondering if that is real snow!

I spent today playing with a Christmas present from Kathy. She ordered a TCS Wi-Fi throttle (UWT-100) for the Crawford and Cherokee:



(click for larger images here).

This throttle is for any system that runs the Wi-Throttle server or other Wi-Fi based protocols. In theory, you could take it anywhere that a club or layout is running that interface. The Wi-Throttle/Engine Driver interface is commonly used by JMRI for cell phones and tablets running those apps.

Yes, it definitely needs a Frisco lanyard.

Anyhow, I thought that I would try it out with a project that I have been wanting to do for the past couple of years....build a DCC++ base station and use a Raspberry Pi computer to run JMRI, making a small DCC control system that I could use on small layouts and for locomotive programming.

You build the DCC++ system with an Arduino board and a "motor shield". The latter is a driver for motors that plugs on the top of the Arduino (Uno Model). These are about 2X3 inches in size.



You download some software to program this pair of boards. They make a ~2Amp base station for DCC that is in-turn controlled by a computer. Using a Raspberry Pi, a credit-card sized single-board computer, you install a pre-configured operating system and JMRI bundle on a memory card, stick in in the Raspberry Pi, and BOOM, you have a DCC system which can be used with the Wi-Fi throttle protocols.



You need a power supply for the each (Pi and Arduino motor shield). The power supply for the motor driver is a little more hefty (16V, 4A), like a laptop supply. The Pi runs on basically a cell-phone charger.

Now, half of those wires are not needed, but I had the system set up for testing with a portable monitor. You can see JMRI is running on the screen and comes up configured for the DCC++ system by default using the operating system image w/JMRI referenced below.



The system is usually used "headless" for a layout, so you don't need the video cable or cables for mouse and keyboard.

I got this together today and set up the Weir City half of the layout with some help from the boys, and it works great. The throttle also controls accessories, so you can run locos and turn the turnouts. If you set up the turnouts table with names, you can even see them on the throttle.

More reading/watching:
DCC++ Web Pages: https://dccwiki.com/DCC_Plus_Plus
https://sites.google.com/site/dccppsite/home
YouTube Video (using cell phone as throttle):
JMRI: https://www.jmri.org/
JMRI + Raspberry Pi OS image: https://mstevetodd.com/rpi


Great fun! More to explore on this front for sure. First order of business is to find a case for the electronics.


Take Care All and Happy New Year,

-Bob T.

 

Tom, great projects and great work on them. Very cool stuff. Glad to see you cranking some out.

Bob, I will never tell on the snow! HAHA Your electronics project stumps me just reading it! Neat stuff.

 

RJ - I adore the older cars that you are modeling. Need to fix the running board on that 150170 car! Luv the weathering effect and the color of the cars - that SLSW is a keeper. I might have to look for one of those.

TOM - Between you and STEVE - You keep my jaw hitting the floor all the time. I have a weakness for all tank cars (mostly the old ones) but yours stand out! Just outstanding work.

 

Happy New Year Frisco Nation,

As a symbolic gesture to the end-of-the-line for 2020, I worked on this mini project while watching the NMRA-X New Year's Eve Special.

A bumper for the end of the line on the Weir City Branch....





Click for larger images.

Hope all are well and recovering from their revelry.

-Bob T.

 

Andre .. I was not sure where to post this in order to best catch your eye?
I have a friend who is working on a RS-3 project and is asking about this color blue.
I remembered your former model railroad and was thinking that the color that you used was close to what he is looking for.

Would it be possible for you to post a photo and tell me what the color is that you used?

 

Hi Sherrel!

My former model railroad??

Tsk. Tsk.

My dear man, the KC&G is very much alive and well and gets worked on periodically, if not regularly.

As for the KC&G's "Gulf Coast Blue": It's Floquil "Light Blue" paint that I cut with Floquil "Reefer White" to varying degrees, depending on the amount of "fade" I wanted to represent. Here's a couple of KC&G RS-3's to illustrate. The #269 (trailing) is in relatively "good" shape (for the KC&G), the #255 (leading) is a bit more weather-worn and faded...


Here's another photo of another set of power showing the contrast:


Unfortunately, way back when these units were painted, I didn't write down a ratio of white to blue. Frankly, I didn't expect it to be over 20 years before I would paint another KC&G engine! (I think I have a bottle of KC&G "Gulf Coast Blue" out in my paint stash... I hope?)

Actually, I'm not too worried about mixing up some more "Gulf Coast Blue" I remember the "Light Blue/Reefer White" combo... it's the "Mountain Mist Gray" I'm concerned about. I can't remember what base gray I started with.

I realize my info about the shade of blue wasn't much help... but it's the best I can do seeing as I don't have a ratio written down.

 

ANDRE, Looks like he can get a good idea - thank you so much.
You keep me cornfused someties mit ur mds & schnigans -- but I cherish your out put!