Workshop Wednesday

Around here it was "chat", as in "poundin' the chat" (i.e. walking a train or working the ground, etc).

Reason I ask:

Thinking in terms of what to use for ballast on my KC&G. Both the KCS and the Frisco used that "chat/chert/chatt" looking stuff... so just a'wonderin'.

Actually, I hope to attempt to getting a "dirt track" look similar to the way the KCS looked at their worst... but I'm just now beginning to think in terms of "scenery".

Speaking of "dirt track". Some of my online acquaintances have gotten a good grip on the "bankruptcy/reorganization" part of my KC&G concept. Perhaps you don't know, but the KC&G's slogan is "Mainline to the Gulf". Anyway, one of my online friends twisted that into "Dirt Track to the Gulf"!

I thought it funny, so I've begun to use that as a way to poke fun at the KC&G! (Similar to the nicknames/monikers that most railroads received.)

Andre

 

Thanks Tom!

Sounds like waaaay more work than this boy want's to get involved in.

I will likely look for other more readily attainable "ballast" options. Modeling some portions of the road bed using chat would have been nice... but not worth that much time investment to me.

OH... and I'm a mere peasant. "Chert" and other technical terms will be hard pressed to displace my use of the more common term "chat".

erdnA

 

Happy Wednesday All,

I hope you all had an enjoyable 4th of July, and @dboone74 , I hope you are on the mend.

I made the weekend extra long with a couple of vacation days resulting in (maybe) some good progress on the layout. I continued to turn my pile of sticks into a curved ballasted wood trestle.

Parts are stained with black shoe dye mixed with IPA. There are about 12-dozen NBW on this assembly which is going to cross over "Lightning Creek" on the new section of the layout. Here is a test fit...apologies to our civil engineers, as I am sure no trestle was ever built track first. I will stick the deck to the ties and then fit and place the pilings underneath at the ends and section boundaries. Our Frisco references tell me that sections should be 13-ft long, and so they are at the longest, resulting in three pilings in the creek and two at the ends. The trestle is about 60-ft in all.



I also made some progress on the Bitter Creek kits, getting most of the detail parts installed (whew, a lot of NBW and grab irons as well as K-brake rigging). I still need to put the running boards on the top and add stirrups, cut levers, and hoses, but those closer to the point that I am not removing the trucks regularly. Here they are with some oxide red primer (Tamiya spay can). The 36-ft car will become an Iron Mountain car, and the 34-ft car a Mobile, Jackson, and Kansas City car (K4 makes this decal set).



I also had an Accurail car in a box that was 90% detailed, but was neglected for a couple of months. It will become a FRISCO billboard car for a 1905-1910 flavor. I will probably change out the Andrews trucks for Archbar trucks, but that is what comes with the kit. It is interesting how much larger this car is than the 34-ft Bitter Creek model.



Finally for this week, near complete on the assembly of a wooden coal gondola from Westerfield. This resin kit is stretching my modeling skill and is not quite right for the underframe fit, but I am not sure anyone will notice. I primed it tonight and will give it a black paint job. At the left in the photo is the same car built by the master himself, @Jim James , traveling down to Texas from the Zalma branch. An excellent reference as I was trying to build one myself. It also will wait for near final assembly for stirrups, hoses, cut levers, and the brake wheel.



Well, that about does it. Hope all are well and had a great weekend.

-Bob T.

P.S. @klrwhizkid , I did get the LEDs you recommended for the 0-6-0. Up soon in the project queue.

 

Weekend Addendum:

Frisco gondola (Westerfield resin Kit) ready for decals and weathering (and couplers). Have a good week all, I will probably miss out this Wednesday (work, work, work).

-Bob T.

 

RJ:

LOVE your gons!

Back when I was dabbling with steam era's, I would use MDC under frames and kit-bash gons for my various themes. Here's one of my Black Mountain & Northern gons:



Took the lazy way out (no wire grabs) and also made a Frisco or two:



However, I was never satisfied with the ladders on the ends... so I didn't embrace that time saving feature.

Over the decades I flirted with steam, I had a lot of fun scheming and dreaming.

All fer now!

 

I'm finally catching up here.

Bob: Amazing job on that trestle. It should win an award of some kind. Nice job on the rolling stock as well.

Andre: Those gondolas look so real. Hard to believe they're plastic.

Tom: I like the way that drop deck turned out. Have you considered going into business making those?

 

Well my farm scene made the cut to the final 5 today in the Walthers contest. Cross your fingers.

 

Thanks Tom

 

Is this one where we can vote on the winner?

 

Thanks guys. If you go to Walthers Facebook or Instagram you “like” your favorite. That’s the vote. There are 20 finalist there. In addition there are 5 finalist for the judges only portion. I made it to that also. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks all !!

 

That’s my take on it Tom. ? Can’t say as I agree with the system they use. Seems to exclude a portion of their target market.

 

@modeltruckshop -- That's OK, I have voted for you twice!

 

Ha. Thanks Bob

 

Thanks for the well wishes, Bob. I'm pretty much recovered at this point and actually just got back from 10 days of camping up in the mountains. I should have a new video of Friday, too. Thanks for sharing your pixs of the curved trestle, should be handy when I start work on mine.

 

Glad to hear you are back, @dboone74 ! You will see on Wednesday's update this week, that I made one too few pilings for the trestle and did not notice until I went to install. Doh! Oh, well...one more set of parts in the dye bucket.

Looking forward to the next video...

-Bob T.