Found treasure.

September 25, 2014 admin Leave a comment

A found treasure. How often do we hope we find some little treasure someplace as we poke through a hobby shop? There is a hobby shop here in town that used to operate out of an old house. You would poke through the different rooms that were crammed floor to ceiling with merchandise. Newer stuff up front, older towards the back. Every once in awhile I would find something tucked in back that caught my eye. Maybe I didn’t need it but the price tag was original and now it was a great deal.

That store moved to a new retail location and those kind of finds disappeared as they went through their inventory and figured out what they had.

Recently while I was on a business trip to Los Angeles I had some time and I was walking around. I happened across a antiques store that had some Lionel trains in the window. My father-in-law has several old Lionel and Marx train sets that he still runs and I went in to see if they had something that I could pick up as a gift. Looking at what they had on hand, even though I’m not familiar with the Lionel second hand market, I thought it was a little over priced.

Looking further I came across a display case with some HO trains on display. One of the items caught my eye. It was a brass narrow gauge 2-8-2 Mikado. The owner came over and asked if I needed any help. I asked him how much for that “gold” engine in the back of the case. He replied ( with some disgust in his voice ) ” that it wasn’t gold, it was only brass and that it was $35.00″ . To tell the truth I almost crapped my pants, I was almost sure I missed a 1 or 2 in front of that number. He confirmed that the price was right and not seeming too anxious I told him I would take it. Now I don’t model narrow gauge and I’m not sure I could ever fit it into the scheme of what I’m doing but $35.00 for a brass engine, c’mon.

So, I have my treasure found and a great little story. Below are a picture of the “treasure” and a size comparison for those unfamiliar with narrow gauge versus standard gauge.

Size comparison of narrow gauge to standard gauge.

Trackwork

Track cleaning… not what you think.

September 19, 2014 admin 1 Comment

When a model railroader talks about “track cleaning” your first thought would be either a bright boy, cleaning solution or a tracking cleaning car being pushed around the layout.

I had mentioned earlier that when the old layout came down I was happy that I had used diluted white glue to hold the ballast in place. Because when it came time to lift the track off all I had to do was wet the track work and slide a putty knife underneath to lift it off the roadbed. The problem is that all the ballast is still glued to the track work.

I had planned to pick a nice summer day and spend a few hours cleaning it outside on the deck, as I didn’t want to do this in the basement because of the water. Best intentions and all, I found myself quickly running out of summer. Faced with the fact that I will be done with the basic benchwork soon and will want to start laying track as soon as it’s done and the weather will getting colder outside, I carved out an afternoon to get it cleaned off.

Not that it’s difficult to do. I set up a pair of saw horses and put a plastic storage box with the track in it on them. Next I filled it with warm water and let it soak for awhile.

Track from the old layout needing to be cleaned.

Then I spent the next 3 hours with a small brush scrubbing ballast off the track. At first I had doubts that I would be able to finish it in one day as the pile of track in the storage container never seemed to dwindle. But you tend to find a rhythm and the work went pretty fast.

Clean and dry, ready for installation when I get to that point.

My question is this: How come you never hear about anybody having to do this? There have been plenty of people who have torn down major layouts in the railroad publications so that they can build a new major layout. But they never talk about saving the old track and prepping it for the new layout. Do they not save it? I can’t imagine scrapping it all and buying new. I will admit that the thought of starting over again with all new track is extremely appealing, I just can’t even wrap my head around the cost of replacing it all.

History

Northern Pacific #328

September 18, 2014 admin Leave a comment

Northern Pacific # 328 was originally one of twenty 4-6-0 “Ten Wheelers” ordered by the Chicago Southern railroad in 1904. Before it was delivered in 1905 the Chicago Southern went bankrupt and the order went unfilled.

In 1906 the Northern Pacific found itself short on power and went shopping for locomotives. It purchased 10 of the unfinished 4-6-0’s and took delivery of them in February of 1907. They were used on the lighter branches in the Dakota’s and Minnesota. Eight of them were cut up for scrap between 1929 and 1933.

The two survivors, 321 and 328, remained because of their light weight and a rickety old bridge on the Rush City, MN to Grantsburg, WI line. 321 was scrapped in 1948 and 328 was retired in 1950. It was then donated to the city of Stillwater, MN where it sat by the Stillwater depot until 1976.

The Minnesota Transportation Museum leased 328 from the city of Stillwater and restored it to operating condition at BN’s ex-NP Como Shops.

Enter my father…

My father was a volunteer with the MTM, at one point holding elected office within the organization. At the same time he was also volunteering with the New Brighton Historical Society. The two worlds merged in 1981 when New Brighton held their first city celebration. Named “Stockyard Days” in honor of the New Brighton’s stockyards that at the turn of the century were the largest west of Chicago.

Wanting to have a major draw to help launch the celebration, my father used his connections with the MTM and was able to secure #328 to run a railfan trip in New Brighton using the Minnesota Transfer Railroad’s tracks.

So, Northern Pacific #328’s inaugural run after restoration was at the city of New Brighton’s inaugural celebration. All brought about with the help of my father.

Northern Pacific #328 running a railfan trip for New Brighton Stockyard Days, 1981.

Northern Pacific #328 awaiting a railfan run.

Close-up of #328 with my father (on the left) posing in the cab.

Benchwork

Benchwork update…#2

September 14, 2014 admin Leave a comment

Sorry about the long gap between posts. With summer coming to a close, we squeezed in a vacation over the Labor Day weekend which was followed by a extended business trip to New York. I didn’t have much time to work on anything let alone have time to update the posts.

I was able to get the rim joist on the benchwork that I had finished. Not totally an easy task as the corner of the benchwork is rounded. In order to curve the 3/4 inch plywood around the corner I have to kerf the plywood, which involves cutting a 5/8″ slot every 1″ on the table saw. Once done, the wood will easily bend around the benchwork giving you a nice even flow around the corner. Side note: I know a lot of people will just apply a 1/8″ or 1/4″ fascia right to the ends of the joists, but I find that I will sometimes “forget” where I am in relation to the layout and bump into the fascia. Without the plywood rim joist, the fascia will flex and with finished scenery in place this might mean that you crack the finished scene.

Attaching the rim joist on the short leg.

Installing the rim joist around the corner.

View down both legs with the rim joist in place.

I also was able to stage my bridge/berm scene I had talked about in my last post. I had wanted to get a feel for how the scene would look. Kind of a concept to reality thing. I’ve been picturing this in my head for a long time and wanted to know if it was actually going to work. The buildings in the scene are just stand ins for the purposes of the mock up. I have finished buildings from the old layout that I will be using. Also there will be buildings to the left of the intersection as well as the far side of the bridges. With scenery in place I now feel that this scene will be exactly what I had pictured in my head.

Michael Bromander

Monthly Archives: September 2014

Found treasure.

Track cleaning… not what you think.

Northern Pacific #328

Benchwork update…#2

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