The Evolution of a Paint Scheme…

April 13, 2021 admin Leave a comment

As you may (or may not) remember that the reason I model a freelance railroad is an off hand comment made to me by an experienced model railroader friend of my fathers. He was over once visiting my father and stopped down in the basement while I was running trains on my older brothers layout. My transgression was (as far as I know) running an engine from one road with the caboose from another. He told me I was doing it wrong and that wasn’t the way a real railroad would do it. No offense, but I was 6 at the time of this heinous crime. That comment always stuck with me.

When I was about 11 or 12 I became a more serious modeler complete with a subscription to Model Railroad Craftsman.

It opened my eyes to all the hobby had to offer. And yes it showed me that railroad A would not run a caboose from railroad B. I also became aware from the letters pages that there were a lot of people who were ready to point out that someone had not done something prototypical. That old comment came back to haunt me and I was afraid to do something wrong.

I also became aware of the “Freelance Railroad”. One that had their own way of doing things, but within the context of what was prototypical for that region. The most famous was the Allen McClelland’s Virginian and Ohio. It’s still talked about like it was an actual railroad. My favorite though is Frank Ellison’s O scale Delta Lines. Frank would remove the pilot trucks from steam engines because they caused derailments. Though a well detailed and scenic layout, operations were more important than scale fidelity.

So I decided at 12 that was the way to go. Came up with a semi plausible name and a totally hideous paint scheme.

When I returned to the hobby I decided to stay with the freelance theme. I refined the name to the Grand Forks and Western Minnesota, DBA the Grand Western. From there I started work on a paint scheme. The early attempts sometimes bordered on circus like. I think I kept the local hobby shop in business just buying undecorated Athearn diesel shells. A big part of the problem was that they were too intricate for someone with no airbrush or masking skills. It was spray can and hand brushing.

I finely landed on a scheme, that looking at it now was very close to the Southern Pacific’s. It was a light gray body with a red cab, nose and rear end. The roof was painted black with the thought that it hid the diesel exhaust along the top. A basic utilitarian scheme and easy for the shops to keep up. And I could use a spray can for the gray and brush paint the rest.

The original diesel paint scheme, kept it simple and utilitarian.

A change of name and paint…

First of all you will note the change of name. I went from Grand Western to Continental Northern because for what ever reason people couldn’t understand the Grand Western name, but will go Oh, OK when they see Continental Northern. The black patch below the cab is where the GF&WM reporting marks were. The gray paint is no longer available so I removed the reporting marks and left the black patch.

But before we talk new engine paint we have to look at cabooses. I had painted one in the gray and red scheme to match the diesel scheme. It never struck me as very caboosy. (I know, not a word). The scheme I landed on was the basic red caboose.

Side view of the older wooden cabooses in the traditional red paint scheme.

When I started painting the modern steel cabooses I wanted something a little more modern and interesting looking. I remembered a paint scheme from a video a rented from the LHS from Model Railroader. It was on airbrushing, as my wife had gotten me a vey nice/expensive new airbrush. I found the process daunting with prepping the surface, mixing the paint with thinner and clear coating the finished car. Add to that the clean up with oil based paints and it was a lot. I held off airbrushing until acrylics came in to their own.

But I always remembered the finished caboose that Jim Hediger painted in that video. Bright red with yellow ends. With my airbrushing and masking skills greatly improved I decided to recreate that look for my road.

Side view of the modern (steel) cabooses in the “Safety” paint scheme.

Rear view of the modern cabooses in the “Safety” paint scheme.

Side note, I have found a great resource for LED’s. It is Light house LEDS. I found them while gathering supplies for a different project. They have prewired flashing red LEDs. I plan to equip the cabooses with rear red flashing lights powered from the rails.

So when it came time for the diesels I figured I would just carry that scheme forward to them.

And this is the look…

The new “Safety” high visibility paint scheme. Wanted to update the look of the diesel fleet.

The Continental Northern refers to it as their “High visibility Safety scheme”. The diesel itself is a Athearn BB that I have been converting to DCC/sound (for like the last 10 years) and is the subject of an upcoming post. I had the shell ready for paint and it became the test bed for the new scheme.

More found stuff…

The reason this became something of a priority was that as I was digging through the shelves looking for cars that needed to be put together, I came across two Broadway Limited Import SD 40-2s and a Bachmann GE 8-40c that were undecorated. The BLI engines are DCC/sound and the Bachmann will need to be converted.

So loving the new look I went ahead and started the BLI engines, held off on the Bachmann as I need to check out decoders for it.

Fresh out of the paint booth. Last color applied, soon to be unmasked.

Fresh out the spray booth, time to put them together.

The BLI SD40-2’s front view. Painted and assembled, waiting for decals. Then final assembly.

Rear view of the BLI SD40-2’s. Ready for decals.

And that’s where I am with them at this point. They just need decals and then final assembly. After that it’s off to the programming track and then the layout. Will keep you updated.

Till next time, stay safe and happy modeling…

General

Some Thoughts, An Interlude…

March 23, 2021 admin Leave a comment

I will try and keep this somewhat short and simple. Looking at the work I have been posting on and a couple of projects that are coming up soon, one would get the impression of a change of eras on the layout.

Whether you care or not, there is no such thing in the works.

It was the mid 80’s when I re-entered the world of model railroading. At that time if you wanted a decent steam locomotive you had to spend some serious money. For those in my price range, I was looking at early Bachmann or IHC/AHM. I did purchase a couple of Bachmann locomotives. Worked OK, but pulling power (traction) was not great.

The real value at that time were the Athearn Blue Box Locomotives. I think at the time a powered loco was about $20.00 and a dummy went for about half that. It also introduced you to the world of super detailing as the level of detail on an Athearn was about nil.

So thats what I bought. My era at that time was the current year. Meaning I was modeling what was happening at that time. Think Eric Brooman’s “Utah Belt”. I bought mainly SD 40-2’s or variants, like tunnel motors. This was also the about the time when Walthers was introducing new cars like their cushioned coil cars. And the intermodal cars that I just recently finished. A great time for kits of modern cars.

Although I was able to purchase and collect the engines, cars and a wide variety of buildings, I really didn’t have room for a layout until our current house. The basement was finished and the layout started about 2000.

And thats about the time that Bachmann started coming out with their Spectrum Line of steam locomotives. Excellent detail and reliability at a great price. Soon followed by Life Like and Athearn.

So where am I going with this? Simple, once great steam was available, I switched from “present day” to the “transition era”. I set my date as 1954 and started rebuilding my loco and freight car fleet for that time frame. Which meant I ended up with a lot of modern equipment sitting in boxes unbuilt and only recently seeing the light of day.

And it’s been a nice change of pace. The modern trains will get some time on the layout where they’ll get a chance to stretch their legs. Plus the photo opportunity’s will be fun. The layout is, I believe, generic enough that I can throw some modern automobiles (yes, collected a bunch of those too) into a scene and have the era feel right.

It’s been nice to have a bunch of stuff to work on without having to go out or for that matter spend any money. Especially with the way everything has been this last year. Additionally I’m taking care of the problem that all modelers seem to have, a giant backlog of kits and never getting around to building them.

And there you have it, not a change of eras, just a change of pace.

Till next time – stay safe and happy modeling …

Benchwork, Trackwork

Rebuilding The Staging Yard…

February 22, 2021 admin Leave a comment

I figured it was time to get the staging yard up and running when I noticed that I had 4 freight trains and 1 passenger train sitting on the mainline. And if I wanted one off, I would have to manually remove it and put everything back into their boxes.

If you don’t recall, I had done a little downsizing of the layout. I removed a “visible” city yard and replaced it with the “hidden” staging yard. The new yard won’t technically be “hidden” anymore as it will directly connect to the engine service facility. I may end up doing some mild scenery work on the yard for photo purposes.

The yard itself is 8 tracks wide. Before it moved, there was a nice symmetry to it. Two track from the mainline came in centered and branched out to the other 6 staging tracks for a total of 8. The 8 tracks will still work, but because of the way the mainline now comes in I had to rework the whole switch end of the yard.

Rather than trying to describe it I’ll just show it to you.

Putting the staging yard back together. Tracks on the left will be for engine and caboose storage. Looking towards the turntable/roundhouse area.

As you can see in the first picture each track get shorter with the track nearest the front more of a drill track then a storage track. It also serves the track heading into the engine servicing and roundhouse.

In the second image you can see the track running along the front of the layout. This is the one that runs to the turntable. It also branches out to three track that will be diesel storage / servicing tracks. May use one for caboose storage / service.

Of course as I was working on this…

Squirrel …

I thought since I’m laying the track that is going to connect to the turntable, I should work on the installation of the turntable and roundhouse.

The first thing was to locate the center of the turntable. After that was to then lay out the tracks that would radiate from it for the roundhouse and outdoor service/storage tracks.

Laying out track spacing for the roundhouse.

Once those were in I then located the service pit areas of the roundhouse. I would have to cut away the plywood for the service pits to sit in.

Cutting the slots for the inspection pits. Time consuming, but not difficult.

Not difficult but time consuming. On top of that, my oscillating cutter has a lot of miles on it and is starting to overheat with a lot of use. This meant that I would have to let it cool down every once in a while.

Slowly working at getting the roundhouse and turntable in place. Two more slots to cut the the inspection pits.

As the picture shows, progress is being made. As of this photo, I only had two more slots to cut. Those are done now, as well as the round hole for the turntable. As I was getting ready to start fitting this all into place…

Squirrel …

I realized that if I installed the roundhouse / turntable, I would have to reach over it to finish off the backdrop. So everything temporarily came to a halt on this project. What I envision for the backdrop is a urban scene. Basically a bunch of the backsides of tall buildings. Some fences between them and the tracks and ballasting the track. I still need to get the backdrop hard board on the right side up. This would be just out of frame on the second picture. It also would hide the helix that is visible on this side.

Of course I’m sure you have already figured out what has taken me a while to figure out. And that is, you don’t need the backdrop finished in order to finish hooking up the staging yard tracks.

And that’s where I’m at. Finish hooking up the staging yard tracks. I have a little realignment to do in order to get the mainline hooked up to the staging yard ladder. After that, get everything wired up so that I can get actually use the thing.

Well, as soon as this happens, I’ll let you know.

Till next time, Happy Modeling…

Scenery, Structures

Not Sure… A Quarterly Update?

February 18, 2021 admin Leave a comment

Wow, it’s been a while. (Major Understatement). While I would love to say that while I haven’t had the time to sit down and write, I have gotten a ton done on the layout.

Truth is, other things have eaten into available time. Personally I would have thought with the current pandemic keeping myself and my wife at home, I would have more than enough time and money. We don’t do anything or go anywhere. Big trip out is to pickup curbside for the things we ordered online.

First there were the home projects…

Part of it was the home projects. Last I left you I had only to make and mount the cabinet doors on my wife’s shelf system. I formally called it a project on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving it was merely to paint the kitchen. As you may recall I was having the heavy lifting on the other things done professionally.

Yeah, that didn’t work out. The day we were having the appliances installed, we also had the guy who was doing the final measurements for the new granite countertops. He kindly informed me that when they installed the countertops the appliances would have to come out. Additionally, because we had a portion of the counter with a 10″ overhang for a breakfast nook, we would have to add support for the stone countertop.

Yes I removed and reinstalled the appliances (which I had paid to have installed). And yes, I tracked down the brackets for the overhang. Which meant I had to remove the old countertop (yup, paid to have this done) to install them.

Also in there, my wife’s parents needed some light work done around their home and didn’t want any outside workers in their house. I was it.

That all being said, I did get some work done. It was one of those get a little done and write about it or skip the writing and get a little more done.

Where I left you…

I will start with the the drive in theater sign.

I remembered that Miller Engineering had a drive-in theater sign, just not this one. This one was much better. As I was exploring it I noticed that it was a limited run piece. And they were out. The scramble was on as I now had to have THAT sign. I did find it on Amazon without much of a markup from suggested list. Once I had the sign I realized that it was going to need a little work before hitting the layout.

Next project up, Drive In theater sign form Miller Engineering.

As you can see, it has everything needed for basic installation. The problem would mainly be in the gray portion of the sign. It’s rather flexible, plus it had a slight bend to it.

My plan was simple. I would build a base around the circuit board that looked like a brick planter base and would work up from there, strengthening the gray portion and ending with a walkway for putting up the letters on the marquee.

First step was to give myself something to glue to. Using Evergreen I-beams glued to the outer edge of the circuit board gave me a good starting point.

Added styrene I-beams for gluing surface.

A larger piece of styrene was added to the I-beam to give me a larger gluing surface and a little added clearance for the wiring harness .

Additional styrene strip added as gluing surface.

Next I added the brick sides. The brick work is cut from a brick wall left over from some unknown kit. They measure out at just under 4 feet high. Was shooting for 4 feet, but went down to the nearest mortar line for easier cutting. Once in place I cut out a piece of styrene for the top. I split this and cut out a notch to fit around the upright gray portion.

To finish off the planter I then added plastic to form a concrete cap around the top.

Two larger styrene I-beams were cut and added to the edges of the upright gray portion of the sign. These alone straightened and strengthened the upright. I attached them with white tacky glue as I was afraid anything stronger may attack the sign material (I had done the same with the initial I-beams around the circuit board ). So I cut a piece of .040 sheet styrene and glued them connecting the upright I-beams.

Still a little floppy, I added triangular braces to each corner. This finally had the desired effect. The sign was now straight. I then added the walkways to the top of the sides.

After the walkways it was time for paint. First was the mortar lines. I did this in my traditional paint and scrape method. To recap, I paint on a coat of concrete paint over the brick, let it set a bit and then scrape off the paint from the brick face leaving the paint in the recessed mortar lines . Obviously the concrete cap was painted concrete, the upright portion was painted white and the walkways were painted black to blend with the sign at the bottom of the arrow. I then added some foliage to the planter and it was ready for the layout.

The Miller Engineering road sign ready for the table.

Next up was to find its home on the layout. Not having a sign when laying out the initial drive-in layout became obvious. There really wasn’t a good spot for the sign. So I made it work as best as possible .

Once I found the signs spot I cut away the plaster to the foam. A slot was cut through the foam for the signs pigtail.

The plaster cut away and hole for the wiring harness cut through the foam.

I then dropped the sign into place.

To finish the scene a gravel drive will be added to the end of the asphalt section. A fence will be added next to the road and drive-in service drive. The fence will hide a couple of spotlights that will illuminate the drive-in screen. A bunch of Woodland Scenics cars with lights will be added to the ticket booth and street turning in to the drive-in.

Though this will make a killer scene in the dark with everything lit, my plan is to add a sandwich board sign advertising a “Flea Market Today” so the scene makes sense in the light of day also.

And that’s it, that’s as far as I have taken this scene.

Up next…

What’s up next? I’m not sure, will look at the images I have and decide. The last several months have kind of been the squirrel in traffic approach to model railroading. Been working on several things, will see what I actually have been recording .

I promise it will not be as long to the next post. Til then,

Stay Safe and Happy Modeling…

Rolling Stock

October Update…

October 17, 2020 admin Leave a comment

As I said I have been busy with the home improvement projects. The biggest being the wall shelf system for my wife. Below are pictures of what I started with and where I’m at.

Since the last photo was taken I have also added a set of drawers across the front for silverware and serving pieces. All that’s left is to add the doors. And enough with the home improvement update, not why you’re here. (Although maybe it is.)

What I have been able to do is get a bunch of new/old cars onto the layout.

First…

I finished the lone Gunderson well car that was lost than found.

The missing Gunderson well car is done and ready for revenue service.

Second…

I also finished up the set of Thrall well cars. The set is now all decaled.

The end of the well car with generator on it.

The last photo shows the end unit with the generator and fuel tank mounted on it. I used a little creative license on it. The “DO NOT HUMP’ and the info decal should have been on the end sill. However it is covered by the walkway on the end, so I moved the decals up onto the base of the generator.

For some reason this set has been a PITA as everything has been a struggle, right up to and including getting them on the rails. Having painted and then finally getting them decaled, I went to place them on the tracks. However I experienced a fit issue on the shared trucks. Though I didn’t have a problem with the first set I finished, this sets female pieces had to be filed down to fit on the truck screw that holds them in place.

Filed the ends of several units for clearence.

Of course then they had to be touched up before service. But they are now done.

And then…

I completed three TOFC flat cars from Front Range Products. These are also from the “inherited fleet”. The cars themselves are pretty basic and go together rather well. The problem is their weight. The cars themselves are very light. With adding the metal wheel sets I got their weight up to 1.2 oz. The weight needed to come from the trailer that rides on them. I added 1 oz. to each trailer, with them riding high I was reluctant to add more. This brought the flat car/trailer weight to 3.5oz. It’s a little light for a car this length but I’ll run them at the end and they should be fine. The problem is, that by adding weight up high I had to replace the push pin style truck mounting with a screw. Actually would have done it anyways, but oh so important on this setup.

And lastly…

Also part of the “inherited fleet” were a couple of Front Range Products Front Runner cars. Again, fun and interesting cars, but not without their problems. Mainly the close clearance in the truck mounting. The single axle truck mounts into a “cutout” in the floor of the car. They are also a push pin mount (obviously Front Ranges go to), but the location of the pins was nothing but a blob on the sprue.

My solution was to drill and tap the center sill for a 2-56 screw. Nothing unusual there. But I had to modify the bogie as well. The bogie is a two piece assembly. With the two pieces stacking at the mounting location. I drilled the top piece so the it would clear the screw body, it’s pivot location. The lower piece was drilled out so that the screw head would sit down in it. This was necessary as the axle is right there also and would have rubbed on the screw head if not recessed.

Though these cars did have weight to add to the center sills, still came out the same as the TOFC cars. Again, added the weight to the trailers to bring them close to weight. Ended up around 3.5 oz.

But they’re pretty cool when done and are fun to have as they are different than what you usually see.

Front Runners done and ready for layout.

One other thing, on the car in the back I had to make a new diagonal strut as the kit one was missing. The original was square. I had no square tubing, so the replacement is several round tubing pieces that telescope. The ends are .080 x.100 cut to size and filed to shape.

Next up…

My goal is to return to the layout and start adding more scenery. Moving south from Addison towards Jackson. This means the Drive In theater is next. I have picked an animated sign from Miller Engineering for it. And that’s my next work bench project.

Till next time, stay safe and Happy Modeling…

On The Workbench, Rolling Stock