“ROUTE OF THE SHORTYS”

[Adrian Wintle]

While the conductor didn't have the run along the top of the train on CN, I have photos of brakemen on top of PRR trains in the '50s, winding on a bit of handbrake for the descent through the Horseshoe Curve (something like 8 miles of 1.5% - 2% downgrade).

 

Adrian

[Northroader]

Here's a picture of what a real winter looks like, a Cuneo painting of the CNR. As the old folks used to say to us kids, " Yow don't know yow bin born!"

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[F-UnitMad]

A ) I didn't know Cuneo painted 'foreign' trains.

 

B ) I didn't (sorry, "ah day") know Northroader is a Black Country mon!!

Edited January 23, 2016 by F-UnitMad

[Northroader]

I'm struggling to find the mouse which Cuneo always included, it must be there somewhere. He did do several overseas, I can think of two French ones besides.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Northroader

[skipepsi]

Front and centre I think.

[F-UnitMad]

To someone of his generation, Canada was "overseas" but not "foreign".

Yeah, poor choice of word on my part I was writing in a bit of a hurry & couldn't think exactly what to put, hence I put it in inverted commas.

[Northroader]

Here's a tip, Google "Terence Cuneo" and then click on "images". You can have a very happy time, and come away loaded with ideas. As is the thing with Google, some other non Cuneo stuff creeps in, but you'll find several foreign, whoops, aboriginal native thingys, included. If you've got a taste for whimsy, look out for the "mouse" railways, any takers? they're crying out to be modelled. Not me, I'm trying to do too much already! There are beautiful paintings on the Guild of Railway Artists site, - more googling and images, but to me Cuneo is the daddy.

[Northroader]

Well, we've had a look at some cabooses, and had a cultural trip viewing art, so time to get back to find out what's been going on with the layout. You know when you've built a baseboard, laid track, wired up, got a test run going, then you realise you want to take the b/board out? Sort of " Nooooo....!!". You'll remember I needed a bit more width for the displaced depot, well, get on with it, so take everything off, and disconnect. Then retrieve the jig-saw from the son-in-law.. (Tooling off with your daughter is one thing, but your jig-saw!...Damme, sir!) and use it to cut a length of 2" x 1". Full width in the middle, curving round to a taper at both ends, sort of bow shaped. This was screwed along the top of the b/board at the back. I should explain that all my lines are characterised by having a strip of 3mm. hardboard, about 16" high, fixed behind to carry a scenic back-scene. This is supported on vertical wood battens which bolt to the board framing. Wood blocks were cut to support the bow shaped piece, and act as packing to go behind the battens. The bolts for the middle two were swapped for longer ones, and the scenic back fitted, luckily it could still fit over the bow.

 

Putting the depot in, yes, much better for clearances. You'll appreciate I didn't want to hack the depot about. It's made mainly from thick cardboard, with some overlays of Evergreen vee groove sheet for vertical planking. The roof is made of card strips, cut to represent shingles. Getting the flow around the merging of the cone into the ridge roof was tricky, but worth trying.

(I should acknowledge this is yer actual depot, but a much later picture on Jordan’s line, ta, matey)

It was made from a drawing in "Bridges & Buildings for Model Railroads" Kalmbach, 1973 reprint. It's for South Lyon, Mich., where the Grand Trunk Western crossed the C&O. After you've seen a few photos you realise the building is typical for the Grand Trunk Railway, a line which served the more populated parts of Ontario and Quebec, and was quite prosperous. However, it sponsored the Grand Trunk Pacific, a line through the Western prairies and the Rockies to reach the Pacific at Prince Rupert, and in the process ruining the parent company, which was merged into the recently formed Canadian National. The GTW was a system from the parent company to reach Chicago, which was formed as an American company as required legally, but was actually the CNR wearing another hat.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[F-UnitMad]

I like the idea for widening the baseboard just enough for the Depot! The only reason I got my Depot to fit on Portway Center was because it was at the front of the layout, & the roof could overhang the front edge!

[Northroader]

The baseboard is still down, so we'd best have a look at another item of rolling stock, this time a refrigerated car. Most of the US ones were built with just two ice bunkers at each end of the car. Prior to loading, the hatches were lifted and ice blocks, frozen brine, dumped inside. For some reason, possibly more floor space or improved circulation, the Canadian lines built their cars with eight bunkers equally spaced along the car, so are quite distinctive. The headroom must have been restricted inside as a result, as you'll see from the low door height. One small detail is that they had charcoal fired heaters as well, that's the small box just visible under the door.

 

A Canadian friend sent me an article from the Railroad Model Craftsman, protofile 28, a long time ago, and the dates have got trimmed off, so that's the only ref. I can give. It can be made from a chop job on a standard Athearn 40' car in HO, in O I made it from a .060 plastikard carcase. The ends are made from my own attempts at resin casting. The main problems were to make a perfectly flat mould, and likewise getting an even thickness in the casting. I decided once I'd used my stock of rubber and resin mixes, I would leave it to the experts. These ends came out quite well, some I've done suffer from temperature expansion and cracks appear at the joins. (Tip: if you ever buy a cast resin load for a wagon, always make sure it's a very loose fit, or after a hot summer you'll find all the body corners have cracked open!)

The sides are thinner plastic sheet, with rivet lines not very successfully embossed on. Bogies are Athearn, couplers Kadee. The car is painted light grey, and C-D-S decals used. I was singing the praises of this firm in the caboose post, I since find they've sold out, and gone mainly narrow gauge. Dealers still stock the old range, but running down. I did some chalk weathering, particularly trying to show rust staining from the brine around the hatches, I hope I didn't get carried away with this.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[F-UnitMad]

I'm going to ask the Stupid Question...

 

What was the charcoal heater for??

[Northroader]

Presume for things like bananas. There'd be a difference between keeping them fresh and not getting too cold, particularly in the Canadian climate. Remember banana vans in this country had steam heating (even temperature of 56 F, it says in GWR wagons book)

[Northroader]

While the baseboards were down, I've been working on a variety of jobs; feeder jumpers, wiring tidy-up, track and point control, end piece for the new headshunt, narrowing the gap on the scenic back, etc. Now it's all back together and in place, and I can run trains over all the new layout. Everywhere you look, there's a hatful of work to do, but I feel I've reached a milestone in what I started last November, so time for two pictures of the new lines, to contrast with those in my first post. I was hoping to do "before and after" pictures, but I've had a "Senior moment" and can't find the November ones in my stuff!

I'm also putting in a drawing of the new track layout, which I hope you'll agree is a big improvement. Just moving a train up and down and throwing points feels better, although obviously the shunt lead at the far end is badly needed.

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[Zomboid]

Fabulously simple, yet plenty of fun to be had. Love it, just the kind of thing I'd want to build.

[JAMO]

What a nice "recycling" of the old layout!

 

You work is good!

The switching possibilities are good for such a small space. Not easy with O scale. That's nice.

Edited February 16, 2016 by JAMO

[Northroader]

Here are two freight cars for the line, RTR straight out of the boxes, with homemade loads. There's an Atlas 50' mill gondola, and a Weaver 36' two bay hopper car. Both have had Kadees fitted, and a repaint. The hopper has had two copper slugs tucked into the vee between the hopper slopes to give some more weight. I always like heavy cars, in the hope it gives steadier running, and the trains are all short, so the locos. don't have such a job to do. For the gondola I took a strip of wood and cemented plastic strips across the ends. Vertical stanchions, from plastruct tee section with chamfered tops, were glued to this, and painted the car colour. Then it was a job of cutting up discarded Christmas tree branches, with length to just fit across inside the car. A fine tooth razor saw was used to get a nice clean cut. These were glued in layers on top of the wood strip using pva bond under each layer. This then represents a pulp wood load, which can be found quite extensively travelling from the forests to paper works, or ply or chip board plants.

For the hopper I cut a piece of hardboard which just fitted inside, resting on the tops of the hopper ramps and the central divider. It needed notches to clear the side stiffeners in the middle. Then I glued four small pieces of ply spaced regularly on the hardboard to form a core for some low mounds, which were made from polyfilla with some pva added, and smoothed. A paper "fence" was glued around the outside of the hardboard, which is the stage reached in the picture above, before it was all painted Matt black. Then I filled up with crushed coal covering the plaster. The good thing about coal is you can break down full size lumps very small and it still looks realistic, although looking at the finished job I could probably made it smaller. It was glued down the same as ballast, using diluted pva bond with a spot of washing up liquid from an eye dropper. When it was dry, I peeled the paper back, recut the notches, and touched up with Matt black.

 

The two cars got a paint coating from a mix, which is my take on CNR mineral brown, being two parts BR freight bauxite, to one part SR freight umber. The lettering was the old CDS transfers, and then just some scruffying up.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[JAMO]

Nice result!

 

Christmas tree branches look very realistic for O scale.

[Northroader]

My efforts have been concentrated on the small left hand section, and I can give 'before and after' piccys of this.

The factory needed bringing forward, and I've fitted locating dowels. The brick paper on the front has faded, you can compare the upper storey with the lower, which was covered by freight cars. A new layer has been fitted, and two coats of Humbrol flat varnish applied in the hope it gives some protection. They seem to have changed the formulation since the last tin I bought, maybe for the better. Then the tracks have been ballasted, and magnets are starting to appear, although my Kadees aren't taking the bait yet! Ground cover done, I must keep an eye open at a show for a grass grower, if not a Van der Graaf generator. Finally a patch has been applied to the scenery to cover the gap at that end. I've trimmed the picture to show the view blocker in action, covering the line entrance, and helping with the "presentation"

 

A Canadian Pacific 40' steel boxcar is parked at the factory, these also ran over the CNR, of course. This car has appeared on vaughan45's "new O scale layout" thread, where Jasond of this parish identified it as an Allnations build. It's about sixty years old, built to different methods than now, but I'm very fond of it. You'll have noted that the CNR branded its newer cars "Serves all Canada". The CPR regarded it as a total waste of space, and came back with "Spans the World". There's a 'Royal Hudson' loco. in front of the globe, flanked on one side by a DC-3 ? airliner, and a ship on the other. Remember the "Empresses" coming up the Mersey to Liverpool?

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[Northroader]

The main work at present is surface texturing along the rest of the depot, blending in with a new road which is being laid, mainly formed from greyboard, and nothing too inspiring to look at. As Alice said before she tooled off after the White Rabbit "A post without piccies, what sort of a blog is that?" So, here's a picture of more freight wagons to be getting on with:

Two 40' boxcars, showing the bedrock vehicles for any 50's North American layout. Away from the bulk carriers of coal or iron ore, these vehicles were most likely to be on a freight train or in a siding. The nearest one is what is termed a "composite" car, the framework being steel, and the body a mix of wood planking for the sides and floor, and steel sheet pressings for the ends and roof. This construction typified the era from about 1910 to the 30's. I built it from a .060" plastikard shell around a wood block. Bogies and couplers were screwed to the block and an overlay of vee groove plastic sheet formed the side planking. The ends and roof were done by me making resin castings, the roof by using a steel boxcar roof as a pattern, the ends from a 5+5+5 corrugation master I made myself. The trouble is you will detect how some warping has taken place. The other boxcar is the type which followed in the 30's, the wood sides being replaced by flush sheet steel panels. This one is RTR straight out of the box, by Intermountain.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[JAMO]

Very nice work. I like!

 

I like the wooden boxcar very much! I hope to make one or two for me when I have completed the restoration/upgrading of my old Roco models.

[Northroader]

You can find them as RTR as well. Atlas f'rinstance.

[JAMO]

Yes, RTR models are available but the postage is too high and I like to scratchbuild models from time to time.

[Northroader]

I only made one new year resolution this year. Looking at most threads on this web, sooner or later the name eBay is mentioned, and I thought I really ought to get in the swim with this. I started with an enquiry with the type of model I was interested in, and scrolling down, found there was some useful stuff in the eBay fold. So I thought I must register, easier said than done, as I gave a simple password which I was told was rubbish, and when I came back with something fancy, I was told I'd already registered and shove off, in computer speak. I eventually got this sorted, and I was properly registered. Feed in what I wanted, and scroll down.... Hey, look at that, I didn't even know they made them! Which roads had them? Well, the next one on the list for Englefield after the CNR for starters.. Oooooh, yes please. Put in a bid, and two days later I was told it was mine.(is it always this easy?) so to PayPal, which was very slick, but it always is if they're taking money off you. A fortnight later I got a letter off parcel force saying her Majesty wanted a slice of the action. It turns out I'm buying a new discounted model from a dealer, and there's me thinking I was getting a secondhand one from an individual. As the management consultant bull****ters say: "assume" makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me" . So pay up and look big. The parcel (massive) arrived from America exactly on the day it said it would when I first made the bid, efficiency, eh? I was out when this happened , so opened it just before tea, lovely, and put it up in the loft. After tea I sat down with the "owner's manual"... "Your loco is designed to operate on 8-18volts a.c.... Do not power your 3rail loco with dc....."- - Whaaaatt???? Noooooo!!!!! run upstairs, lift it out, and look underneath .. Phew, it is 2rail, and doesn't have steamroller wheels. Picture the scene.."Hey, fellers, I've just put the Lionel leaflet in the 2rail Atlas loco going to this Limey!!! Heh! Heh! Heh!,.." Thanks, guys, you had me going there. Try it out on the track the next day, and I'm getting the same problem as the Alco FA2 you met back in post 8, a 2amp controller trying to move a 6amp loco, so I really must upgrade that. Beyond that the engine looks good, but will need a repaint. It just right for my line, being a road switcher. It's an Alco RSD4/5, the only difference between the two being generator size. Just the same as the better known RS2/3, only a CoCo, not a BoBo.

 

There's a big black hole below decks in that photo, so here's a shot of the bogie. You'll also notice it's fitted with ersatz kadees, rather than the old Atlas type:

 

Totalling up price, p&p, import vat, handling, it came in at £225, so that will make it the only big item purchase on this years modelling budget. No more eBay for you this year, me lad. If I was going round a model show and saw it, I would drool, and most likely buy it, but realistically I doubt if a British dealer would be selling at that price. Compare it to O gauge British RTR diesel prices... It's priced in the same blockhole as the small RTR 040st and 060t steam engines! More reasons for modelling American. Mrs NR isn't a happy bunny... "You got enough models already!" she says, "When are you going to finish something?" she says.. she's right, of course....

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[JAMO]

Nice model.

 

I agree. This locomotive is cheap and reliable. French model prices are very high too. We have no plastic models...

 

The US plastic locomotives are great and their price is really more realistic!

Edited March 23, 2016 by JAMO

[F-UnitMad]

Northroader - with you in SO many ways!!

Ebay is quite a resource, but no, often it isn't that easy!!

Wives don't understand why you need more trains any more than we understand why they need more shoes. They don't appreciate the comparison, either.

US O Scale prices are fantastic compared to UK O; it's just so annoying knowing they could be even better if we didn't have to pay astronomical Shipping & VAT costs.

 

You have an Atlas Trainman model, aimed mostly at 3-railers which explains the manual. The 3-rail heritage is evident in the handrails which end short up the steps rather than lower down. The coupler is still Atlas judging from the trip pin shape. The hoods are over scale height (as on the RS3 like I have) to clear the vertical motors. The only way I really notice this is by comparing the shape of the cab middle windscreens with the prototype.

At least it should run very nicely, especially if you re-wire the motors in series, which will also drop the amps demand, although I have to say I ran all my Atlas locos just fine with a 2 Amp controller when they were 12vDC. Even now they're DCC they don't draw 2Amps - you shouldn't be having trouble, & in my opinion your controller is suspect.

Hope that helps!

Edited March 23, 2016 by F-UnitMad