2996 Victor

Two weeks since my last update! Not much to report as I've been otherwise engaged, firstly in the garage doing car stuff, and latterly having a few days away with the better half. The Bitter Creek box car now has a full complement of side and ends. Still a few small jobs to do on the underframe with regard to brake gear, and I need to add the roof external detailing before I can think about paint. The second 40' flat car remains partially complete, too, although the first one is now approaching being finished. The parts from Tichy Train Group that I ordered to help with my comparison experiment backdating of the flat cars to truss rod underframes arrived last week - sadly a packing error occurred and I'm now awaiting the arrival of the queenposts..... While away, having had some time to mull over some aspects of the revised (read: completely changed) track plan for the layout, I've been thinking of how I can replicate this and incorporate it: Of course, the gradients are far too severe for a model to negotiate, but its an archetypal view. I'm not sure its really possible within the confines of a smallish layout, but it's something I'll keep on thinking about, perhaps as an adjunct to the main layout or as a cameo. We'll see! Anyway, back to work! Cheers, Mark

Weight added to the 36' Box Car: The weight of the finished car less trucks will be just over 100 grammes, which is what I aim for, and should be about right for it to run nicely. Meanwhile, the red 40' Flat Car has had its' Barnhart rails painted - a bit more work to blend in the colour of the rails with the deck and a burnish with graphite to simulate grease, and it'll be ready to letter and weather! Cheers for now, Mark

Barnhart Loader rails are now added to the red car above, and also to the three other 40-footers currently under construction. A typically-mediocre photograph will follow as soon as I've painted the loader rails.....

Here are a few of photos of my first two attempts at the Tichy 40' Flat Cars: The black car is straight from the box, so-to-speak, and will be finished in Chesapeake & Ohio livery, and is running on the kit's Athearn Bettendorf trucks. The red car is built as a representation of the G&ERRR's 40' Flat Cars as recommended by Prof Klyzlr in an earlier post. The car itself is built from the box as a steel-framed car rather than a wood-framed car as would have been original, although I've replaced the kit's Bettendorf trucks with a pair of Tichy's arch-bar trucks to help with the illusion. As the good Prof so eloquently put it, the end result is a good representation of the Cass/Mower logging cars. For comparison purposes, I still intend to try building one or two truss-rod cars based around the Tichy kit with evergreen styrene strip to represent the straight wood frames. It'll interesting to see not only how they compare visually but also in time taken in construction..... The two cars exhibit my first attempts at a wooden deck! I think they look reasonably convincing as they are, and hopefully will look more so when the cars are weathered. Plus the red car needs a pair of Barnhart Loader rails! Cheers, Mark

A little more progress with the 36' Box Car - the truss rods are completed! The truss rods are formed from 20lb fishing line, which is threaded through pre-drilled holes in the car's floor and held taught and secured with a drop of CA. The turnbuckles are Grandt Line, and threading them onto the fishing line was an interesting challenge for my ever-lengthening eyesight However, I got there in the end..... The car ends and one side are in place. Don't be fooled - the other side isn't fitted yet as I need to fix some weights inside first. Cheers, Mark

A bit more progress with the 36' Box Car: The brake rigging is almost complete, the final couple of rods will be added when the brake staff/bracket/wheel have been added to the car's 'B' end (top right in the photo). Truss rods are the next job.....

Over the weekend, among other little jobs such as fitting the remaining brake bracket, staff and wheel to the second ore hopper and completing a 40' flat in pseudo-G&ERRR configuration, I also made a start on one of my Bitter Creek 36' Truss-rod Box Car kits (#K-23), which I plan to finish as the box car in the photo in post #13 above. As I think I mentioned previously, while I've been building injection-moulded kits more-or-less successfully since I was a nipper, the Bitter Creek kits are laser-cut wood with a selection of injection-moulded plastic and cast whitemetal detail parts. The method of construction differs signficantly in many ways from an entirely injection-moulded kit and it needs to be approached from a different perspective, but it definitely has structural advantages. Here are a few photos of progress so far. 1. The laser-cut underframe glued to the underside of the floor: 2. The end blocks glued to the top of the floor: 3 and 4. Roof beams being added: 5. The pedestal bars, body bolsters and brake gear support brackets fitted to the underframe: Since the fifth picture, the brake air reservoir and train air line have been added. I've really rather enjoyed it so far, although I would say that the very comprehensive instructions could do with slight amendment insofar as it would be much easier to fit the brake rigging before adding the body bolsters! Cheers, Mark

Sadly, I don't think I'll make it to the London show, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for it in the press.....

And the new layout - is that ever at shows - and presumably S as Jas is a great exponent of the scale?

Ah-ha! I saw Yaxbury written up in the Model Railway Journal many years back - I don't recall Jas's use of coffee grounds, although it was a long time ago and I no longer have my collection of MRJs to refer to. I've never had the opportunity to see Yaxbury "in the flesh", unfortunately. I shall have to drink more coffee..... Cheers, Mark

Has anyone tried using dried coffee grounds as cinder ballast? Perhaps mixed with a commercially available media?

Excellent work, Eric! (I must get busy!) Cheers, Mark

That is an astounding piece of workmanship, absolutely superb!

Agree totally - it wasn't really a serious challenge. I don't think I've ever seen standing water modelled quite as convincingly!

Superb, but are the rails submerged??? That's the challenge...

Here is a sketch of the kind of effect I'm looking to create with the locomotive facilities: two, single-stall engine houses either joined or closely spaced, one with an attached workshop: Apologies for the ruled paper Finding dimensioned drawings to get the proportions right isn't proving terribly easy, although Brewer Railroad Plans have a couple of good ones that could be starting points. Difficult to order outside the US and Canada, though!

Excellent idea! In 35 years of using solvent adhesives, I'd never before spilled any: making a stand had never even occurred to me! I've got some offcuts of timber, so I'll get that sorted

As I'm still awaiting my brake staffs/wheels/brackets from Tichy (although they're on their way), I haven't been able to finish off the ore cars yet. However, I've assembled one of the Tichy 40' flat cars out of the box, as recommended by Prof Klyzlr, to see how it went. And I can honestly say that it's another truly excellent kit from. I've finished it in black and it'll be lettered for the Chesapeake & Ohio just for a bit of variety, and it'll be joined by a couple more in due course "just cos". Meanwhile, some Evergreen strip of various sizes/sections is also on its way to create under-framing and the Barnhart loader rails for my back-dated G&ERRR logging flats. Unfortunately, a little accident with a bottle of plastic weld the other evening has resulted in the temporary curtailment of activities, a partly dissolved cutting mat, and a few spare parts salvaged from the solvent fallout.....

Great pic! Challenge: modelling flooded/submerged track! Cheers, Mark

I second that!

I thought I'd just post a couple of pics of my ore cars, as I'm quite chuffed (!) with how they've turned out: The muddy brown has been replaced with a much redder hue, which I'm happier with. The car on the left is still minus it's brake wheel/staff/bracket, so once I've sorted that out, I'll weather the pair together and add loads. But, I have a train! Admittedly, not a log in sight, but nevertheless..... I think perhaps a short length of display track might also be a nice idea! Cheers, Mark

Been following your thread with great interest, even though the era is a bit too modern for me. Really impressed with how swiftly you've achieved such a fantastic result! Brilliant! Best regards, Mark

Ore hoppers are progressing nicely, but I've discovered that I've made a small mistake with the car in the picture in Post #63 - I've transposed the air reservoir and brake cylinder. Oops! I guess I'll just have to run it with that side away from view..... And as if to add insult to injury, I managed to mangle one each of the brake wheel and brake staff bracket, so of the pair of cars when completed, one will be be missing its brake wheel. Double oops! I'm hoping that that nice Mr Tichy may be able to supply an extra sprue..... Back to the mad-house! Cheers, Mark

Not much to report, other than I've decided that I'm not entirely happy with the shade of grey I've use on the first two D Class wagons. I've ordered a couple of aerosols of Tamiya AS-11 RAF Medium Sea Grey, which should hopefully be the ticket! I'll post a couple of pics when I've had a chance to try it out. Cheers, Mark