SIDETRACKED - Pacific Northwest - Portland & Western Railroad's Workshop

[cooley_boy]

I have always wanted to build a proper American layout and finally settled (after many changes of heart) on recreating part of the Portland & Western Railroad's 500 mile system which is one of the predominate Class II / Shortline railroads in Oregon. Several facts came into play:

1 - The Railroad has about 30 locomotives so recreating the fleet is feasable.
2 - The system consist of open fields, forest, mountain passes, street running, river side running and much more providing a diverse lanscape to model.
3 - The railroad has customers served within its system and cars taken to both the BNSF and UP which would mean plenty of traffic to model.
4 - I live next to it and can easily study the system in free time.

As such this will be a long project and will take time to plan. 
More images to follow as CAD plans develop.
The layout will be an operating layout with room for multiple people and operations.
 

The Layout build will be covered in another thread once that time comes.

For now I am working on recreating the locomotive roster and rolling stock.

 

 

Welcome to the Portland & Western Railroad's Workshop.

 

Also I have my own Youtube channel (SIDETRACKED) where when time allows I am creating documentaries on all of Oregons Shortlines.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3G510Eh35CTWGzzYDU_eiw?view_as=subscriber 

[cooley_boy]

The first unit I started with was PNWR #3369 a SD40-2 type locomotive. 
Originally built for the Colorado Southern it became a BNSF unit after a series of mergers which was then sold off being aquired by the Portland and Western.
 
Now to recreate this unit I bought a ScaleTrains SD40-2 in BNSF livery with just about all the correct details.

Then I took everything to pieces. Everything! Almost.

 

Everything that was to be painted I set to one side and all the internals to another.

 

Having done that I put the body parts into an IPA bath to remove the decals and paint.
The IPA loosens them then I use a toothbrush under the sink and scrub them clean to the base plastic.

 

 

Once clean I set about spraying the main body shell and other body parts. Starting with the Orange I used a Truescale G&W paint but soon learned that G&W have constantly been changing the orange they use on their locomotives which was evident when I put the first coat of paint on and then let it dry. Very light. Looking through photos this confirmed this was the color of other G&W operations but not the PNWR. Then buying 6 other shades of orange from Truescale I found that Chicago & Eastern was the best match.

 

 

 

With the orange done I masked the roof line and applied the black with a few touch ups afterwards. Next was to paint the walkways and pilot ends which are in a very distinct black and yellow. It took several coats to get the yellow to look right but we got there.

 

 

 

 

Once all the smaller details were painted along with the handrails the locomotive was reassembled after the application of decals on the main body and renumbering of the locomotive.

 

 

 

Having the locomotive disassembled made it a perfect time to add the headlights, ditch lights, step lights and ground lights to the locomotive using pico LEDs.

Besides this the only other details I had to alter were the horn location and additional cab roof details for the different antennas the locomotive has.

 

 

 

 

Now all that is left is to weather the unit.

Edited January 11, 2022 by cooley_boy

[Barclay]

Superb paint job !

[cooley_boy]

Probably should have posted a picture of the real unit.

[Mike_Walker]

That almost looks like the model - had to look twice!

[cooley_boy]

The next unit tackled turned out to be a bit of a test bed due to a slight misread while doing research for it. 
PNWR #2152 is a GP38-2 that was recent bought by the PNWR and for a short time was in its previous owners livery of White on Blue from GATX Leasing. It has now been repainted but I will stick with blue as one of the things that makes the PNWR unique and adds to its character is the fact that they have many mis-matched liveries amongst their fleet. 


So the mistake I made was right here. I had assumed that #2152 was a GP38-2 from new but oh nay nay. This was not so which I discovered right at the end of modifying this model. It was built as a Straight GP38 as new for the B&O and later rebuilt into a GP38-2. Basically the exterior has a number of key differences but the same internal electronics. Thankfully Rapido have announced their Straight GP38 and one is on preorder. 

Thankfully Athearn had a EMD Leaser model they did so this saved haviong to pain a model from scratch.
The main alterations were as follows:
1- Front and Rear Ditch Lights to be added and to be the CSX Angled style
2- Spark arrestors needed to be added to the exhaust
3- Rear plow removed and hoses loops added
4- Decals removed as needed
5- Custom stencil decals to be made
6- Try to find a way to create a ghost effect from the old decals on the cabside and long hood
7- Pilot Lights added
8- Side Bell added

 

For the Lights I again used Pico LEDs.
I found 3D Ditch lights and side bell which worked a treat.
I had to put several layers of paint on the Ditch lights to ensure no light bleed but they turned out perfect.
The same company (CMR Products) also designed and printed the Spark arrestors for me at no cost and added it to their range.
This worked out perfect for me as I need about 14 pairs. All non turbo engines on the PNWR have them do to the fire risk in summer.
    

   

 

 

The Decals took a bit of thinking but a plan formed.
I would get decals done in a blue hue and spray blue washes over them to fade them into the body work.
I found Highball graphics in Canada who also had the correct stencil lettering I needed to replicate the numbers and road initals applied to the cabside.

 

And yes...the cabside numbers and letters are ment to be wonky as per the prototype...
 

    

 

 

And that is pretty much what this one took.
I will be selling this unit off though. Next time I am goin to prehaps have the side decals printed in a darker blue to start off with or go with a full white....
The last thing was to move the horn back on the hood and install a conduit from the cab back for the air supply. 

 

 

 

 

 

[newbryford]

Nice work Rand!

[newbryford]

BTW - this may be more suited to the US/Canadian part of the forum..

 

[cooley_boy]

2 hours ago, newbryford said:

BTW - this may be more suited to the US/Canadian part of the forum..

 

I thought about that. This thread is all about modifying models though. 

When I get onto the actual layout side of things I was going to start a separate thread in there for that.

[Steadfast]

I'm loving the specific detail variations on these EMDs, and the patch painted blue one. The Americans seem very good at running these type of liveries.

 

I'd have totally missed this if it was in the American section, so thanks for sharing!

 

Jo

[cooley_boy]

Now onto another full repaint. 

The Portland & Western has 4 early EMD units still on their roster.

A GP9 #1801, An SD7 #1501 and two SD9 units #1852 and #1854.

 

The first one I took on was PNWR #1801. 

Athearn has already produced a great example of the GP9 and in the Black Widow Livery that the unit is currently in. Interestingly this unit was painted into the Black Widow scheme as a homage to the SP by the then GM of the Willamette & Pacific hence the logo on the long hood. 

 

 

Sadly though the model athearn did in this scheme was put on a first generation GP9 where as #1801 is a third generation GP9 with different fan setup and other detail differences. So instead I started with a correct version of the GP9 I needed and set to disassembling it and stripping it.

 

 

 

After stripping the model a general coat of true color black was applied over the whole shell, walkway section, fuel tank, handrails, underframe and trucks.

 

 

Following this the sides of the walkways were masked and a red layer was applied along with the ends of the shell masked and a silver layer applied and this covered the main blocks of color. 

 

 

 

 

 

Now the plan was to use a decal for the winged artworked on the front end of the hood as Microscale did a decal set for this very locomotive. After having to buy three sets with all the decals breaking apart due to age I decided to just paint it on and so I applied the masking in as close to the right shape as possible first applying the black over the silver. Then the orange stripes with the silver stripe last. The curve on the silver was applied by hand. All in all it turned out better than I thought it would.

 

 

 

From here the decals were applied from the numerous sets I had gotten for this model. For some reason all the other decals on these sets did not suffer from the fate of the hood decal and worked as they should. These sets though only cover the decals applied when painted by the WPRR. After coming under PNWR operation there were several other decals added such as the small PNWR logo on the cab side and the FRA reflective decals on the walkways. These I sourced from other decal sets and the reflective stripes from Smokebox graphics which are actually reflective along with all the tiny decals you can see like the various warning labels and the 3-points-of-contact decals in the step wells.

 

 

The last details were to be the white step edges which were tedious and the handrails.  The steps I was now too worried about as when the weathering stage comes around these will look very different. It even then it does not look right then I will replace them with etched brass steps and pre paint them before installing. Once all the painting was finished the whole model was reassembled and sprayed with a matt finishing spray before installing the lights and sound. Lighting included the Pilot lights and 4 headlights on each end with sound being a Loksound V5.

 

 

Last few details were the addition of the spark arrestors, horn placement, antenna array on the top of the small hood and cable conduit, and new side mirrors. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One other detail that was done was the removal of the Mars Light. Originally #1801 did have this but was removed in the last couple of years so I modeled this change placing a brass blanking plate over the spot.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by cooley_boy

[Alcanman]

On 17/01/2022 at 01:10, cooley_boy said:

I thought about that. This thread is all about modifying models though. 

When I get onto the actual layout side of things I was going to start a separate thread in there for that.

I hope you are going to start building a layout soon because your US diesels look great and  then we can see them in 'USA and Canadian Railroads' forum.

I just came across this thread by chance as I wouldn't normally look at the 'modifying models' forum.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Alcanman

[Barclay]

Another great paint job. In terms of the Microscale decals breaking up I had the same with this GP35 - even the short lines on the cab broke into several pieces, and they were fresh from Microscale.

 

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Barclay

[cooley_boy]

14 hours ago, Alcanman said:

I hope you are going to start building a layout soon because your US diesels look great and  then we can see them in 'USA and Canadian Railroads' forum.

I just came across this thread by chance as I wouldn't normally look at the 'modifying models' forum.

 Indeed I hope so to. Still in the designing stage. Trying to fit 300 miles of trackage into a future space yet to be determined has it challenges.

[cooley_boy]

13 hours ago, Barclay said:

Another great paint job. In terms of the Microscale decals breaking up I had the same with this GP35 - even the short lines on the cab broke into several pieces, and they were fresh from Microscale.

 

Interesting. I new the decals I got were older and thought that was the reason. Maybe it is a Microscale thing?

[roundhouse]

I had some old Microscale decals for Amtrak coaches that broke up so I ordered more direct from Microscale. The same thing happened and even using Microscale decal film didnt stop this. The coaches are now just sitting unfinished.

[cooley_boy]

Taking a break from locomotives to work on another project. 

Working on 3D printing my own Log Cars. 

 

 

The Willamette & Pacific bought 200 of these cars from the BCOL in canada for use with in the now PNWR network to move logs from Eugene, Oregon to Rainer, Oregon. 

They are also used by the Albany & Eastern Railroad that interchanges with the PNWR in Albany.

 

These cars are past the FRA 50 year allowable lifespan of freight cars and as such they are not allowed of PNWR rails.

 

I am hoping to recreate around 40-50 of these in due course. Thankfully another manufacture has produced these in a kit form so I am replicating these in 3D and printing them myself to save money. I will not be selling any to be fair to the kit maker in Canada, Kelso Shops.

 

I have so far completed the two Bunker types needed and will follow with the main frame of the car next.

 

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by cooley_boy

[cooley_boy]

As I progress with the 3D work on the log cars here are some more projects that I have completed so far…

 

Following doing #1801 I next went onto doing one of the PNWR’s SD9R units number #1854. This unit is very unique in that it is quite possibly the only SD9 that is in the G&W corporate livery and one of the last SD9s in freight revenue service.

 

 

For this model I decided to use a Proto 2000 model from the latest run and proceeded to prepare it for its makeover. Soaked in IPA and cleand up with a paint brush.

 

 

 

Painting started with the overall orange for the main body and black for the walkways and chassis. Silver for the truck frames. Then masking out the roof the black was painted on the top.

 

 

One Detail that I had noticed is that there were filletted notches cut out of the top corners of the pilot and so I replicated this to  match.

 

 

Then I applied the yellow for the sills which in real life is a slightly faded yellow so I used a CNW yellow for this. When weathering comes around this will be faded a bit more. 

 

 

 

With these details finished I proceeded with the decaling adding the Black stripes around the body, the roundels on the long hood and hood ends, the cab side name of “Beaverton”, Number Boards and warning signs as needed. 

 

 

Then the customary sound and lights were added before putting the handrails back on which have been painted into the G&W yellow, Spark arrestors added, Mars lights removed and blanked, and class lights removed. There are still a couple details to finish but for the most part this one is done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alcanman]

13 hours ago, cooley_boy said:

As I progress with the 3D work on the log cars here are some more projects that I have completed so far…

 

Following doing #1801 I next went onto doing one of the PNWR’s SD9R units number #1854. This unit is very unique in that it is quite possibly the only SD9 that is in the G&W corporate livery and one of the last SD9s in freight revenue service.

 

 

For this model I decided to use a Proto 2000 model from the latest run and proceeded to prepare it for its makeover. Soaked in IPA and cleand up with a paint brush.

 

 

 

Painting started with the overall orange for the main body and black for the walkways and chassis. Silver for the truck frames. Then masking out the roof the black was painted on the top.

 

 

One Detail that I had noticed is that there were filletted notches cut out of the top corners of the pilot and so I replicated this to  match.

 

 

Then I applied the yellow for the sills which in real life is a slightly faded yellow so I used a CNW yellow for this. When weathering comes around this will be faded a bit more. 

 

 

 

With these details finished I proceeded with the decaling adding the Black stripes around the body, the roundels on the long hood and hood ends, the cab side name of “Beaverton”, Number Boards and warning signs as needed. 

 

 

 

Then the customary sound and lights were added before putting the handrails back on which have been painted into the G&W yellow, Spark arrestors added, Mars lights removed and blanked, and class lights removed. There are still a couple details to finish but for the most part this one is done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outstanding work!   You certainly have a talent for detailing ansd repainting locos. 

I do hope you start building a layout soon, to run your superb locos.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Alcanman

[Allegheny1600]

I agree with Alcanman above, this is truly excellent modelling.

Well done for tackling such tasks, I wouldn’t like to open up my Scale Trains loco but if I do need to, you have shown me how.

Also, well done for showing that G&W roads DO have considerable interest, I had rather ignored them until now.

Cheers,

 John 

[cooley_boy]

Having been busy with work of late I have managed to fit some time in for some more freight car building. 

Taking a break from doing the Ex BC Rail log cars as shown above I took a slight detour and decided to first work on a sister car which the PNWR uses also for log traffic.

 

 

 

These would be their ex Illinois Central Pulp wood cars which have simply had bunks added.

Simply enough to do.

 

 

So I aquired 10 Walthers Proto 2000 Pulpwood cars with a base black color to save some time later. 

These are hard to find but eventually got all ten.

Now these are slightly different than the ones in prototype with the obvious difference being the lower section in the center of the frames. 

Not being fused by this though I did the design work in CAD and was able to closely resemble the bunk design from photos including the indents in the connecting plates.

 

 

 

After a couple of prints a good support struture was found and 11 sets were printed with one being a spare.

 

 

Once the prints were done they were painted black and a first assemble was done. 

All that was needed was to cut slots in the side of the platform edge and the bunks simply slot into place.

 

 

 

 

 

Not bad so far.

Now I need to come up with the needed decals in order to match. 

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by cooley_boy

[cooley_boy]

Work has progressed on some more models and others have been updated.

Winter has been cold here and so I have not been doing any painting, of which I have 6 models waiting, so I decided to work on the electronic and details of others developing a new standard I will have for all my models. I will have to back date some models as I start new ones but I felt I was getting lazy in my wiring and that did not sit well.

 

The new electronic standard is as follows:

- ESU Loksound V5

- DCCconcepts Super Duper Extreme Stay Alive

- 3D printed speaker box with mobile speaker

- Wiring looms with plugs to allow for easy seperation of body from chassis

 

I started this with the PNWR 2303 and 2304 (now 2305) and back dated the 2301 and 2302.

 

Using the 2303 as the example we can see the wires fed into two looms. 

The speaker box in the back. The speaker in mounted underneath.

The decoder is mounted foward with the Stay Alive in the middle. 

 

 

 

The wiring color coding is non existent as I was using scraps will the new order was in the mail. 

When your model time is few a far between you do what you can.

In the Hood there are mounted two PCB board where all the thin LED wires and resistors are mounted to with the corrosponding harnesses are also mounted.

 

 

Externally the Athearn models of the GP39-2s are pretty good but as always they are generally based off the factory fitted finish and with the PNWR units the entire rear pilot is incorrect. Sigh.

Thank fully the process only takes a few hours.

- Modify and move the ditch lights.

- Fill in the holes

- Fit a new cut-level bar

- Paint elements to match prototype

- Add new MU sockets

- New air hoses as needed

- FRA relective tape

- Handrails

- Air Hose holders

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once that is done along with all the other details they look pretty smart.

 

[cooley_boy]

Well life on the railroad continues and once home I have been simply relaxing. I have been working through several projects in the background and am finally at a point where I can sit down and share some progress. 

 

 

I have made progress on the WPRR 49000 series log cars that I have in the works.

In the fitting process I found that the bottom segments on the bunks would bend outward in the printing process. This resulted in a bad fit. Instead I have decided to split the byunk design into the top, larger segment, and the two "feet". The other thing I did is to narrow the bolsters and cut some height off them after work with the cars. Seeing them in person gave a better perseption on their ratios.

 

 

The next thing was to order some custom decals from Circus City which turned out very well. 

I will have pictures once the first model is completed.

 

The next thing was to develop a kit to rebuild the bulkhead details with.

The model have angular bracing while the prototype has vertical bracing.

And the end beam is slanted and not straight.

 

 

Having drawn up the parts, several prints were done to check the fit and adjust as needed. 

In the print I designed holes for the fitting of the grab irons and air hose.

 

 

Now that is done the next thing is to put back the handrails and modify as needed before giving another coat of black.