Mike Boucher

That is one advantage of the US system/standard. On frieght cars, the brakes are activated from one end. So all you have to do is pull on one lever and the whole system "self equalizes" Caboose/passenger stock needs brake wheels on either end. I've built a model of a caboose with brake rigging, but its a bit more complex.

The most work, by far, was done on the Erie 4 bay covered hopper. I had started working on the brake rigging, and this work continued. An interesting feature of this car is the way that the brake rigging is activated by the brake cylinder. There is a beam which runs diagonally on the end, holding a fixed pivot for the brake rigging. There is another beam which goes between this fixed pivot, attached to the brake cylinder, and then continues to below the chassis. When the brake cylinder is activated, this causes all the brake rigging to pull on the brakes on the trucks. A resin casting is provided for these beams. Here's where I found I had made a mistake. The support for the slope sheet at the end should be centered above the bolster, not in line with the end of the side sheet. this would have given more room for the brake mechanism. As it was, I had to do a lot of trimming and some creative assembly to get this part in. The pivot point (and the brake cylinder) should be further "inboard" After that, the rest of the brake gear was pretty standard. Because the cylinder is above the frame, the brake rod doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the end. The pivot is centered at the brake cylinder. This is also fairly unique. I hacked up the plastic part (from intermountain) to get it to fit.The ajax brake wheel and brake platforms are in place. Etched brake platform came with the roofwalks. I added some details to the sides of the ends... Now about the only thing left to do is the mechanism on the roof to lock the hatches shut. Still researching exactly how this should look...

Its been an interesting few weeks around the treatment room. 4 weeks in the hospital over the past 6 weeks. Most of that time I was in no shape to do work, but towards the end I was able to get work done. I'm breaking this update into a few, smaller, updates. First, the N scale passenger car for the wreck train. To match the extended car, the roof was spliced longer. I filled the gaps (must more obvious than on the sides) and used some styrene to fill in the clerestory windows. Next was to start on the underframe. I've attached the end platforms. I have to determine the distance beteen the trucks before I attach the bolsters, and then center the section with the truss rods next.

Before I got released from the hospital, I got a little more work done. Yes, I'm out!!! but I still have a LOT of follow up appointments and infusions which will need to be done, First was 3 more cars for the N scale wreck train. I realized I had a 5th kit, for a drop bottom gondola. Here are the crew car, tool car, and the gondola. With the weather warming up, I should be able to get these painted relatively soon... Many wreck trains also had a old passenger car converted to MOW service. I had these two Roundhouse kits for "shorty" passenger cars. Previously, I kitbashed a few of these together to make longer passenger cars for a Boston and Maine branch line freight. Since I still had 2, I decided to do the same thing to make a longer passenger car. the original kit makes a 34' car, the kitbashed car is about 55'. Still shorter than the prototype, but it give the "look and feel" I'm after. The two kits: The cars cut apart... And re-joined to make a longer car. If you look above the body, on the "self healing mat", you can see I've done similar work on the roof. I still need to do some body-filling on the roof joint, since its a) more visible, and b) harder to hide than the body. I've also reached a "major milestone" on the Erie 4 bay covered hopper. The floor and the body have been joined. With this done, I can start working on the brake gear. First, I added the thru-brake line. This has to cross from one side of the bolster to the other, which I did on the "non-brake" end. Not sure the line is exactly correct, but it gets the point across. I also added a few small styrene pieces to represent the brackets the brake line would hang off of. This being done, the brake "platform" which was previously built was installed on the brake end. I have to re-work the line between the triple valve and the brake line, as the plastic molded piece isn't quite right. I then have to install a resin brake lever, which one end is anchored, the middle connects to the brake cylinder, and the lower end is then connected to the brake rigging under the chassis (still to be done) In these photos, you can also see where I "daylighted" the area of the chassis between the end slopes and the end of the car. The instructions dont say to do this, but I think it makes it look better.

Thanks for the well wishes. But, there is a silver lining to the difficulties. They're signs that the treatment is working, so the doctors want to see some of it, but not where it gets completely out of control. The amount I had was just about what they expected, and preliminary tests are showing positive results. So if those preliminary tests are shown to be accurate, then I'm in good shape.

Well, I checked myself into the hospital on Feb 24th. And this is the first chance I've had to update the treatment room. One of the reasons is that I had some fairly significant side effects from the treatment, and there's about 4-5 days in there where I don't really remember anything. Lets just say that I had a fever as high as 103.5, and I was having serious issues with a side effect called Neurotoxicity, where I was damn close to delusional. So, needless to say I didn't get a lot done. The first thing was to do some work on the O scale hopper. There are "vibrators" on each of the hopper doors, which help with unloading the cars. Each pair of doors has a frame around them, and each door has a vibrator which goes from the frame to the hopper door. These all took a lot of filing, sanding, and fitting These are handed, and after getting glued in place, the stiffener rods between them was added. One thing that's not obvious is that the holes aren't lined up correctly, so the bars aren't perpendicular to the chassis. Its obvious when you look at the chassis from "straight down", but not as much when its on the track. The next step was to install the end slope sheets and the supports. The slope sheets need fitting so they fit between the roof and the chassis. The supports were too short as cast. I had to add about 1/4" on the bottom of each of them so they fit between the slope sheets and the chassis. You can see the styrene I added by looking for a color change. I don't have a picture, but I've cut out from the chassis so you can see the air between the slope sheet and the chassis. I'm still working on fitting styrene to complete the slope sheet on the chassis. I also assembled the trucks, and here's the first photo of the test-fitting the chassis to the body with the trucks attached. Next step is either doing the brake rigging (details of which are sparse in the instructions) or work on the detailing of the hatches on the top. I think I'll work on the hatches as the chassis needs to be fit to the body in order to work on the brakes. and I can't attach the chassis until weight is added. I decided to build several "small" N scale kits instead of starting a larger project. Years ago, I bought a complete set of a wreck train from dimi-trains. These are now out of production, although I understand Intermountain has released this as an assembled set. The 4 cars are a "big hook", boom car, crew car and tool car. The first one I built was the "big hook". Here's a photo of the box, and all the plastic sprues. A couple hours later, the crane was assembled as far as I can take it without painting. After the last photo was taken, I added body-mounted couplers and trucks. The next day I built the boom car. This took around an hour. In the last photo, you can see the chassis of the hook with trucks/couplers and the assembled boom car. These are both ready for painting In addition to the 4 dimi-trains kits, I also plan on having a wooden passenger car, a caboose, and a tender (for the steam big hook) in the wreck train. Hopefully I'll be released from the hospital soon, but I'll still have treatments to undergo, mostly blood infusions. when I'm discharged, I'll update how far I've gotten

The past few weeks have been interesting, to say the least. there have been sessions in the treatment room where I had zero energy to do anything, and there were times where I got some work done. I've been admitted to the hospital for my treatment, so hopefully I'll have plenty of time to work over the next week, and not have to deal with side effects. First, I put the transfers on the LMS milk tank... 4 Of course, once they were dried I noticed that the "S" in Dairies shifted up, so I'll have to either a) buy another set of transfers and fix it, b) figure out a way to move it (soak with methfix solution and try shifting it?) or c) weather the tank more heavily than I had planned . Leaning towards C. Once the weather warms up a bit, I'll paint and letter the chassis and get the tank permanently attached. Now to the Erie covered hopper. Once the floor was fit to the body, the instructions say to drill the mounting hole for the trucks and couplers. One thing I've noticed is that this resin is quite soft, so I didn't exactly trust it to hold a thread very well. As I did on the wooden C&O caboose, I made some brass inserts to glue into the floor. The truck mounting ones are 1/4" diameter, and threaded 4-40. The coupler mounting ones are 1/8" diameter and threaded 2-56. To keep the coupler ones at the appropriate distance for the Kaydee couplers I'm going to use, I soldered them to a sheet of .010" thick brass, which I planned on gluing to the top of the floor. Once glued in, here's what it looks like. When I was test fitting one end, the solder between the mounting lugs and the .010" brass broke, but the holes were already drilled and I didn't have a soldering iron, so I just glued them in. I still need to clear the excess resin from the holes. Next was to attach the roofwalk and grab irons on the body. This took an amazing amount of time. For the roofwalk, I couldn't find any etched 50' long roofwalks, so I purchased 2 40' long ones, and did my best to hide the "joint" in the middle. Unless you know where to look, its not very obvious, and once painted it should be even less obvious. Each end takes 15 grab irons, and two additional braces. That's a lot of .022" holes to drill. Even more fiddly was the fact that the pre-formed grabs supplied weren't long enough. Which mean each grab needed to be custom fit. Rather than bend up completely new ones from brass wire, I did my best to "lengthen" the provided ones by angling each end a little bit. Once again, I'm hoping this isn't too obvious once done and painted, but I'm not going to enter this in any modelling contests... The next step was to assemble the brake cylinder, triple valve, and reservoir on a resin platform, and install the piping. The real hopper didn't have this platform, but this makes it a lot easier to get everything together. And that's where we are now. As I make progress over the next week, I'll be posting updates, hopefully every couple of days or so.

Resurrecting an old photo, as I recently learned more information about this bridge which makes it MUCH more interesting that I realized. There was a short blurb about it in the newsletter of the Boston and Maine Historical Society which I recently received. Turns out this bridge was part of the oldest chartered company which eventually got merged into the B&M... They don't own the bridge, but they still own the company. I'll give you the chronology in reverse order, to keep the "punchline" at the end! The bridge itself was owned by the B&M until 1992, when it was sold to the state of New Hampshire. Tolls were collected until 2001. After 1985, it was the only privately owned toll bridge in the state. As previously stated, before the B&M acquired it, it was owned by the Springfield Terminal Railway Company. The ST acquired the bridge sometime before 1901, and the B&M acquired the ST on June 28 1930. The first bridge was built on that site in 1804, by the Cheshire Bridge Corporation. Previously, there was a ferry know as Olcott's Ferry, The original chartered corporation was granted to Simeon Olcott "authorizing the transportation of people and animals across the Connecticut River between Charlestown, NH, and Springfield, VT." The original charter was granted in 1772 by King George III, 4 years before the American Revolutionary war started. King George III. I find that amazing.

Hi Pete, This weekend, my model engineering club is having its show at the museum where the 4.75" gauge loco my friend built is on dispay. Anything you want photos of? I may be able to get some, unless the reflecting off the glass is too challenging... Mike

That makes sense. I only use stops when I'm making multiple pieces and i'm switching pieces in and out of the vise. Whenever I re-orient a single piece, I use the edge finder (on the same edge as initially if at all possible)

Hi folks, I'm still a novice with 3D printing, but I've done some pretty interesting designs using FreeCAD, mostly parts for a 3.5" gauge passenger car truck which I need to use as patterns for castings. EG: However, for a different project, I want to produce what's basically a cast "builders plate". Raised text on a somewhat flat background, with a fancy font and lettering following curves. Similar to this: Making the plate back doesn't seem too hard. Its the text that I'm struggling with. Seems to me that in FreeCAD you would want to use the Part Design to create the lettering, and the extrude it to whatever thickness I want. However, there's no obvious way (to me at least) do to the text other than drawing it one line/curve at a time, which seems quite tedious. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I could do this? Thanx! Mike

I've found that the new software is a LOT easier to attach photos that then old. Drag the files from your PC/mac folder right into the create post section, set the mouse where you want a photo, and click the + in the appropriate photo. You can drag all the files in one operation. Before, it was click a button, find the file (one at a time), then it would show the path, and you had to click another button to upload the file to the forum, and then you had to click a 3rd button to insert the photo. As for your C clamp stop, I'm not sure I follow why you needed the stop there. BTW - Now I've found yet another model engineering forum to follow. Ugh, too many forums to read! (RMweb, modelenginemaker, homemodelenginemachinst, and now the model engineering clearing house... )

Quick diversion/flashback... Yesterday, the weather here just outside of Boston was outrageously unseasonable. Boston hit 65 degrees F (18 C). New record for high temperature for the day, and those 1.5 million people who went to the Patriot's superbowl victory parade were loving it. I, however, decided that it would be a good day to get some paint on a few of the treatment room projects which were still in "bare plastic". The two things I painted were the On3 porter chassis and tender, and the tank for the LMS milk tank. For the porter, I used my Paasche VL with the finest needle. I could get paint right in on parts that needed paint, but also manage to keep most of the paint of the driver treads and backs. I do need to do some cleaning up, but its pretty good. Next step here is to attach the electric motor, soldering in the wires and testing/tweaking how well it runs. I didn't paint the body for a few reasons. Primarily, someone on an On3 forum I visit sent me pictures of cutting away the boiler bottom in order to get a DCC decoder and small speaker inside the boiler (I thought I would need to put those in the tender). Since I haven't done this yet, it didn't seem to paint when I still needed to do some cutting. The tank was using a rattle can of gloss white from Testors. Took 3 coats to fully cover the gray plastic/brass. The 3rd coat is slightly orange-peeled, but you can only notice it when it reflects. Once the transfers are on, its been dull-coted, and weathered, it should look fine.

The pile driver looks nice. I'll admit I didn't realize how much white metal is in the kit, I thought it was virtually all plastic. And that engine unit is quite lovely. Once again, I didn't realize the kit included that level of interior detail. As for the size differential, its amazing how large US prototype is, even narrow gauge, when compared to British prototype. Even when you consider the 1:48 vs 1:43.5 difference. For example...

Photos would be fantastic. Thanx! and hopefully, once digging it out, you'll be inspired to finish it! Mike

Thanx. I figure I have two choices: Press on or give up. Not much of a choice, so I keep going. And building these models in "bad circumstances" certainly helps with my attitude towards everything. I've had some nurses that seemed genuinely excited to see my progress, they were amazed at some of the stuff I've made. Did you build the pile driver, or one of their other kits? I have 5-6 of their kits, but haven't built one yet. I like the idea of copies of the drawings at scale. Identifying castings can be a challenge, and I like your idea.

Hi folks, YEARS ago, I acquired a set of castings for a reasonably large horizontal stationary steam engine. 1.5 bore x 3.5" stroke cylinder. The flywheel is about 11" diameter. The base casting is almost 24" long. I had been working on it for a while, but then stopped. One of the problems is that the plans were rather poor. Badly photocopied copies of hand-drawn sketches with missing dimensions and a lot of "to be determined at assembly". A few years ago, I had some medical issues, and my immune system was seriously compromised. I wasn't allowed to do any modeling. Couldn't work in my shop (possible mold in basement). Couldn't use solvent glues or paints (fumes might cause respiratory issues). No woodworking (mold/spores in the wood, sawdust). It was seriously annoying. What I decided to do was some model engineering design work. I took the bad drawings, the castings, and measuring tools, and started working out what I needed to do. At the same time, I downloaded a free 2D software package, Draftsight, and started learning how to use it. Over the next year or so, I worked out a set of drawings that would allow me to complete the engine. For example, here's the cylinder... Once I recovered, I decided that I would focus on getting this engine "up and running". I made a "New Years Resolution" to get it running by my local model engineering club's annual show. Well, I missed last year, but the show this year is Feb 16th, and I should have it running, but not all the finish work done. I'm just about done, but I recently decided to start a thread on it. So, First a summary, then you'll see more of the "finishing" work. Once this is done, I'll continue the thread with my next project(s)... Here's what the set of castings looked like when I picked up work on it. Most of the castings to basic dimensions, but a long way to go! After machining the cylinder, here's the valve surface. The crosshead and steam chest was fun. In my basement shop, I have a 7" shaper. If I need a mill, I have to go to my father's shop. So, I made these parts using the shaper... Here's machining the crosshead... And the steam chest. The latest, and last major part I worked on was the connecting rod. I wanted to make "marine style" ends, but didn't really need to. So I semi-cheated and used a solid (not split) bearing, and then made the rest. The gib and key, and the slot for them, was definitely a lot of slow and careful work. So, now to start assembly. Like I said, I'll still need to do a lot of finish work, but I should be running soon.

Its been an interesting few weeks around the treatment room. But more on that as I go along… The next step in the instructions is to put on the hatches. A few weeks ago, I was getting an infusion, so I started to clean up the flash from these parts. I got 6 of them done cleaned up, none attached, and started to have a serious reaction to the infusion. Insanely itchy hives, nausea, light headedness, all bad. While the nurses stabilized me, they started putting away the modeling supplies (trust me, I was in no condition to do it myself). I spent the night in the ER being monitored and getting more remediation. So, not much got done then. When I got home, I found that one of the 6 hatches disappeared in the chaos. They're only about 3/4" square, so I'm sure one just hit the floor and wasn't noticed (I probably was the one that sent it flying). Replacing this part, and continuing with the remaining hatches was where I picked up. Fortunately, its an easy part to replicate. Some .040" thick styrene, and some .020" styrene strips and we're good. (the new one is the one on the right) After all 12 were on, the roof was looking a little better. The replacement is obvious in this photo, but paint will take care of that The next step, interestingly enough, is to install the roofwalk. Seems like a fragile part for so early in construction, but I'm following the instructions. The prototype has a grated roofwalk with rectangular slots. Unfortunately, the resin roofwalk is fairly awful. Its a strip of thin resin with a bunch of "holes" cast about 1/2 of the depth. The holes aren't see through, not exactly in a straight line, and aren't evenly spaced either. I quickly decided that the kit-provided one just wouldn't do. After some online shopping, I've found an etched stainless roofwalk for a 40' car, but this car is about 50' long. But, that's all thats available, unless I want plastic (which won't be "etched thru"). So, I ordered two of the 40' versions and I'll cut/solder them together as needed. They should be here in a few days. Jumping ahead a little bit, the next major step is to fit the floor to the body. The floor is a pretty substantial construction, clearly made up from several smaller castings and assembled by the manufacturer. However, it was also significantly wider than the body, at least 1/8". It probably took 1 1/2 hours of filing, sanding, and measuring (to make sure width was correct and the center beam remained centered) before I could slide the floor into the body. Its not to be glued in yet, but here's what it looks like in position. As before, there were some small gaps on either end between the floor and the lower bracket on the ends. Some .020" styrene solved that issue quickly. There are also a few blobs of glue/resin/something-or-other that will need to be cleaned up. I described the floor as a "substantial construction". Its HEAVY. Right now, the car weighs over 10 ounces. When you figure in the trucks with metal wheel sets I have, I'm already very close to the right weight for a car this length. I may not need to add any lead to this car. And that's where we are now with the Erie covered hopper. Back to the LMS milk tank, I've also figured out how to build the ladder for the 2000 gal milk tank. I noticed there was a piece on the etch that were labeled "œJig" with slots at the top. With two etches, that gives me two jigs. I did a bunch of fiddling, taping, clamping, etc to get these two little jigs lined up and the two ladder etches held so they wouldn't flop around as soon as the solder iron touched it. It was pretty jury-rigged but I managed to soldered the first rung on. ...and turned it around in the jig and soldered two other rungs. Now that the ladder was reasonably solid, I didn't need the jig anymore. After soldering in the remaining rungs. It still needs cleaning up (and the 2nd ladder needs to be made!), but here's what it looks like resting in position. While driving around yesterday, I realized an easier way to do it. When I build the 3000 gallon kits, I'll need to make a lot more ladders. All I needed to do was super-glue them on opposite ends of a piece of scrap brass stock I had kicking around, about 1/2” long. Then, I don't have to mess around with clamps, tape, etc, the jig will be nice and solid. I could drill/tap the etched pieces on if I wanted to make it a more substantial jig. And I'm kicking myself for not thinking of that first. Probably took an hour to make the first ladder, I figure with this jig it'll be 10-15 minutes for the 2nd. After I'm done, I'll put it in the box for one of the 3K gallon kits. And now, the rest of the story: I’m going to have a scheduled inpatient treatment at the end of February. I’ll be in the hospital for about a week, so I’m pondering the next projects to bring for that extended stay. I was looking around in the project pile, and found a 4th 3000 gallon LMS milk tanker kit. (I knew I had 3, don’t remember where the 4th came from!) I’m considering bringing two of those, but we’ll see. Another option is an On3 kit of a D&RGW pile driver, with idler flat, from San Juan. (There are a few photos from someone else's build here: http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12457&whichpage=2 ) including photos of it in both up and down positions) I'll admit I'm heavily leaning towards this one, as its such a unique piece of rolling stock, and it'll look nice behind my K-28 . There are also a few N scale projects which are close to the top of the pile. I’m sure as I get closer I’ll be making the decision there. Until next time…

Being a Boston and Maine fan, this is pretty cool. Tangent has announced a run of GATC airslide hoppers in the one-of-a-kind "Prince Spaghetti" paint scheme. The B&M historical society made a run of this paint scheme years ago, and they're very hard to find, and expensive when you do. (I have the N scale version)... https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/product/boston-and-maine-prince-spaghetti-1984-gatc-4180-airslide/?fbclid=IwAR21jziEKdo7LattNN2HGZhC_1Fd5uXYdMHcR1i36_Xig_P2LleZvaR66aw

Uncle Pete has created a "steam club" where you give them your email address, and they'll send you "exclusive news" about the UP steam program, including scheduling information and "members only" videos. https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/club/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR3bZvpLROyujtBeoVm6qEJBAUXhKSoH_aE6qr3z-AH87q8OSw2UwbjrVzE They've also said that they'll be releasing 4014's schedule in February, for events "leading up to" the golden spike celebration. This article also says that UP will "tour other parts of the UP system" after the golden spike. http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/01/23-mid-february-for-ups-big-boy-4014-schedule-this-spring?fbclid=IwAR1WMBZ1NDjM5g7U3l8wSWI5Ejr-7lUg-SfdxVyqJQPcIG1Mb2DpkSmGwl4#.XEk0blrz26w.facebook

Cross-posting from the HO product news thread... Not entirely new, but the N Scale Architect is displaying the prototypes for their new N and HO laser cut wood station at the "Big E" train show in West Springfield, MA this weekend. This looks like a very nice piece of kit. I've purchased one of their N scale kits, and the quality is excellent. From their Facebook post from earlier today: "We expect to start shipping HO kits by the end of February and the N-Scale kits by the end of March. The HO kits will be available exclusively from the New York Central System Historical Society (nycshs.org). The N-Scale kits will be available on our website THENARCH.COM and local retailers." Photos of the HO station, and more details of the prototype, found here... https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/112577-ho-north-american-product-news/?p=3443445

Not entirely new, but the N Scale Architect is displaying the prototypes for their new N and HO laser cut wood station at the "Big E" train show in West Springfield, MA this weekend. This looks like a very nice piece of kit. I've purchased one of their N scale kits, and the quality is excellent. From their Facebook post from earlier today: "These are photos of the completed 'Lines West Station' HO pilot model. It measures approximately 18.0” x 6.5” x 4.0”. We will be bringing this model with us to the big Amherst Railway Society Show this weekend in Springfield, MA. Please be sure to stop by our booth in the Young Building (Booth #86A-M) to check it out ! We expect to start shipping HO kits by the end of February and the N-Scale kits by the end of March. The HO kits will be available exclusively from the New York Central System Historical Society (nycshs.org). The N-Scale kits will be available on our website THENARCH.COM and local retailers." From an earlier posting: "Based on a standard design used by the Big Four, LE&W, NYCS and Nickel Plate railroads at dozens of locations in Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Designed from prototype drawings and in conjunction with the New York Central System Historical Society. These kits will feature a laser-engraved 'limestone' base, self-stick brickwork, single-piece 'asphalt' shingles and a micro-plywood support structure."

Over the Christmas->New Years holiday, I had a few visits to the treatment room. Unfortunately, one of those visits I was diagnosed with Influenza A, so not much got done during that visit. I have mostly recovered, but I spent the better part of a week sitting on the couch watching either the “festive features” of the Premier League, US football games, or movies. I also found some energy to add decals to a few of the intermountain hoppers I had been working on. 3 are “finished”, one is 2/3rds done, and one still needs to be started. Photos will be forthcoming when all 5 are decaled. For the LMS milk tank, I found time/energy at home to solder the clamp castings onto the tank lid, and buy some .032 brass wire. At the last treatment room visit, I glued on the lid and the last of the bracing wire. This completes all the construction I can do at the treatment room for now. Before I can do anything else, I need to paint the tank and the chassis, and solder together the ladders and the tank bands. I’ve realized that, while the instructions don’t specify the width of the ladders, there is a piece on each etch which is labeled “jig”. I’m going to assume that these two jig pieces are to hold the ladder sides to the correct width and maintain parallelism. I should be able to solder these pieces sometime in the next few weeks. Painting is a big question, as the weather has been hovering below freezing for more than a few days (todays high is 25F) and I do most of my painting outside (at least theres no snow...). If there’s no warmup into the 40s in the long range forecast, I may attempt do to some in my basement, but I’ll have to bring the air compressor inside… As for the resin covered hopper, I’ve also made progress on this. I glued the sides onto the roof, being as careful as possible to line up the center rib on the roof with the center rib on the side. I’m a little off, but its less than a mm, so it shouldn’t be terribly obvious. One end lined up almost perfectly, but the other end didn’t. The sides are slightly longer than the roof, leaving an obvious gap on that end. This isn't completely unexpected with resin. The good news is that the sides are the same length, just slightly shorter than the roof. (I haven't tested against the floor yet) I worked on the “perfectly aligned” end first, and decided that would be the brake end. (the end castings are different, depending on if its the brake end or not) The width of this casting was spot on, but the vertical ribs weren’t centered correctly, and the ribs which form the end ladder would have been too far apart for the wire grab irons. Trimming that side until the ribs were centered, and the end ladder ribs are the correct distance meant there was a gap on the other side. I filled this gap with some .030” thick styrene strip For the other end, before I could think about attaching the end casting, I needed to extend the roof. I used some .040” square styrene, sanding to blend it in. There’s also a short vertical piece on the end which needed extending. I also added a similar spacer on the inside of the top of the end piece, so the top isn’t “floating in air”. While this makes the “indent” on the top of that end deeper, I’m not terribly worried about it, it’ll take a very critical eye to notice the depth difference, and its not like I’m going to enter this in any model contests… I didn’t have time to actually attach that other end piece on, as it has similar issues as the other end. it needs trimming on one end to keep the ribs symmetrical on the center, and therefore a gap to be filled on the opposite side. that’ll be the first step in the next visit. Until next time…

No argument from me. (and another friend has a 6 cylinder E type...)

A friend had a Land Rover for a while. He had a tee shirt with a picture of a Land Rover on it. The text said, "The Italians design their cars to represent their idea of feminine beauty. So do the British"