A new shed

I have been constructing the largest structure for Crow Car & Foundry. While I was waiting for the glue to dry on it, I began modifying a 50-cent shed I got at a train show a long time ago. After I broke the glue joints and removed the roof, I noted that the shed was manufactured by Quick Plastic. Here are 4 images of the shed ready to go to the paint shop and then have window glazing installed.

The pilings are Evergreen Styrene 6"x6" strip, the original toy-like doors were pried off and replaced by a door from my scrap box of odd doors. The stairs are from my drawer of odd stairs and the shed annex is from my collection of small, odd buildings. I am not sure who originally made the chimney. It came from my drawer of chimneys that I have collected over the years. The original roof was sanded flat and cut so as to allow for a roof shingle overhang. I then overlayed it with Dyna Models shake shingle roofing material using Walther's Goo as the adhesive. The roof cap boards are Evergreen Styrene 1"x10". The "metal" flashing where the chimney protrudes from the side of the structure was cut to size from an Evergreen 0.01 x 0.188 strip. Finally, the door handle with lock is from an Overland Models #9171 pack. I may add guy lines to help support the chimney as well as joints in chimney sections.

Ventilated Box Cars and a Stock Car

 It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy working on the railroad, however, and Donna, Socke & I took a vacation to Upton ME. Socke is the newest addition to the family. He is a 4 +/-year old German Shepard mix we adopted from the Brandywine Valley SPCA.

I digress, here are a couple of images of the latest rolling stock I have completed for the Delaware Central RR. They include Illinois Central Box Car kits from Alkem Scale Models (no longer in production), a reworked Alkem Scale Models ventilated bax car I inherited from Al Mueller's estate, and a reworked BTS covered stock car I inherited from the late Rhett Tyler.

The ventilated box cars are painted my favorite shade of slate blue, Model Masters Intermediate Blue (no longer available) with craft paint khaki tan roofs and Poly Scale Grimy Black hardware. The trucks are from Panamint Models with Reboxx wheels. The couplers are from San Juan Models. Car #490 on the far left of the images is the conversion from Al's car while cars 486 and 487 are the Alkem kits I built. In the drone view image, you can see that the brake staff on the car Al built is on a different side than the 2 ventilated box cars I built. I made the same mistake that Al made on one of my cars while building my 2 kits but chose an alternative construction remedy so that my 2 cars reflect the ICRR prototype.  

The covered stock car features scratch-built doors that Rhett built, and the trucks and wheels are the original ones Rhett installed on this car. I did remove the 2 brake wheels Rhett had installed on this car. One was TOO modern and extremely oversized and the other was too much of a variation from the original BTS kit for my liking as well as it did not measure up to Rhett's typical level of craftsmanship. I replaced these brake wheels with a BTS brake wheel and Tichy Train rachet mechanism to more closely match the 3 other BTS covered stock cars that I had previously built. I also removed the 2 end ladders Rhett had installed and used pieces of Northeastern Scale Lumber that I cut to replicate the end construction on the original BTS kit. The conversion is car number 135 in the images and the original cars I built from BTS kits are on the far right.

I had the pleasure of operating on my friend, Thom Radice's, W&A layout on Sunday. Be sure to visit his blog for more photos & video (https://western-and-atlantic-rr.blogspot.com/).  Here is a short video of my Conawago running light on his layout.

 A few days ago, I finished installing all of the turnout throw rods and wiring the rails and turnouts to the wire bus under the layout. Here is a short video of one of the test runs.

 Not all od the track is wired as yet as I am still waiting for the 22 awg male spade connectors to arrive (I ran out). However, trains are up and running on the Delaware Central Rail Road.

P&WV Coal Jimmies

Yesterday I finished up 7 coal jimmies for the layout. They are lettered for the Pittsburgh & West Virginia RR. They are 3D printed kits I purchased from the Train Shop on eBay. I had bought a pair several years ago and decided to order 2 more 2-packs. Because of some order issues, the proprietor was good enough to send me some extra parts. I almost had enough to finish a 7th car. I had to bend my own grab bars for this car from Tichy 0.020 phosphor bronze wire as the spare parts car body did not include these. All of the other 6 cars came with these as an integral part of the 3D printed car body. I also had to go through my parts box to scrounge up 2 coupler pocket lids for this 7th car. They are from MDC/Roundhouse. When decaling, I discovered there was a change in the n/b/w on the cars which necessitated slightly altering decal placement. The wheels are Reboxx 0.99 axle length 33" wheels. The car bodies are painted Tamiya linoleum brown with the journal boxes, brake wheels/staffs, and hardware painted Poly S grimy black to represent cast iron. The decals are from Champ decal set HN-81. I also discovered that Champ actually changed what lettering was included on each decal sheet over the years of production. On eBay, some sets don't include the very small PWV lettering that I used. The lettering was done following an image I have of an early Lehigh Valley RR coal jimmie. The couplers are from San Juan Models On3 part #147 and are a drop in fit to these couplers pockets. When assembling the cars, I discovered I needed to slightly drill out the journal boxes using a #59 drill bit after painting. They roll flawlessly now.

Rolling Stock Update

 I just finished up the latest additions to my rolling stock inventory. Here are a couple of images of the results.

I bashed these three 24' box cars from APAG narrow gauge box car kits. The trucks are from Panamint models, the wheels from Reboxx, the brake ratchet from Tichy Train, and the couplers from San Juan Models. The car bodies are painted Model Master Intermediate Blue. The roofs are painted Tamiya (USAF) Tan. I did not use the kit roofs but instead scratch built them from styrene from one of my old real estate signs. I also scratch built the roof walks from Northeast Scale Lumber 2x6s with Tichy roof walk supports. The kit roofs were peaked but the ones I made are arched (radial). The roof walks were painted with Barnwood craft paint and then a Vallejo dark grey wash was applied. I bent the grab bars from 0.0125 Tichy phosphor bronze wire. I a built car #100 on the left more than a decade ago but tore off the original roof to remove the weight I had originally installed. Also, the color of blue I used back then dfid not meet my current standards. There are some slight variations between it and the other 2 cars. Note the difference in size of the door handles and the grab bars on the ends of the cars. Also, car #100 has bumper blocks on the end sills while the other 2 cars have a more modern style of end beam. The truss rods are made from 10lb, monofilament, fishing line and the turnbuckles are from Tichy Train.

I also completed 2 Bram Models' Harlan & Hollingsworth box cars. Harlan & Hollingsworth was a 19th century car building firm located in Wilmington, DE. They built cars for many, many railroads. 

These cars are 3D prints I purchased on Shapeways. They are lettered for the Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad. The cars are based on information and images from John White's book on the American railroad freight car. In his book, White notes that the record indicates the prototypes were painted an ivory color with red wheels and a canvass roof that was tan in color. I painted the car bodies Polly-Scale aged white and the wheels and trim with Poly-Scale red. Vallejo ivory is a match for the now no longer available Poly-Scale Aged White. The roof walks are painted barnwood with a Vallejo dark grey wash. The "canvass" roofs were painted Vallejo (USAF) Tan. This is where I got the idea to paint the roofs on the 2 Delaware Central cars shown in the 1st photo, tan. The decals are custom made. I chose the car numbers based on car #720 shown in an image in white's book. I opted to paint all of the hardware, except the truss rods and couplers, red. White's book indicates that the hardware was black, but I liked the red instead. My fictional Delaware Central interfaces with the PW&B in Wilmington. During the Civil war, the president of the PW&B complained of his cars being used on other lines and not returned to the PW&B in a timely manner. That is my justification of running these 2 cars on my layout. The wheels are from Reboxx, the trucks from Eric Cox, and the couplers from Tichy Train. I made the grab bars from Tichy 0.0125 phosphor bronze wire. 

As a note, the stone factory in the background was about completed when I saw what someone else had done by bashing together 2 of these IHC kits. So, this factory is just sitting on the layout waiting for me to build something similar to the kit bash I saw.