Video of the Week

This week's video comes from Shannon Crabtree of the Virginia Midland. Shannon also has a blog. Link to the blog is located on the right side of my blog. Check it out and subscribe.


Shannon talks about train shows and some updates to his layout.


Enjoy!

Video of The Week

I am going to start a new segment in my blog dealing with videos found around the internet that I either have watched and used as a guide, or just find helpful for us in the modeling community. These will vary from Railfanning videos to How-To's and layout tours/updates.

First is a video from Dan at DansRailroad2011. I have seen many of his videos and I think they are great. They are long, average 15min, but he goes into detail explaining the model and what he has done with it.


In this video, Dan goes over fading down a LPG tank car. Its a very nice video and may help those who are getting into the whole weathering scene. Sit back and enjoy.

Don't forget to subscribe to his channel if you haven't already!


Have a great end to the weekend, and happy modeling!

Working on the Team Track/Transload Area

Today I pulled a project out hat I had been working on for quite some time. About a year ago I built a transload shed as I saw on an Atlas forum. First building I tried turned out terrible after i painted it. I tried again with some more Pikestuff kits I had. Turned out OK. I painted it and then weathered. The weathering was awful and the building looked out of place. So back to the drawing board.

After some more reading, and careful measuring and cutting and sanding, I came up with what is pictured below. The main body, door and garage doors are Pikestuff. The concrete base was made of strips from the Pikestuff kits. I painted them with a textured paint from Lowes. I then followed up with a primer gray to capture the cement/concrete look.

I still need to do some touch up painting around the base and add some detail parts.

Stairs are cast metal from a DPM kit and the railings are from a Walthers kit. I started to add the downspouts.

I will be adding another downspout for the other side and i will put a light fixture above the door. I plan on adding some decals and a light weathering job. I also have the industry name to put on the building as well.

Have a great rest of the weekend and happy modeling!

Some Motive Power

Looks like I intended to to a blog but never got around to it. I took photos of the MP15 I purchased. This was an undecorated unit with sound. I purchased it off of eBay. When I opened it up and began inspecting everything, I noticed that I was missing some handrails and grab irons. I checked Atlas' online store and determined that they did not have the parts I was looking for. Fearing they were out of stock, I contacted Atlas. They helped me out and mailed me all the parts I needed.

The new MP15 @ the transload facility.

Here she is all decaled. I still need to add the numbers to the cab and eventually the number boards. All decals are Mircoscale minus that Washington Northern Decals. I used various MP15 photos to get the accurate locations of the decals. You can't see it here, but I removed the stock figures and put a custom figure in. I ended up repainting the engineer's jacket to one a little modern. I used some lime green paint. I will try to get some close ups when it is all finished.

Its Been A LONG Time

Well it has been a long time since I did any modeling, let alone update this blog. I have a seen a few posts and videos from my fellow modelers and the modeling bug has bit me. SO today I started to clean up the work bench and get some things in place on the layout. Once i get a few things organized I think I will clean the track and ensure everything is working correctly. Stay tuned for some posts of some progress on some motive power, and getting some weathering done on some rolling stock.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Patched Out Power

Well it's been some time. Hoping to get back on track as work sometimes takes the front seat, as well as family. I was lucky enough to get some work done on some motive power. I scored a GP39-2 off eBay. It was an Atlas Trainman unit that had been weathered,and had Lok Sound decoder installed.

First thing I did was clean off the weathering. It wasn't very prototypical. I also removed the horn from the front and filled in the hole with some styrene rod.I touched up the area with some reefer orange paint. I then removed the factory BNSF lettering from the long hood. I then masked and airbrushed the reefer orange onto that area to finish the patch out. 

Next I added some BLMA RV AC units to the roof and relocated the horn. I had some of th BNSF Heritage Green, however it was not cooperating. I ended up painting a brass horn I had BN Cascade green to show the horn was replaced. I also added a small piece of metal rod between the AC units to represent an antenna as seen in the prototype photos. I also repainted the handrails yellow. Metal lift ringers were also added.

 I wasn't happy with the yellow handrails, so i reverted them back to white. I also touched up all the grab irons with white as well. I also removed the factory numbering on the unit. I kept the 2703 because of the number boards. I added some Gothic Numbers form a Microscale Industries sheet, and added the Washington Northern logos to the nose and below the numbers.

I'm currently in the process of updating all the warning and caution labels, and I will be adding some safety striping to the sill later. I also added some Details West MU receptacles with cable, Atlas Air Hoses and a Details West Plow to replace the Atlas one..

Below we have WN 2703 switching out the foods plant. 

Building Cassettes

Well since space is somewhat limited in my basement, I wanted to be able to have somewhere for the trains to depart from to deliver their cargo to the appropriate destinations. So looking through some books I figured on building a cassette would be the best option. I build a smaller one before for this layout when it was in construction phases in another location. It wasn't too bad for my first attempt but I knew I could do better.

I did some looking around online through various blogs and articles. I also did some reading in some Model Railroad magazines, forums and even a book. Taking all this research in and it then dawned on me I should just get this over with. I had more than enough information, but just felt the need to drag my feet for some reason. The other day I buckled down and begun building the cassettes. I figured on two so I could shuffle them as needed.

What I ended up doing was getting a piece of lumber from Lowe's. Nothing fancy just a 1x6 piece of lumber. I took that and cut it into two 4 foot sections. I then took thinner wood to make a U shaped frame. I glued the wood together and put some foam from a 2x2 project board on top. Once the glue dried, I added a coating of brown latex paint.

My next step is to add some track, and probably a wye to maximize the real estate. I also am going to put some side on the cassette to prevent and derailments resulting in a loss of assets.

(WARNING THIS IS A WORK AREA AND IT IS A SLIGHT MESS!)

Basic wood framed base

Foam Added

Painted up!