O Gauge C&NW

@Charlie posted:

Missing an image of the H1 (4-8-4) from Sunset, but here is my small sampling of CNW.

Same as Melgar's above with blackened drivers and upgraded to TMCC.

Charlie

I have the PS1 version of this loco, too. I have blackened the drivers, but have yet to upgrade it to ERR. I am sort of torn, as I have no particular affinity for the CNW, but the loco is gorgeous and it's a 4-6-4. 4-6-4's are hard to not want. It's too pretty - exquisite, even - to fiddle with the paint and decoration (or to sell), so what do I do with a CNW loco? Heck, I even have a set of passenger cars that match; I ran across a fantastic price on the package years ago. Sigh - it's a burden. 

Did you know that the C&NW was a subsidiary of the Southern Railway?

Joke - kind of. The "Carolina & Northwestern", abbreviated "C&NW". I believe that it owned only one Southern-scheme diesel locomotive (a GP-something) and had small "C&NW" lettering on the cab side near the engine number. One has been offered in 3RO - Weaver, I think.

@WITZ 41 posted:

A couple of MTH offerings:

MTH Steel Sided Cupola Caboose

A fantasy I'm afraid.  The CNW had many Woodside Cupola Caboose.  I can't find any evidence of a steel sided one.  The details are nice and an interior with figure too.

Oh, to lay my hands in an accurate brass one at a reasonable price.   

I have the book CNW FINAL FREIGHT CAR ROSTER  from the CNWHS. Northwestern had only Bay window cabooses at the time of merger.  The only cupola cabooses came from the Rock Island or the CGW, which were used in MOW  trains.

This must be one of those cabooses. This photo was taken at Proviso Yard in 1943 by Jack Delano, and is in the collection of the Library of Congress.

@jay jay posted:

This must be one of those cabooses. This photo taken at Proviso Yard in 1943 by Jack Delano, and is in the collection of the Library of Congress.

Note that this C&NW caboose is NOT the same as the MTH model photos, posted above. That MTH model is simply a Santa Fe caboose painted up for C&NW (note the windows and cupola are typicle Santa Fe).

I would like to know whether the 1943 Jack Delano photograph of the C&NW red caboose #12432 was taken with color film or black-and-white and colorized.

MELGAR

@MELGAR posted:

I would like to know whether the 1943 Jack Delano photograph of the C&NW red caboose #12432 was taken with color film or black-and-white and colorized.

MELGAR

The photos for which he is best known were taken on color film. I believe he shot with early Kodacolor, using large format equipment. I have a book featuring his great railroad photos.

@MELGAR posted:

I would like to know whether the 1943 Jack Delano photograph of the C&NW red caboose #12432 was taken with color film or black-and-white and colorized.

MELGAR

I believe that Mr. Delano did actually use color film on occasion. Most likely Kodak ASA 10, color negative film in the 4X5 format.

Melgar, the Delano image was (Color 4x5), actually there are at least two images from this session, there may be more, but I have only seen two. Since there are several Delano images from the Proviso Yard, (where the caboose images were taken), I assume he was passing through Chicago on his way west.

Regarding the MTH Caboose the Bill T posted, The MTH caboose is a Santa Fe Steal Prototype (Ce 3~4? type) and the Chicago & North Western Caboose is a Woodside Caboose.

Just to add a bit more information regarding Delano images. While much of the volume of work was done in B&W, there is a fairly large collection of Color work also and much of it was shot in Chicago, not all though.

One idea that had crossed my mind is that developing color on the road was very difficult and for a traveling photographer, nearly impossible. I suspect, the proximity of a Kodak lab in Chicago might have had part in making the decision to have Jack Deleno shoot color. One correction I made, is that based on the date of the images, he would have had to shot 35mm or 828 film as 4x5 Kodachrome did not come until later. Regardless, Kodachrome or Color negative, it would still have been difficult to have processed while traveling so I do suspect his location to a Kodak lab probably had an impact on what medium he shot - this is just a guess though.

Hope this helps.

Charlie

@WITZ 41 posted:

Nice pics Matt. Thanks for posting. Yes, it seems the CNW yellows we're all over the place after the post war period.  So often photo evidence is inconsistent when it comes to accurately capturing it.

I fear I may have infected you. 😉

...

Oh, to lay my hands in an accurate brass one at a reasonable price.   

MTH Steel Sided Stock Car

...

W.

Thanks. I got lucky a few years ago and happened upon a Division Point brass CNW Woodside Cupola caboose. It comes with additional detail parts which I haven't installed. I've run it on occasion at the club a couple of times, but I don't want to ding it up. They show up on eBay on occasion. DP did a nice one with a cupola windows and a cargo side door in H.O., but to my knowledge they didn't do one in O scale.

Still looking for that elusive Yellow Jacket Pacific at a reasonable price.

As I stated and Bill, and John, and Jack, and Matt concurred the MTH caboose is not prototypical. It's just fun.

Matt, great pic.  I've been looking for a Division Point one myself.  I'm kit bashing a drover myself. And I spoke to Brother Love about perhaps he making a couple for me.  I have the necessary CNW drawings files for the Drover cabose and photos, 2 rail trucks and decals.  It is the next $$ project $$ after the Wichman 400 cars.  If others are interested maybe we can all work something out.

Awesome discussion about the Delano photographs.

Now on the more silly side....

I was running an errand today and passed by this newer restaurant/pub in Bloomington......

I have not been there but it has some interesting style. Don't think I'll bother with any discussion of prototype on this one!

@AGHRMatt posted:

Thanks. I got lucky a few years ago and happened upon a Division Point brass CNW Woodside Cupola caboose. It comes with additional detail parts which I haven't installed. I've run it on occasion at the club a couple of times, but I don't want to ding it up. They show up on eBay on occasion. DP did a nice one with a cupola windows and a cargo side door in H.O., but to my knowledge they didn't do one in O scale.

Still looking for that elusive Yellow Jacket Pacific at a reasonable price.

Actually, Division Point did make an O scale brass C&NW side door caboose.  I picked one up many years ago:

@WITZ 41 posted:

Now on the more silly side....

I was running an errand today and passed by this newer restaurant/pub in Bloomington......

I have not been there but it has some interesting style. Don't think I'll bother with any discussion of prototype on this one!

Is that Bloomington Illinois?  If it is I smell a road trip! Only 90 minutes from my house.

@Jtrain posted:

Actually, Division Point did make an O scale brass C&NW side door caboose.  I picked one up many years ago:

The hunt begins. 😊

Well, all of the post-war and semi-scale C&NW I happen to have access to has already been posted...howsomeever, there's still pre-war and early post-war tinplate.

Ives

Marx

Well, since we're talking tin, this one is by Hafner, but I don't think its prototypical.

Robert, John: Fantastic tin plate collections and thanks for sharing. Proof again that there are many ways to enjoy this hobby!

Charlie

I assume everyone has seen the new premium from Menards.

The just released MTH hoppers on my layout.

@DG posted:

The just released MTH hoppers on my layout.

Do you have the part number on those? I totally missed these.

The part number is 20-97390 and they are from the 2020 Volume 2 catalog.

Cool truck Jay

Nice hoppers DG.

Williams GP9 that the USPS tried to destroy in shipment.

I replaces all that was broken and straightened the frame and railings.Looks and runs great now. has an older kicked Goose horn.

A matching Williams Caboose coming soon from TRAINZ.

@DG posted:

The part number is 20-97390 and they are from the 2020 Volume 2 catalog.

Thanks.

12/16/20 Update: The pair just arrived. Going to switch them over to scale wheels and Kadees this weekend and will post photos.

Took the photos for my inventory database at the club Wednesday. Put MTH scale trucks and Kadee 745's on them yesterday. will run them on the layout tomorrow. It's harder to get the car apart than change out everything. Thanks again for the heads up, DG.

Two-railed and ready for testing.

Glad to help..they look nice with the scale wheels and Kadee couplers.

Also finished assembling a trio of Weaver 34-foot PS2 covered hoppers. I love the 34-foot PS2 hopper because it's a scale sized car that works well for smaller layouts. In 3-rail, they'll negotiate O-27 (13.5" radius) curves.

My understanding is that they also carry different commodities, which makes them suitable for various industries. I have a BUNCH of them in various road names which I'm going to eventually switch over to 2-rail.

Here are my MTH Premier CNW PS-2-CD high-sided covered hoppers.

They are accurately painted. One thing they could not recreate is the tiny, intricate CLINTON CAR SHOPS decal.

Also shown are the two Atlas O Trainman CGW/CNW PS-2 3-bay covered hopper.

Andrew

Falcon Service

Nice hoppers guys!

Steve at Mr. Muffin's Trains was kind enough to contact Lionel for me to see if these were still going to be made.  He confirmed they would.

I just placed my order....

Lionel 3-18210 - LionScale - Woodside Reefer "Northwestern Refrigerated" (6-Car)

These will be my first Lionscale cars.  I'm interested to review quality and build.

@WITZ 41 posted:

Nice hoppers guys!

Steve at Mr. Muffin's Trains was kind enough to contact Lionel for me to see if these were still going to be made.  He confirmed they would.

I just placed my order....

Lionel 3-18210 - LionScale - Woodside Reefer "Northwestern Refrigerated" (6-Car)

These will be my first Lionscale cars.  I'm interested to review quality and build.

Those are the Weaver/Crown molds. Should be nice. If they're consistent with some of the more recent Lionel releases, converting them to scale wheels and Kadees should be pretty easy. I would opt for using Atlas replacement trucks as the Lionel 33" scale wheels are pretty expensive.

K-Line CNW diecast hopper, K623-9013

@AGHRMatt posted:

Those are the Weaver/Crown molds. Should be nice. If they're consistent with some of the more recent Lionel releases, converting them to scale wheels and Kadees should be pretty easy. I would opt for using Atlas replacement trucks as the Lionel 33" scale wheels are pretty expensive.

That's what I heard Matt.  Based on what I've read, I'm hoping they really are as easy to 3RS or 2R with Kadees and scale wheels as Lionel has advertised. 

@WITZ 41 posted:

That's what I heard Matt.  Based on what I've read, I'm hoping they really are as easy to 3RS or 2R with Kadees and scale wheels as Lionel has advertised.

I have the set of Lionel CNW 66-foot Mill Gondolas (nicely done cars, by the way) that I switched over to 2-rail. The conversion was pretty straight-forward with the Lionel wheel sets, and the cars were set up to take Kadees, but the wheels are code 145 tread width and I sometimes get derailments when I run them at the club. In hindsight, the Atlas trucks are a better call because they don't cost much more than the Lionel wheel sets and they have code 172 wheels. I inadvertently put the wrong bolsters in the first car and have since fixed it. I have a BUNCH of cars I'm switching over to 2-rail -- it's going to be a LONG project.

C&NW Geep pulling 5 grain covered hopper cars out from RIP track, thru car repair shop and going to main line.

North Western diesel facility in Marshalltown, Iowa

C&NW diesel house in night time in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Happy Friday! Westbound North Western manifest train with 4 engines MU running on main line of old Overland Route through Marshalltown, Iowa.

Here's a shot of our last custom car we did for the Mid-Continent Ry. Museum, depicting a car for the North Freedom Canning Co. Also, Lionel did make a reefer years ago, but I can't tell you the number right off hand. Also Lionel's version of C&NW 10-wheeler #1385; and the nice freight units from MTH.

Fantastic videos and pictures!  I really enjoy coming back and finding so many.

- CGW, great shots on those night time shop photos.

- Jeff, I like the ten wheeler. 

I'm in a bit of a holding pattern as I'm waiting on my 400 passenger car bodies.  Eddy is a real cool cat.

I did however recently sell the fantasy steel Caboose shortly after the photos I posted because I was able to locate a Division Point DP-101 similar to the one you have Matt.  Should have my hands on it relatively soon.

Many thanks to David in the UK for his pleasant communication.  I appreciate the agreeable direct negotiation outside of the ridiculously fee intensive auction site.

Keep 'em coming.

@john handlogten posted:

Hi Will,

If you are ever passing thru Rockford, feel free to contact the Rockford O Scalers and see if a visit would work out.  Or if things work out, meet Eddy here for the delivery of your kits (we have always enjoyed Eddy's visits).  We have a fair amount of CNW stuff (and recently big UP power has shown up too).  On November 2nd, Frank added a video to the Rockford O Scalers facebook page that you might enjoy.  It is a  of our C&NW Dakota 400 (and the cars were built by Eddy).

Hey John,

Can you reach out to me offline? My email is in my profile.

It will likely be a few more weeks before Eddy has my carbodies ready, but I'm in Normal IL and he's in Wisconsin so I'll  be shooting straight up I-39 for the hand-off.  It might be an opportunity to make some connections. Thx.

- Will

One of my favorites, a Weaver Pacific.