Continuing on taking a break from layout building, and getting caught up on some long dormant plans to finish open top loads.  Here are the next two:

HO Red Caboose 42' flat car, with International Harvester TD15 crawler tractor.   TD15 is made by First Gear. 

Next is a HO Walthers Mainline GSC 53'6" flat car with six Deere 4020 tractors.  The tractors are by ERTL.  They come with dual rear tires, I had to take those off as they did not ship with dual tires, and cut off the stupid oversize trailer hitch to get them to fit on the car.   Not bad tractors for about $9.00 each.  I skipped putting on the #9 annealed wire tie downs that would have also been used, since I want these loads to be removable.   #9 wire doesn't scale down too well in HO.    This way the car can go back empty for reloading during my operating sessions.  

Here is the string sitting on COD viaduct. 

I'm going to hit the vehicles with a shot of Dullcoat, they are simply a bit too shiny.

Regards,

Jerry

Stumbled across this video while looking for more information on the layout in the video.  Absolutely awesome B&M railroad, and the guy who did this video must have had a blast putting this together. 

There is a blog on this railroad too if you want to see some excellent photos, and there is a lot of video on youtube in addition to the one below.

http://whiteriverdivision.blog...ours-b-cheshire.html

Enjoy.

Regards,

Jerry

Pictures from an excavation... 

I was rooting around under the Great Plywood Glacier and unearthed this, a model of my favorite business car from Kato way back when:

I really need to get around to adding all the detail parts one of these days.

Rusty

Kato mades S scale??

Andre

laming posted:

Kato mades S scale??

Andre

I wish!!!  Unfortunately, it's HO. 

I still pick up the odd HO or N piece every now and then.

Rusty

Nice stuff guys, Jerry your loads are magnificent 

Thanks Eric.
Regards,

Jerry

Sweet pictures more to come...............

Great pictures guys and keep them coming!!! Happy New Year!!!  

Wow to end the year rite, received 2 more AML HI cubes. Awesome cars so great to actually get G scale that looks real and works as advertised and Modern stuff.

Thanks AML, USA Trains and Bachmann for there Peter Witt car no light bulbs or tricks needed to make operate.

Also when equipped with DCC Loco's and accessories arguably the best operating system in the hobby hands down and the cheapest to deploy

and maintain. Also decide to DCC new Conrail units as decoders are half what I was going to use to just have DC . Now have more DC/DCC track operating locos,

the greatest feature of all.

Of course opinions vary and to each there own.

Happy New Year All.

something here to learn...

however, "some you just can't reach"!

Went to Edison NJ Train Show yesterday for the 1st time, Was worth the drive in the snow to go to the event. There were some empty tables most likely due to the snow but had some great vendors and cool train stuff for sale. I really didn't go to buy anything but ended buying some G scale figures and  G scale foam cradle as ive worn my old one out.

1st time I was able to see a operating 3rail club layouts because they were there, they were really nice and well done enjoyed all the displays.

Frank does a awesome job with the NJ show so again was well worth the 2 hour drive to see it. Also attendance looked really good even with the snow.

        N scale train in a bar!!!!

                   Happy New Year and Cheers !!      https://youtu.be/yHW-PFQI5D4

                         CoffeeTableLayout

                                                                 https://youtu.be/a1-U4cmS1mU

   Model Train in a Glass Bottle

                                             https://youtu.be/HsGt9UkGiJg

briansilvermustang posted:

       N scale train in a bar!!!!

          Happy New Year and Cheers !!      https://youtu.be/yHW-PFQI5D4

          CoffeeTableLayout

                                          https://youtu.be/a1-U4cmS1mU

 

Cool.........

Hi All!

Hope everybody's been having a great Holiday season. Good to see some old (in forum years) regulars still posting here.  As for me, wow, lots going on.

First off, I have about 17 weeks of labor left before I turn in my keys, rulebooks, et al. Yup, pullin' the pin and joining the ranks of the retired. Last week of April ought to be my last week of work, then all of May will be paid vacation, and my first RR retirement check should start in July. That's the plan anyway, but it could vary a week sooner/later.

If you'll pardon the pun, I'm moving full steam ahead on my steam layout plan. Retirement was sort of sneaking up on me when it dawned on me: "My gosh, I'll be retiring next year and I don't even have enough basic rolling stock ready for a layout!!"

Sort of a wake up call, it was. So, I've been spending most of my hobby time getting a fleet of cars ready for paint. (BTW, it's great working at my workbench out in my recently completed Hobby Shack out-building!) It's going a bit slower than I hoped, but at least I'm making some progress. Below is a picture I took yesterday of the cars that I've essentially readied for paint over the past couple months.

More are in process, and a few are still headed my way via USPS.  I need about twice that many more boxcars, and at least another dozen flats and gondolas. Also need about 5 more passenger cars, and another caboose to two.  All in good time. My hope is to have the cars about ready to go by retirement, that way I can shift gears and start layout construction. What you're looking at above are "train set" cars that are plentiful on the used market that I pick up for a song. I then re-wheel them with Kadee code 88 metal wheel sets (re-trucking them if needed), fitting Kadee #58 series "Scale" sized couplers to them, as well as removing/replacing the oversized trussrods, and lastly making any modifications and/or adding any details I feel they could use.  These are by no means "contest grade" cars... but will work fine for my "givens n' druthers".  It IS slower going than I expected, but still faster than assembling craftsman kits. (I also have some of those, but they will be piddled with later.)

Oh, and I've also unintentionally developed a sub-hobby: I find great fun in finding scans of the railroad art that used to grace the cover of the old pulp magazines from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, such as "Railroad", "Railroad Stories", "Railroad Man" etc, and "restoring" them via my photo shop software. It is quite gratifying to take a poor example, fix the perspective issues, crease marks, water stains, wear, missing chunks, what have you, and end up with a picture worth printing out and framing in an 8x10 frame. (Which I intend to do and hang out in my Hobby Shack.)  Here's an example of what I sometimes have to work with, this is the original scan I found on eBay:

I then took the above scan, and turned it into this:

Now that I have over two dozen such restorations in my collection, I've been sharing them on the various "Early Rails" social media I frequent.

Okay, there you have it! You're all caught up on what I've been doing, train hobby wise!

Like I said, I hope you've had a Merry Christmas, and in addition hope you have a Happy New Year!

Andre

Those old train "pulps" had some interesting cover art, and it is nice to see someone (especially a rail!) restoring and preserving it!    

Hi Art!

Glad you appreciate them! In addition to my "link n' pin" art appreciation, I am also restoring/preserving more "modern" cover art. I'm sure most of you will appreciate those covers more than the "Early Rail - link 'n pin" stuff.  I like the drama and the way that an artist can inject their imagination and preserve scenes, actions, incidents and such, that a rail fan photographer never could. I also like the facial expressions that often accompany the portrayal.  I guess the bottom line is that I really like railroad art.

Here's a couple examples of cover art representing more "modern" eras:

I've left the thumbnails in place to see if these can be saved full size so you guys can print them out as 8x10's and frame them.  I suspect the forum software is reducing them in size and this may not be possible. As for me, I'm printing out several of my favorites and they're going on the wall by my work bench in my Hobby Shack train building.

Enjoy!

EDIT: No, apparently this forum software alters the size of the image regardless. If any of you are interested in any of these for printing out, I'll figure out a way to get them to you in the actual resolution/size they are when they come out of my photo shop.

EDIT 2: Noticed I had some proportion issues with my Frisco FM pic restoration, so I have corrected and replaced the original scan.

Andre

Nice to see you back Andre! Also congrats on retirement, enjoy the trains!!

Here's my first electric train. Passed it on to Mason this Christmas. 

Here it is running on his ceiling layout.

Hornby OO gauge R057 Caledonian 0-4-0 pug circa 1980/81. Matching 4 wheel R219 Caledonian coaches.

Happy New Year🎉

Nick

Brian,Andre and Nick Great pictures & Happy New Year!!! 

check this out, cool back ground... BAD WEATHER... https://youtu.be/mnfjP6Z6gZU

Andre: CONGRATULATIONS on your upcoming retirement! I agree that artistic renderings capture more of the spirit, or dare I say, soul of railroading than photos alone! Keep up the good work!