Weekend Photo Fun 7/24/15 HONG

Here we have a new arrival for my British N scale roster. This is 35028 "Clan Line", a Merchant Navy class 4-6-2 built for the Southern Railway. Designed by Oliver Bulleid, the locomotives were named after the merchant navy shipping lines which participated in the Battle of the Atlantic and subsequently those lines which called at Southampton. This was considered a huge public relations move for the Southern as it operated Southampton Docks during this period so the shipping lines were some of the railway's biggest customers.

Built originally with a streamlined casing, all members of the class were modified by British Railways during the late 50s. The streamlining was removed as part of these modifications. The locomotives remained in service until the end of steam operations on BR's Southern Region in 1967. Of the thirty locomotives built, eleven were saved from scrapping although one, 35029 at the National Railway Museum, was sectioned to display its internal components.

The N scale model is from Graham Farish.

Bob

My newest N scale Atlas/Kato PRR Alco RS-1.

Who ever starts this every week, please add HONG in the post title.

Thank you.

Yes boss ROFLOL!

Big brother O and little brother N.

Alberta Pacific #803 drifts thru Osoyoos yard on an August afternoon in 1958.  AP purchased the USRA 0-8-0 from Spokane Southern in 1955 when the Spokane Southern retired the locomotive from service at South Spokane yard. 

Scene shot on Warren Bjornson's Alberta Pacific Railroad.  The locomotive is an HO Proto2000 USRA 0-8-0.  I painted the red cab roof, decaled, and weathered the model for payment of horsepower hours supplied by the Alberta Pacific Engineering Department.  Background building is a Walthers product.  PS2 hoppers by the feed mill are Kato, which I added some light chalk weathering to.

Regards,

Jerry

Jerry:

Thanks for continuing to share pictures of your work...outstanding stuff.

Bob

Hi Bob:

Thanks for the compliments.  My HO modeling efforts are a huge exercise in "horsepower hour" equalization.  My friend Warren, who owns the Alberta Pacific, up around Camrose, Alberta, has done a lot of work over the years on my Spokane Southern when he has been down in Chicago on business.  I've made many pilgrimages up his way, a lot of them with my family, and have repaid horsepower hours working on his railroad and motive power and equipment. 

Same goes with my friend Allen.  We alternate Friday evenings working on each other's railroad (his railroad is the Northern Illinois) which switches a large steel mill and coke oven complex, plus local industries adjacent to the mill property. 

Another friend Tom loves to lay track, and he is laying all of the track on my three level extension.  Tom does not have a home layout, but along with Allen and Warren, sits at the top of the "seniority roster" when it comes time to bid jobs during operating sessions. 

I've known all of these gentlemen for over 20 years, and in Tom's case, since high school over 40 years ago. 

We all have our strengths, and different interests within the hobby. 

As stated above, Tom likes to do the track laying, and I have a LOT of track to lay.  Tom also likes to build and detail motive power and equipment.  

Warren likes to build benchwork, and bash together buildings.  Last Christmas, two deck bridges showed up for my extension (shipped from Australia, where he is currently working).  One is already installed, the other one will not be far behind.  Warren was a huge help building my steel stud benchwork.  This is our second steel stud layout we put together (we didn't know it at the time, but the first one was practice for the second one).  Warren also can manage to visualize a building, goes to the parts bin, and starts bashing.  No plans, just "has at it".  He is the total opposite of me.  I need plans, instructions, and no imagination beyond executing my "plan".    I'll have to post a photo of my steel mill next week, it is still a bit of a "work in progress". but really showcases how Warren can "just do it". 

Al is an electrical engineer, and also took the commercial electrician's license test in his village.  Al loves to do the electrical, and he pretty much helped me with installing outlets, lighting, building our power distribution panels, and wiring the railroad.  Nothing gets done electrically on my railroad until I get his input, and he has a LOT of great suggestions.   

I enjoy designing the railroad, building benchwork, doing scenery, and weathering models.  I also enjoy painting and decaling models, but I don't get much time to do that anymore, as I'm concentrating on "doing the needful" to make sure the layout construction keeps on moving. 

All of this is done so the four of us get to the holy grail, which is operating our railroads in an "operating session".

Regards,

Jerry

It's a great weekend to run outdoors!

The the flagman signals all clear ahead as the engineer takes the Stainz into the cut.

Good posts, everyone!  Thanks for sharing!  I got a bit lazy this weekend in regards to posting pics to various threads... choosing instead to work at the workbench on my Atlas HH660 project.  Maybe next week!

Jerry:

"One of these days", start a thread and tell us more about your Spokane Southern. Such things as era, location, theme, concept, et al!  The railroading up in the NW was pretty neat... I'm sure you've come up with some good stuff.  Is your Spokane Southern running some ALCo's as did the Spokane Portland & Seattle?  Loved the SP&S's stuff.  Almost as good as the GN's!!

Andre

Oh what the heck... here's what I invested my hobby time in most of yesterday.  You can compare the "before" pics in the "Saturday Switcher" thread to see what was accomplished.

As it sits:

I'm now to the point that it will be time for me to make a decision about the handrail shrinkage issue on the long side sill stanchions/handrails. (The long hand rail shrunk, pulling the stanchions off square.)  IF Atlas has a replacement that was made of more stable plastic/Delrin, then that would be an option for proceeding. However, probably the quickest way would be to just cut the handrail off the stanchions, drill the stanchions, and make new handrail out of .019" brass rod. That's probably the route I'll take. (I've made many a handrail sets in my years past.)

ANYWAY... here's a pic of the KC&G's "D-10" with almost all the goodies attached. When the time comes to paint, all the hand rails and wire grab irons will come off, it will be painted/decaled, then reassembled (squaring all the wire grabs/etc as I do), then weathered.  Long ways to go.

The pics...

Andre

Hi, Jerry.

Thanks for sharing the story about you and your friends. It really points out the fellowship aspect of this hobby. I very much enjoyed reading it.

Thanks again,

Bob 

Wow... got myself started posting pics now and I can't seem to stop.  Here's some more pictures of some "works in progress"!

As mentioned above, late last night I added most of the goodies to the HH660 project. Today I decided I didn't want to deal with the handrails (short of time), so I set it aside for now. There's still much more to do on the HH660, including removing the handrails/grabs in advance of painting/decaling, then reinstalling for weathering, etc. All in good time. 

Having shoved the HH660 aside, I brought out a couple of projects that were in some state of completion about 15 years ago, but have been stored ever since. Well, since I'm returning to my KC&G theme, I decided to pull them over to the workbench and look them over to see what state of completion they were to. While at it, I did a bit of work on them.  First is a Stewart/Kato F3 that will become a KC&G engine...

Man, after all these years and many "improved" models of the F unit available in HO, these Stewart/Kato F's STILL cut it for me. (And I LOVE the way they run.)  Here's another angle... 

Yup, even though "old and outdated", those Stewart F's can still be made to look mighty good to my eyes.

And lastly for now, I dug out a steam generator equipped GP7 that will also become a KC&G engine. This engine is a Life-Like Proto 2000 GP7 from the late 1990s, and like the Stewart F, STILL looks great even when considering the updated GP7 models available nowadays.

You may not be able to tell from my poorly lit picture, but it looks like this engine snagged a low lying tree limb and bent the steam generator exhaust! (Said "bent stack" idea stolen from a pic I took of a Frisco steam generator equipped GP7 in the mid-70s that suffered the same malady.)

And here's a "down on" shot...

My "goal" is to have a goodly amount of engines and rolling stock on hand, as well as a functional layout, by the time retirement rolls around... which is about 3 years from now.  It is my hope that once retired, and hopefully with more time available, I can then make some decent progress on tying it all together in a fun layout theme. 

Okay... enough of this!  All fer now... I THINK???

Hi Andre:

Your idea sounds like fun.  I'll have to get working on that.

Regards,

Jerry

Somehow, I just knew you wouldn't be able to stay away from the KC&G, Andre...

Rusty

Jerry:

Looking forward to it!

Rusty:

Well, once I made the decision to retain the KC&G (and since have decided to emphasize it on my upcoming KC Lines layout), I've been very happy with the decision.

I was always very comfortable with the concept and theme I had devised, and I still find that to be the case once again.

There will be some tweaks needed in order to back date it to the early 1960s (previously I modeled 1970), such as removing the spark arrestors off the GP7's and FA1m, but I don't think that will be too much of a biggie.  I've already made some changes to the conceptual "history" in order to halt it's history at the early 1960s. In addition, I've tweaked the initial dieselization roster to allow for models that weren't available back in the mid-late 1990s. (Like the HH660.)

In all... I'm pretty excited about the KC&G taking center stage on my upcoming "KC Lines" layout.

It's all good.

Parting pic: A closer look at tatty ol' 255...

Andre