Shore River's SW1500 working Pier 32.

Bruce

   

Where can I find a kit to model this?

   

At the beginning of 2003, Model Railroader magazine published a series of articles on how to build the Turtle Creek Central, a small 4x8 layout. On one of the last publications, they inserted a decals sheet so one can letter a boxcar for the TCC Railroad.  At that time, I had only one locomotive and maybe ten to twelve cars, mostly Athearn BB kits and was just beginning building my layout.  I was definitely not ready for such a project but as my modeling skills developed over the years, I have never forgotten those articles and the decals sheet.

Two weeks ago, someone posted a photo of a boxcar he had lettered for the TCC on Facebook.  The photo and this forum gave me the motivation to start the project and finish it.  I searched through old piles of MR and found that decals sheet in the March 2003 issue.  I also have an old Athearn BB boxcar on which I had practiced weathering and that I don’t use on the layout.

So here is my challenge.  To improve an old Athearn BB kit and letter it for the TCC Railroad.

   

I know I now have the skills to do that.  The challenge is to finish it in time.  The summer is almost here, the backyard needs care and the girlfriend will be on vacation for the next weeks.  I just hope for a few rainy days.  If I don’t succeed, I will at least have some motivation to setup the "paint room" and paint those six cars that are waiting for too long now.

I am not yet decided for the paint scheme.  I am thinking about Boxcar Red sides and Black roof and ends but I can change my mind.  At this time, any suggestions will be welcome and examined.

WPMA-29 sets out two cars of bagged sugar at Atlantic Sweetener.   Have an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend.

Bruce

   

YPMA-02 works the Keg House at Flying Fish Brewery.

Bruce

   

I have built my share of Athearn BB, Accurail, Branchline (now Atlas), Intermountain, Tichy and Proto 2000 kits.  More recently I experienced with resin kits and became proficient at assembling decent brake rigging on the under frames.

A few weeks ago, while planing a new project, I had a look at the under frame of a Athearn BB Boxcar kit.  I was surprised to see that while the brake cylinder is facing the brake (B) end, it is not on the same side of the brake wheel.  Same is true with Athearn BB Reefer kits.

Is this a prototypical setup that I didn’t know of or a mistake from Athearn « engineers ».  In the last instance, why this was not corrected before.

I like to build brake riggings.  But I never tip my cars upside down to have a look at them so the answer is not so important after all.  But I am curious.

Fate or frustration has determined my third "Do Something Challenge". For this part I am going to fix/tune up my fleet of PRR passenger cars so that at the very least they don't uncouple. One part of this will be replacing any EZ-Mate and McHenry couplers. If any Proto Max couplers fail when I check it against the Kadee coupler gauge.

There is a Bachmann Spectrum Diner that I changed the original EZ-Mate couplers to Kadee #27 couplers. However now one of the coupler boxes is loose and now the coupler moves lower at times.

I began working on the Diner. The coupler moves as the trucks turns. I removed the roof/windows. I found the trucks and the level that is connected to the coupler box loose. I removed the screw holding the lever and truck to the body. The truck bolster is misshapped and the screw hole appears to be stripped. I cannot tightened the screw. The screw just spins and is difficult to remove. I need to evaluate what my options are to repair or replace the truck.

CPR 558 makes it's way into RaiPort while WPMA-40 waits to cross over to the Galloway Industrial track.

Bruce

   

Got an idea, (also got a headache from thinking too much). We had a house built for us when we moved to Wickenburg back in 1999. A long time ago, but I remember there was this cabinet shop downtown that did all the cabinets for our house. It looked almost exactly like the building in this Walther's kit,  the display room and office were up the stairs, the workshop was downstairs. I would go back to take some photos of it except that the day after they delivered our cabinets, one of the workers had kicked over a jar of thinner that burst in flames and the place burned to the ground. No one was hurt, he ran away, but we did lose one door and our countertops in the fire. As a tribute to this shop and our four years living in Wickenburg, I'll do my best to turn this building into the EZ-FIT CABINET SHOP. Remember, almost everything on my layout is EZ, even if it's hard.  

It's time to start populating my industrial area anyway, so I'll try my best not to screw it up, don't know if I need to do any kitbashing anyway. it's a pretty good fit as-is.