I was given this Proto2000 Mather stock car as a basket case a couple weeks ago

     

The original builder made a complete mess of the car, using Testors tube glue to assemble it, leaving some parts off and gluing some in the wrong place. I also found the car to be incredibly heavy. After some prying with an exacto-knife and a small screwdriver, I managed to get the roof, roofwalk and the doors off.

     

After that I found out why it was so heavy, 1 1/2 oz. of extra weight was glued inside. I guess it was added for better tracking? I also found that the original proto wheelsets were replaced with all plastic  ones, probably the source of the poor tracking. They went into the garbage.  

   

I scraped the glue off as best I could and started to replace/add the details. The original grab irons were MIA so I replaced the ladder grabs with some ladder stock, all other grabs were replaced with Tichy wire ones. 

   

I also removed the original lettering with a fiberglass brush. This is a pretty effective tool for this since the car sides are wood and the brush also scratched the wood sides a bit, adding some wood grain. 
The original roof walk was pretty much unusable with large globs of glue on it. I replaced it with a spare resin casting from the parts box. I also noticed that some of the side boards were broken so I fixed those with some styrene strip.  The original brake wheel and housing were badly damaged so I replaced those with tichy parts as well.

   

one of the last things I did before painting was to add the roofwalk end supports and check the coupler height. I used some metal wheelsets in the trucks and the car tracks perfectly now.

does anyone out there know if  there is or have been produced a rain cap for exhaust pipes  in ho ? if it might be known by another name this is what I'm after .
   
Jim

Can we get an idea of who is going to enter this challenge so I can put together a list here. Post your intentions in this thread please. You don't have to say what your project is just now, but you can. It would be nice to know who's in. If you think you will, but are not sure, just let us know with a "maybe". The last challenge, we had folks with good intentions until we got started and wound up with four. It would be great to have a few more than that this time.

I will post the rule thread in a few days, I'm just trying to drum up interest right now.



List of participants for our 2021 challenge:

• ezdays (2)
  
• nachoman (3)
  
• doctorwayne (2)
  
• tompm (3)
  
• e-paw (2)
  
• UP SD40-2
  
• jim currie
  
• Charlie B
  
• ngauger
  
• CNR5103
  

do any of you know what is going on with evergreen ? just tried to make an order  and on checkout it said they don't ship to arizona , tried calling and tried 3 different  options and they all say leave a message , then is said mailbox full try again later . any one else had that happen with them ?
Jim

Shore River's SD9  on it's way back to the interchange track with Conrail.

Bruce

   

Do you leave truck mounted couplers on passenger cars, or do you cut them off and body mount?  I am talking about cars longer than about 60 scale feet  

I think leaving them truck mounted would help them stay coupled on curves. I have never tried body mounting couplers on an Athearn car, so I don't know if it can still negotiate tighter curves or switches.  Being passenger cars, I wouldn't expect too many reverse moves that usually are bad news for truck mounted couplers.  Advantage to body mounting is for backing, and to better detail the car ends.  

Right now working on a 60' MDC car, and debating what to do.

Hello,

I am modelling a L shaped layout with a rural grain theme.  I picked the Walthers Scenemaster wheat which comes on 3 inch rows.
My questions is what do people suggest to 'plant' this wheat in? I have painted the insulation board a mid brown.

I liked the ploughed ridges that come with a crop field but as this part of a larger unseen wheat field is on a curve I wont have straight rows as the follow the bend in the track?

Any suggestions what to plant this crop in/on?

Is MR becoming vaporware? My April copy is only 68 (counting the cover pages) pages long??? I get ad circulars in the mail that are bigger than that. 

TV-71 at RailPort.

Bruce

   

looking for #4 turnouts  at a reasonable price if brass looking for white brass ones. these are for a diorama so don't need powered ones .