OK, to start with, I've got an idea, but no pictures. I'm going to build a Denny's restaurant. Yep, we all need a place to go to get those free grand slam breakfasts, and my layout is no different. I've search in Net and looked around town at different style Denny's and found there are several reoccurring building types which can be dated to a particular decade, and several others that come from refurbishing an existing building or one of a more recent era. In other words, there is no longer a specific look to a Denny's, just like there is no longer one for McDonald's, Taco Bell or Burger King. With that in mind, I'm going to create my version of a Denny's restaurant. My layout era is "today", so whatever I design and build will work, but there are some similarities that I will want to keep so it is recognizable as a Denny's. I will post some sketches as soon as I come up with some. Just don't hold your breath, it might take a while.

Just a preliminary post, not that I'm sure of what I'm going to be doing, but here's what I have in mind. I've got three kits, a Model Power Lumber Yard, an MP U. S. Customs and a Cambria City Warehouse kit that I'm planning on turning into some sort of furniture factory. It should look like they added to the building as their needs grew, probably around the 1900 ear when the first building was built and was added to in a hodge-podge manner a few decades later. It will still be a functioning factory, although I'm not sure what they'll be building there seeing as how most furniture is built off-shore now days.

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Ok ik i said i wouldnt get many more pics but yesterday i went and got some more

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I don't know wha' hoppen but my old persona/profile seems to have disappeared. My old email
was discontinued so I was in limbo for a while, I guess. Maybe one of the mods can find my traces
and restore the old profile, I dont know! Anyway, I just re-registered again

I came back last wk from a few days vacation in China. Really didn't do any train things, sorry, but I came back very relaxed and very jet-lagged. I visited the city of Zhanjiang in Guangdong province. A great city, lots of green, bananas, palm trees, etc. Very few westerners on the street, but it seems like everyone in Zhanjiang knows how to say "Hello" (in English) !

Made me feel quite welcome.

What were the rules requiring when a caboose had to be used on a train? Were cabooses typically used on short locals of only 3-4 cars that only travelled a few miles? What about on mining/logging/industrial trains? I have seen photos of such trains with cabooses, and have seen photos of such trains without. Obviously there would be no caboose used when just switching cars in a yard - but at what point does a "short switching maneuver" actually become a "train" necessitating a caboose?

My thinking is there had to be some kind of rule that dictated when a caboose had to be coupled onto a train. Perhaps it had to do with distance travelled, speed, number of grade crossings, etc. Anyone know and care to fill me in?

My wife arranged it for my birthday! We spent a night at the Northern Rails B&B near Two Harbors, MN on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Northern Rails is made of a two rows of old boxcars that have a finished hall way between then and an enclosed roof overhead. On the outside they look industrial and weathered while the insides are well appointed and comfortable. The staff there love what they do and are very hospitable. We had a fun stay at a very unique place that any rail fan would enjoy.

The station-like house is the reception area and lobby...


Outside views. Most of the cars are former Southern Pacific, Northern Pacific, and Northwestern cars.


The rooms inside are narrow as you might expect, but long. They decided not to go too heavy on the rail theme in the rooms themselves. Windows offer pleasant views of trees and wilderness.




They did think to staff a "con-duck-tor" in the bathroom.


Here's the interior hallway...


Me at the door to our room. Its the small wooden door..not the big metal one!


What a great place to wake up 50!

Ralph

I guess ill be the first to submit my entry for the Summer '09 contest. I have entered the kit build contest, and the kitbash contest. This thread is for my Kitbash part of the summer challenge

Railroader9731 (Harry) had me build a structure for him, his dimensions that he had available for a structure were 7" wide x 17" long max with a large train door on the right side of the structure. This is all he told me, and i worked from there. I decided on the Walthers Cornerstone Series Peterson Tool Specialties kit (http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3091) for the structure. I liked this kit, and it makes a nice structure/warehouse. i would need to do some altering to the kit though to get the dimensions Harry needed.

Here was the start of one of the walls, in this case, the front of the warehouse:




I also had to do some wall panel cutting for this structure to be the right length and width Harry said he had for his layout space, this pic shows one of the wall panels cut down to 2 panels instead of 3:




The length of the structure is a total of 5 panels long....

I then moved onto the side walls of the structure. Remembering what Harry said about the rail door on the right side, i assembled the right and left side walls for the structure:




Then i added the door and windows/window "glass":




Next came the installation of the windows/window "glass" on the front walls:




Followed by the brick detail along the bottoms of the front and side walls:








After that, i assembled one of the front wall sections to the base, and then attached the left side wall to the front wall and base:






Followed by the other front wall panel and the right side wall, both glued together and to the other base:




I then took them and set them on a level table and glued the 2 front wall sections together so that the front wall became one panel. While these were drying, i worked on the rear wall, again i had to cut one of the panels down so the structure would be under the dimensions Harry gave me:






I then proceeded to glue the windows, window "glass", brick details, and wall panel tops to the panels shown above. After that, i took the completed 5 panel wall section inside to the level table and glued it in place on the rest of the structure. Allowed drying time.....

Here were a couple shots after the walls had dried and it was brought back to my workbench lol. As you can see, there were a few touch ups that needed to be fixed....










I then proceeded to glue the roof in place, and again, touch ups were needed....




I then sprayed the structure with Valspar Clear Flat Finish to glaze the window "glass" so you could not see inside the structure that well. I do this with all my structures, and it really makes them look neat in my opinion, plus it stops people from seeing the insides of the walls and such....

However, i accidentally applied to much of the clear, and since its a Lacquer and the other paints were not Lacquer, the paint on the cargo doors along the front of the structure began to crack and give a peeling paint effect. This would have been fine if Harry had told me he wanted me to weather the structure too.... lol. fixing them was no easy task let me tell you. I had to scrap down the paint layers i had applied previously to get down to the bare plastic. I did this with a tapered bamboo skewer and a sharp toothpick. Let it dry over night, and then sanded down with 220 sandpaper this morning. The doors did not turn out perfect, but they look okay. Here are a couple pics, the first showing the before Lacquer reaction causing the wrinkled paint. and the rest are in the process shots of taking the paint off and repainting them:
















After the doors were repainted, the roof trim had to be painted, so i sprayed it gray to match the rest of the structure:




Then it was time to paint the roof, i masked off the gray roof trim i had just sprayed and then sprayed the roof with a flat black:





The structure was now completed, and here are a few shots of it finished:










The structure measures 6" wide x just over 15" long x 4" tall


This concludes my Kitbash Summer '09 Summer Challenge

:hey: OK All.... This is it ,Our trip to Steam Town is this Saturday June 13. We will meet here at 9:00 am, Reading T-1 #2124         In Steam Town's parking lot.
Here she is in revenue service.<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_rdg2121.jpg">http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_rdg2121.jpg</a><!-- m -->
The entrance fee is $6.00 17 and older. That gets you into the park grounds, rail yard, museum theater, round house, and guided walking tours etc. There is also a short excursion for $3.00 per person 6 and over.
If we have the time there is also a small trolley museum across the lot from Steam Town that we could check out too.
So have a safe trip, Bring Your Camera, And pray for good weather. See you there:
Steve.

Hi guys,

I bought a proto 2000 SD50 on Saturday rom my LHS ....... great detail and like all y locos it will be DCC converted using a Digitrax DH165LO
i have noticed lights on the hood front as in the video here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KApWQQTAdeE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KApWQQTAdeE</a><!-- m --> but they dont light up has anyone done this with particularly this loco and whats is their function on the loco ? as no ditch lights are present would be nice while doing the decoder install to possibly sort them out either from the main light with light pipes if they remain on solid with the headlight or fit LED'S to suit not sure where on the decoder function tabs they fit F1/2/3/4 ?