For some reason all of my pics stopped showing so I copied the whole post and did it again below. Thanks for looking! :)

Ralph

Is it possible? Currently Active Users viewing on Index Page..

Here's a little thread showing a few things I did to enhance this neat little car.

[albumimg]701[/albumimg]

The above image shows a few of the upgrades. I'm not all that happy with the color match, so I'll be applying either a wash of a different color to add more magenta to the brown on the underframe and truck sideframes, or mixing up a new color and painting over what's there. The color is straight 'Brown Iron Oxide' from Delta.

Look closely at the center of the underframe and you'll see a small screw. MDC conveniently provides a starting dimple in the plastic body for drilling a hole through the car 'floor' into the underframe. Okay, actually it's just a dimple left over from the casting process, but hey, it sure is handy. I drilled and tapped the underframe for a 2-56 screw. This is to make a better connection between the body and frame and it allows me to file off the little mounting nubs on the underframe and fill the gaping holes on the lower side sills of the body.

Ahead will be adding new wire stirrup steps and hopefully a coupler lift bar on each end. I'll also be painting the wheel faces and weathering the trucks and lower body. Not sure how far I want to go in ding-ing up the rails and interior. Here's a tip for making upgrades to any piece of rolling stock.

[albumimg]702[/albumimg]

I do this to keep track of all the ideas I might have. I may not use all of them (like I probably won't add any more brake rigging/detail as I can't find any good prototype pics showing such detail and the car won't suffer without it) but it's easy to find them on the inside of the box lid. Not shown is also a blotch of paint with 'Delta Brown Iron Oxide' written next to it as a reference. I wasn't ready to work on the car at that time, but I did play around with matching the paint color.

I'll work on it again later this week, perhaps. Either that or the grade crossing tower scratchbuild.

Here's the url as I can't seem to figure out how to make the words above into a link:

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Galen

OK, this is really obscure! I have a box Rivarossi 6306 which is (i think) a motorizing kit for 11331. Do these numbers mean anything to anyone? I bought it many years ago, cheap, thinking I could power a streetcar or something.

Hi All,

Found this layout on another forum ..... and thought i would post to let you see it .......
Good job i didnt see it a few months back as i would love more space for my N scale big boy to run on .....though now the layout is covered in HO track for Novahill .

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Modeling a local railroad in a custom scale.

There are really two major limitations: money and time. So, this isn't a practical option for me as I lack the money to burn on the supplies, time to perform the work, and space for the layout. All resources best spent on what I have.

But it is still fun to dream ideas up...

From the 1870s through 1899, The College Hill Railroad connected the upscale community of College Hill with the City of Cincinnati (which College Hill is now a part of). The road was killed by the street cars and automobiles, but was still interesting. The route was from the CH&D (present day CSX Cincinnati-Detroit mainline) up the hills in between Winton Road and Hamilton Ave to the parking lot behind the College Hill Presbyterian Church.

The road had a few locomotives, I believe the biggest was a Porter 0-6-0t (or equivalent). It was a 3' line. The route had steep grades and is quite scenic. The terrain is sufficiently rugged that much of it was never developed despite being near the center of a metropolis of 2mil+ people. Even today, you feel like you are far from civilization...which is great for a railroad!

The idea is that an N-scale 0-6-0 has the correct driver size...and n-scale track is the correct gauge...at 1:100 scale. This allows for kitbashing power from either the rabbit running B-man 0-6-0s or an Atlas 2-6-0. The track would be standard N-scale track as the ties are close to correct. The key building would be the church and station at College Hill...and possibly the bridges on the route. The small scale would allow for a layout along the lines of 2x8 or 3x8. The trackplan would be an oval which would look like a point-to-point but allow continuous running...a scenic backdrop down the middle.

It would be great for generating local interest in railroads...and is well supported by the presence of local rail historian John H. White Jr's books on the subject.

Michael
(fun to dream...a mistake to build!)

I'm looking for information on Sand Towers. Specifically, older wood sand towers. i.e. how the locos were filled, where the hatches were/are located on locos, that kind of stuff.

Echoing complaints about the almighty Google and its endless supply of useless links, (perhaps we ask the wrong questions???) I'm hoping that some of the fine folks here can post some useful info and especially decent photos of these structures.

The plan in the near future for me is to build one of these structures as part of my loco facility on my layout. Weather it, show some of the old boards replaced with new ones to give it that "used" look.

The earliest set of plans I have are dated for 1945 so I could, I suppose, justify the presence of one on my 1950-60's layout era. I have not been able to come across any real detail on the construction of the sand pocket at the top nor the sway pipe which I could really use some design help on. Unfortunately while the CP Historical site tells me what plans I need, they do not have them in their data base.

Even if this is all just for my own interest and understanding on how it all fits together.

Also, I understand that the wet sand needed to be dried by a furnace in a small building underneath the tower, but how exactly did it get to the top? The plans I'm working from show a 2 1/2" pipe going up to the pocket, and a baffle on the ceiling directly over top of the pipe, so I am assuming that the dried sand was blown up there and stored until needed by a loco and fed to one via the sway pipe.

Thanks in advance!

This is a pretty silly question, but I'd like to ask if the CN F7A in zebra stripes did pull US freight cars in its time? Mine is currently pulling 1940's American freight cars. While it's fine with me, I'm just curious if it did do so.

My CN F7A is a late-90's Athearn blue box engine that I've just had the axle gears replaced. I have also just added a small but strong magnet to the motor to lengthen its life. It still runs fine. I guess Athearns are pretty good for what they are.

Hi All,

Good series of videos on this link to watch from the basic board construction to completion ... they originally were given as a free dvd from MR.

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Hi --

Just saw someone mention this 20-stall roundhouse from Germany on a Norwegian model railroading forum:

http://stummi.foren-city.de/htopic,34885,schuppen.html

The builder is a German guy named Roman with a CNC machine - it took him about 4 months to cut out all the parts from PVC and assemble, at a material cost of about 300 Euros (call it about $380 or so). The turntable by the roundhouse is from Roco.

Unless my knowledge of German is totally gone, I believe the first guy to comment says something like "that is utterly crazy!"

Grin,
Stein