GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Some More progress, though I lack photos.


Conrail GP18 #7499

Though I'm sure I can find some more things to do with it, I think I can call #7499 finished (except the horn). DCC and lighting is fully installed, all the cracked P2k gears but one (which seems uncracked) are replaced, all the grab irons and most minor details intalled, number board decals applied, etc.

With any luck, I'll be running it tonight on the club layout. I'm glad this engine is finally "operational", considering how slow my hobby progress has been lately. Even though its patched, its still the only thing in LV paint at our club, so I am sure it will stand out.

Conrail SW1200 #9340

I finally bit the bullet and renumbered #9344 to #9340. I had sort of wanted to do that in the first place, but one of the minor "annoyances" of being in a model railroad club is that everyone has the same stock numbers! So far as I can tell, no one has offered a model of #9340 "as-is", so I should be set.

However, the real trick I learned this time, was to "wet sand" the numbers! I tried my normal approach of Solvaset and "hi-polymer" eraser to remove the road numbers on the cab sides. However, the result was that the paint wore away around the numbers before the numbers did! On the other side, I tried using really fine wet sand paper (like the kind I use to polish plastic car sides). While I did wear it down in a few places, the results were better than on the other side.

Fortunately, the Floquil Conrail blue I have was close enough paint wise.

At least now I can bring my SW1200 down to the club and use it freely!

Conrail GP35 # 3640

While I was on my modeling roll, I painted up one of my Undec GP35s I purchased from bdw9535. It is now in the Reading Company's all-green scheme, though only the end striping decals are applied. I'm hoping I can get the model fully painted and assembled before the end of November, so that I can use it for our club open-houses. With any luck, it will consist well with my existing Conrail 4-axle road switchers.

Right now, the main question I have is about the roof. On the last Reading Company scheme, they actually painted road-numbers on the roof! The real question, is what Conrail decided to do about these numbers. the real #3640 is still with us, and there are photos of its restoration:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://forums.railfan.net/forums.cgi?board=Reading;action=display;num=1173123328;start=440">http://forums.railfan.net/forums.cgi?bo ... ;start=440</a><!-- m -->

though the "ghost" of the road numbers remain, its not clear if they were ever patched. Judging from the close up photos though, it seems like the blue was painted right over the numbers. I don't see a spec of black! I might shoot the RCTHS an email, though they do say they don't have the staff to answer individual modelling questions.

I might bring the decal sheet with me to the club tonight and try to keep working on this model. There are a few Reading fans at the club that might be able to help.

Staten Island Rapid Transit ME-1

I also began work on my Staten Island Rapid Transit ME-1 car. These are the older 1920-1960s era cars. I've settled on the B&O blue inspired paint scheme, rather than the original Pullman Green. Unfortunately the problem is in the paint once again. I was tempted to paint the car in the same C&O Enchantment Blue that I painted my CNJ GP40P in (after all, this was all from the same era where the B&O, C&O, and associated lines, started to look identical).

Still, the SIRT was a thoroughly B&O operation, even if it was isolated from the rest of the B&O railroad.

I started by removing the molded on "end-gates" and molded on grab irons. These looked pretty bad and can probably be replaced with something I scratchbuild. With any luck, someone makes HO subway end gates! I was mostly successful, though I may have taken off too much on one side. I will try to fix this with Tamiya putty, but I think this will be a minor blemish in the grand scheme of things, as the end gates will partially cover this area.

I did attempt to paint this car as well, though the Pollyscale C&O paint didn't "stick". I suspect I thinned it too much, but regardless, I wiped it clean and decided to rethink my choice in paint colors. I do have some B&O Royal blue, but it is somewhat purplish. I might just spray it that way anyway, and see how it looks.