Back From the Paint Shop

 The Pacific in Norfolk and Western paint. The N&W did have Pacifics, and the number does indeed correspond to an actual locomotive, but to the best of my knowledge they never had any streamlined Pacifics.

Sadly, it no longer runs. I spent a few hours soldering wires and adjusting the chassis and the best I could get out of it was reverse. Now it won't respond at all. This is the trouble with the Model Power locomotives, they are finicky. Before I took it apart for paint it was my best running Pacific, I should have left it in Lackawana paint instead of taking it apart in the first place I guess. So it fills a spot in my repair yard until I get the time and ambition to fiddle with it.

 The heavyweight cars were also repainted, and of course at the train show this weekend I happened to find a full set of heavyweights factory painted for the Norfolk and Western. It wasn't difficult to talk myself out of them but they did look good.

 The streamlined Hudson shells were repainted in a fantasy Erie scheme to match the previously painted passenger cars. As far as I know the Erie Railroad never owned Hudsons at all, much less streamlined ones, but it sure does look good at the head of those cars.

 And while we are on the subject of the cars, these are the repaints. I really like the way they turned out. These are two of the coaches in their green and cream (I know, it looks green to me, too) livery.

And one long distance shot showing as much of the train as I could get in the photo. Excuse my mess, my layout is a work in progress.

And now I need to get a DCC chip in that Hudson so I can run it at the next show.

N&W Varnish

The heavyweight cars that I had in the paint shop to be put into N&W livery are done, and they are beautiful. I am still waiting on four coaches, but I have a string of 6 that I could run...if they had the proper couplers. I have a set of MicroTrains trucks and couplers on their way, but in the meantime I have installed a dummy coupler on one end of the baggage car.

The smoothside cars that I had in the paint shop to be put into N&W livery are done as well, and yesterday while I was mucking about putting the decoder into the SD7 I had them behind N&W 601 doing laps.

I am told that the Pacific that was formerly in Lackawanna paint is almost done (I was putting it into N&W paint), and the streamlined Hudson shell is almost done with its fantasy Erie paint job as well. So soon I should have my four N&W coaches, my fantasy N&W streamlined Pacific and my Erie streamlined Hudson all set up.

Next step will be to put a chip in that Hudson, which may be a lot of fun, and then I'll be able to run the Erie consist. I'd like to take it to the next show in December but I'll have to see how it goes. I definitely will take N&W 601 and associated cars. I'd take 611 as well...but everyone has 611.

I must say that I am now convinced that DCC is the way to go. I still have my DC/DCC control panel set up on the home layout, but about the only time I use it any more is to isolate the front siding so I can use it as a programming track. I still have enough DC only locos to keep it, but they are getting to be a smaller and smaller percentage of my roster.

One day I might even get crazy enough to chip my Nn3...

Neuse River Valley 2017

Last weekend the club attended the Neuse River Valley train show at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.

 My Model Power Mikado pulled a 12 car freight around the mountain line most of the show.

 I even managed to get the headlight working on it while I was there.

 This photo is for my sister in law who is a John Deere fan.

 We also had the T-TRAK set up, it was our biggest T-TRAK layout so far.

Of course, since it was a train show I did pick up a few goodies...

I am happy to report the installation of the decoder on the SD7 went far easier than the installation on the SD9. Now I just have to get them speed-matched and I can double-head them.

Back to work this weekend, the next show will be the Train Collectors Association show in December.

Railfanning

I went with the local N scale club to Selma NC this weekend for their annual Railroad Days festival. We had a T-TRAK layout set up in the train station and we also had a chance to see some trains go by.

Station platform looking east, Selma NC. The tracks to the right are Carolina Railroad and the CSX mainline crosses from north (left) to south (right).

A 100+ car freight heads south on the CSX main.

One of our club members rode the Carolinian in from Raleigh.

At least one of our viewers was surprised to know that the Selma NC station is an active AMTRAK stop. The door in the center of the picture leads to the old baggage storage area which now houses a defunct HO scale layout.

Setting out the first trains of the day on the T-TRAK layout.

It was a decent size layout, but nowhere near what the club can put up if it has a mind to.

Still, it was well enjoyed by the people attending Railroad Days.

While we were there we got a chance to do a little 1:1 railfanning as well. When the call would go out that a train was inbound the area around the layout would clear out. At least five of the people in this picture are NRMRC members.

At the end of the day our train-riding club member hopped the Carolinian westbound back to Raleigh.

A good time was had by all.

In other news, when I'm not railroading (which is often) or working (which is rarely) I am working on another project for the oldest grand-daughter.

Ground floor complete

When it is done it will be 25 inches deep, 52 inches long and 45 inches tall and will have thirteen rooms including the attic.

Notice the beamed ceiling in the dining room. I'm kind of proud of that.

In this shot the kitchen still needs the trimwork on the right wall finished.

The library with its pocket doors.

The wrap-around staircase.

The entry hall. The staircase has not yet been painted in this photo.

It was her grandmother's and I hope to have it done for her by Christmas. As you can see, I still have a ways to go.

Back to work tomorrow.

Additions

Yesterday the much anticipated C-57 arrived.

After a quick clean and lube it was running quietly and smoothly about the layout, as expected from a Kato.

Turning it into the Erie K5A should be interesting. The drivers are about right, they mike out to 75.6" at the tread which is only a tad bit short of the prototype's 79" drivers. At the flange they mike out to 84.4" but comparing it to the pictures of the K5A it shouldn't throw things off too much.

I have not yet been able to disconnect the tender but it appears to have the same attaching arrangements as the Kato Mikado. I will have to figure out a way to get this to cross over to the larger 6 axle tender I have to put on it. Also, the shells are going to be difficult. The Arnold shell will require quite a bit of hollowing out, which will take a while since it is a cast metal shell. The Atlas carved out nicely and ended up being a few millimeters short. Since the Arnold shell has piping cast on that is not present on the prototype it might be easier to lengthen the Atlas shell. Either way, the project moves forward.

I had a medical procedure today (I don't want to talk about it, suffice it to say it was age related and requires a day of prep previous; if you don't get it you will when you reach the half century mark) so I was out of the house when the mail came. My wife, being the sweet thing she is, drove me to the procedure and afterwards, since we were near the train shop took me over there to see about getting a couple of decoders. They didn't have the decoders, but they did have this PB1.

Once it is painted in blue and striped in yellow it should match right up to its PA1 mate.

 It was a disappointment not to be able to get the decoders I was after though, because I was anticipating the arrival of this Burlington SD7 (and it is an SD7, marked on the sill plate as such, even though under the shell it is identical to the SD9), and when I got home it had indeed arrived.

Hopefully it won't be as onerous to chip as the SD9 was, and as soon as it does have DCC installed it can take its place in the consist helping the Redbird out.

I think they will make a really nice pair.

K5A Build Update

I just scored a Kato JNR C57 that has the boxpox drivers needed for the Erie K5A project.

When it arrives, probably some time next week, I'll have to figure out how to turn this:

into this.

I have the tender and I have one or two old Atlas Pacific shells. I also have a complete Arnold 4-6-2 that I wouldn't hesitate using the shell off of if it is a better match. I also have a collection of leading and trailing trucks and a few steam cylinder sets that can be donated to the cause as well, but it might be easier to use the Kato steam cylinders and form them with brass and plastic into what I need.

It should be fun!

Grand Reopening

Monday, May 29th marked an auspicious occasion as trains ran for the first time since the suspension of operations on the Path Valley Railroad. To commemorate the event a passenger train carrying VIPs from the railroad and greater Path Valley community ran the route several times to great acclaim.

Later that day the local freight delivered cars to the factory, scrap yard, grain elevator and meat packing plant, with a flatcar carrying containerized LCL loads getting parked at the freight station. The stockyard is gone now, cut to provide room for the railroad's new connecting turnouts and eventually a connection to a bigger modular system as it is built. The stockyard should eventually return on one of those modules, and indeed the stock car was a part of the consist.

All materials of a railroad nature have been put into the new train room, the pictures that had languished in storage have once again been placed in their spots and the trains are out on display. Unfortunately some of the lumber used in the previous standard gauge display was used in other applications, so the standard gauge display yard has shrunk accordingly.

The Unitrack has been removed from the temporary track table in the office, and the office table has also been relocated to the train room. The narrow gauge/Z scale trackage is still on the temporary board and it may actually become permanent at some point with an eye towards making it a show display.

And speaking of Unitrack, since I now have a dedicated place to work (be it ever so cluttered) I have once again started work on the T-TRAK modules. I mocked one up today to see how it was going to look and I think it's going to be good.

A little sanding and fitting and I think the first of my outside corner modules should be ready to assemble. It will be followed by another outside corner module and then either a pair of junctions or a pair of inside corners, I haven't decided which. I have the inside corner foam base pieces already cut but I may go with junctions at first because they do offer a bit more flexibility. After the first four are done I'll make some straight modules to fill them out.

In other news, the GP7 has arrived from Bachmann with the correct chassis but missing a forward hand rail. I haven't decided if I am going to try to get one from Bachmann or find one photo etched, I have another option to pull it off of one of the unused GP7 shells that were removed from the original units and replaced with Pennsy shells, that might be the easiest way to go.

Grandson and I had a good time running trains last Sunday when he was here.