DEEX Gons

When Walthers introduced a Pullman Standard coal gondola in its Mainline series earlier this year, it seemed like the perfect candidate for unit train service on the CWE. A quick check with Stuart Thayer and Anthony Hardy showed that the paint scheme was accurate and that, indeed, these cars were produced in the mid-1970's. Stuart provided the photos of the cars below which show them in almost new condition.

That was all the confirmation I needed- I immediately ordered 18 of them. When they arrived, I was impressed with the detail and the quality of the paint job. The only thing missing was the ACI label, so I added them to all of the cars. Based upon the photos above, it was apparent that very little weathering would be needed to accurately depict these cars in service in the summer of 1976.

The first step was to mask the sides and paint the bottoms of the cars with Rust-Oleum camouflage, which is a dark, dirty brown colored paint that is plastic compatible and dries perfectly flat. I also sprayed the trucks and wheels with the same paint. Next, I applied Sophisticated Finishes iron paint to the interior of the car as can be seen in the photo below.

Once the iron paint had dried, I applied the rust solution to the interior of the car. I wanted just a hint of rust, as these cars were turned between the mines and the power plants fairly quickly and the interiors didn't have much of a chance to rust. The look I was trying to achieve can be seen in the photo of the interior of a CPOX hopper that Anthony sent me.

Unfortunately, the Sophisticated Finishes rust solution had added too much rust by the time the solution dried enough to spray it with Dullcote. However, this actually turned out OK as the subsequent weathering steps toned it down significantly. 

The next step was to make a wash of acrylic ivory black and Windex with a small amount of burnt umber. To this I added some MIG gun metal pigment in order to get the effect of the polished steel that is seen prior to the initial coat of rust forming on the sides and bottom after the load has been dumped. This solution was applied on the bottom of the gon, thinned a bit, and then applied to the sides. The last step was to use Anthony's trick of adding real coal to the bottom of the gon and dumping it out to either side. This leaves just enough coal dust on the sides and in the bottom to depict what is left from the last load. The photo below shows the final results.

Once the cars are placed in service, a little more coal will be added to the bottom of the car along the sides.

While the sides of the cars wouldn't have weathered much in the time frame of the layout, something was needed to tone down the black on the car sides. I added a few drops of Floquil reefer white to a paint cup full of thinned Dullcote and sprayed the sides and ends. The photo below shows the before and after shots,

The last step was to added a light coat of weathering powder to the truck sides frames and some washes of burnt umber and ivory black acrylics to the wheels. The photo below shows the car at this point.

All that remains is to add some very light dry-brushing weathering to the couplers and the car will be ready for service. At this point, all 18 cars are at the stage where the initial rust application has been made to the interiors. The goal is to have the train in service for the next op session in late August. Of course, in addition to finishing the gondolas, I also have to finish to SD40-2's that will be part of the power for the train. Given that August is just around the corner, it's a good thing the units are already in the paint shop awaiting decals...

And so it is finished

It took much longer than I anticipated, but the changes to the scenery around North Pierce are finally finished- at least for now. Here's a shot of the overall scene.

And here's a shot of how the area looked last December before the changes began.

The small stream is intended to look like what one might find in the woods in the middle of summer with very little flow.

in the photo below you can see how the stream curves around to the left behind the trees.

And finally, a couple of rail fan shots of the area.

The west end staging yard is now in service and 4 tracks are in place. During the last op session, 2 trains went west from Hollister Yard for the first time. Below are a couple of shots of the staging yard.

Eventually there will be 12 tracks in both the east and west staging yards. This will have a significant impact on operations on the layout, and I'm looking forward to adding equipment and revising the operating scheme as new staging tracks enter service. 

I'm reasonably pleased with the way the scenery turned out in this area. Additional small details will be added over time, but for now, the project is finished. The biggest improvement is the addition of the west end staging yard, and it's nice to finally have it in operation.

Rolling Stock Additions- Part 2

Now that the west end staging yard is operational, it's clear that I'm going to need a lot more freight cars to expand operations. I established a roster of home road and foreign road cars in terms of types and numbers many years ago, and I've been following that loosely in terms of what cars to add to the layout. One of the most glaring omissions has been flat cars. So I recently set out to fix that by building a few home road cars and weathering a few foreign road cars.

First up are the two home road flat cars. These are Proto 2000 kits that I picked up at a local show last Fall. I added uncoupling levers and distressed the deck using an Xacto saw blade. I also distressed the ends of the boards on the deck using an Xacto knife. The cars were weathered using artist's acrylics thinned with Windex. 

Next up is a Tangent Scale Models 50' GSC flat car decorated for the Pennsylvania Railroad. This is an absolutely beautiful model but it is a little fragile. I removed the deck pieces and weathered them separately using water soluble oil paints. I started by sanding the deck with an emory board in the same direction of the boards. At first it didn't appear to make much difference, but I believe some of the grain that appears in the final photos is a result of this process. This was my first foray into water soluble oils and I wasn't pleased with the end result. It looked too dark and more rust-like than I wanted, so I went back over the deck with tan acrylic craft paint. This got the base color closer to the washed out wood color I was trying to achieve. I then went back over the deck with a thin wash of artist's acrylic ivory black and Windex to highlight the gaps between the boards and to add a little more texture. The rest of the car was weathered with artist's acrylics.

The last car is an old MDC kit that I bought back in the late 1980's. I removed the cast on grab irons and plastic stirrup steps and replaced them with ones formed from wire. The deck was originally painted yellow and I had lightly weathered it. As this car was relatively new in my era, the deck wouldn't have been subjected to years of abuse out in the elements. The deck never really looked right to me, so I checked a number of sources of online photos and found several from which to work. After painting the deck with Floquil Primer, I came back and weathered it using artist's acrylics.

In the paint shop right now are some covered hoppers that have a special story associated with them- stay tuned.

The JR Standard

Years ago a member of the Rensselaer Model Railroad Society wrote an article about the "Green Dot Standard" that they had established for their freight car fleet. The goal was to have every car on the layout meet the "standard" which included metal wheels, Kadee couplers, cut levers, and other details that I've long forgotten. This concept came to mind as I was re-working some older freight cars recently. Now that the layout is being operated on a regular basis, having reliable equipment is imperative. And as I add new equipment or refurbish older cars, they must all meet the "JR Standard."

The JR Standard is named after Jim Rollwage, whose beautiful Denver Pacific line of the Union Pacific can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMUCKyocX-4. Jim was one of the first people to introduce me to operations, and I was amazed at how well his railroad ran. Everything runs smoothly, nothing derails (without operator help), the cars take little to no effort to couple together- in short, everything works just the way it is supposed to work. Operating on his layout is a joy- and it clearly showed me that one could have a layout that operates like this with a little work. Jim's secret is to repair anything that is wrong as soon as it turns up. If a coupler is a little low, the car comes off the layout and gets fixed. If there's a slight kink in the track, the tools come out and it gets repaired as soon as it's found. Over time, with this kind of effort, all of the problems get corrected and the layout begins to operate like it should.

Most of my freight car fleet was constructed with an eye toward detail versus operational performance. As a result, many cars had low couplers, wheels that wouldn't roll freely and other assorted maladies. Over the past year, every car has been pulled and put through the shop in order to make it sure it meets the JR Standard. Here's what is necessary to meet the standard:
1) Every coupler must be at the correct height and must operate freely.
2) Couplers must be lubricated with graphite.
3) All cars must have metal wheel sets.
4) All wheels must spin extremely freely in truck journals.
5) All wheels must be in gauge.
6) One truck on each car has little to no side to side play while the other has some more play in it.
7) Any car that is too light to track correctly gets more weight.
8) The treads on all wheels must be clean.

I've  settled on Kadee wheel sets and #5 and #58 couplers for every car. I've heard enough about problems with mixing different coupler types and manufacturers to realize that I don't want to go down that path. Fortunately, I've been installing Kadee wheel sets and #5's from the start, so I didn't have to go back and retrofit these items. The primary issues have been coupler height and/or operation and truck bearings. A little spin with a truck tuner fixes the truck bearing issues, and coupler shims and/or washers on the bolsters have fixed all of the coupler height issues.

There's nothing more fun than running a long train across the entire railroad and having everything work exactly as it should. Switching is also a blast, and just about anything that has to do with operating the layout is a joy. For the first time since I got into this hobby over 30 years ago, actually running the trains is as much fun as building them!

Thanks, Jim. 

Progress Update #3

The control panel for the west end staging yard is now finished as you can see in the photo below.

In the past, I have used Letraset dry transfer lettering and Chartpak tape for my panels. Once the lettering and track diagrams are in place, I spray the panel with a clear flat finish to protect everything. However, for this panel I wanted a different solution. Dry transfer lettering is getting hard to find and isn't easy to apply. 

The first place I went to look for alternatives was the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum. I quickly found a solution in a post by George Booth. You can read the post here: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/7237. I printed the labels in Word and took them to Staples for lamination. I then cut them out and glued them to the panel. What a great idea- thanks to George for posting this idea on the MRH forum.

Speaking of lamination, I noticed that the train cards on the layout were beginning to show signs of wear after a number of operating sessions. In order to protect the cards, I bought some plastic sleeves to hold them. Unfortunately, they wouldn't fit in the bill boxes on the fascia. I mentioned this to Jim Rollwage, one of the regular operators, and he suggested I get the train cards laminated. Another great idea! All of the train cards were updated and printed on card stock. I then took them to Staples to get laminated. As you can see below, the lamination looks great and will protect the cards for a long time to come.

I'll bet there's something else around here that I could laminate...

It's the little details

Adding little details can really improve the overall appearance of just about anything on a layout. From uncoupling levers on freight cars to trash cans beside buildings, it's the small things that can really make a difference. I have a number of small detail projects either in the works or planned for the future, and as I wrap up other projects I make a little time to knock some of these out. Here are a few examples.

When I finished the article for Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine on constructing the small truck dump tipple at Big Chimney, I knew the scene was going to require some more detail. In addition to a small office, I wanted to add an oil tank next to the tipple. The oil was sprayed onto the coal as it was loaded into the hopper cars in order to keep down the coal dust and to help prevent the coal from freezing together in the winter. Robby Vaughn sent me several photos of Ajax Tipple on the Lott's Creek Branch of the L&N and one of the photos showed two small oil tanks. That provided the inspiration to get started on the project, and in short order the tank was in place next to the tipple.

It was always my plan to add some additional weathering to the ramp up to the truck dump at some point, but studying some photos taken by Everett Young of tipples in the Pikesville, KY area showed some other details that could be added. It was fairly common for additional planks to be placed on ramps along the path of the truck tires, and I added these to the ramp. I also added Highball N-scale black ballast and crushed coal all along the ramp. And as you can see from the photos below, I added a lot of additional coal and coal dust to the area around the tipple. The line between the gravel and the spilled coal under the tipple had always looked too neat, and the addition of the coal and coal dust was a big improvement in the overall appearance of the area.The photo below shows the addition of the planks.

And here are before and after photos showing the addition of the ballast and coal to the ramp and the area around the tipple.

For the small office, I scratch-built a structure using styrene and a window and door from the scrap box. The office is based upon the manager's office of the Crab Orchard, WV tipple that you can see on the coalcampusa.com website. Here's a link to the site: http://www.coalcampusa.com/sowv/gulf/crab_orchard/crab_orchard.htm. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the photo of the office. Some barrels and junk completed the scene.

To finish the area, I added some static grass and some junk to the path from the tipple to end of the gravel road. I also highlighted several areas where the road has turned to mud.

When I first saw photos of the yard speakers at Clifton Forge on the C&O, I knew I had to have some of these for Hollister Yard. These speakers were used to communicate  with yard crews on the ground before the advent of hand-held radios. The C&O used them at many locations across the system, and I'm told the L&N used them extensively too. At first I thought I was going to have to scratch-build them, but then I found a beautiful casting from Details West of the speaker. A little yellow safety paint and some light weathering and they were ready to be installed. In the photos below, you can see the speakers in the west end of Hollister Yard. Additional speakers will eventually be installed along the east end, too.

The small switchman's shanty at the west end of Hollister Yard was scratch-built based upon some plans of a NYC shanty that appeared in Model Railroader many years ago. Given the proximity of the structure to the tracks, it seemed that some type of protection was needed for personnel existing the building. I had seen photos of similar structures with old rail used for this purpose. I clipped a couple of pieces of Code 55 rail, painted them safety yellow, and them mounted them in front of the door. Now anyone exiting the building will be diverted from walking straight onto the tracks.

It occurred to me while writing this blog that the switchman's shanty would likely have the remnants of an old coal bin either next to the building or nearby. The bin would have become obsolete when the oil stove was installed. Looks like there might be another small project to add to the list.

Studying prototype photos can provide a wealth of little details that can be added to scenes around the layout. And not only can these little details can really improve the overall appearance of just about any scene, but they are fun to build as well.