One of the first things I did when I developed the concept of the Chesapeake, Wheeling and Erie Railroad was to establish a numbering system for the freight car fleet. Hopper cars would be in the 70,000 range, with earlier cars in the lower portion and more recent cars in the higher portion of the series. The chart below shows how various cars fit into the scheme.
Note the addition of cars in the 125,000 and 103,000 series. Once the Bowser 100 ton cars and the BLI H2A cars became available, I had to add expand the series to accommodated these cars. A quick check of the numbering series for the C&O's vast hopper car fleet revealed that cars were numbered in a variety of series. So adding the 103,000 and 125,000 series certainly seemed plausible. As part of my renewed focus on building hopper cars for the layout, I took a tally of how many had been completed. There were just under 100 cars that had been painted and lettered for the home road. It occurred to me that I could memorialize a milestone by numbering the 100th car as XX100. And while I was at it, I may as well number the 99th car. So below are numbers 125100 and 125099 at Hollister Yard in North Pierce, WV.
In the picture below, 125100 is rolling east on the Sand Fork Shifter headed for one of the tipples along the Sand Fork Branch.
And in this last shot, we catch 125099 crossing White Oak Creek Trestle, having been loaded earlier in the day at Consolidated Coal Tipple #4 at the end of the Sand Fork Branch.
I sure hope it doesn't take as long to get to #'s 199 and 200 as it did to get to these two...
Over the weekend, reports surfaced of an unattended campfire somewhere along the Forest Park Southern right-of-way. Various sources claimed to have spotted smoke somewhere in the vicinity of Beagle Creek while others reportedly saw flames in the distance somewhere around Spook Mountain. Repeated attempts by railroad management to locate the fire were unsuccessful, which wasn't surprising to local residents. "Them people couldn't find the dang fire if they was sitting in it" said a resident of Beagle Creek. The Forest Service and local law enforcement officials have been called in to assist in the search. The authorities are confident the unattended fire will be found soon. As one member of Sheriff's Department said, "Where there's fire, there's usually smoke, and smoke isn't too difficult to spot, even on a cloudy day."
After what seems to be like forever, the last two F-units are finally in the paint shop. The photo below shows them ready to receive their first coat of paint.
This is one of those projects that just seemed to take forever! It began over ten years ago with the thought that I would take a couple of old Athearn Blue Box shells and upgrade them with American Model Builders windows and a lot of detail parts. One unit was going to be powered and one would be a dummy. Along the way I acquired a Proto Power West can motor and installed it into the Athearn chassis. I even went so far as to add new trucks and side frames and installed a decoder to make sure it would run OK. Fast forward a few years and I decided to upgrade the units with Highliner shells. When the boxes arrived, I was amazed at all of the parts and the options. It was clear that, in addition to the time required to build the models, I was going to have to do some research and decide which variation of F-unit the railroad would have in service. At one point, I pulled out a couple of Stewart F3's with Kato drives that my Stepfather had given me a number of years ago. I remembered his comments about how well they ran, and it occurred to me that I might be able to use the drives under the Highliner shells. Alas, there didn't appear to be a way to make this work. So it was back to detailing the shells. I started with the rear of the shells and worked my way up to the top before losing interest in the project. It was off to work on other projects. Sometime around 2006 or so, I came across a post on a forum somewhere that talked about how the Highliner shell was a perfect fit for the Stewart chassis. I believe it may have referenced an article on how to make this work. That did it. I went to my file card holder where I've made notes on the articles of interest that I've come across over the years and pulled every article on F-units. There were several that covered the installation of an Highliner shell on the Stewart chassis. By this time, however, I had mounted the couplers to the shells of the F-units. In order to see how they would fit on the chassis, I had to remove the ends of the chassis. This meant disassembling the entire chassis, cutting off the ends with a hacksaw, and then re-assembling everything. After all the changes were made, the Highliner shell fit just as advertised. Perfect! Now I was off to the races. Until I went to put one of the motors back in and broke both of the drive shafts. A quick search of the Internet for parts turned up nothing. A check of the Bowser website showed what appeared to be the correct parts, so I ordered them. Of course, once they arrived, I realized they weren't the correct parts. So the project went back into storage. Some time later, I came across an article about re-powering a locomotive in which the author used brass tubing to connect the two ends of the driveshafts. Bingo! There was the solution to the problem with the F-units. I pulled the kits out, figured out what size of plastic tube I would need, and began working on the project in earnest again. At this point I was adding sound units to the layout, and I decided that both of these engines would get Tsunami decoders. I completely stripped the chassis, disassembled the trucks, cleaned everything, cut out an area for the speakers and the cab interior, and then carefully reassembled the chassis. The truck side frames even made it through the paint shop. The photo below shows the completed chassis at this point.
Now that the chassis were almost complete, I turned my attention back to the shells. I wanted to add grab irons to the engineer's side of the cab so I carefully marked the locations on the first unit and drilled the holes. I then proceeded to drill holes for the NBW castings above the grab irons. Every third or fourth try, I would miss where I intended the hole to be and would have to fill the errant hole with Bondo auto body filler. Once the filler was dry, I would sand it smooth and start a new hole. As I neared the top of the shell, I really missed. I filled the hole, but every time I tried to drill a new one, the drill would walk into the old hole. Completely frustrated, I put the project aside again. However, the two shells remained on the shelf above my work area and the chassis were in a box next to them.
About the time I put the F units aside, I started operating the layout. It quickly became clear that I was going to need a lot more motive power, and it was clear that a lot still remained to be done on the F-unit shells. So the quickest solution to the problem was to build other units. In short order, two U30B's, a Broadway Limited F unit, and two Kato SD40's were painted and lettered, weathered, and placed into service. Then came the construction of the west end staging yard and the changes to the scenery and track around North Pierce. Still later came 18 Detroit Edison unit train cars, two more SD40-2's, and a couple of GP38's. Toward the end of last month, I decided it was time to finish all of the projects that were in various stages of completion. This included the F units. I made one more attempt at drilling the hole for the NBW casting that had stymied me before- with the same result. It then occurred to me that I could shave the stem off the NBW casting and simply glue it to the shell. Success! I was finally able to move on with the project. Prior to digging back into this project, I had come up with idea of creating a small dimple with a pin where I wanted to drill the holes for the NBW castings. The small drill bits have a tendency to walk away from the initial starting point without a pilot hole, and this seemed like the solution. And I also started using a magnifier, which has made all of the difference in the world. Rather than trying to fight to see the location on the shell and denying that I was having any problem seeing it, I finally gave in to the magnifier. Now I wish I had done it years ago. So at last the F units are finally in the paint shop. I still have to paint some figures and determine how I'm going to mount them in the shell. And I have to paint and weather the units. But the finish line is in sight now, and that has provided a lot of motivation to finally finish this project. Postscript: When I told my wife this story, obviously pleased with my progress, she said "Now they'll probably sit in the paint shop for two years." Sigh...
Prior to every operating session, I go around the layout and do a general cleaning. I also straighten things up and make sure that uncoupling tools are in place, pencils are sharpened, and there are enough track warrants on the clipboards hanging from the fascia at various locations. Before the last operating session, as I was cleaning up the area around west end of Big Chimney, I came across something curious. There was a small blob of what appeared to be grey plastic next to the stream bed. Upon closer observation, it appeared to be a small campfire. Curious, I picked up the small piece and examined it. Sure enough, it was a campfire. If you look carefully in the photo below, you can see it through the bridge.
Now I am absolutely certain that I never placed this piece of plastic here. I can remember just about everything that I've ever done on the layout, and I can assure you that this is not my work. So who, then, could be responsible for this? Just prior to the operating session back in August, two of the more shady members of the crew were back in this area of the layout looking very intently over the bridge in the picture above. They didn't know that I had come around the corner at the opposite end of the aisle and had observed them. Given their reputations, I came back after the session to see what mischief they have may have created. A quick scan of the area showed nothing amiss, so I almost felt guilty about having assumed they were up to no good. Almost. Now it's clear that I was correct. And we know who is responsible for the mysterious campfire. I'm not one to go around pointing fingers or naming names, but let's just say that one of the miscreants is known to abscond with freight cars at every available opportunity and the other is known to refer to railroad executives traveling on special movements as the "circus train." The good news is that, given their advanced years, I'm sure they have both long forgotten about this little incident.
A friend of mine gave me a box full of GP parts, including a complete G18, for use in some kitbashes in the future. Looking through the box reminded of the times when I would spend hours adding super detailing parts to old Athearn Blue Box engines. It was lot fun, but it was also a lot of work. Looking through the box also reminded me of the first kitbash I ever did- an SD 40. Below is a shot of 3004 at SJ cabin.
The unit was kitbashed using an old Athearn SDP40 and a GP35 shell. I used a how-to article in RMC from the late 1970's- early 1980's as a guide. At the time, there were no commercial models of SD40's or SD40-2's available. I planned to have a large number of these units on the railroad, and this project seemed to be a good solution. Numerous Details West and Detail Associates parts were added, and new handrails were formed from .015 brass wire. I believe the article described how to make a powered unit, but this one is a dummy. This was also the first diesel to receive the "new" paint scheme that was introduced in 1966 with the large "CWE" herald on the side and "Central Belt" on the nose. Note that the CWE herald is smaller than on all subsequent units. It was done using Champ Block Gothic 3/8" decals, and I quickly decided after completing the unit that the CWE needed to be larger.
This unit was finished in 1982, and it took a lot longer than I thought it would. Fortunately, within a year or two of finishing this project, there were SD40-2's on the market with much better detail and accurately scaled hood widths. While this project was fun, kitbashing a fleet of these would have been a real challenge!
Just before the start of the last operating session, Bob Zoellner handed me a box and said "Merry Christmas." The box was labeled as an undecorated Kadee 50' PS-1 box car kit. I thanked Bob and started to take the kit back to my workshop. He said "Open it up." I took the lid off and found what you see in the picture below.
Bob made numerous modifications to the car. The roofwalks were removed, the holes filled in, and roofwalk brackets were added. The car was then painted and lettered as SOU 43029. The subtle weathering is beautifully done, and the working cushion underframe is amazing! It will make a great addition to the fleet and will be in service for the next session.
Bob is a FRA licensed engineer who works weekends on the Lebanon Mason Monroe Railroad just north of Cincinnati. He has also become the regular dispatcher on the Chesapeake, Wheeling & Erie. His knowledge of railroading has brought a new level of realism to the operating sessions and it's been a real treat to listen to him get trains over the road. He was also responsible for getting me a cab ride on the LM&M- the first one ever- in one of the original NKP GP30's that's been repainted into its original paint scheme by Bob. Here's a link to photos of the engine: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locopicture.aspx?id=161478. Thanks again for the nice gift, Bob.
Sometime last spring, I made my first attempt at hand carving rocks. There was an area around the spur to Dry Creek Coal #2 at Summit Springs where I wanted a rock face, in part because of how steep the hillside is here. I also wanted to experiment here before attempting to carve the rocks around the tunnel portal at the entrance to Brocks Gap Tunnel. This is a large area, and I'd like it to be a signature scene on the layout. Therefore, practicing a little before attempting this project seemed to make sense, especially since I've never done this before. I've collected numerous photos of rock outcroppings and rock faces over the years, so I had a good idea of what I wanted. I had also accumulated all of the materials that Joe Fugate recommends in his Ten Mile Creek video series for hand carving rocks (see this link for the videos: http://model-trains-video.com/index.php). So after reviewing the video one last time, I was ready to go. The picture below shows the end results.
This is one of only two shots I have of this area, largely because I was never happy with the way it turned out. The color was wrong, the texture was wrong, and the shape was wrong. Other than that, it turned out great! I used too much Portland cement in the plaster mix which resulted in the texture being too coarse. I used some craft paints to weather the rock surfaces. The paints were fine- I just used some of the wrong colors. I got more of a tan/brown appearance rather than the grey/white I was after. And most importantly, I didn't use those photographs I mentioned previously when carving the plaster. The resulting rocks looked it- too much of the same shape and not enough variations. Finally, the overall square shape of the entire rock face just looked wrong. So I knew I would have to redo this at some point.
Well. that some point occurred over the last several weeks. In addition to re-working the original rock face, I carved the rocks around the entrance to Brocks Gap Tunnel. The picture below shows the new rock face.
Some new plaster was added to the left hand side of the old rocks in order to get a more natural look to the overall face. The existing rocks were re-shaped by chipping away at the old plaster. During this process, most of the original surface was removed. This left the light grey of the original plaster along with the darker grey that was used as the base coat. This was exactly the color combination that I had been after originally. So armed with a little success in re-shaping the rock face, I set about to carve the rocks around the portal to Brocks Gap Tunnel. The picture below shows the end results.
This time, I used several photos when carving the rocks. The shot below of a tunnel portal somewhere on the Clinchfield shows what I was trying to capture. I'd give credit for this photo where due, but I found it somewhere on the Internet.
A lot of the shape of the rocks along the right hand side was the result of the original application of plaster. Nothing like a little luck to help a project along! The rest of the shapes were carved over a week period. I'd carve a little, step back and look, and carve some more. Then I left the project for a period of time. When I came back, I'd find little things that I wanted to change. By the end of the week, the final shape was in place. Here's a couple of close-ups.
The plaster was painted with a medium grey craft paint as the base coat followed by a wash of brownish black craft paint. Once this dried thoroughly, I went back and added highlights with several lighter shades of grey craft paint. A light application of some weathering powders completed the process. With the exception of ground throws for the turnouts, all of the scenery in this area is now complete. Here's the view looking from Laurel Ridge Coal toward the west end of Summit Springs.
And last up, a short video of DE 9 headed westbound.
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