Along the Right of Way ...

No Tricks, Just a Treat!

Milepost 523

 

As part of their Genesis Series, Athearn has just announced that they will be producing a GP9 in Nickel Plate colors.  The loco will be offered in three different variations including one set up for use in passenger service as the older PA1s were retired at the end of passenger service.  The engine will come with a DCC decoder; sound is an additional option.  For more information about the new locos, you can take a look at the attached PDF file which gives the details of one of their latest offerings.

Download 02_Gen_GP9_NKP_092011

dlm

 

A Golden Oldie.....

Milepost 522

 
It seems that most of us can trace our interest in model trains way back to something or some person.  I probably have to blame my interest in model railroading on our next door neighbor when I was growing up.  Andy Bartok was the best kind of neighbor a kid could have.  He seemed to be always puttering around with something in his garage and the kids in the neighborhood were always welcome.  If something needed fixing, Andy seemed to know just how to do it and on more than one occasion saved the day with his ability to fix that favorite toy.

But Andy also had a really nice model railroad in an extra bedroom in their story and a half house.  THAT was the real treat... to get to go upstairs when he was working on his trains or simply running them for his enjoyment.  Since the layout filled the room, you knew what was going on when the lights were on there.  For a five year old kid, that layout just seemed like the ultimate.  I watched it seemingly by the hour.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the layout but there are just certain things that I think I'll always remember... the wooden trestle that his son built for him and the mountain just to the right of that trestle that looked a lot like the Matre Horn in France.  Of course, there was a really nice town & yard as well.  Since Andy was an electrician by trade, his control panel seemed second to none. 

There are two things I remember about the layout... one was the special 22" radius circuit that ran all around the outside of it so that he could run a 2-8-8-2 articulated dragging a string of coal cars.  The other was the blinking radio tower at the top of the mountain in the back of the layout.  It was made to blink not electronically but with a small disk that rotated once every 15 seconds.  That had a metal plate on the disk and about half of that time, that metal plate completed the electrical circuit that caused the light to light up.  It worked very effectively but was a far cry from today's rather sophisticated electronic circuits.

Andy & Elma (his wife) sold their home and his layout when I was a senior in high school.  Shortly thereafter, they moved to California.  Several years later, the lady who bought the house offered me some of the old stuff she had removed from it when she tore it out.  Most of the stuff had seen too many trips to the floor caused by overzealous grandkids and was simply junk.  But there were a few cars that I did keep.  This Deep Rock tank car was one of them.

There is nothing really special about the car... we may have even bought it for him as we always got something for the layout for him for Christmas.  But it is simply "one of those pieces" that reminds me of my long-time friend.  I've said previously that one of the neatest things about this hobby is the really nice people you meet along the way.  Andy was certainly one of them.

dlm

A Couple of Old Relics

Milepost 521

 
I knew I had taken this photo a long time ago at home back in Tiltonsville, but I didn't realize I had captured a "two-fer."  I'd have to check but I'm guessing that the boxcar was photographed in the mid 1970s about 10-12 years after the Nickel Plate's merger with Norfolk & Western.  There were still quite a few NKP cars around but many of them were getting either an entirely new coat of paint or at least had new owner & road numbers painted on them.  This car had neither. 

But the second relic in the photo might be much harder to spot... take a look at the signal on the left side of the picture.  It is a rather crude, hand-operated track indicator for the switch that the car is sitting on.  The branch that ran along the river from Steubenville to Terminal Junction didn't see much traffic other than local mill traffic at the time this photo was taken.  I think there were maybe about three trains a week that didn't go to the mill.  Otherwise, the only traffic was to & from the mills that were about 12-15 miles apart.  There was no train control or block signals... just train orders and radio communication.  But still when the switch was open to the mill yard, there had to be a way to let other trains know.  So this signal was there.  You can see what it looked like by day; at night, there were two red lights on it, making it kind of a light position signal.  While it doesn't show in the photo, I seem to remember that the signal was operated by a simple lever at the base of the pole.

Simple but effective... sometimes that works best.

dlm

Ice Cream, Round II

Milepost 520

 
Back at Milepost 510, I mentioned an article that had been in RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN about dairy shaped buildings that were used to promote ice cream stands.  This practice became popular in the 1930s and some of those buildings remain in use today.  At the time, I had painted an old salt shaker in the shape of a milk can then added a paper wrapper to add details.

The milk can would have been an interesting piece on Main Street of my layout but it still sort of looked like a milk can/salt shaker painted white.  So I added the support building shown here.  The idea is that "back then," there wouldn't have been the instant ice cream machines like we have today and there would have been an additional building to make the ice cream and to store related supplies.

A recent trip to The Train Station in Columbus (a great train shop, by the way) produced Schultz's Garage.  That's a second generation DPM kit which is a whole lot better than their first efforts.  While the first series had great detail, the parts were all cast as one meaning hours of fine detail painting to get them to look right.  The second series includes separate window and door castings which makes life a whole lot easier.  The castings for the walls still need a little work to square up the ends and you do have to cut the roof from a sheet of plain plastic provided but all in all, they are good kits.

Keeping with the white & pink scheme, I painted the windows & doors with some pink spray paint that I had on hand.  The walls were squared up and then modified to accept the milk can.  This took a little doing but patience prevailed, leaving me a pretty good fit.  Besides, it is kind of out of sight so unless you really messed up, you would be OK.  I assembled the walls using some scrap styrene for braces in the corners and to make some cross braces to keep the walls parallel to each other.  This was important since the one corner was missing after the cuts for the milk can.

A couple of quick coats of white paint brought the building along nicely.  The pink windows and doors were dry so I glued them into place.  Next, using some round tubing as "universal bracing," I attached the milk can to the structure.  I say universal bracing because the round tubing fits snugly no matter what the angle of the joint.  So it was a simple matter of applying a little glue to the corner of the building and placing the milk can where I wanted it.  After that, the round tubing on the insides of the angles formed made for a good, solid bond.  Set everything aside to set for a while.

The roof required a lot of cutting and fitting to get it right.  That's not all that easy with plastic but I came close.  Besides, I had planned to cover the roof with some construction paper to give it a rolled roofing look and the paper was much easier to cut to fit than the plastic.  Once I had the basic shape, I glued it to the building and again let everything set to dry.  Some additional bracing on the inside and another piece of round tubing on the inside of the roof's ridge helped make things good and solid.

I think this is the first time that I used strips of construction paper to simulate rolled roofing.  It went a lot better than I thought.  I simply cut the strips about an inch wide and three inches long.  I allowed a little overhang of the plastic roof and simply glued the strips in place using Walthers Goo.  I probably overlaid then about half simply because it looked "right" as I was doing it.  I also overlaid the ends by about half an inch as well.  The peak was simply the same material in a one-inch wide strip that I ever so lightly scored down the middle then folded.  Some glue on the inside and it went into place nicely.

So that's the story behind Tastee Freeze Ice Cream.  When I eventually get it installed on Main Street, I envision a couple of cars on one side of the building and a small picnic table or two out front for the patrons.  But that should be about it.

Oh, I almost forgot... when I showed the almost completedbuilding to my friend Rita, she really liked it because she worked at an ice cream stand called Tastee Freeze.  So I guess this will have to be "Rita's Tastee Freeze!"  No, I don't anticipate any new signage but Rita's it is.

dlm

I'm Not so Sure About this One...

Milepost 519

 
Like many of you, I probably get more than my fair share of emails... yep, they are full of jokes, poems, get rich quick schemes and let's not forget the "pass this on to ten people or else your hair will fall out..." variety.  But every once in a while, I get one that is kind of funny and there are at least parts of it that are worth passing on.

Such is the case with the photo above... this is a Redneck version of a Gingerbread House!  Note that it is complete with house trailer, car on blocks, big pick-up truck... the works!  But I thought that it showed a little creative modeling skill so I wanted to share it with you.  But I'm concerned about those of you with your model railroad in your basements... you may go down one day and see that your friendly basement pest has eaten part of your award-winning model!  Maybe I'll stick with plastic after all...

OK, we will get serious again.  Next time I'm hoping to tell you about the second part of my car-cuttin' kitbash.

dlm

Night Photos

Milepost 518

 

 

Ever since I got my first SLR camera back in the early 1970s, I have always been fascinated with night photos.  I don't know why but there is just something about those lights, the fog & haze, the different colors and the motion sometimes captured in the image.  So it only was a matter of time before I took my tripod and camera to the Liberty Hi overpass and took a few pictures of the new rail yard. 

Fortunately, I snapped off a few images just as soon as I got set up.  I had hoped to get a train in motion on the main line sometime during the time I was there, but my visit was cut short by an over anxious security person who asked me to leave.  I complied but since learned that taking photos from there is fine provided one is not a traffic hazard.  Nonetheless, the two images that I'm sharing here were the best of what I did take that night.

Pictures like this are pretty easy with today's digital cameras since you can see what you get immediately.  A camera with a shutter that can be left open for 1-15 seconds, a good, solid tripod and either a remote release or timer setting on the camera are all you really need.  Try different settings with the f/stop, white balance and shutter speed until you get something that you really like.  In the case of these two, I used f/11, ISO=200, WB=Sun and a 2 second shutter time.  You may like different settings though.

How about one more taken a few days later...

 

dlm

What a PowerPoint!

Milepost 517

 
Check out this PowerPoint of city scenes & cars from the 1950s...

If you don't have Power Point loaded on you computer, you may go to Microsoft and download a free viewer.  Tha address is:  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/view-a-presentation-without-powerpoint-2010-HA102000544.aspx

Click on the link below to download the presentation itself.

Download AVeryOldCityFrom1950%s

dlm

The Best News!

Milepost 516

Back in February, I had mentioned to you that my wife Janet had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Since I realize that you come here to see what's on my mind about trains and model railroading, I've not mentioned much about that since then.  But there have been a lot of things happening over the past eight months.  If you will indulge me for a minute, I'll give you the quick story.

Janet had surgery on February 15 to remove the affected tissue.  Follow-up tests suggested the necessity of both chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  But as a part of the total testing, another growth was detected on her kidney.  At the time, the doctors told us that it too was likely cancerous but that it could wait as the breast cancer was of the most immediate concern. 

So every two weeks after recovering from the initial surgery, Janet underwent chemo.  As with almost all people who do so, she was totally zapped between treatments.  She would barely recover her strength from one then it was time for another one.  She lost her hair... the whole nine yards.  But she was determined and made it through without having to postpone any of the eight treatments.  Those ended in the middle of June and she had a three-week break before she began radiation treatments.

The growth on her kidney was re-evaluated at this time and it was stable.  It hadn't changed any nor grown.  So it was decided that while it was still likely cancerous, they would wait until after radiation to address it.

While the radiation wasn't as draining as chemo, it too took its toll on her.  For 33 consecutive days Monday thru Friday, she had the treatments.  That made her tired and also gave her a burn similar to a sunburn that wasn't the most pleasant either but she still toughed it out and got every one of them w/o any delays.  Oftentimes, patients will simply have to take a break due to the strains of the radiation regimen.

Radiation ended in mid August.  Again, she got another "break" in treatments.  But surgery loomed for the kidney.  Finally, on Sept. 15, she underwent laparoscopic surgery at the University of Toledo Hospital and the growth along with a very small portion of her kidney was removed.  The doctor told us that things went as well as he had expected and that there were no surprises.  Even though the surgery was by the scope, it was major surgery internally and she was in the hospital for five days.  I stayed with her the entire time as well as a couple more days when we returned home.  I gradually went back to work half days then when she was feeling better, returned full time.

This past Wednesday, we had the follow-up appointment with the surgeon and he said that she was looking fine.  But the best news of the day was that the growth was NOT cancerous!  So she beat the odds and we were both thrilled.  On top of that, a follow-up mammogram in September came back fine so things are looking better each day.  That good news has translated into a burst of healing energy and she is more like her old self.  Maybe now she can begin to really enjoy her retirement. 

Back in February, I told you that early detection was essential for positive treatment and I again want to stress to you the importance of encouraging your loved ones to get checked on a regular basis.  Please do not ignore this request.  It has been an eight months that I would wish on no one but the sad fact is that one in eleven women will deal with breast cancer sometime in their life. 

I'd like to close by thanking each and every one of you who sent positive, encouraging messages through these past eight months.  Your thoughts and prayers have carried both of us and while we realize that we will never be totally out of the woods, that this will always be in the back of our minds, your support and encouragement has helped us tremendously.  Again, thank you so very much.

Until next time...

dlm

You're not Going to Believe this One!!!

Milepost 515

 

 Is there such a thing as too much??!?

 
It is the ultimate goal of most every model railroader to have as realistic of a model railroad as possible.  To this end, the modeler will go to great lengths to strive for realism.  I've seen layouts with real running water to simulate flowing streams and even waterfalls.  I've seen modelers painstakingly thread black thread from telephone pole to telephone pole to simulate telephone & electrical wires.  Today's modern locomotive models come complete with synchronized sound to add that extra realism.  My friend Mel has several cars, trucks & buses on his layout with LED lights so that the headlights & taillights are illuminated.  Modelers install dimmers on their layout lighting to lower the lights when it is time to simulate evening/night hours.  This allows the trains to run in the dark lit only by their own lights and the tiny lights installed in houses, stores, buildings and on lamp posts.  All of this is done in the name of realism.

But perhaps this time, it's gone just too far!  Noch, a model company from Europe that is primarily known for its very accurate figures, animals and other scenic details, has now added a scenic detail that one would only find out on the farm, along the road perhaps or maybe at a circus setting.  Yes, they have introduced animal "droppings."  Just what you need to add just a little more realism to your barnyard scene.  (very long sigh)...

Perhaps this is one piece of realism that I will somehow do without!  :)

dlm

Blue Light Special

Milepost 514

 

 

 

One of the first railroad lanterns I ever owned was one with a blue globe on it.  I didn't know the significance of it until I got a copy of a Nickel Plate Rule Book from 1943.  The blue lantern was perhaps the highest, most restrictive signal lamp that could be used on the railroad because it signified that a car was being worked on by railroad personnel.  The rules for the use of the blue lantern were very strict.  So strict in fact that the only person who could remove one from a car was the person who put it on the car in the first place.  So if a maintenance person was working under a car, the car was marked with a blue lantern on each end.  This was to insure that no one would try to move the car causing serious injury to the or worse.  When his work was done, the worker would remove the lanterns and the car could be put back into service.

Today, as you can see from the photos, things have changed but the color blue still remains the same for equipment that is being worked on.  In the first photo, you see a marker light that is placed on the track where the car work is to be done.  Careful examination of the second photo shows that there is indeed a blue marker on each of the maintenance tracks in this section of the yard.  Finally, in the third photo, you can see that there are indeed workers working on a car that has one end raised off its trucks.  Look closely and you will see blue markers on the car itself.  Safety is a way of life on today's railroads.  Even with these precautions, railroad yard work is still one of the most dangerous jobs "on the line."  It never hurts to be too careful.

dlm