Along the Right of Way ...

Something from (Almost) Nothing...

Milepost 593

A while back, I shared my model of a stilted interlocking tower with you (Milepost 568, March 15, 2012).  At the time, I mentioned that I seldom throw anything away and did keep the left-over parts from the kitbash thinking that they might make a decent model in and of themselves.  Well, here it is.

Most of what you see here is from the original kit.  The walls are the cut off remnants from the originals.  The peaks are simply cut from some Evergreen clapboard siding.  The roof is just tan-brown scrapbook paper with some tar lines drawn on it with a black felt tip marker.  I'm not sure of the origin of the chimney but you can bet that it came from my scrap box.  A couple hours of work, some other odds & ends from the junk pile and a little paint here and there created an interesting looking shed for my railroad's use.  While it's not quite getting blood from a turnip, it was a fun little project and the cost was almost nothing... what else could one ask for??!? 

dlm

Deshler, Ohio; Then & Now...

Milepost 592

My Nickel Plate friend Ben sent me these photos of Deshler, Ohio, several weeks ago.  I've written about Deshler several times in the past as a great train watching spot as well as the home of one of my favorite interlocking towers.  But today, it's photo detective time as I'm going to get you started on looking at images from two different eras then deciding what is still there and what has gone away.  For orientation, the old photo is looking east and a little south; the new aerial photo is looking pretty much in the opposite direction, west and a little north.  To get you started, I've provided the same images with a few items marked; your job?  Find some more!

Here is what I was able to easily find...  A-the station, B-the water tower (foundation in the newer photo), C-a loading platform, D-the diamond, E-southeast transfer track and F-road crossing.  There are others; see what you can find.  Clicking on the images should give you larger, more detailed images to look at & compare.

One thing that is missing from the earlier photo is the tower that should be located just beyond the station.  It clearly shows up in the newer picture so I'm guessing that the old photo pre-dates one of my favorite railroad structures.  You might also note in the newer photo that track crews are ready for any serious damage that may occur to the rail crossing (diamond) located there.  Do you see the replacement laying next to the water tower foundation?  Should an accident take the diamond out of service, this pre-planning would drastically cut down on the time that the line might be out of service.  And, since this is the line that runs from the East Coast to Chicago, it is very vital to the flow of goods and traffic.

dlm

NWORR Museum to Offer Unique Layout Tour

Milepost 591

The Northwest Ohio Railroad Preservation Society is offering a unique opportunity to visit several area model railroads.  The event will be held Saturday, June 23rd from noon till 4:00pm and will feature several different layouts in the Findlay area in both size and scale.  As of this writing, there are several layouts to be featured including an outdoor layout, a 24" gauge layout, a Lionel toy train layout and at least two different HO scale pikes.  This is a very unique opportunity as these layouts are not generally open to the public.

All tours start at the NWORR Museum between noon and 2:00pm; two hours are allowed for the tour.  Participants will first visit the layouts at the museum and take a ride on their steam powered scale train.  Maps and other materials will be given out at that time for you to take the self-directed tour.  Tickets are $5 each for adults and $3 for children twelve & under.  On the day of the tour, the price will be $6 and $4 respectively so get those tickets early.  Proceeds of the event will help fund the purchase of the NWORR's new home; they are in the midst of a capital campaign to raise money for the purchase of some land just east of their current location.

The NWORR is located on County Road 99 right next to Russell Electric & I-75.  This is sure to be fun for the entire family.  Don't miss this unique opportunity!

For more information about this and other events, please visit their web site at:  http://www.nworrp.org/

dlm

Davies Mine #1

Milepost 590

This column is written in memory of my brother Dave Merkel who died five years ago on May 21st, 2007.  -- Dan Merkel

For those of you who have been with me since the beginning, you know that I had a brother Dave who was also a model railroader.  We lost Dave shortly after I started writing this column back in 2007 so I was faced with the task of going through his railroad "stuff" to help my mother.  One of the things I came across was this mine structure.

The building sat here in a box under my layout for five years until I decided not too long ago that it was time to rejuvenate it and put it on the layout like it should be.  When I was building the mountain on one location, I specifically allowed space for the mine and even cut in a switch for access.  But other than that, the area remained undeveloped.

Buildings like this were located all over the coalfields of eastern Ohio.  While the manufacturer calls it a mine, it is actually a tipple where coal was loaded from the mine into the hoppers that would be spotted underneath it.  Most of the ones I remember seeing were wooden frames covered with corrugated metal siding.  They were built to be torn apart and moved to another location once the coal in a particular mine played out.  So this one being wood is a bit unique.

Age had been hard on the model.  In addition to the thick layer of dust it gathered, many parts were broken or had come loose.  But as best as I could tell, they were all there so I went about "restoring" the mine to a worthy model.  After loose parts were reattached and broken parts were repaired, I ended up with a presentable model.  All joints that could easily be accessed were reinforced with small bits of styrene scrap; this does wonders for the strength of a joint and I try to do it on all of the models that I build.  If you look closely just inside of one of the openings, you will see a little spot of white.  I'd better get the paint out and fix that.

One of the things I like most about this mine is the gnarly looking wooden sides.  They have lots of age and texture built right in.  Perhaps it's a little too overdone but I still think it makes for an interesting piece.  But I couldn't get those details to stand out until I brushed the entire wooden structure with a tan colored wash of paint.  I probably used about 5 parts of water to one of paint but this would vary based on the type of paint you are using.  I laid it on pretty heavy then went back with a paper towel and wiped it down when the paint started to dry a little.  The cast in wood grain really stood out now and I was pleased with the results.  I gave the roof a similar treatment with my black India ink wash but it doesn't show that well in these photos.

The name was simple... ever since our daughter was able to talk, my brother was always known to her as "Uncle Davey."  Not wanting to make the name possessive, I did change it a little to "Davies Mine."  The number one?  That one was simple too... he will always be number one in our hearts.  So there's the story behind Davies Mine, a fitting tribute to a very deserving guy...

dlm

Railfanning with Friends...

Milepost 589

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from my friend Denny who told me that he and his brother John were going around Ohio in eight days railfanning.  One of the days, they planned on being in my area and would I like to join them?  Duh!  So bright & early Tuesday morning, I met them in Fostoria for some serious, all day train watching.  The following is a partial & brief photo summary of what we saw and where we saw it.

Our first visitor was a westbound mixed freight.  The weather was perfect for trainwatching and he was coming right into the sun for a great opeing photo.

This was a surprise as it was the first time I had seen a former Amtrak mail/express baggage car in regular freight service.

Even though the day was just beginning, we had a "surprise ending" as the train was followed up by... A CABOOSE!  You don't see those too often at all any more.

Once east-west traffic cleared on the CSX, the NS local came round the corner with a few grain hoppers for the local elevators.

An eastbound Triple-Crown Road Railer train was next to catch our attention.  These special built trailers can be linked together and form a train all of their own.  At one time, they were a really hot commodity but today, the shipping container has taken center stage.

After four hours in Fostoria and a quick lunch, it was on to Deshler.  Neither of my guests had been there so it was another treat for them.  CSX had been doing some track work in the area which did slow things down a little.  Soon after we got there, there was a parade of interesting looking track maintenance equipment that rolled by.

All in all, I'd guess we saw about a dozen different pieces.

While we saw a lot of interesting things all day long, this one probably took the cake.  It was a rather normal looking train at first that was mainly made up of empty container cars.  But according to the train reports from the dispatcher... it was over 14,000 feet long!  Over two and a half miles of train...

Finally, it was on to North Baltimore for them to see the new Intermodal Yard there.  Just as we arrived, this eastbound rolled by.  It was late afternoon by now and a lot of the track work must have been done for the day as traffic picked up considerably.

All in all, I believe we saw six trains at the NB Yard location including this westbound that terminated there in the yard.

I didn't keep a tally of all of the trains but would guess that we saw 16-18 trains in all.  As I said, the trackwork being done in the area seemed to keep things down a bit but there was still more than enough action to keep us very busy and to declair the day a success.  Our final activities for the day included a visit to my layout AND a trip to the Cheddars Restaurant in Findlay where a good meal was had by all.

Nothing beats good friends, good food and good railfanning along the right of way.

dlm

 

"Shed Houses"

Milepost 588

My mother's cousin married a gentleman from Baltimore.  He was a great guy but brought with him some rather strange phrases and one of them was "shed houses."  Now according to him, a shed house was any small shed, shack, shanty or similar storage structure.  So naturally, I thought about him when I was building these little shanties for my layout.

They aren't much... just a little Evergreen Styrene siding, some Tichy windows & doors, some green construction paper for the roof and a little piece of plastic rod for the smokestack.  But they were a rather major accomplishment for me as I've been struggling with ways to "easily" cut out window & door openings.  Based on that, I guess these were "experimental" buildings.

A few days ago, I rounded up all of my Tichy windows & doors then went to their web site where they have the actual opening sizes printed.  I'd like to see this on the product labels but for now, they aren't.  I converted these sizes into little 1:1 drawings using my trusty Paint Shop Pro software.  So now I can easily print small templates/cutting guides for any window or door in my stock pile.  These are printed onto sticky label paper then simply stuck to the wall material that I am using for a particular project. 

OR, I can go a step farther as I did with these buildings and lay out the walls using the same software.  Put in the doors & windows, reverse the drawing left to right then print and stick it on the wall stock.  Now I can simply cut along the lines and have walls with window & door openings ready to go.  It does require some real patience to cut the openings accurately but the results are worth the effort.  Once the walls were cut, it was a simple matter of gluing them together, painting them  and adding the windows & doors.

For roofs, I used some green construction paper.  It was pretty simple to measure out what I needed then cut it with a small paper cutter.  I marked tar lines with a black felt tip marker and glued the paper to the building peaks.  The smoke stacks are simply pieces of plastic rod poked through the paper roof and glued into place from the inside.  They, too, got a coat of black paint.

Yes, these are simple projects, but ones that you can complete yourself in an hour or so.  They will teach you some skills that can be used to build much larger, more complicated buildings using the same basic techniques.  Before you know it, you will be knocking out houses, stations and all kinds of other buildings for your layout.  And the best thing about it is that you can proudly say, "I built them from scratch."  So grab some windows, doors and siding material and have at it.  You will have fun along the way.

dlm

Some Very Unique Models...

Milepost 587

Stan Munro is a very patient man.  He builds models out of toothpicks!  While the rest of us modelers use strip wood, styrene sheets & strips, he has picked up the old wooden toothpick and turned it into the basis of his unique art form.

According to the email I received with these (and other) pictures, Stan used over six million toothpicks, almost 45 gallons of glue and nearly 6 years to build this toothpick city.  Yes, Stan is indeed a very patient man.

I used to think that my small bridge built out of long, fireplace matchsticks was something... this kind of makes that look like kids' play.

dlm

 

NS Heritage Unit

Milepost 586

Photo: Norfolk Southern Corporation

It is no secret to those of you who stop by here on a regular basis that I'm a big fan of the old Nickel Plate Road.  The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad or NKP came into being in the late 1880s and was eventually merged into the Norfolk & Western (which in turn became part of the Norfolk Southern System) in the early 1960s.  Its nearly ninety year history was like that of most railroads... ups & downs, feast & famine, good years and bad.  But through it all, the Nickel Plate developed a reputation of "High Speed Service" which became the company's slogan and trademark of service.

As part of the thirtieth anniversary celebration of NS, the company has decided to create a series of "Heritage Units" decorated with the schemes of its predecessor railroads.  I believe the unit pictured above is the second in the series with the Southern Railroad unit being first.

While the Nickel Plate Road is now a part of history and modelers' dreams, it sure is nice to see that familiar black & gold paint scheme once again on the rails.  I'm looking forward to seeing her in person.  Good job, NS!

dlm

An Unusual Caboose

Milepost 585

My friend Ray has been at it again with some of his kit-bashing/scratch-building modeling efforts and has come up with this dandy.  At first glance, you may think it is an ordinary Nickel Plate caboose but look again more closely... especially at the cupola or the little observation post above the roof.  Notice anything unusual about it?  Nope, there are no windows in it!  This would make it kind of tough to be used for observation purposes.

This particular "hack" was used in yard service where it wasn't important for a crewman to sit in the cupola to watch his train from the rear.  Instead, it served more as a "rolling office" for the yard crew.  No, it's not a typical road caboose but if one was modeling a specific yard at a specific time in its history, a caboose like this one must might fit right in.

Great looking model Ray; nice job!

dlm

A Really Tough Model...

Milepost 584

Wow!  I've just finished one of the toughest kits I've EVER worked on.  And it was truly a struggle.

As it is with so many plastic models, this particular kit has been around for several years in several different "reincarnations."  I first remember it as a Victorian House.  A few years later, it was Grandma's House.  After that, it was a Haunted House (I can see why; with 317 parts molded in 9 different colors) and I think think there may have been one more version before this one.  I'm not particularly thrilled about this latest offering but I wanted the kit and this was the way it was available.  It is called a "Night Club."  Now, I'm thinking that based on the characters included with the kit, a night club in Europe has a much different meaning than a night club here in the United States.  Let's just say that the Europeans tend to be much more liberal about things like this and that one of the world's oldest professions is either legal or tolerated, socially acceptable and a semi-legitimate for someone so inclined to make a living.  On my layout, the building will go on the "wrong side of the tracks" along with a couple of other structures that I have built.  Enough of that...

The kit itself was painstakingly detailed.  Each part was numbered and they were relatively easy to put together using typical modeling techniques and some really good model glue.  But there were just so many of them!  I probably have about twelve hours or more on this one but it was a real challenge.  And it goes without saying that it was also a real accomplishment when it was finished.

Probably the hardest parts were the various roof & dormer pieces.  They were molded as one piece instead of several and that made them tough to first bend into shape then hold them in exact orientation while the glue dried.  Had I engineered the kit, I would have molded the pieces separately.  Had I had a chance to do it all over again, I think I would have cut the pieces apart, cleaned them up and glued them back together again.  The problem was that the original plastic still had a lot of tension in it when it was bent into the proper shape.  Tape & clamps held it "close," but if you look at the roof line, you can see where there are still some gaps.  I may mess around with it to figure out how to fill those gaps w/o having to do a lot of painting and such to make the seam disappear.  Speaking of painting, it was nice that the kit was molded in so many colors that it didn't need painting at all.  In fact, the pieces were in many cases pre-stained with either a black, white or gray wash that really brought out the detail.  Look at the hot pink trim or the dark gray foundation and you will see what I mean.

The kit is from Faller and retails for around $90.  I got mine several years ago and didn't pay that much for it but it is probably the most expensive kit I've ever built... and one of the hardest.  But still, it will make an interesting structure along the right of way.

dlm