New Paint Scheme

Howdy everyone!  I finally got a paint scheme nailed down that I like.  What do y'all think?

Yes there is also now a new caboose!  More on that later.

The biggest conflict on what I want has been to have something simple but distinct.  I do not have the skills, equipment, or finances to get into really well done painting and decaling.  In my past attempts, the paint goes on too thick or pools up, the decals never come out the right color, and custom work is expensive, etc., etc....  So for now I will stick with the simple design I have on the above.  

I chose to have the body be a simple black color.  Both loco and caboose were sprayed using a regular rattle can of flat black paint.  The bottom of the plow and the edge of the walkways are Signal Yellow by Floquil that I hand painted.  All of the handrails on both were done using a yellow paint pen I got from work.  Big box hobby stores have these as well for good prices.  The lettering, conspicuity stripes, and nose stripes are from Microscale.  And yes, the names on the sides were done one letter at a time.  I spent 2 hours on the caboose name and it STILL isn't straight.  

The face colors are the finishing touch.  I love my home state and I wanted to represent it somehow. Seeing lines such as the Heart of Texas or Alamo Gulf Coast made me want to paint the whole thing in a flag scheme, but that would have killed my OCD (curving masking tape?  No way) and was outside my painting abilities.  So I scaled it back and found out that this looks really nice as well!  I plan to stick with this scheme for all future locomotives and cabeese (cabooses?  Seriously need to figure out that plural).

And now for the random pic of the day!

Today's selection is a fun one.  I found this beauty entirely by accident on my way home from work.  I had heard she was coming, but I figured she would be going well away from my area of town.  Then BOOM! her she is waiting to head South on the BNSF line along Mykawa Rd.  I do not remember much of the history of this engine, other than she is a former Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range (I think that is right) locomotive.  The best my fellow Railspotters and I can make out, she is going to be a industrial locomotive in Bloomington, TX, possibly at the port near the city.  Anyways, it was an absolute joy to see this old girl.  Hopefully there are many more safe miles in her furture!

114th Anniversary of Spindletop Gusher

Today marks the 114th anniversary of the day that changed the oil industry, and the state of Texas, forever.  On January 10, 1901 the Lucas oil well struck a deposit at the Spindletop site.  It was such a surprise, and so large, that it ended up taking nine days to get under control!  Picture courtesy of the Spindletop website.

This event changed the area I grew up in and state I love more than almost any other instance in history.  That is why I named my rail road Spindletop.

If you would like a more detailed hstorical account, click the link below
Spindletop - Gladys City

As far the layout, I am working on painting the track.  Two of the modules are done. Since I have to move them off of the wall anyways, i am also raising them about four inches.  Hopefully it will make them easier to maintain and improve.  Plus the train room is finally getting cleaned!  A surprise, I know!  But definitely needed.  I should finish tomorrow.

Last Post of the Year!

One last post everyone!  I have actually gotten a good deal done lately (by my standards, of course :) ).  I hope this means that 2015 will be just as productive!

First off is all of the replacement ties are complete and installed!  All over the layout there are no more gaps so I have begun putting in the masking tape for painting the track.  Once the taping is done, the modules will be removed one at a time and the track sprayed.  This will also give me a chance to put in new legs and get the remaining wall supports out of the way.  All of this will have pictures in a future post!

Now the only reason I got all of the ties finished is because of this beautiful device:

This is the Dremel Workstation.  More info is available here, but it works like your typical drill press.  The difference is the various things a Dremel can do and be, versus drill bits.  I put in the tungsten carbide cutting tool and went to town on those plastic ties!  I removed a small channel on either end where the rails will go and then flipped the piece over and removed a small bit from the bottom to allow it to slide in easier.  This Workstation is a wonderful accessory and I highly recommend it to anyone with a mating Dremel!

The third major completion is my first detailed locomotive!

I have been working on this particular locomotive sporadically over the past three years.  It started life as an Atlas Trainman GP38-2 in CSX YN3 paint.  I stripped that off and made it the first locomotive for the Spindletop Rail Lines, the previous name of the SRR.  At the time I had the idea of doing a green and orange paint scheme as you can see.  This one is not getting sound as it has all of the weights in tact and can pull like a six-axle engine.  Along the way I added Cannon & Co radiator and dynamic fans, grab irons, lift rings, pilot details, windshield wipers, sun shades, and other details.  But I am now calling this one finished as the ditchlights are lit!  This was my first experience with SMDs and magnet wires.  I got these pre-wired as I cannot hold my hands still enough to solder my own. 

I won't lie, I had a lot of fears about using these.  They are delicate, there is only an enamel coating on the wires, and they are pricey (or so I say).  However, that does not mean they do not work perfectly!  In fact, I kick myself for being such a wuss about getting these installed.  All future engines will most likely use these over bulbs.  They look great, were much simpler to use and install, and put out a great amount of light!

Anyways, thanks for reading this year and I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and good luck in your 2015 endeavors!



A Visit to The Bryan/College Station Model Railroad Society

Well I don't know about y'all but I had a fine Thanksgiving vacation and a great visit with the family.  I hope everyone out there had the same or better!

This is a club owned SD40-2 painted in the freelance Gulf, Texas & Western scheme of the layout.  Here number 1000 idles (loudly I might add) waiting for a new train during the open house.

 

The weekend before the turkey day I found myself up at the train club in Bryan, Texas.  I was a member of this club for nearly two years while in school, and I always wish I had more time as a member there.  These are the guys who really got me hooked back into the modeling world, and I can never thank them enough for that.  And because they are that cool, they invited me to come run during their annual open house!

The club is called the Bryan/College Station Model Railroad Society, or BCSMRRS for short.  They have a website here (EDIT: this link is to their Facebook, more updates and pictures there!) with plenty of pictures and general information.  The layout is a freelanced idea focused on operations with the ability to handle and run long trains across many different scenes and towns.  The local line is called the Gulf, Texas, and Western Railroad.  There are operating sessions and regular run nights, with open-to-the-public general meetings every Monday evening.  If you want to visit, do not hesitate!  The members are very friendly and very experienced in different facets of model railroading.

I arrived a bit after the opening time of ten AM.  The weather was not looking good, thunder and rain on a direct course to berate the area all day, but that could not stop the open house!  The guys had setup a large outdoor covering to allow visitors to arrive and dry off before entering the layout building.  All day long people came to visit and oooh and ahhhh at the many different trains running around, and take in the details of the world that has been created on the layout.  All day long, these guys kept the signals green, the trains a rollin', and kept the attention of visitors young and old.

Personally, I had the best time imaginable.  I hope to attend the whole weekend next year, including helping setup on Friday and cleanup on Sunday night.  It is always a blast to see all of the improvements they have made to the layout and building, as well as catch up with friends.

So if you get the chance, go check out the GT&W and be sure to say hi for me!

And now for the random picture of the day:

 This is a perfect example of old power helping out in the modern world.  BNSF 1607 is an old Santa Fe SD40-2 in the classic "yellow bonnet" paint scheme that has been updated to modern requirements (ditch lights, enviornmental readers, etc).  She has been hanging around the Pearland Yard for a few weeks now helping in switching duties.  Apparently, the Gensets are not very reliable and it takes two of them to do what this one loco can do.  So this old girl has been pushing and pulling the long autorack and intermodals into the loading facility.  It is always great to see this one rumbling by!

Liftout Section Guide

Today, I will talk about the liftout guide I built for my layout. 

There are many options for building alignment guides for liftouts.  A quick Google search can provide tons of different options and methods, and Google Images links to several great sites that provide a step-by-step breakdown on many methods.  Some use pin and tubing systems, others rely on hinges, and some have custom alignment brackets that even transfer power to the rails on the lift out!  No matter which option meets your need best, all use the same principles and can be suited to your tastes and budget

Now, I have no need at this point for something with power routing or 0.0001" tolerances or even anything with style.  My liftout guide is essentially temporary (like the liftout sitself) until I either build another section to cross to, or we move.  Either way, I went with something about as simple as it gets and it only took a few minutes to design and build!

It is simply a cobbled together assembly of scrap wood pieces.  I started out with a short section of 1x4 that was leftover from building the layout frames.  I drilled two holes a few inches apart and about little bit above the bottom of the board.  Then, using a scroll saw I cut two lines at about a 45 degree angle from the top to the holes and then one across from hole to hole.  The small trapezoid that this formed was screwed to the underside of the liftout plywood section, with the the long end against the plywood.  The larger piece was secured to the end of the layout.  The locations for both were fit up a couple of times to make sure that the tracks would align properly on top.  Once the liftout and layout were mated properly, I added a piece of laminate board to the front of the larger piece.  This keeps the liftout from sliding forward off of the layout in the case of an accidental bumping (this happens far more often than you think!).  Below are some pictures.

So there you have it!  A quick, robust lifout guide!


And now for the random pic of the day:

Yes I put in two!  It is because I am super excited to see some old-school power still being used.  BNSF 1607 is an SD40-2 that is being used in the Pearland Yard lately for heavy duty switching power.  It has twice as many horses under the hood as the Gensets it is working with so I am sure it has been coming in handy moving all of the long intermodals back and forth!

Trains are running again!

I have the trains going again! 

Actually, they have been going for some time now.  To be honest, I have spent all of this time running circles and switching out the yard and completely neglected updating the blog.  It has been an absolute blast!

I have had the yard and main line operational for a while now, but due to how I arranged the trackwork they could never really interchange.  So to fix this (and satisfy the need to just have trains running un-attended) I set up the leftovers of the original layout and added some new pieces.  The new pieces are built-to-fit sections that satisfied the constraints of the area.  They were also built with leftovers and look like it so don't get your hopes up for super fancy handi-work.  The first was on the back side of the room.  I used some 1x4s to build a curved section and topped it with some 24" radius Atlas Code 82 sectional track.  Then I secured it to the layout frame and set it on an existing wall support.  Some trial and error proved it needed some extra support so I added some legs and voila!

It is in the far corner and hard to see but it is there.

 

After that I put in the long straight-away seen above, and then the corner and last straight-away seen below:

 

Next up was the most difficult part: a lift out section.  I don't mind crawling under the layout any but if I am going to be in and out without much train action then I wanted to be able to quickly removed and replace anything across the entry way.  The below contraption is what I came up with.  It has the ame section track connecting to the layout, some flextrack to follow and transitions to a spare piece of Code 100 track that connects to the EZ Track.

 

To remove it, I pull back the joiners on the layout side and pop off the EZ Track and set it out of the way.  There is also a guide piece of wood under the layout end to make sure the bridge always settles into the right spot to align with the main.  I will get a picture of that up here next time.

So there you have it!  Trains are up and running along and I haven't had any problems with this setup.  One day it may all be replaced with more actual layout but for now I have what I need :)

Now for the random picture of the post:

 

This is a slug engine, with the various info here.  Note the removed fuel tank and blanked windows.  It seems to be paired with SD40N in front as there are a lot of pictures of the two together,  I caught these on a random freight heading south on the BNSF line along Mykawa Rd in Houston on 10/15/14.

 

Main Line is Done!

Well I finally finished off the main line a few days ago!  I am happy to be done with it as this allows me to get back to the rest of the train room.  In addition I also laid the passing siding and the fifth yard track.

Below are some pictures of the progress.

Here you can see the fifth yard track on the left of the shot as SRR GP39-2 #1989 idles with a short local on the main.

Here is a better view of the yard side.  To the conductor's side of SRR 1989 is where the lead to the plastic pellet plant will be. 

 

The new yard track on the left is blocked off electrically from the rest of the layout.  I plan on having this become a programming track in the future once I learn the electronics behind using three way switches.  That way it can also be a regular track if needed. 

 

Here is the other leg of the layout.  This is where the loco facility and local SRR field office will be located.  Coming from the left of the shot, the first turnout is to the siding then the second is the lead into the yard.  Back on the main are two #6s that will lead to as of yet undecided industries.

Lastly is a shot back towards the room entry of the yard.  The run-a-round track that is pictured can hold four 50' cars or three 60' cars as long as they are spotted correctly.

 

From here I am going to begin setting up temporary supports around the walls again so that I can get trains going in a loop.  I haven't decided whether or not to build more actual layout or not.  Too many variables in life right now.  Fortunately there are plenty of other things to do to this current part of the plan.  Starting with the supports and (unfortunately) cleaning up the train room.  It is a downright mess!

 

Finally, the random picture of the day: some fancy loads on bulkhead flats waiting to go South out of the BNSF Pearland yard.