C&S 0-4-4 Forney #4

Yesterday, Les Davis delivered the refinished 0-4-4 Forney #4, after having replaced the stock cab with a Mount Blue WW&F #7 open cab. He also painted, detailed and weathered the loco. Eventually, #4 will see service in the yards in Searsport.

Since we’ve got a show coming up in a scant 10 days (!), and I had a day off today, I started to get busy on basic scenery. Of course, it’s now 4:30, and I’ve only managed about 4 feet of scenery.

What you see here is a layer of green/brown latex paint with a heavy sprinkling of Scenic Express “Green Alpine Blend” and “Pasture Green” flock and turf. The ballast is also from Scenic Express. It’s all held in place with Scenic Express pre-diluted matte medium.

I also received a box today from the Train Troll, containing the aforementioned boxcar and flatcar kits, along with a set of WW&F crossing signs. While it will be a short while before I start building these, I can say that the kits are beautifully cut and the instructions look excellent.

Train Troll 28" W&Q Box Car. Photo: Train Troll web site.

Train Troll 28" W&Q Flat Car. Photo: Train Troll web site.

About the same time, I received my March/April Gazette (and a few days later, my 2011 Maine Two-Foot Digest. Both had brief write-ups on kits for WW&F and W&Q boxcars and flatcars from a new manufacturer, the Train Troll. The kits are reasonably priced. “Undecorated” W&Q box cars are $36.50ea and flats are $29.95 — only a couple dollars a piece more than my estimates. A kit for WW&F #309 as restored is also available for $44.95. The review by Don Mason in the Digest was very complimentary, so I figure I ought to give these a look. I’ve ordered one each of the W&Q undecorated box cars and flat cars.

If I like the kits, it will certainly be worthwhile to go ahead and pay a few dollars more for someone else’s R&D.

Indications are that The Train Troll plan to eventually produce kits for all of the W&Q/WW&F rolling stock. I’ll be particularly interested in the unique “reefers” that the W&F used in milk service. They’re also planning a line of “Maine-inspired” freelance-designed rolling stock that looks intriguing.

Second up, I’ve looking at some stuff for bashing HOn30 locos. A fellow I’ve corresponded with in the past (Tom Bell) has designed several HOn30 items, which can be purchased through Shapeways. Here’s a link to Tom’s designs: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tebee

Finally, Dallas Mallerich just posted this link on facebook: http://www.009.cd2.com/members/how_to/nouaillier_a.htm

Backwoods Miniatures Vertical Boiler 0-4-0. Photo courtesy Backwoods Miniatures.

This is a new kit from Backwoods Miniatures, and is made from finely cast resin. At a price of U$71.25, it’s not terribly expensive for a unique, high-quality kit like this. And, I’ve already got the donor mechanism “in stock.” Hmm…

With the availability of narrow gauge 2-6-2′s in question, the Corinna & Searsport top brass have opted to instead procure an additional 2-4-4 Forney, especially in light of the very favorable recent test results and extended operational tests this past weekend. Another factor playing into this decision was the cost — not only that of the locomotive, but also in upgrades to the railroad’s infrastructure that would be required by operation of the larger engine.

Arrangements will be made to purchase the new locomotive in the near future.

Additional consideration has also been given to the construction of new, 30′ freight cars for the railroad, replacing the aging fleet of 24′ cars. Construction of the new rolling stock will begin as soon as the car shop finishes the designs. Plans presently call for 16 double-sheathed box cars, of which four will be insulated as well. Additionally, 15 flat cars will be placed in service, all with stake pockets allowing these cars to be used in a variety of configurations.

Finally, although playing heavily into managements’ decision to build a New England narrow gauge railroad in the first place, possible future operations of funky gas-mechanical and “D-Cell” locomotives has been cancelled, although various railcars and railbusses will play a vital role in railroad operations.

Alan Carroll - the master of the bash

Kevin Hunter and I took a day trip up to the Mid-Hudson meet yesterday, and had a great time. I spent a couple of hours with Alan Carroll, who chopped a pair of 2-4-4′s down to 0-4-4′s for me (they’ll be nos. 4 and 5 on the roster).

I learned a huge amount from Alan yesterday (I do every time I talk with him), and got to see first-hand just how well S-scale standard gauge freight work as O-scale narrow gauge cars — 40′ double sheathed box cars are almost exactly the right dimension to represent a 30′ Maine 2-foot boxcar! I picked up a Showcase single-sheathed car from Alan for reference purposes. The length and width are dot-on, while the height is only off by about 3-scale inches.

The Showcase cars aren’t perfect in several areas, but only one really bothers me. The car ends are far too modern, being steel “dreadnaught” ends. While the details are all too small, they’re not that far off. And, they look right nice behind the Forneys.

Kevin Hunter - building a railroad light-n-easy

Kevin Hunter demonstrated his methods for building model railroads and modules to an attentive group of almost a dozen onlookers. We also demonstrated our “gate legs” for modules, and sold several leg kits.

I missed the tree-making clinic, which was one of the things I specifically drove the five hours for. Hopefully, it will be repeated in the spring.

Les Davis - Mr. DCC

Les Davis, as well as being “the man” when it comes to weathering, has taken on the mantle of being the DCC programming expert. I’m glad someone knowledgeable has stepped up to do this, as well as offer the service of installing and setting up locos for people who can’t do it themselves. I really hope he never tires of doing it, because he does it so well.

On the ride up and back, Kevin and I talked extensively about the plans for my railroad (a conversation we continued late this afternoon). We’ve decided that my layout will have no legs. Instead, the parts around the walls will be cantilevered out on steel brackets, and the peninsula will be suspended from the ceiling joists. Track will be code 70, and will be mostly hand-laid. The exception to the hand-laid track will be Corinna, which will be Micro Engineering flex and turnouts. If all goes incredibly well, you’ll be able to see the town of Corinna in person at the 2011 National Narrow Gauge Convention in Hickory, NC. next September. After the convention, the Corinna sections will be permanently installed as part of my home layout.

• Locos 9 and 10 have come back from the paint shop of Les Davis and look fabulous!
• Some thought has been given to the room, where it will be entered, where a wall will be built, and the overall shape of the layout.
• A sketch of a plan has developed for the town of Corinna.

Corinna, ME, c.1936

Warped Fomecore roadbed

Anyway, despite having applied a layer of glue across the full surface of the sheet, it is pulling away from the plywood sub-roadbed. The plan to correct the issue is a two-parter. First, I’m going to try using staples to hold the foam down. Then I’ll re-scenic around the foam.

I took a few pictures at the show, which you can see here.

Kimberton was nice and relaxed — a little smaller than previous years. I didn’t pick up much, except for a few pairs of SR&RL freight car trucks, and a couple of really nice older books on the WW&F — Big Dreams and Little Wheels by Ruby Crosby Wiggin and The WW&F Two-Footer by Clinton F. Thurlow. The both contain some info and photographs I hadn’t seen before, and the price was great.

We debuted a few new modules this time around. The modules that Sean Heath and I built as Maryland Minibunch modules some years back came back to me from John Weigel’s layout a couple weeks back, and Kevin Hunter and I built some new legs for them and we got them running for the weekend. The still need a bit of renovation, but they did generate a lot of interest.

Kevin Hunter and I drove up together with our modules. I recently put a hitch on the van, and used it to haul all of our stuff. The old van took us up there just fine — almost. Just about 15 minutes before we arrived, it started misfiring. I called the local Ford dealer to see about it getting fixed, but they didn’t have parts, and were completely booked. In any event, the van got us home just fine, so I’ll take it in next week.

In other news, Corinna & Southern Forneys #9 and #10 have been sent to the Big Horn & Moose Drool shops for a little dress-up. Other locos will be following as time permits.

On30 version of the Victors Scale Models SR&RL #19 kit. Photo from Victors Scale Models web site.

Stumbling around the internet this evening, I found this — an On30 brass kit to make Sandy River & Rangely Lakes 2-6-2 #19. I’m very seriously considering ordering one of these, even though I need another locomotive like I need another hole in my head. The kit looks beautifully designed, and it’s set-up for sound from the start. I can see only one detail I would change — the headlight (and of course, that would mean having to add a generator).

More info can be found on the Victors Scale Models web site [UPDATE: web site no longer active. Link has been removed]. At £245 (post paid), it ain’t cheap. But wow! What a beautiful model it makes….

Bachmann have made some definite improvements in other areas of this model. The tender truck pickups look as if they’ll actually work, there’s an actually floating foot-plate and the two cables between the tender and loco get neatly concealed in a snap-in firebox cover. The tender floor is pre-cut for a speaker and, according to the drawing, the grill can actually be removed to leave a big, gaping hole in the bottom, which will leave much more room for speaker excursion if a flat speaker is used.

Unfortunately, this model doesn’t have sound installed, so I’ll need to put another one of those wonderful Soundtraxx Tsunami sound decoder on my shopping list…

This image is a difficult one, and it’s what I decided to attempt first — a mostly black subject with lots of detail against a blown-out white background.

 Our muslin backgrounds are anything but flat. In fact, they’re really, really wrinkled, and don’t really hang all that well. In this case, it’s also been flipped up onto the posing bench to act as the “base” for the model. So, I really, really wanted it to go away.

So, here’s the lighting setup:

• The locomotive is set a few feet in front of the background, and is primarily lit only with one strobe and a shoot-through umbrella, from about 3 feet above and to the left of the model. It’s at 1/2 power.
• The background is blown out with the second light, again about 3 feet above the model, aimed so the “hot spot” is directly behind the locomotive, and set at 3/4 power.
• The exposure is in manual mode, of course, 1/80th second at f/9.0 to maintain sharpness for the entire length of the model, which is at about a 30 degree angle to the camera. The ISO is set to 100.

This was all set up without the aid of a flash meter. I’m not 100% sure that it would have sped the process up any for this lighting setup, though maybe it would have. I guess it would have more easily allowed me to figure the exposure for the model, and how much more light I would need to blow out the background, by manually “popping” the flashes. In the long run, I probably will want one. There’s certainly no going “P for Professional” in this kind of rig.

One of my new Bachmann On30 Railtruck on the layout.

I really, really like this little model. It runs like a charm and is cute as the dickens! And, wonderfully detailed.

Even the drive-line is really neat: There’s a tiny motor concealed under the opening hoods. The motor is “wrapped” in detail to make it look like an engine. Behind the motor is a tiny gearhead that’s disguised as a transmission. From the back of the transmission is a real drive shaft that looks and functions just like the real thing. It feeds into a “differential” housing that drives the rear axle. It is v e r y cool.

Even the headlights work, and there is a single red tail light. Impressive.

My only gripe is the included DCC decoder (yes, DCC is pre-installed!). It’s functionality is limited in such a way that it neither supports CV2/5/6 for speed control, nor does it support an alternate speed table. That means it’s going to have to be replaced.

Fortunately, I always planned on replacing the stake-body with a box body, which will allow plenty of room for a Soundtraxx (or other) sound decoder and speaker. At least Bachmann provided a standard 8-pin connector on this bugger.

There are two “pilot” options that ship with the model. Standard is a grate or “cow catcher” pilot, or you can install this snow plow: