7mm US model dabblings

[richard carr]

Thanks for info on those new additions Jason.

I do like the livery for the EJ&J (The J) GP38, in fact there are still a few locos running in it today. As JB was driving us back from Park Forest we passed Blue Island yard where 2 of them were parked up.
The model has one large error, the fuel tanks should be the small version not the large version that is fitted. Once it is weathered it will really tone down the bright orange paint work.


Richard

 

[Jordan]

The GP7 (sensibly retro'ed with GP7 style handrail stanchions) is a Lionel body (recessed louvre panels, etc) on a chassis, part Atlas/Roco F9 (including trucks, etc)

Good spot, Sir!! Once I enlarged the photo I could see the cab & battery boxes are all one molding with the hoods as well. Definitely Lionel shell.
Still well worth 50 bucks, too!!

 

[richard carr]

On the Sunday after a final run round the show to make sure we hadn't missed anything, we went to see this layout.
I have thought recently that I have far too many locos but these folk proved me wrong, the photos don't really do it justice, but it really is a lovely layout and they literally had hundreds of other locos upstairs in the house.

 

[Jordan]

I don't suppose you took a photo just a little bit more to the left of this one, did you? no reason....

 

[JasonD]

O-scale has always (for me anyway) been a perfect combination of what makes us happiest with model railroads. I'll leave the next 3 pages for another day.
Jason

 

[Big Train James]

I have thought recently that I have far too many locos but these folk proved me wrong, the photos don't really do it justice, but it really is a lovely layout and they literally had hundreds of other locos upstairs in the house.

This layout is a product of three modelers pooling their resources, forming a club of sorts. So you may still have them beat on a per capita basis.

It's a nice layout, and the hosts are very gracious as well.

 

[PhilH]

Phil, please let us know what 'coating' works for you. I had an 'ooooooooh ... so that's what you can do' couple of minutes with the physical methods (random Google find):
Chrome Plating: Must Know Facts and Ways to Remove Chrome Plating
The Sunset/3rd Rail D&H Challenger doesn't have boy-racer chrome coupling rods (nickel-silver?) - acceptable on the mantel-piece.
Jason

​

Going back to the last century (topic page wise - page 91 to be precise), after a long period of inactivity the UP 0-6-0 switcher is back in one piece, now fitted with DCC sound. The rods and valve gear have been treated with Humbrol Metalcote polished steel as previously described. I thought this came out a bit too grey, maybe because I'm too used to the normal silver colour motion on models. So its been further treated by drybrushing with silver, then drybrushing with matt black and spraying with Dullcote. I'm not quite sure about the final result, but I've fiddled about with it for so long it will have to do - for now at least. Some weatherists seem happy to just paint the motion in black.

​

The backs of all wheels have been skimmed to 29mm back to back, so it will run on the mixed gauge section of my D&RGW layout, although not really appropriate. The overall finish is from Vallejo satin varnish which I'm quite pleased with, after trying Halfords matt lacquer (too shiny, little different from their satin laquer) and Dullcote (too matt). It needs some light weathering, and I emphasise the 'light' - just some road dirt on the running gear and soot on the smokebox/ boiler top.

The green cab window frames are a bit too garish and would have been repainted black, but there's one behind the bay window and there doesn't seem to be an easy way of removing the bay window to get at it. I don't know what purpose these bay windows served, I would have thought that they would have partly obscured the drivers vision when looking forward out of the cab. I think the cabside numbers are a bit too thick and I do have a Champ UP decal set that would replace them. However it would require repainting the lower cab sides and the decal sheet doesn't have the small lettering below the numbers, some of which is specific to each loco class, so I'm leaving the numbers "as is" for now - if in doubt, do nowt.

The rear tender coupling has been fitted with a Precimodels remote uncoupler, worked from one of the Tsunami decoder auxiliary outputs, and this works very well. Being a switcher the loco should of course also have one on the front coupler.

 

[mickoo]

Typically bay windows are severe weather windows, the cab rear would be sheeted over and the side windows firmly closed, there's a small walkway in the cab between the boiler and cab side (access to the front door which leads to the running plate) so when switching the driver would wedge himself in there and use the bay window, normally for backing up.

Having said that, I've not seen any photos of this class with bay windows there and only one poor picture where the bay window is where the main windows are.

Looks nice anyway, not a big fan of heavy weathering myself either.

 

[PhilH]

Typically bay windows are severe weather windows, the cab rear would be sheeted over and the side windows firmly closed, there's a small walkway in the cab between the boiler and cab side (access to the front door which leads to the running plate) so when switching the driver would wedge himself in there and use the bay window, normally for backing up.
Having said that, I've not seen any photos of this class with bay windows there and only one poor picture where the bay window is where the main windows are.

I don't think much of that idea, sounds impractical to me and with the engineer in that position he'd have difficulty reaching the throttle unless his arms were at least 4 ft long ! According to Kratville (in 'Motive Power of the Union Pacific') "bay windows were applied to many 0-6-0s in 1945 and later", and he illustrates one fitted to 4442. They were fitted to the rear side window on the engineer's side, extending perhaps in width little more than the normal armrest beyond the cab side and not particularly noticeable in the normal three quarter front view photos of locos. Narrow vertical glass panes were fitted to each end and the side, which extended the full length of the original window, had three panes with the two rear probably sliding forwards to give the largest opening when required. 4442 has been preserved and stands outside the Clark County Museum in Henderson near Las Vegas. There are several photos of it on the web and a detailed video 'tour' on Youtube which show the bay window.

I think the Overland model is wrong and it has the original 4 pane side window in place behind the bay window, so the space in the bay would be inaccessible anyway. I think it needs to come off ......................maybe ?

 

[PhilH]

I think the Overland model is wrong and it has the original 4 pane side window in place behind the bay window, so the space in the bay would be inaccessible anyway.

I think I'll have to take that back - as I've found a photo with a bay window like the Overland model !

​

I was just Idly flipping through a book I've not looked at for yonks titled "The History of the Union Pacific" and found a photo of 4466 with such a bay window in a similar position to the Overland model. I think I may have an idea how it worked - what is missing from the Overland model is steel strips, in effect rails, top and bottom of the window so that when required the armrest would be removed and the bay window slid backwards to cover the open window at the rear of the cab. Maybe this was found to be too cumbersome in practice and they adopted the fixed type as on 4442.

 

[mickoo]

A sliding bay window makes perfect sense

I dug around the common standard drawings this afternoon on the S5 and S6 classes, from the center of the front bay window to the back head is about 12". The throttle lever fulcrun is a further 23" off the back head with a 9" (give or take) travel each way on the throttle lever.

Fully open the throttle handle is about 44" and fully closed is about 26" from the center of the first window. There is an additional 3½" + E + 6" to the handle so those measurements (for anyone who's good at Trig....currently not me suffering from the dreaded C!) will be different, maybe another +- 10".

All drawings copyright to Union Pacific Historical Society and show to reduced scale for informative purposes only. If you want them and thousands more, head over to the UPHS and get the DVD's, they're really not that expensive for what you get. The only one I don't actually have is the S class 0-6-0, not sure if that was available when I bought mine a few years back.

Drawing DVD's

uphs-store.myshopify.com

 

[richard carr]

This week has been another business trip to Chicago. This was all finished yesterday afternoon, so I picked up a hire car and headed for Elkhart Indiana.
Elkhart is my favourite location on Virtual Railfan, a godsend during the lockdown.

Elkhart is smallish town in northern Indiana, about 120 miles from downtown Chicago, there is a decent hotel on main street, where I'm staying, and I can see the trains from my 8th floor room, I can also hear them very clearly, but fortunately they didn't keep me awake last night.

Elkhart is the junction for the Grand Elk railway, this runs to Grand Rapids, via Kalamazoo, there appears to be branch train arriving each day, usually about mid morning, hauled by a pair of SD40s, which then returns sometime in the afternoon. The plan to head towards Kalamazoo and photograph the train on the way into Elkhart. However the weather forecast for today was terrible, heavy rain all day long.
As it was only drizzling when I got up about 7, I decided to go see what was happening down at the station. Elkhart typically gets 120 trains a day passing through on what was the New York Central mainline between New York and Chicago, it is now Norfolk Southern, but you can see anyones locos and you do get Canadian Pacific trains and loaded east bound coal trains hauled by BNSF.

This was the first train I got to photograph this morning.



It is about 8am in the morning, well after dawn but the weather is grim, light rain is falling.




Next up it was the turn of amtrak to arrive with the Lake Shore Ltd from New York



I was about to head back to the hotel for breakfast when I heard the crossing bells ringing again to see this.



This is a caboose leading one of the locals that run from Elkharts huge marshalling yard. I asked in virtual railfan where it was going and the reply was to Brank Plastics in Goshen. Goshen is about 10 miles to the south of Elkhart, but they are almost one large town.

This is the engine doing all the work GP38-2 number 5624





Having seen the local head off in this direction many times on virtual railfan, I knew it would be several hours before it returned, so plenty of time for breakfast.

 

[richard carr]

So about 10am I set off for Goshen, Brank plastics are on Logan Street so with that entered into Wazes as the destination, I set off.



Here it is with a few more hoppers in toe. The 2 lines in the middle are the main lines to Toledo and New York, there is also a branch off to Milford Junction and then on to Indianapolis, it is just out of site in this shot.
Brank plastics is off to the left where the line curves very sharply, and crosses logan street. There are also 3 more sidings running parallel to the mainline for about a mile.
Here are some more shots of the shunting.




5624 the proceeded to shunt hopper wagons for the next 2 hours



No the hoppers haven't derailed, it's just some Jordan style track !



This was taken from the other side of the tracks



It's that dodgy track again





A few mainline trains went past as well.



This was doing about 60 miles an hour.



Then this appeared off the Milford Junction branch.





A final close up of 5624, I have plenty of others if anyone would like them.




It was now gone 1pm and I was getting very damp and a bit cold, a search on google maps said Milford Junction was only 20 minutes away. This is where the Norfolk Southern line crosses the CSX mainline, with a south to east connector.

 

[richard carr]

Google maps was right, Milford Junction is a 20 minute drive south from Goshen, the road there is Indiana route 15 which runs parallel to the railway, but to get to the junction you have to turn off the main road and follow round some back roads until you get on the "old route 15", the junction is hidden in trees and among some housing.

I parked up on a part of the old route that now said "road closed".



This was the first to train to arrive from the east, if you look to the right hand side of the photo you can see the headlights of another train also heading west, this one.



They appeared to be racing each other !

The old locos were winning



This was the next train to arrive also from the east.



Oil empties heading back to Canada I imagine.

Next was a container train from the west.



This one seemed to go on forever, and as you can see there is a green light for a west bound train to go over the crossing.



A loaded coal train that had been making hard work of climbing the gradient in the background.







And just to pass the time between trains there were a few birds to photograph





By now it was after 4pm and the really heavy rain started so I headed back to Elkhart.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is much better, bright sunshine and 18 degrees.

 

[Big Train James]

Lol, when I go to Elkhart, I usually just hang out at the station or the museum across the tracks from the station. You're trying a lot harder than I ever do. Also lol, when I go to Elkhart I see very few trains. I'm not sure how that's possible with 120 trains a day through there, but it's some kind of bad joke. I have a saying, I like trains but they don't like me. You're probably lucky I wasn't there. I do usually see the Grand Elk local come in and out when I'm there, and sometimes see the westbound Amtrak trains if I get an early enough start and they are running behind a bit.

The CSX line through Milford is the old B&O Baltimore to Chicago line. You can catch it on virtual rail cams in Deshler, Ohio, and Fostoria, Ohio, both sites featuring crossings at grade with other lines.

 

[Jordan]

Not at all jealous of you Richard, in any way whatsoever you understand.....
...but at least I got Mentioned in Dispatches...

 

[Dog Star]

... the hoppers haven't derailed, it's just some Jordan style track !

Jordan (@Jordan),
Justly famous .

 

[AJC]

Really interesting, thank you, Richard - I'd be interested if you get to Kalamazoo; it's the one place in the States I've been to (there's a massive annual medieval studies conference at Western Michigan University every year, about now as it happens) and while I heard the trains when I was there in 2009 I never got to see them and the short line was completely unknown to me, despite the overlap between UK medievalists and railways as an interest... Hope the weather picks up - when I was there it was pleasantly warm and sunny all week; the same week the previous year there was a foot and a half of snow!

Adam

 

[Dog Star]

View attachment 162700

The rail in the bottom right corner... is use of short lengths a common feature on main lines?

The nearest stock rail of the turnout - looks like two fishplates in close proximity. I think that the functional fishplate is the one to the right, what is the purpose of the item to the left?

Thank you Richard (@richard carr) for a nice set of photos over which to drink the morning coffee.

 

[richard carr]

Saturday morning and dawn broke to brilliant sunshine, although it was still a bit chilly.
A wander down to the station found a train waiting to enter the yard blocking main street.
An east bound freight out of the yard then appeared.



The lead loco was working very hard



It turned out the 7627 was dead, but help was at hand as the DPU arrived working just as hard as the lead loco.



I then went for a walk to see where the branch line goes through the town
This is where it splits in two, the curve round through the town serves various small sidings and double back towards south bend.
The main branch to Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids heads straight on.



No trains on a saturday though.

I then headed off to Goshen to explore some more photo opportunities. I was planning to park in Martin's Supermarket car park and then walk.
As I parked up you could see BNSF 7567 waiting to proceed through Goshen, it hadn't got very far at all in almost 2 hours.



I'm stood in the car park to take these.





I'm heading up to Des Plaines now, if you are reading this Jason, I'm going for Denny's breakfast !

Richard