I took a few days off of work before Memorial Day and went on three day-trips with the family over a five-day period. The most interesting was a road trip to Belgium and Luxembourg with my son to buy beer. My son and I went to a neat place in Arlon, Belgium called Mi Ougemi Houblon to buy a variety of craft beers.  It was a cool store and a lot of fun, and the guy working there was very friendly.  We drove to a Del Hayes grocery next to buy a stroop waffles and more beer–this time the easy-to-get stuff from … Continue reading No. 158: O Scale Work, and Central of Georgia Auto Car

Here’s the view out of my third floor train room window.  It is not fit for man nor beast out.  It’s a good time to get some modeling done instead. We had a big conversation last week on the Groups IO Proto48 list–moderated by master builder Gene Deimling–about the P48 models are people building this winter.  I’ve been working very slowly on a few models with the goal of fully completing four or five models a year.  Here’s an update. Wabash Auto Car This is an essential freight car–the Wabash single-sheathed double door auto car.  I bought this model a couple of years ago from Rails Unlimited at … Continue reading No. 114: Proto48 Freight Car Update

Juliet said this about roses, meaning it doesn’t matter what you call roses…they’ll still be beautiful.  I could say the same thing about box cars.  They’re beautiful no matter what you call them. Maybe I should re-name this post What’s in a name Color? One of the most enjoyable things about modeling the late steam era is the wide variety of house cars–the different types and sizes of cars. Another thing to consider is the wide variety of car colors.  Getting the car color right is just as important as everything else and luckily the paints are out there that let us model color … Continue reading No. 82: What’s in a Name?

A quick post on progress of freight car model construction and also construction of the Portage Tower models for Mike Moore’s layout. Proto 48 Models I was able to finish a lot of small projects this week and also contemplate a few new ones.  First I finished installing the running board for an Intermountain 1937 double-door box car that will be finished as an SAL AF-3.  I scratchbuilt the latitudinal running board supports and am not terribly happy with them, but they are much better than the kit-supplied parts.  The running board is an aftermarket part from Protocraft.  The car … Continue reading No. 65: Progress on Freight Cars, Oct 2017

Progress on model construction has gone very well in the first two weeks of September thanks mostly to a work trip to Stuttgart. I spent four nights in Stuttgart last week and was able to get a few hours of work done every night. The first car I built up while away was an HO scale Tichy flat car from the Central of Georgia Historical Society.  I bought it at the last St. Louis RPM directly from the society table there. The model is part of the society’s “Fix The Flat” program.  Proceeds from the sale of the model are … Continue reading No. 63: Freight Car Modeling, Sep 2017

San Juan Car Company brought to the O scale market a beautiful Western Pacific double sheathed car some years ago.  This is a model of WP’s distinctive eight-foot interior height cars with modified steel dreadnaught ends.  WP acquired 2,500 of these cars in several order beginning in 1917.  28 were transferred to the WP subsidiary, Sacramento Northern, in 1941.  According to Martin Loftin most of the cars were gone by 1955, but some of them lasted in revenue or roadway maintenance service as late as 1969. Above.  I wasn’t able to get permissions to use a prototype photo in time for this … Continue reading No. 45: Proto 48 Western Pacific Double-Sheathed Box Car – Part 1