New NJ Transit multilevel coaches

 For my son's birthday, he wanted NJ Transit coaches. Specifically, "double-deckers" like the ones we see so often around here. Naturally, I've been eyeing this up for a while, too, and managed to get a fantastic deal on them from the Garden State's own Yankee Dabbler down in South Jersey. Always a good feeling to buy from a local shop directly, especially one in New Jersey. 

Edison, NJ train show, Nov. 2021

Took the boys to their first train show, the Greenberg Train Show on Nov. 28 in Edison, NJ. I hadn't been to one in many years, decades in fact. It was a real treat and we had a great time. The Edison expo center was huge, with an entire wing dedicated to the big layouts that you can see in the photos below. The Jersey Central N-Trak club was there with an "M" shaped modular layout. It also included a module of the USS New Jersey (BB-62), which was very cool and the 10-year-old in particular loved.

The main area of the show was full of stuff to buy, which was one of the main reasons I wanted to go, to pick up some "show priced" pieces.  As you might guess, a good 60% was O scale/Lionel, but about 10% was N scale, which was still a ton of inventory to look through. We came away with several modern era freight cars, a building that could pass for Civil War era, tunnel portals, and a modern era factory/industrial building. 

The trip was a success in all ways.

The huge N scale staging yard.

USS New Jersey (BB-62).

The boys admiring the N scale layout.

This was just one part of the layout area. 

Welcome Union Pacific No. 7, newest Atlas 4-4-0 to the roster

 Very rarely these days will you see an Atlas 4-4-0 for sale. But I found one, and scooped it up right away. It's a nice runner. So say hello to the Union Pacific No. 7. This brings the roster to six locomotives. It'll be a busy railroad when the day comes that I finally can start the Civil War layout. 

The UP No. 7, an Atlas N Scale 4-4-0.

My own 'Transition Era' with new diesels and cars

 It's been a long few months since tearing up the old 2018 layout--yes, I went through with it. Part of the reasoning was that we got new Unitrack for our 6-year-old and new trains to go with it, and needed the table. So in the interest of catching up on half a year's worth of stuff, I'll start with the new purchases. 

For Christmas we got the 6-year-old this fine Atlas Susquehanna #4004 Dash 8-40B, along with a bunch of freight cars, to go with his new Unitrack. 

Here's a quick video run-by I finally got around to uploading. It runs very nicely, especially for a used engine.  Then again, I'm not used to running diesels, or any locomotives that have so many points of contact on the track. It's so nice to not worry about choppy power supply to the motor. 

The other new engine that we got was for the 6-year-old's birthday this spring. He's been wanting a passenger locomotive for a while, since we have the 25-year-old Amtrak double-deckers. The old Amtrak EMD F40PH was beyond repair--at least for me and time--so I got him a new one from KATO. It's easily the best engine I've ever run. We took it outside in March on a warm sunny day. 

That's about it for the modern additions to our collection. I also found a big, cheap lot of freight cars for the Susquehanna engine, and added another switch and more track to the tabletop layout. 

The next update will be back to Civil War era trains, as I've worked on some new cars, figures, and buildings. Stay tuned. Hopefully it won't be another five months until then. 

New engine and the repainted Clarke, plus some buildings

It's a big deal whenever a new engine joins the roster, so this post is a big deal. There are usually about three to five Civil War era Atlas 4-4-0's on eBay at any given time, but they're almost always overpriced, at least for my wallet. So when a locomotive is available and in my range, I have to pounce. 

Newest addition to the roster:
Atlas 4-4-0 #7 of the Detroit & Lima Northern. 

That's what led to the No. 7 being purchased. It's got a great Russia iron boiler jacket, and has minimal ornamentation. The latter is perfect for when I can repaint it. I don't have any engines with mostly blue livery yet. The No. 7 should look great. I picked up some new paints recently and the color scheme was definitely incorporated in that. 

One of the B&O twins is now the USMRR Clarke.

Speaking of paint, after a horrible misstep (more on that later), I was finally able to paint and decal one of the B&O twins and make it the USMRR Clarke. I'll have to figure out a better solution for covering the number plate on the boiler, and the drivers will need some paint work. But overall I'm very happy with this one. 

This was also one of the engines I wanted to experiment with Bullfrog Snot. You saw the video of the Scout pulling 27 cars after getting the treatment. Here's a pic of the Clarke under the knife a few weeks back. It's a very easy process, but tough to truly master right away. Practice makes perfect.  

New kicks.

But before all this, there was a disaster. I had rubbed off as much of the old lettering as I could, painted the tender and old name plate under the cab window, and added new decals that very closely match the original Clarke. Then came the clear coat of spray. UGH! I was too heavy on the first coat. The decals degraded and smudged. All that work, about four hours, down the drain. Some people I talked to online said it could have been the decals. They were an old sheet, so it's possible. 

The moment I was ready to scream.

Now for the buildings. It's easy to get too heavy with the non-dwelling structures, so I tracked down some houses that fit the era. You wouldn't believe the amount of time I spent debating what color to paint this first house. Most wood houses were white because that's what was cheap. But I needed something else, so a nice yellow with dark green trim was the choice. The roof was simple black paper, weathered with some diluted white paint. It may not be completely accurate for the period, but I don't anticipate many stitch-counters visiting my layout anytime soon. The second house is a simple white farmhouse, similar to what you'll see across many battlefields. I might add a stone faux-foundation to it using a stone pattern printed on paper and wrapping it around the pylons. 

Typical house that could serve nicely in the Civil War era.

The last building is sort of a kit-bash, even though I didn't actually bash two together. Ok so it's more like just a modification of a kit. Anyway... this was my first experiment with covering a building with paper to give a non-wood exterior. This one was brick. It's the same Micro-Trains co-op kit that was painted green and you can see in the background of all these photos. I covered a few of the windows, and did not add the loading dock or subroof. I did move the loading dock bay door down to ground level, which was very easy since the original door opening is now covered by the brick paper. Looks pretty good, but I can't put it on the layout as it stands right now. It's too noticeably-similar to the green building. But it'll fit nicely when I can build the bigger shelf layout with several "towns" or whatever they'll be. 

Sort of a kit-bash. Changed up some of the doors and windows,
and added a brick exterior to the Micro-Trains co-op. 

Since I'm not building that shelf layout for at least another 18 months, I'll keep working on the current layout to hone my amateur skills. Here's an overhead shot of the area I plan to work on. The wagons and escort are where I plan to build a road, bordered by either fences or stone walls. The 32-pounders are just too great to leave off the layout. Even if they don't exactly fit what I'm portraying here--What exactly am I portraying here anyway? I have no idea!--I'll need to construct some kind of earthen fortifications straddling the road. If I put the guns emplacements a few inches more to the left in this photo, that should look a little better than them being right on the little farmstead. Plus, if I can get a "fort" scene going on, that'll open up a ton of new possibilities for scratch building, like chevaux de frise, which I've been itching to build. 

Needs... more stuff.

I'll have a new update sometime in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

Video: Scout pulls 27 cars like a champ

Here's a short video showing the results of my recent trial with Bullfrog Snot. The Atlas 4-4-0's have gained a great reputation as strong pullers. But I wanted more. So when my younger son's 4-6-0 needed new tires, I figured this was my chance to try out BFS on the Civil War locomotives. The Scout was the trial run, and wow! It's previous record was somewhere around 17 cars pulled before any wheel slip. Now she's pulling 27 cars and could have probably hit 30 had it not been for the double curve. Check it out. Be sure to like the video and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

The 'Scout' arrives, cannons, and warehouse

It's been a very long time since the last substantive update here, so I'll give a few with photos. The pandemic has been difficult here in North Jersey. We were one of the first hot spots in the nation. Our county saw the state's first death. I've been working remotely from the office since March, though the second job remains in-person, as it's essential. That would normally be a formula to get plenty of work done on the layout, but not so much in this reality. The boys are home from school, too, meaning all our extra time is devoted to working with them and other parental duties usually reserved for only non-school hours. Still, I've managed to get a few things done.

The 'Scout'

The Scout.

I've been waiting a long time to finally dive in and re-letter an engine. The PRR 1510 was the first candidate since I already painted over its old letters and numbers. Now it's the locomotive Scout, and I must say it looks very handsome in its new digs. I don't believe there's a prototype photo for Scout, so it's really up to the modeler with this one.

It retains pretty much everything from before, including the Rogers style smokestack and strap iron cowcatcher. I did add another coat of bright red paint to the cowcatcher to better align with the nameplate and tender letter accent color. Needs a little more detail work, but for now it's a great improvement. Next up will be one of the B&O twins.

Bring up the guns! And new warehouse.

In my effort to avoid doing difficult track work or layout redesigns, I've focused on fleshing out the scenery and miniatures. This round brought six 3-inch ordnance rifles and caissons, three barbette rifles and platforms, and three stacks of cannonballs.

I thought I took some closeups of the barbette guns, but will have to come back with those later. Right now I have no place for them on the layout, but there is a photo of those guns in Alexandria guarding the port. They're definitely for use in prepared fortifications. I don't have anything like that on the current layout. If I make any major changes to it, maybe I'll add some kind of fort. Otherwise, these guns will have to hibernate until I can build the new layout next year or the year after.

The six-gun battery of 3-inch ordnance rifles are lined up in storage at the yard. This is one of the best reasons to model in N scale: volume. In most larger scales, six cannons and caissons would be a major expense. In N scale, this entire battery cost less than $100.

At first I was going to use the Parrott Rifle barrels, but decided to use the 3-inch ordnance since they were far more common during the Civil War.

In the background, you'll see a small coal shed kit I picked up, too. With a little weathering, it's the kind of building that adds necessary detail and depth. 

Probably should've cropped this photo better, but it is what it is. The new warehouse is the Micro-Trains Grain Co-Op kit. It has all the right lines for a structure of the Civil War era. And with a sharp coat of dark green paint with white trim, it fits very nicely. It's also the first two-story building on the layout.

I liked this one so much, I bought another a few weeks later super cheap on eBay. I obviously can't paint it the same color as this one. I'm still working out what I want to do there. Also under consideration is a bit of a modification to make them look a little more different, but again, still thinking about it.

The USMRR Armored Train Set

Below you'll see a couple photos of the U.S.M.R.R. Armored Train set from Micro-Trains Civil War Era line. This arrived a while back, but after I took a break from posting. So with all the catching up, I wanted to make sure these got into this post. The set is very nice, as is nearly all of MTL's stuff.

However, I'm a little disappointed in a few things. The first is that they included a conductor car / caboose, when a standard box car would've likely been the better fit. Next, the armored cars are decently detailed, but not as much as I'd hoped. A little weathering will go a long, long way with these. Lastly, the two Dictator mortars are nothing but plastic, when I was expecting either GHQ-quality or similar. The bores don't even extend far enough into the miniature so you can't see where it ends. They look very toy-like, rather than model quality I've come to expect from MTL. But overall I have no regret purchasing the armored train set. It'll go very well in a vignette on the layout somewhere.

Video update: Weathered boxcars, supply wagons, new army depot scene

It's been a while since my last post. So I wanted to prove I didn't give up on this thing. I finally got around to making a new video tour of the layout. Not much has changed since I posted it (you should subscribe), but I'll tell you a few upcoming things after the video.



Things you'll notice...

• The Micro-Trains Civil War era boxcars have been given road numbers and weathering. It's makes such a difference. Also, they're all fitted with metal wheels. 
• The tender load is tungsten putty covered in firewood I cut from leftover laser kits. 
• Soldiers! I finished the Union Army supply wagons. They look great and add much-needed life to the layout. They were a breeze to paint, even if my eyes were screaming at me for trying to focus so small. I haven't gotten to adding more miniatures, but painting has started slowly. I'll have two more wagons (these from Good Ground Minis) soon.
• The freight station and other scenic changes were covered in the last post. 

Things in the works... 

• I found one of Mark Watson's ventilated boxcars. It's based on a post-war prototype from the Virginia and Truckee, meaning it won't be historically accurate on a Civil War layout. However, it's a good way to add variety to the rolling stock for now. 
• More wagons and miniatures. 
• If I'm adventurous enough, I'm going to paint over the Pennsylvania Railroad markings on the PRR 1510. It'll be a little scary since I really don't want to disturb any of the other ornamentation. But as long as the black paint matches up well enough, it'll be very cool to finally use the U.S.M.R.R. locomotive decals that have been sitting on a shelf. 

Introducing the B&O twins

Here are the latest additions to the roster: a pair of Atlas 4-4-0 Baltimore & Ohio No. 25's. Until I can reletter them, I'll refer to them as The Twins. The decoder addresses are Nos. 5 & 25, but you can't tell from just eyeballing it.

Doubling the size of my roster for a great price?
Yes, please!

Over at the Streamlined Backshop, they're running an inventory clearance sale on a bunch of stuff. So if you're looking to add to your stock, go check them out. I picked up these beauties for a fantastic price, and Steve was able to get the decoders installed super fast. Maybe someday I'll be adventurous and do these installations myself, but right now I'm in no position to ruin engines.

I'll have to figure out some ways other than just relettering or giving them nameplates on the boilers. I'm not going to disassemble, strip and paint either of them. My initial thoughts are using different color cowcatchers, smokestacks, and giving one of the cab roofs a coat of black. We'll see.

The best part is seeing them run together for the first time. One (I forget which at the moment) has a hitch going in reverse, but other than that, they're great.

Balloon stacks for the Atlas 4-4-0!

Cue the Hallelujah Chorus, folks!

Presenting the biggest event in N Scale Civil War trains since the original Atlas/MTL run. Eric Cox of Panamint Models has posted his 3D printed Smokestacks and Cowcatchers for Civil War era locomotives.

This all came from me asking him if he would work up some designs. Turned out he had some already but never put them out because the print quality back then wasn't what it was now. I got to order the first public printing, and I got to tell you, they're friggin' incredible!

It completely changes the look and feel of the Atlas engines, which suffered from the blatant "this 1870s engine is good enough for Civil War modeling." Now, not only with the variety of balloon stacks from Eric, but the horizontal cowcatchers, these locomotives scream "1860." You can check out each of them below. In general, they're based on Rogers smokestacks, but will look great as Mason or Cooke engines, too.

I noticed they sit a little high on the post rising from the Atlas engine body. So what I did for the Rogers style stack is file out the inside of the base a little. That allows it to "hug" around the post a little more, lowering the distance between the bottom of the balloon base and the boiler body. I'm still working on it. Eric thinks they're a little too big still, and if he took them down another 5-10%, I'd be okay with that. Only the two bigger stacks should be taken down, if at all. The smaller one looks good as it is.

Catching up with rolling stock, layout and more

Much of what you read in this post is a condensed version of what I posted over on Trainboard.com. I've decided to move things over here from there, since I'm less in the discussion phase and more in the narrative phase of the project.

June 2018

Dropped $70 on an Atlas PRR 1610 from eBay. Not sure how I managed to find that one, but it's a steal and I'm super happy about it. I also ordered an Atlas Gen. Haupt from Streamlined Backshop with a DCC install that looks great. One hangup on that one, though... I don't have a DCC layout. But figured I'd get it installed now. I just can't really use it on the layout. The final item in this batch is a set of four Bachmann W&ARR boxcars. The boys were naturally excited about those since they're "from the movie."

The Arnold Coaches episode was a short one, but a learning experience. In need of passenger cars, I saw a set of old W&ARR coaches on eBay. I got them for something like $75. It felt like a bit much, but it was early in my education about all this and I was getting anxious. After some testing, I figured out why they weren't worth the time, effort, or money. 

From the time: 

There was a bit of trouble, I think due to the plastic wheels. But I haven’t investigated thoroughly yet. They don’t spin as freely as I’d like. Would love to replace them with new ones. But they are attached using pins that are molded into the bed, not the normal kingpins I’m used to. Hmm... 
Otherwise they’re in great condition. Almost no visible wear. And they’re *heavy*, which I was a little worried about. But both the Bachmann’s pulled all three with only minor slipping. 

Fast forward a few days... 

I'm returning the Arnold passenger cars. Too much work to retrofit them. Will look into Bachmann or another maker for passenger cars. There are many on eBay. 

Mid-month, I ran out of money, so I started messing around with layout software for what I imagined to be my "dream layout":

Work on the actual locomotives has been slow, as I only have about an hour at night available.

I cleaned up the wheels of the Gen. Haupt, and its pickup is already improved. But I think much of the pickup issues has to do with the track being 20+ yrs old. Some of the track is actually 30-40 yrs old. Still, considering, I've had only one or two stalls during a complete runaround of the 3'x3' layout I'm using right now. I also didn't solder anything or take any of the care I'm supposed to while laying track. I used fine sandpaper on top of the rails and cleaned them with alcohol, which cleared up 80% of the issues. I'm going to add more weight to them in the cabs and front of the tenders. I'll need to cover up the decoder anyway, so it should work out nicely.   

In the meantime, I got antsy and way ahead of myself, so I did a draft layout for the room I'm going to use. It'll be a shelf layout and the room structure already accommodates that. You'll see when I get photos posted. But for now, here's what will eventually become a Civil War single-track railroad, loosely based on the W&ARR. I plan to use Peco C55, which I know is a little expensive, but I want to be able to run my old pizza cutters on it, too. Plus, I read the switches are better. I'm going to build this in DCC, so I'll also need the auto-reversers for the reverse loops. All of this is months, if not a year away, so I don't expect to update anything about the layout for a good long while. 

Yeah, it'll be more than a year away. No chance that I'll get something like that done by this June.

Finally got smart and tracked down some Micro-Trains Civil War era cars. Added five more freight cars. Found them cheap. To be honest, I was shocked to find them at all. But one thing I still can’t seem to find more of is the regular boxcar. The converted house cars will do just fine for now.  

I also wanted to see how well the Atlas engines pulled. 

So I coupled up an 11-car train, which included the four heavier Bachmann W&ARR boxcars. And aside from a little hesitation for a moment, the two Atlas had no problems.

Here's the PRR No. 1510 pulling 11 freight cars. I blame the moment of hesitation on bad track/pickup. This engine was running on pulse setting using a Throttlepack 501 N, but I hope the Tech 7 I ordered will help with the slow speed control. The U.S.M.R.R. Gen. Haupt (which has a decoder installed, the PRR doesn't) doesn't react to the pulse setting at all, which is bothersome since the Atlas engines on the full setting start moving at about 40 mph. Not realistic at all. The Bachmann engines, surprisingly, have much better slow speed reaction with the 501. Not sure if that's a motor thing. 

I got an order of MTL wood frame trucks and the simulated link-and-pin couplers. The plan was to convert all the Bachmann CWE cars, with enough leftover trucks/couplers in case I ever need more. 

I recall seeing the trucks and couplers advertised as being compatible with the Bachmann cars, but maybe I misread it. When I tried to simply swap out the trucks, they didn't fit over the existing frame. 

Instead of drilling out the MTL trucks--which would thin them out and harm the structural integrity--I took a hand file to shave down the screw holes on one of my old cars as a test. I went all the way down to the base, but as you can see in the second photo, it still wasn't enough! The car still rides high compared to the stock Bachmann car and the MTL car. 

Before I proceed with a dremel tool to get these down to the right height, let me ask: Is there another way? Or is this normal kind of stuff when adapting stock items to my needs?  
The first pic is of the old Bachmann frame that I filed (top) and the stock/new Bachmann frame (bottom) to compare. 

July 2018

So I guess by the end of June it was too much to just keep running trains on the wood table. I needed something more. Here's the update with a few photos. It was *really* hot out during the days I was building this thing. I had to do it outside because the boys wanted to be outside in the sprinkler and pool. 

Couple updates. While I’m not nearly ready to build the big one, I’ve been antsy to get something done that can run trains. So I got some foam boards, plaster cloth, cork, and a small wood kit depot the other day, and started a 3x3 layout. Nothing specific. Rural overall and generic era so we can run both the 19th and 20th century trains. 
Please don’t have too much fun at my expense. I’m aware of all the mistakes I made. The gap between rails in the last two pics is pretty glaring. 

But even with the poor pickup on those engines, the gaps didn’t cause a problem. I cleaned up all the old track—30-yr old code 80–and bought new rail joiners. It’s surprisingly solid. I actually forgot to take a wide pic of the whole thing as it stands now. Will do that later. I just need to start working on the landscaping and a few more buildings. The reason I went with the large rolls of cork is because I don’t want the track raised too high above the surrounding terrain. I want that “old track” look.  

   

Late-July 2018

Once my 3-year-old moved into the same room as the 7-year-old, it freed us to move out of the basement bedroom. 

That means we have a play/rec room down there now. 

Moved around some rooms in the house, meaning I finally have a room for the layout!  

So I got paint and scenery, and went to work. I’m further along than the final photo shows, but I’ll have another update soon. I tell ya, seeing the ground cover going down really boosts the morale. 

I also picked up a bunch of 1860 passenger cars and another engine for super cheap. 

They need some work, and I ordered all new trucks from shapeways. Getting them fitted with the new trucks and link and pin will look great.

 

The ballast didn’t turn out how I wanted. I’m going to make the rest of it look more like a dirt/ballast mix, as ballasting back then isn’t what we think of now. 

August 2018

Update and video time! 

The Atlas 4-4-0 P.R.R. 1610 pulling a load of 13 freight cars, a mix of U.S. Military R.R., Manassas Gap R.R., and Pennsylvania R.R. (latest editions! Should have a Georgia R.R. arriving today). The key to a smoother run is weight. I recently added about 1.5 oz of tungsten putty to places like the pilot truck, cab, and tender under the wood load. There's only one or two spots it hesitates, but that's probably because I didn't clean the track in over a week. The layout is progressing along nicely, albeit slowly. I'm only showing the parts of the layout that have (at least some) scenery, and all of it will be improving on a continuous basis. This accounts for about 3 months of work.

October 2018

Geez, time really got away from me. School and football started up and suddenly it’s October. Anyway, here’s a quick landscape update. One more corner done. A little grove and a bunch of ground cover. Need more trees though. Pines would be good. 

And I managed to get my hands on eight (!) of those undecorated MTL boxcars. I painted four so far w a rust color. Hand painting, not spraying. I figure the real things weren’t sprayed so this would work out. The first coat looks so good I may not do a second. Will need to order decals. 

Also, I’m debating what color to do the second set of four. I think the slate gray is generic enough for this period that it could work with almost any line.


The blue-gray color looks pretty nice on the boxcars. Adds some needed variety to the roster. The rust color on the other boxcars almost looks like the iron boxcars used by the B&O during this era. Now I just need to find some stock cars or other kind of ventilated boxcars. I haven't ordered decals yet, so they remain plain. I forgot to paint and install the brake wheels to each of the new boxcars. Have to get around to that, too. 

But the biggest news on the scenery front is that I finally got around to the water. It was scary going in, since I've never done anything like this before. But now I'm really happy with how it turned out. Used rocks from the back yard to make the banks and shore line. Once I finally break down and buy some dam trees (they really add up $$) the whole center of the layout will be pretty impressive. 

Now the story continues on the main feed of this blog. Thanks for reading...