Civil War era Pennsylvania Rail Road passenger coaches

Told you I was going to do some painting. I finally took the Bachmann Central Pacific coaches I got in that huge lot last year, stripped them down and repainted as Pennsylvania Rail Road cars. These are your standard Bmann Old Timer coaches. I custom mixed the paint to resemble something like a Tuscan Red, as I have concluded PRR didn't use dark green back then. The roof, trim, and trucks are the Testors rubber color, which is like a very dark brown. Decals are from the MicroScale Civil War era sheets. 

Apologies for not cropping the photos first. I'll need to do some minor adjustments to the couplers, both with height and to allow for a tighter turn radius. Right now at least one truck derails each time they go through the S-turn coming out of the loop. I should be able to file the coupler pocket a little wider. These coaches look sharp in person, and I can't wait to do more painting projects like this. I really missed it. 

Finished U.S.M.R.R. Passenger Coach

You may remember the difficulty I had repainting the Bachmann Old Timer coaches to wear the livery of U.S.M.R.R. passenger cars. It's been about two months since then. Frankly, I forgot to include the results in any blog post since then. So, here it is.

You'll see the color is now completely different than I had intended. The tan color wasn't going to work with the black lettering from Microscale. As much as I wanted to make this work to look like all the historical images of U.S.M.R.R. coaches, with light lettering on a dark background, it's better to make them look good with the options available.

After carefully stripping the car—I already ruined two of them using chemicals that were too harsh for the plastic—and scraping down the factory lettering, I began the primer coats of sunflower yellow by Testors. I almost exclusively use flat, since gloss looks too toy-like at this scale.

Once the body of the car was painted and dry, I masked off the roof and fascia just above the lettering board. Flat black was applied to the roof and grab irons.

The final touch was the decal work. Those suckers along the roof were long. Thankfully I was used to working with the decals at this point, or it would've been a disaster.

Maybe I got overzealous with the decals, but I think the number-over-shield in the center of the coach body looks really sharp. There are two small numbers on both end doors.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how the coach turned out. It was easily the most involved painting project I've done so far and I'm not sure if or when I'll have time to do the other coaches.

Other Odds n Ends

You can also see how I've added real dirt, gone over with a strong magnet, to the trackbed. It's only installed near the depot.

In the background you'll also see those Sibley tents I got on eBay. They're not painted yet, but from this distance and being out-of-focus, they look very nice.

And in the far background, you may notice it's different. That's because we had to move the table into the other side of the basement. The corner this was previously in was where we'd get some water during bad stretches of drenching rain. It was such a pain to move the table, I decided to get it up to dry ground. It also forced me to clean up the basement this weekend, so it worked out for everyone.

Till next time...

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...

The beginning... sort of

TL;DR version: 

After a ~20-year hiatus from model trains, I'm getting back into it, thanks to my two sons--6 and 3 years old. I've seen one or two fellas on here say they're modeling the Civil War era. Just wanted to throw my hat in and say that I'm planning on starting down that path. I'll try to post some photos as I go along, but this will essentially be my personal progress thread. Warning: It'll be a slow one, as I work two jobs, have two young children, and limited funds for anything but a slow and steady path forward.

The backstory: 

I inherited a large box of old n-scale stuff from my uncle in the mid-90s, which is where I first starting using n-scale. And since that stuff was old back then, it's reeeally old now. The oldest is an Arnold 0-6-0 Wabash switcher from 1966, and the second oldest is a Bachmann F9 PennCentral from 1971. Over the years I added some new track, engines and cars, but not a whole lot since I was given so much to start with. Plus we never had much extra money. My dad built me a nice train table that could fit either the 027 set I had, or a larger n-scale layout. It was great.

Since I started loving trains around 2 years old, I had always wanted an American 4-4-0 like "The General." The Great Locomotive Chase was (and probably still is) my all-time favorite movie. I grew up and live near Paterson, NJ, which many of you already know about in terms of locomotive history. It was very cool when I found out that both the General and the Texas were built in Paterson (though by different companies).

For Christmas one year my parents got me the Bachmann 4-4-0 Old Timer set. I was in heaven. But as many of you know, there was extremely limited Civil War era stuff available in n-scale, so I was limited in how much I could really do. And again, money was always an issue.

Skip 20 years, to today:

As most boys tend to be, my sons love trains. And now that they're old enough, I built a small 3x3 train table and cleaned up the n's as best I could to get them running again. Most of the stuff we have is of the diesel era, except for the Arnold switcher and the Bachmann 4-4-0 set. My boys also love The Great Locomotive Chase, so I decided to start looking for some new engines of that era.

Back in 2015, my older son got an Atlas catalog when we saw Santa at the Maywood Train Station. Atlas had been promoting their HO Erie Lackawanna series, and that station has a static S2 and caboose. But in that catalog was the Atlas Civil War era 4-4-0's. I didn't realize at the time it was a limited run, but my son loved looking at them in the book. And now recently that we've pulled out the n's, he went back and looked at that catalog reminding me that he loved the U.S. Military R.R. engine. I told him we'd save up for it.

About a month ago, I ordered a Bachmann F7 Erie-Lackawanna, the first new model train I've purchased since the 90s. It was like new, but a Plus, so its gears were cracked and I didn't realize it. Fortunately I didn't pay much. If I get around to replacing the gears, great, but if not, I have a nice Christmas tree ornament.

A few weeks ago, I found on eBay a set of two engines, the Jupiter and the No. 119 in their original white boxes with the manuals and all, for just $50, so I jumped on them, figuring at that price it'd be worth it no matter how they run. Turns out, they're great. A little hesitation here or there, but overall like new. They even successfully navigate the old turnouts and crossover nine times out of 10.

I haven't told my oldest yet, but I ordered the Gen. Haupt from Streamlined Backshop and it's currently getting a decoder installed for when we make the switch to DCC. I can't wait to show them. I also just bought 4 W&A R.R. boxcars from some train store for a really great price.

What's to come: 

My plan is to make the switch to DCC at least a year or two from now. DC works great for what we want, and the boys are happy. I'm going to build a shelf layout along two walls in our basement, and will need it to be transportable, as we plan to move in about 2 years. I'm debating whether or not to commit to the W&A RR, or somewhere else during the Civil War. We lived in Northern Virginia for a few years, so that's very tempting to do a U.S.M.R.R. layout or something along those lines.