Not quite a tintype, but pretty close

U.S. Supply Depot, 1863

 I'm sure there are ways to get a modern digital photo to look like a tintype. Some day I'll get around to figuring it out. I took some photos the other day of just generic scenes. Two shots stood out when I added a basic iPhone filter to them. It came very close to the look of a Civil War era tintype. Seeing how they look, I'm going to experiment more with this. Modern digital color photos are great for sharing my layout with the model railroad world, but the Civil War historian in me is in love with recreating the tintype look.

Another view, with a short train stopped for water.

It's been tough to carve out time for the layout. I recently received some civilian figures from Thoroughbred Models that look close enough in size to match the GHQ figures. I'll make a post on those separately, including some other scenery and figures updates. 

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.

Micro-Trains' new Civil War armored set

Well, well. Isn't this a pleasant surprise. Micro-Trains Line announced that it will be releasing a new set in its Civil War Era line: a U.S. Military Railroad Armored 4-pack! It's set to ship in March. I'm very tempted to preorder this one, since they're always limited runs of these things.

Something new and different from MTL!

To be honest, I wasn't expecting anything like this from MTL's CWE line. For years now they've been simply releasing the same boxcar-flatcar-caboose models, just with different livery. Frankly, it's getting worn out. I even asked them a while back if they were exploring doing a USMRR passenger car run. They said no, but deep down I've been hopeful. This new armored set gives me more optimism that MTL is open to more variety in its Civil War offerings. I'd also like to see some stock/cattle cars. There were plenty of them rolling down the rails during the war. 

My only--minor--complaint about this set is that they included a conductor car/caboose. A standard boxcar would have been more appropriate. But I'm not letting that dilute the excitement about this newest release. 

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. 

Civil War Trains: A Scene

Settling back into the routine today after spending a week down the shore. It was our first true vacation as a family. We had a great time.

Before I left, I spent a few minutes setting up a static scene on the layout, using the figures I had completed, as well as three of the four locomotives and a good number of the cars. The lighting wasn't great, and there needs to be far more figures (and more wood loads to cover the decoders) to give a decent amount of realism. But overall I thought this turned out to be a good overview of what I've accumulated since last summer. 

And just for fun, I threw the first image above into photoshop. It's not the greatest, but it changes the perception a little. I'll have to play around with the settings more to get that true wet-plate look.

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...

Adding decals to the boxcars

I started writing this post over a week ago, when I was already a week into applying Microscale decals to a few of the boxcars. Going into it, my biggest fear was destroying the decals in the process. I haven't applied a decal on anything since my last model car in, oh, about 20 years. As I started, it soon became evident my eyesight isn't what it was way back when. Not only were the decals small and on light-colored backing paper, but the numbers are spaced so close together on the sheet that you need to be almost perfect on every cut with the blade.

LOTS of MicroSol is needed when dealing with the surfaces on these cars.

After a few rounds, I got more comfortable and figured out a few techniques that worked best for me. I liked using toothpicks to adjust the positioning, since they're not sharpened to a point like the razor, but small enough to control just a corner of the decal at a time. Other tools were Q-tips, small paint brushes, and a lot of patience.

You'll notice some of the decals were damaged either as I was preparing them, or once they were on the model. Since the surface of these boxcars are not smooth gloss, I used MicroSol. That required extra care and speed to apply the decal without manipulating it too much. They started to get very soft the moment the MicroSol hit the decal and would tear easily.

Those numbers are even closer in person than they look here.

A frustrating issue for me followed a suggestion from the Microscale instructions. It said if you can't see the white decals well enough to cut them cleanly, you can color the back side of the paper with a dark ink marker. So I did that and the decals showed up great on the backing paper. However... something must have happened when the ink soaked through the paper, because it was MUCH more difficult to get the decals off the paper after soaking them in water. The ones without the ink slid off with little effort. Just a heads up to those out there considering using these decals. They work great, but practice, and expect to lose a few along the way.

I'll have a follow-up post in a few days.

Passenger Coaches Fiasco

After realizing the passenger car decals were only in black, I had to rethink the paint scheme for the coaches I'm trying to make from the old Bachmanns. First, I used too-strong of a paint remover. The plastic was damaged and now looks rough. I still have another three coach bodies to use, but it's still frustrating. Stay tuned for more.

A Few Parting Shots for Today

I don't post enough photos that are just for fun. I'll start doing that more.

From above. Yes, the track is still the worst part of all this. It's also the biggest
single expense to replace. Those two things are related.
The paint can is holding down the track on the bridge that needed re-gluing.

Evening freight train rolls into the depot. 

U.S.M.R.R. Passenger Coaches

I'm working on repainting and lettering two of the Bachmann passenger coaches. The Microscale decals were supposed to arrive Friday, but they were delayed in the Teterboro USPS distribution center for four (!) days. They were finally delivered around noon today. Not sure if I'll have time before the weekend to try them out. In hindsight, it's good they were delayed. The paint on the coaches will definitely be dry, and I also had some time to get the boxcars and some flatcars a little more detailed. More on those in the next post.

Here's a look at the Bachmann cars. The tan color looks good. The old numbers in the middle still show through. I should have scratched them off before I started painting. That's a bad mistake and I'm kicking myself for not catching it.

The medium brown color along the roofline is just a placeholder. I need to get some darker brown for that, and mask it off so the line is cleaner. I'm also going to use the darker brown to border the windows and other trim.

Turns out I'm not going to use a dark color for the trim work. The decals from Microscale only have the passenger lettering "United States Military Rail Roads" in dark/black, not the white or gold they mention in the paperwork.

That's a pretty big disappointment, since every photo I've seen from the war shows light lettering on dark backgrounds. But I don't have much of a choice here. I'll have to paint the top border in the light tan, and use the dark brown for just the trim work around the car. (Update: You can see the finished USMRR passenger car here.)

To The Libraries

As you'd expect, much of the U.S.M.R.R.'s operations during the Civil War focused on the movement of freight to the armies in the field. When the army itself needed to move its men, they walked. Transporting men by rail was almost completely out of the question—almost. We know this wasn't always forbidden, as the simple existence of photos showing passenger coaches in operation on military roads proves it.

Looking northeast

Looking northwest

Here are two images from The Huntington Library Civil War collection. Of all the photos I've seen of railroads during the Civil War, these two show an unmatched variety of rolling stock. They appear to have been taken the same day. But I hesitate to say how close together on the same day. More on that in a moment. First...

Passenger Coaches

In the two photos here, there are five passenger coaches, all lettered for the U.S.M.R.R. I can't exactly make out what is in the center of the cars, but it appears to be a number within a shield or something. There's another photo (third photo in this post) by Andrew J. Russell of a train wreck cleanup crew that shows a U.S.M.R.R. 10-window passenger coach with a number in the center of its side, but not within a background shape like the ones here.

The coaches in the two Alexandria yard photos all have at least 12 windows. The coach marked "Hospital Car" in the first photo has 15 windows.

All four cars in the photo looking to the northeast also appear to be painted different colors. The sunlight is reflected noticeably different on each one. Even if they're all the same color, maybe they're different shades. The only description I've seen, over at the USMRR Aquia Line, indicates brown/tan color schemes when these cars were painted by the U.S.M.R.R. But as was the case with boxcars, I'm sure there was a mix of colors depending on the original owners of these passenger cars.

There's so much more to analyze, like the "Hospital Car" boxcar, and rear/tender lamp on the bottom left engine in the northwestern photo. In fact, all the engines in these photos look like they have been modified for yard-only use. Could be interesting to someday add these features to my layout, especially once I build a yard. That's probably for the next layout.

Full view of the Alexandria Yard

As I was finishing up this entry, I realized it would be great to get a view of the whole Alexandria Yard by combining the two photos as best I could. Take a look below.

Teleporting Boxcar?

On the surface, it appears Russell made the northeastern photo, then simply turned the camera to make the northwestern view. But look closely at the leftmost boxcar in the northeastern photo: #1307.

You can see it has been lettered and numbered in a sans serif font; the numbers look hand painted and not stenciled. The brake wheel is above the roofline, with a plank down the middle.

Now look at the northwestern photo in the bottom left corner. #1307! Same font. Same roof. Is it the same car? It's not impossible that the car was moved in the yard between the northeastern and northwestern photo. The track on this side of the loading dock is clear in both photos, meaning the car could've been pulled out of that line and moved into the closest track in the northwestern photo in a mater of minutes. Adding to the mystery is that the spot in the northwestern photo where the boxcar was in the northeastern photo is blocked by whatever is in the shot. We'll never know the truth!

Gondola car, barrels, and a water tower

Most of the time, I feel like I'm not doing enough on the layout because I can't do major things like replacing the track or going to DCC. But then I realize this is all what modeling is about: the little things. So I did two little things this weekend. Took about an hour and a half over two days.

Water tower

It's shocking how little there is available in the way of Civil War era structures. All the Micro-Trains buildings and accessories were sold out long ago during their short run. So scratch building is sometimes all I can do. What's more shocking is that my steam trains layout did not have a water tower! I gathered up all the leftover wood from the buildings and cobbled together something resembling the water tower in the widely-seen photo of the Gen. J. C. Robinson in front of the structure. You can see the original below.

https://www.loc.gov/item/2018666647/

Gondola car

Variety was lacking with the freight cars. And I don't have a ton of interesting loads to use with the flat cars. There are only so many times I can use the water tanks loads before it looks bad. I ordered a set of 48 wood barrels. They're painted plastic, but look really good. The problem is that they're really light. The slightest jolt will send them toppling over. I don't want to glue them down, at least not yet. The only solution was to build sides for a flat car, making a gondola car. I recall seeing a photo of it from the war, but I can't find it now. If I do, I'll add it to this post.

Like the water tower, I used leftover wood from the kits. I have to say, it turned out really well. The spacing of the posts could be better, but for the first attempt it'll do just fine. Here are the two newest additions to the layout, along with the depot I finally painted.

Could've been worse. I'll keep practicing.

Finally looks like something other than a laser cut wood kit.

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...