KMRy. 24' Pulpwood Flatcar

Work is continuing on my small collection of On3 models, and closer to completion than anything else I've built in this scale, is a 24' Pulpwood Flatcar.  It's been lettered for the Klondike Mines Railway, which was the prototype line my fictional Klondike Mines & Navigation Company is based on.  This car was originally build in 2008 as a 28-footer but has since been cut down to 24'.  The only bits left to do is add a load and some weathering.

Boxcar & Pulpwood Car - Completed

Here's a couple shots of the completed HOn3 26' boxcar and four-wheel pulpwood car.  Both have been delivered to their new owner and will hopefully be running on 3' gauge track soon!

Random Updates

A bit of new work happening despite the lack of reporting, an HO standard gauge four-wheel wedge-plow is being built on a logging disconnect for a friends backwoods logging line.  The woodworking is complete, just details to add and some additional painting and weathering.  

And another bit of Nn3 rolling stock from Toma Model Works from Japan, a lovely little four-wheel coach that ran on the Kubiki Light Railways.  I've tried to abandon Nn3 numerous times but I always come back to these tiny, charming little models. 

I have a lot of other projects in the works, I'll try and update more regularly, though I may move to another platform as blogspot has become increasingly frustrating... 

HOn30 Rolling Stock

Here's another batch of rolling stock that has been in the works for some time.  The two brass cars were assembled from Aru Models kits I got from Mr. Kobayashi and represent Japanese prototypes, (I believe they ran on the Kubiki Railway). The bulkhead flatcar in the foreground is built over an MDC Overton passenger car underframe and works out to be about 18' long. All the other cars run on four wheel N-scale chassis from Kato, Fleishman or Roco.  

I also have a few more frames to make into more of these (or something!).  I also have a few more Aru Models and Modelwagen kits for Japanese prototypes I hope to add as time permits.

O.L.Co. 20' Boxcar

On the work bench lately has been an On3 under-frame that will be assembled into a 20' boxcar to run on my freelanced version of the Oregon Lumber Company, (which yes, I'm building in On3, HOn3 and some HO standard gauge thrown in for good measure).  The wood bits were salvaged from a partially assembled Taurus 20' Orecar kit that I got secondhand.  The assembly was pretty poor, but yielded a good supply of O scale timbers and detail parts.


I wanted to take a new approach to building truss rods on this car, using brass wire instead of fishing line, which I have experienced tends to go slack after a short time.  I also wanted to be able to see daylight through the turnbuckles, which I think is a great detail.  To that end, each truss rod is assembled from four individual bits of wire, each one carefully bent to shape and test fit numerous times during assembly.

I like the result, despite taking about three hours to do four truss rods, (including several bourbon and cigarette breaks...).  The underframe is complete minus the coupler draft timbers which will be added once the body is complete.  Since these photos were made the entire underframe has been spray painted black and decking  has been added using some mystery lasercut parts I had laying around.  It was installed upside-down to allow the etched detail to be seen from the bottom, which is fine as I hadn't planned to have any interior detail in this car.

Hershey Electric Gondola No. 46

Another new project to keep me from actually completing anything is a 4x3 foot mini-layout.  It is based on a mash-up of very small narrow gauge electrified mining lines and is named after the Hershey Electric lines in Cuba.  I will be completely freelancing the equipment and landscape and have it in my mind to take a more whimsical approach than I usually do.  But things will be built with at least a small level of realistic probability.  My first bit of rolling stock is this 18' gondola, built of stripwood and Grandt Line parts and riding on regular Kadee HO scale archbar trucks.  It has a nice and low narrow gauge look, and runs nicely around my pretty tight radius curves.  More on the Hershey Electric is in the works, stay tuned.

Boxcar & Pulpwood Car

Yes, some new developments for my HOn3 railways.  Just started is a 26' boxcar, which is more or less a copy of my On3 version built up years ago, though this one will have much different hardware.  It will probably be lettered for the Klondike Mines & Navigation Company, a fictitious version of the Klondike Mines Railway that once ran in the Yukon Territories.  The other is a little 4-wheel pulpwood car which will run on my Oregon Lumber Co.  It'll get some additional detail and a load shortly.

SR&N Railbus No. 1

Saco River & Newfoundland railbus No. 1

Built up from another excellent Aru Models kit and running on the usual Kato mechanism. A handful of details to add and off to the paintshop.

Alna Station

Rarely do I ever actually finish a structure model that I figure a bit of proof is necessary to maintain that I am a well rounded model builder, not some weird-locomotive-savant.  Granted, this is one of the smallest stations to exist on the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway, but it is still an accomplishment, nonetheless.  The kit came from Mount Blue Models, who took it over from Banta Modelworks, both manufacturers of fine products.  It was painted in prototypically-incorrect colours, but whatever, it’s my railroad and I like green and cream.  It will eventually be installed on a small 11 inch by 9 foot shelf layout I’ve started to use up all the mismatched bits I’ve accumulated over the years.  More on that later, probably.

Also, RIP Tommy Ramone, not many people could play the drums like you did.

Kusuki Works 3.5 ton 0-4-0WT

And my first steam critter in HOn30, a fantastic Kusuki Works 3.5 ton 0-4-0 well tank assembled from an equally Toma Model Works kit.  I wouldn't say it's a beginners kit, although I'm a beginner when it comes to steam engines, but with patience and the appropriate metric taps the basic assembly was pretty straightforward.  It's running pretty nice and will get some additional detailing before heading to the paint shop.

Kato 4 ton DL

A new diesel for the HOn30 fleet, a Kato 4 ton built up from a World Kougei kit.

On30 Four Wheel Flatcar - 2

Finished the tiny Keelung type four wheel flatcar with some strap steel link and pin couplers and a couple NBWs.  Not quite ready to start the locomotive yet...

Easy Modification For Coupler Diversity

I was fiddling around as usual tonight with a glass of Makers Mark and a bunch of my HOn30/OO9 engines and rolling stock on a little pizza layout, watching a train circle for a while, then replacing it with a new train, usually with a different coupler type, and watching that for a while, and so on. While I was watching a train with the usual Micro-Trains n-scale couplers it hit me that I could easily glue track spike to the inside of the knuckle and use the same engine to pull all kinds of rolling stock.  

So I tried it:

Coupled with a standard loop coupler Roco/Egger-Bahn/Jeouf-type skip:

Coupled with three links of chain:

And best of all, it still couples nicely with another Micro-Trains coupler:

I used a Micro Engineering spike (the smallest type available) glued in with CA (superglue). So far I've tested it on some very tight radiuses (about 4-5 inch) and it works with the loop, chain and MT coupler. It still couples reasonably well with McHenry n-scale couplers, but I haven't had a chance to see how it does in actual use (I don't have any cars equipped with McHenry couplers that can do that tight a radius). I also haven't tried out to see how many cars can be pulled using the spike before it falls off, knowing that the CA bond to the slippery plastic Micro-Trains uses for their couplers will eventually fail. It seems okay pulling five skips, plus the mod is easy and quick, you can just stick on another spike when the first one falls off. Also, for the record, I mount my Micro-Trains lower than standard n-scale on my Maine-type HOn30 stock, about 16 scale inches, which matches up with the Roco-type loop couplers nicely and probably won't affect the chain coupling much, but I haven't tried this yet with standard height n-scale couplers, (but I think it would probably work just fine).

And during the early days of railroading it was not unknown for stock equipped with knuckle couplers to have a slot cut in the knuckle to enable them to be coupled with link and pin couplers, so this is even sort of prototypical.

Good times!

Austro Daimler SL30 Feldbahn Motorlok

It's been three years since I posted about my little Austro Daimler SL30 Feldbahn Motorlok, which has been languishing ever since.  I recently dusted it off and scratched up a cab for it and am liking it quite a bit, (I do have a bit of a thing for centre-cabs).  I even managed to find the same can of spray paint I finished the body with.  Sometime in the next three years I'm sure I'll get around to making some couplings for it.  

On30 Four Wheel Flatcar

While sampling a new-to-me bourbon (Breaking & Entering brand, very good!), I got pretty drunk and ended up ordering one of Mr. Toma's Beautiful new On30 Keelung Coal Co. 3.5ton 0-4-0 Well Tank Engines. This morning I realized just how small a 3.5ton engine really is and set to building a little four-wheel car for it to pull around.

It's only about four feet wide by seven feet long. The journal boxes are cut from a Titchy archbar truck with Kadee HO 28" wheelsets, which works out to about 14 inches in O scale, the rest is the usual Brass bits and Grandt Line NBWs.  Coupling will be simple link & pin, chains or drawbars and will be installed later.

So much for 'concentrating' on one 'scale' or 'gauge', I seem to be back too sampling whatever I find out there regardless if it fits in any way with what I already have in the works...  I'm pretty okay with that.

Skeleton Cars

Since my new HOn3 line has a nice collection of geared engines, I supposed that they would look at home pulling an assortment of the usual type of logging gear, especially skeleton cars (more correctly called Connected Cars, I've heard...).  I have a couple in the works, one being this little 20' car based on a drawing from the NG&SLG: 

It's the usual; stripwood, styrene, Micro-Trains coupler and Blackstone trucks with Kadee wheels.  It still needs all the extras, like brake details, NBWs and some weathering and a load.

I have a trio of longer 26' cars going as well of pretty much the same construction but with a solid centre sill, one of them is even getting some detail parts installed:

That's a standard gauge flatcar in the background, I intend to add some dual gauge track to my scheme somehow.  I bought a Bachmann 80ton Shay for it which dwarfs the narrow gauge equipment, which I quite like.  There are some standard gauge bits being built as well.

I'm managing to accomplish the odd finished model, despite the usual distractions, other scales, bourbon, cameras, sometimes work...  I've also recently I've started another Nn3 micro-layout, added some more to my 1/35 scale Austro-Daimler critter, assembled a Mount Blue Models Alna Station in HO scale and have been researching WWI War Department Light Railways for an OO9 project...  Always something to do...

Diversions in HOn30 & HOn2

 Another batch of 'sub-projects' ongoing are a trio of unusual 30" gauge pulpwood cars that were operated by the Molino Timber Company somewhere in California, some time ago.  

My model is another 'inspired by' version instead of a proper prototypical rendition.  These cars were unusually narrow, had link and pin couplers and trucks that looked like cut down skip frames.  Mine have the usual Micro-Trains trucks and couplers and Grandt Line detail parts.  The rest is wood.  They operate okay but are extremely lightweight so they can only be pulled at the end of a train.  Someday I'll add a load and hide some weight in there somehow.

And another diversion, this time in HOn2 (or more accurately, HO6.5), a kitbash of a Grandt Line Koppel Ore Car mashed together with a Micro-Trains Nn3 underframe.  I think it looks like something some poor, run down mining tram might have made using junk laying around. I'm not certain how much further I'll stumble into HOn2 territory, but I like the initial result.

SR&N Flanger

Despite the previous postings, I am still mainly committed to HOn30 narrow gauge modelling, specifically the Maine two footers.  My Saco River & Newfoundland Railway lives on without a layout but with new equipment being added with some regularity.  The latest piece in the works is a 'sort of' version of the SR&RL flanger number 505.

It is based of a drawing of 505 from the NG&SLG, but assembled using bits I had on hand.  The underframe is from a Fleischmann N-scale freight car, the windows are Grandt Line and the rest is scribed wood or styrene.  It's not finished but I think it achieves the 'Maine-look' quite well.  

Two Shays

As I mentioned I seem to be moving back toward HOn3 (and away from On3) for my three foot gauge needs, mostly because I keep finding excellent deals on HOn3 models in the used cases at my local hobby shops.  I guess all the local HOn3 modellers are all dying out.

The latest two pieces of motive power added to my roster of geared engines is a pair of beautiful United Shays:
 



Both are in excellent condition and run quite well, especially the unpainted one.  But these two as a pair has made me start thinking of where I want to go with my HOn3 themes and standards.  I think it's pretty much a given that I'm going to be building a logging line, with some mining in there too.   I have several Classic Miniature and Tichy ore cars to build and convert for that.  Should I keep them as an oil burner and a wood burner or convert my motive power to one fuel type?  Should I keep the Kadee couplers (which I don't really like much) or try out Sergent's or go full out ridiculous with link and pin?  Not to mention my ongoing internal debate on switching to DCC...

None of that really matters at the moment because in the meantime I can just watch them glide across my almost three feet of main line and appreciate the detail and charm of these two. 

Still Building

Seeing as it's been over 800 days since I posted anything here, I figure now is as good as any time to announce that I'm still alive, and am still building things. Things in all scales and gauges as usual, with a minimum of focus and accomplishment. But despite never really finishing anything I'm still having fun with it, so there's no real reason not to keep going right?
In that vein, I finally found a much coveted HOn3 Flying Zoo 18ton Climax in excellent condition and at a reasonable price:

And itching to get it moving I laid a few feet of track, including two re-gauged HOn30 switches that were originally built for my long departed 'home layout' onto a 1x3 foot plank I had lying around. Everything is running nicely and I expect to get some paint and scenery down soon.
As usual, don't expect any regular updates or 'finished models' (whatever that is), but I will publish something, at least every 800 days or so.