Workin' On The Railroad?

Unfortunately, no.  There has been a complete lack of progress on the layout since the New Year.  Not for lack of interest, it just seems that there's been a lot of other "stuff" to do this year.  I've been busy prepping for a series of trainings that I'm conducting at work.  I have a clinic coming up for the NMRA Twin Cities Division that I've spent some time getting ready for.  I've done a lot of writing for a work-related blog, taken a work-related trip to Colorado.  On top of all that, my wife and I have embarked on a lifestyle change, trying to eat better and be more physically active.  All of this eats into the free time, and sometimes just leaves you drained and wanting to do nothing in the evening.

Anyway...

The railroad still lives, the depot is still under construction, and there IS progress to report on other fronts.  I've had a photo published in Model Railroader, one of my goals for the year.  Less mainstream but equally significant, an article on my scratchbuilt caboose appears in the recently mailed Winter 2012 issue of the Ore Extra published by the Missabe Historical Society.  No less thrilling than getting something into Railroad Model Craftsman or Model Railroader, and it's a step towards my goal of publishing two more articles this year.

The TCD clinic is coming up on February 9th at 7:00pm, stop by the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul if you're in the neighborhood.  You might learn something about scratcbuilding!  Should be a fun session.

It seems impossible, but the Thousand Lakes Region convention is just around the corner, barely three months away.  I'm planning to enter three models in the modeling contest there, which means I have to write contest documentation for those three models.  So much to do, so little time!

Things will slow down soon and I can get back to working on that depot (said as I sit here looking at a desk piled with papers to sort through or put away).

Blue Ribbon Buckets

Fun night at the Twin Cities Division meeting last night.  The gears are turning over the possibility of building an N-Trak module.  I picked up some great info on handlaying turnouts.  The highlight of the evening was capturing first place in the modeling contest with my Boxcar Full O' Buckets.  Truly a big surprise for such a simple project!

Needs Horsepower

The title says it all.  This thing needs horsepower.

This is the first non-rail vehicle built for the layout, a horse-drawn delivery wagon.  It's one of the Highway Miniatures kits that I bought for 50 cents a piece.  Even better, with the exception of the wheels, I now know how to scratchbuild more of them.

Here are a couple of staged shots, with the wagon posed next to the boxcar full o' buckets.  Now I just need to find a horse...

Holy Buckets!

How does one make HO scale wooden pails?  One uses his Dremel, after realizing that the dowel rods that he's using fit perfectly into the chuck on the Dremel.  A little high-speed rotation, some gentle application of a needle file, and presto-chango, the dowel rod transforms into a stack of wooden buckets.  To make it perfectly clear what is loaded in the boxcar, I carved out a few stacks of varying heights, including one single bucket.

Here's the finished car, after being treated with Dull-Kote, drybrushing, and various colors of chalk.

Boxcar Full O' Buckets

In the real Hill City, Minnesota, a key industry was the Woodenware Factory, maker of wooden pails, pickle barrels, cracker barrels, cups for peanut butter, and other wooden containers.

This factory will be represented on my layout, and will be the primary industry.  Accordingly, the load for my loaded boxcar will be wooden pails, headed outbound to interchange with the Great Northern Railroad, bound for points west.

To create the illusion of a car loaded with stack upon stack of buckets, I decided to try using pieces cut from a wooden dowel.  I used scale lumber to build makeshift crates around the stacks, much like they would have done in real life to prevent shifting of the load.  This lumber also helps disguise the fact that these aren't buckets.  Light pencil lines drawn horizontally across the stacks help complete the illusion.

The load is constructed so that I can stage the car as a fully loaded car, or as a car being loaded or unloaded.  As a final touch to the interior, I'm going to place some partial stacks, including a couple of carved buckets, along with a figure, in that vacant space.

Cheater, Cheater!

Wow, two weeks have passed already since the "Cabooses" modeling contest!  Between getting the house ready for winter, and being sick for the past week, time has just flown by.  The next modeling contest is two weeks from today, and I've been sitting on my, umm, let's say thumbs.  I need to get moving...

The topic for the next contest is "Boxcars With Loads".  I really want to try to enter something in every contest this year, but there's no way I can scratchbuild a boxcar in two weeks.  So, I'm "cheating".  I'm going to kitbash a ready-to-run car.

The first, and most obvious change that needs to be made is to eliminate the black plastic floor inside the car.  Open up the doors on any of your RTR boxcars, and you'll see exactly what I mean.  After a little prying, the floor popped right out of my boxcar.  I slapped on some tan paint, a wash of India ink & rubbing alcohol, and finished by brushing on some black and brown chalk powder.  The resulting floor almost looks like wood - not exactly, but it's passable.

When viewed through the open boxcar door, it's very convincing.