GTW Caboose - Improving an Athearn Model - Part 1

My good friend Yvan Déry is currently upgrading his rolling stock fleet to better replicate is 1948 era of interest and make it more believable. Yvan’s approach is some kind of  “good enough” mixed with exacting accuracy on the global picture. It’s hard to explain, but using mundane techniques, he tries to replicate the real thing and not to make compromises. That’s an unusual approach but it does yield fascinating results.

 

Starting with an ubiquitous Athearn steel caboose

One of his pet project this summer is upgrading his caboose fleets, removing all cars that aren’t CNR prototype and refurbishing the correct ones, which are a mix of True Line and Juneco wooden kits. He added a few working marker lamps and I must admit, they look cool. Better, they set the mood. Orange cabooses draw a lot of attention to them and making sure they are prototype is a great way to perfect the illusion.

 

Improved shell with new custom details

That said, one of his old foobie was in search of a home. It was that ubiquitous 5 windows ATSF-based Athearn caboose painted in CNR maple leaf scheme. I had been upgraded with metal grabirons and some paint, but was otherwise in original shape. He was surprised I wanted it, but it appears that this ubiquitous model do have a link with what I model. Long, long ago, GTW acquired a few dozens of them from ATSF and sure enough, I do have a few GTW locomotives in need of a caboose. Interestingly enough, they lasted quite a while and crews improved them and plated of few cupola windows. ATSF used to mount them on standard Bettendorf trucks which made them quite rough to ride. GTW decided to give them leaf spring roller bearing trucks in some cases, but also elected to mount a few ones on old archbar trucks! Just for these reasons, I knew it would be a cool project.

Fitting the parts together

I stripped all the paint, disassembled the model, removed the roofwalks, plugged the holes and eliminated all the remaining molded on grabirons. The shell, though a little bit old, was in excellent shape and the molded details are still good enough compared to other available plastic  model of that prototype (Bachmann, I’m looking at you!).

 

Caboose ends are highly visible, details matter!

My first big challenge was to recreate new handrails out of phosphore bronze wire. While I’m not a soldering wizard, I’ve discovered in recent years that nothing beats soldered metal handrails and thought I should five it a try. I was surprised by the quality I got from the first try, which boosted my confidence. I then endeavoured to replace everything I could on that model with metal, including the cupola grabiron.

 

Custom smokestack made of sprues

Some styrene scraps were used to plate over the defunct windows and new Kadee brake wheels were added. Thinner details do make a difference. Speaking of that, a new smokestack was crafted with plastic sprues and fishing line gang wires were added per prototype. I also spliced a Pyle headlight resin casting to create two marker lights that were installed on each end. It was an ATSF practice that was caried over GTW.

Marker light made of a modified Pyle headlight

The model was then primed in black and painted with Tru-Color Paint CN Red-Orange. I felt the coverage was less than satisfactory, but it was good enough to replicate worn paint. When dried and cured, I added a layer of weathered and faded red-orange mixed from various Vallejo colors. I didn’t try to apply it uniformly, but rather made it patchy just like on prototype pictures. I will probably add another more yellowish layer here and there go get more dramatic weathering effects. I still have to work on the roof, but I’m leaning toward applying chipping fluid and a coat of faded dark grey to create neat effects. Decalling will happen much more later when most of the weathering is done, military style!

 

Ready for weathering fun!

So far, I’m quite happy the model has lost its Blue Box look. I still have to decided if it will ride on Bettendorf, leaf springs or arch bar trucks. I will probably do a few tests and choose what looks the most interesting to my eyes!

QSSR Mark VII - The Atlas Station

The Atlas station has always been a classic of American railroading since at least the 1960s. While it has become far too ubiquitous at this point, it is still a nice kit with excellent details. When you compare it with the old Revell station and some others cheap kits from the same era, it's holding ground.

It has been said it was based on a NJ prototype, which seems to be true to some extent. But beyond a few similarities, this station should be considered proto-freelanced. Neverthless, the design is kind of cute even if I had serious reservation that the second floor under the roof must be extremely cramped and unpractical. I've yet to understand why you would bother having so many dormers on such a small roof and fit them with minuscule windows!

First pass of coloring

Notwithstanding this critic, I always wanted to repaint mine in a more realistic fashion and see what could be done. Missing a few windows and details, it was also a great opportunity to weather it as an abandoned structure that was left to rot like depots on Tom Johnson's former INRAIL layout or the old CPR station in Richford, VT.

Second pass

My experiments were initially done by painting the station a dark grey, then drybrushing a faded wine red over the entire walls. Using dark brown for trims. The dark grays and browns are there to simulate rotten wood under the paint layers. After that initial coat of paint, I drybrushed several coats of light grey, tan and white, coming back later with red again to modulate the effect. It was not a real technique, but just applying colors following pictures found on Internet.

Third pass with new coats of red and crayon

Sure, I ended up with an exaggerated look, but I was still able to learn to play with paint to create peeling effects without using acrylic mediums or hairspray. Did I succeed, maybe... And after a while, I took color crayons and started to add new layers on the building. Hunther Hughson had done that and I felt it was a great idea to replicate the gritty aspect of failing paint and distressed wood. It certainly improved the appearance.

For additional detailing, I installed a few Tichy oil barrels around the platform as if the area was still used by maintenance of way teams. Wooden ties made from wood matches also added some story to the scene. I must admit I'm generally no oriented toward these cute rendition of railway structures, but it was dumb fun.

Fourth pass with more crayon

If I could critic my work, I would say that the red I used was completely wrong. Using a wine color and fading it with white and tan gave it an unrealistic pinkish look. Also, I should have weathered the concrete platform with more oil washes. Some vegetation and weeds growing along the walls and cracks would also bring everything together.

Results in situ

Will it be the final structure that will grace the layout? I don't know. To be honest, I would rather have a permanent concrete platform on which I could swap scratchbuilt buildings according to my fancy. That said, I'm glad I pushed forward with this idea to exploit the potential of the Atlas station. I still believe it's a fantastic model if you dare to embrace its ubiquities.

QSSR Mark VII - A Classic American Switching Layout

As mentionned in my previous post, I have been absent from model railroading for a few months. Sometimes, inspiration is just not there, and I felt I needed a pause. The last time I posted about layout design, I was making all kind of fascinating but reckless decisions about Monk Subdivision and I’m glad I didn’t pursue them right off the bat. That said, most of my reasons for staying away from the hobby were also caused by doing some home improvement, more precisely, remodelling my entire kitchen and getting rid of a lot of useless stuff accumulated in the house over the years. Pursuing many hobbies is never a good idea, particularly when they involve collecting items. Not that I want to criticize collecting, but they are contexts when this type of hobby is just the most unproductive way to waste time, resources, efforts and money. After a long period of deep thinking, I decided to just stop collecting. That said, it doesn’t affect model railroading and a core passion of mine.

With the kitchen project near completion and some space freed in my office space and basement, I thought it would be nice to move forward with the idea of a small switching layout on a Kallax shelf. I’ve explorer that theme countless time, but never fully finished one (expect maybe Glassine Canada).

The current module isn’t groundbreaking at all, but build upon my exploration of a rural branchline near abandonment. Add to that a discussion with Chris Mears about reusing old Atlas classic structures and assuming boldly their identities as informed by old box art.

 

The big difference this time is the template is as small as possible to be easy to move around during and after building process. I’m learning here from the latest QSSR iteration. The footprint is about 72” x 15”, which is more than enough. The track plan follows an inglenook pattern that serves a generic industry that will probably share a lot with feed mills or small industrial plants (agro or forest products).

A very condensed track plan

As for the Atlas structures, they are the ubiquitous station and the shanty. I’ve had these kits in my hands for almost 3 decades now and it was time to give them a new life… or should I say, model their end of life. The station is now a derelict and abandoned building slowly rotting away.

Structures are used to frame the train entrance (and hide it)

Those familiar with old section houses crumbling along the ex-MMA/CMQ lines and the old depot at Richford, VT, will understand what I’m after. This is a theme explored by Tom Johnson on his previous INRAIL layout and I want to give it a try. The station is in the foreground and acts as a view block for trains entering the stage. It’s also a fascinating place to stand and look at the action. While the building no longer serves a purpose, its grounds are used by railway crews and maintenance of the way, so there is still life there.

 

Atlas structures framing the layout entrance

Another thing I wish to experiment with is a raised foreground sloping down toward the tracks. This is something I really want to try because everywhere I did it on Murray Bay Subdivision, I loved the look of it. It’s a neat wait to frame a scene and smooth the transition at the end of the module. Consider it as an inversion of Stanstead, which had its hills in the background.

 

A raised foreground is a good way to frame tracks

As you can see, this is a very simple layout once again, more interested in colors, textures and framing the scene. It’s an artistic take on ubiquitous railway elements and for that reason, it follows no prototype in particular. It will be a home for my 1970s-2010s small collection of American and Southern Quebec rolling stock and motive power to suit the mood of the moment. For its name, I originally thought it could be Rockville to pay tribute to the classic Atlas station, but maybe I’ll be lazy and it will just become another QSSR iteration, probably Mark VII at this point! Some ideas refuse to die!

Mocking up the feed mill from recycled structures

At the moment of writing the article, most of the layout is now quite advanced: the recycled module has been disassembled and rebuilt in a lightweight version. Cork and tracks are installed and fully wired, including switch machines and frogs. Landscape is taking shape, with the raised foreground already in place. I don’t plan to work on the layout until the end of July as I will take the road on Friday to give a clinic, a week later, at St. Louis RPM convention. It will be a great occasion to visit more of Appalachia and discover the Midwest while meeting people I only know online.

A Return to Model Railroading...

It's been a few months since I've published anything significant on this blog. Not due to a lack of inspiration about what to write, but more to do with a general apathy regarding my hobbies lately and putting my effort into completing long overdue home improvement projects that were victims of procrastination. That pause was probably required to sort out my ideas and let cool my head from conflicting concepts.

That said, the last few months were also an occasion to explore a few ideas, many of them involving all kind of exotic themes which are usually not on my radar. The lack of hobby time also put forward the need for a small display or layout to fill the gap. There is nothing worst than stopping completely an activity with the ill-advised thought that there will be a "right" time to do it. However, learning from previous failed or successful attempts, I decided to take the best ideas and try to do something that would fill the gap on my office shelf.

A glimpse a what could be...

I've put forward a few general parameters to reach my goal:

1. It must be built on a lightweight module that can be easily moved around in the house and outside.
2. It must be dual power (DC and DCC)
3. Size matters and anything over 6 feet is too long for a module. You probably recall my theory where I explained that a scene about 6 feet long is large enough to fill your field of vision and create perfect immersion.
4. Trackage must be simple for ease of maintenance and trouble shooting
5. Generic locale with swappable structures that can be replaced over time to try new challenges
6. Be nicely finished and scenicked to be a good-looking addition to my office
7. Serves to experiment with scenery
8. Versatile enough to accommodate my large fleet of locomotives and cars

Certainly, there is nothing really new with these parameters, but they do reflect a desire to get better at what I'm doing and expanding upon previous iterations. With the St. Louis RPM and summer vacations close to my door, I won't be able to do that much on that layout until the end of July, but recycling an old module made it possible to start working on it efficiently. More to come about it!

Unspoken Truths - A Cohesive Design - Part 3 (final)

Since making mistakes and correcting them take less time than waiting to find the truth on paper, I’ve decided to fundamentally revise and streamline the Monk project. It doesn’t mean I’m abandoning it, but rather that I’ll try something that can be reverted back to the initial planning if required or that can grow out as I develop the design and find new ways to run trains.

First, I’m completely ditching replicating an exact prototype location. That’s not a mystery to those knowing about my intention with Monk. It had always been the initial goal: find what’s mundane, typical, and relatable. Everything will be generic though prototypically informed. Getting it right is more important than slaving over a prototype that may change according to my fancy. A passing track is a passing track, a grade crossing is a grade crossing and correctly locating a water tank doesn’t really change from a railway to another. Structures are fun to build and can be replaced to create another railway, be it a CNR station or a CNoR one.

 

Tentative track plan

Second, the theme stays the same: a busy mainline in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. That’s good enough for me. This, combined with the first statement, means that I will no longer give real place names to spots on the layout but rather give them a generic descriptor. The goal is to emphasize what happens there and not to falsely pretend to be somewhere that I can’t model as closely to reality as I would wish. It’s a succession of cameos, vignettes and vistas where one can stand and get immersed by what happens from the trackside. It’s all about railfanning the trains. In this case, places will then be known with short yet evocative names:

• The Meet: where you can see trains stop at the signals and meeting each other through a clearing in the forest. This is the isolated railfanning spot that provides only a glimpse of trains fighting the grade. It will be located at the Abénakis Bridge which will be replaced by a big fill.

• The Fill: a very large embankment built in a shallow but large valley with a big concrete culvert. In this regard, this scene is unchanged from the previous layout design. You watch the train as it enters a scenic curve.

• The Station: a place of civilization where you find fields, a small rural station, a section crew and a team track. Nothing fancy… except for the train order signal and the fact that here, the railway connects with human life.

• 
  The Causeway: a long narrow embankment built over a lake/marshes on the outskirts of the Station where our train disappear beyond a point we can’t reach after travelling through a highly scenic S-curve.

As mentioned in a previous post, the layout will be modified to be a folded dog bone. The passing track is now implied since there are no visible turnouts and we imagine they are out of sight from the modelled world we can see, as happens often in real life.

Defining the views

Also, some modifications are made to the staging area. Basically, I’ll modify the lower staging to fit the new scenario. I’ve yet to decide exactly what I want to do, but the good news is the longest train will be 50-cars long, which is quite impressive if it even works. Another idea would be to only have the lower level loop used as a staging (between 4 to 6 tracks) and keep the upper level staging much simpler with only one long passing track.

Passing turnouts won't be visible on the layout

My idea is that, if I’m inclined to do so, it would be possible to scenic the upper level and consider it as another layout. Among many ideas, I’m extremely tempted to do it in an American Southwest style reminiscent of Santa Fe and other such classic roads. I won’t hide the fact that ATSF is quite an evocative force in my mind and it would be cool to have a very simple track plan that can support two difference “layouts”.

Proposed scenicked upper staging