jeff train

fimmtudagur, 18. ágúst 2011

Central Vermont's 42000, 43000, and 44000-series Boxcars

In his latest flyer, Martin Lofton at Sunshine Models announced two different Central Vermont 40-foot single sheathed HO scale boxcars as part of a series of �converted automobile cars.�
The Sunshine Flyer announcement states �The Central of* Vermont had two series of outside braced auto cars with a 10� IH, the 41000 series with a door and a half, and the 42000 series with a 12� double door. The latter were rebuilt into 6� door cars and renumbered in the 43000 series. The last two series are planned.�
(* I�ll admit the incorrect addition of �of� to the CV�s corporate name is a pet peeve of mine. The railroad never, officially or otherwise, referred to itself as �Central of Vermont� � it was simply Central Vermont).
Of course, the actual story of the CV's 42000, 43000, and 44000 series boxcars is a little more complicated. This announcement provided the necessary impetus to unscramble the somewhat convoluted story of these cars. (The prototype information here is, of course, also usable if you�re looking to build those somewhat long in the tooth Steam Shack/F&C versions of these cars that are likely collecting dust on your shelf. I know they are on mine!)
The late 1920s were heady times indeed on the Central Vermont Railway. Across the system, new facilities and bridges were built and older ones upgraded. The upgrading included new motive power (the 700-series 2-10-4s and U-1-a class 4-8-2s being the prime examples) and a new generation freight cars, the most numerous of which were two classes of single-sheathed boxcars.

Construction and Components
A total of 500 cars (42000-42499) with two six-foot Youngstown doors, (giving them a 12-foot opening) were delivered new to the CV from Pullman in October, 1929. The cars were single sheathed Howe truss design with 3-3-3 early Dreadnaught ends. They were all fitted with six foot Youngstown steel doors with Camel hardware, Hutchins roofs, and KC air brakes with Universal lever-and-ratchet hand brakes. The cars rode on cast steel ARA U-section trucks with spring planks and Barber lateral motion bolsters equipped with six springs per side.
Their 3,705 cubic foot capacity was considered generous for the time. In fact, these cars were close in size to the 1937 AAR car (at 3,713 cubic feet), that wouldn't be built in any quantity for another decade.
In the mid 1930s, 125 of these cars (CV 42125-42499) were transferred to the Grand Trunk Western, leaving 42000-42124 on the Central Vermont roster.
In the 1940s the cars were equipped with AB brakes, with many getting Ajax brakewheels in place of the ratchet style brake.
In the years following the transfer to the GTW, 97 of the 125 remaining 42000-series cars had their roofs raised approximately 4� to accommodate auto loading racks. The spotting feature of the raised roof was a noticeable deeper flange running along the length of the car at the roofline and a double row of rivets at the top of both ends. Like most freight car spotting features, once you know to look for this the difference is very obvious.
If you're keeping score, between the mid-1930s and the early 1950s only 28 out of the original 500 42000-series cars remained on the CV roster in their �as-built� configuration.
Between 1953 and 1956, a total of 59 (16 original height, and 43 raised roof) 42000-series cars had their auto-loading equipment removed, were rebuilt with single six-foot doors, and renumbered in the 43000-430058 series.

This car shows one of the "as built" 42000 series cars after it had been converted to single-door and renumbered in CV's 43000-series. Note the "pregnant tapeworm" CV is centered on the door - it never appeared on the body of CV's single-sheathed boxcars despite what some model railroad manufacturers have offered over the years.

This view of a 43000 series car after it had been transferred to MoW service clearly shows the extension on the end and along the roof line

This car is one of the increased height cars that has been converted to a single door car. Note the top rail for the former left door is still visible. Also, note the difference in the X brace to the left of the door - it's an angle instead of the hat section bracing used on the original portions of the car.

Auto racks were removed from all the remaining 42000 series cars by the mid-1960s. Eight of the 42000-series cars were equipped with special loading devices to ship granite.
In September 1960 four of the 42000-series cars (2 extended height, and 2 as-built height) were equipped with steam and signal lines for use in bulk mail service in passenger trains and renumbered 44000-44003. They were repainted CN Green #11 with black roofs, ends, and underframes and had small placards with two small Central Vermont Maple Leaf monograms on the sides.

Not only does this image show two of the converted "head end" cars in their original Maple Leaf paint scheme, it also shows a comparison of the as built (right) and raised roof 42000-series cars.

In 1963, with the adoption of the CN-family�s famed �wet noodle� logo, the 44000-series cars were repainted, this time with large CV �pregnant tapeworm� logos across both doors.

Paint and Lettering

If readers of this blog would be interested I can prepare a more detailed review of CV paint and lettering schemes at some point in the future. In the meantime I�ll offer these notes for painting the 42000/43000 series cars.

Trucks and underframes were originally black, although they were repainted the body color as the cars were repainted over the years. The sides, ends, and roofs of the cars were boxcar red (I prefer to use Badger or Scalecoat CN Red 11 perhaps toned down with some Earth-color paint). All lettering was white on the red cars. As built the cars were lettered with �Central Vermont� and car numbers in Roman-style lettering. Later, the now-familiar stacked Gothic lettering became standard. Originally there were two white horizontal lines, one above the reporting marks and a second below the road number, although these gradually disappeared with repainting over the years. Other than this, admittedly minor difference, the cars remained in this scheme for the rest of their service lives. In the early 1960s, the CV began applying intertwined CV �pregnant tapeworm� lettering across the door(s) .

Four of the cars were equipped for passenger train service and repainted and lettered as described above.

Modeling

HO scale modelers have had resin models of these cars available for years. They were offered by Steam Shack (and are still available from www.steamshack.com). Funaro and Camerlengo manufacture these kits for Steam Shack, so they are also available separately from F&C. F&C/Steam Shack offer four versions of the 42000/43000 series cars � double and single door and original height and raised roof. Steam Shack does sell a set of decals for the 44000 series �Maple Leaf� passenger scheme, but based on the photo on the Steam Shack website the roundels look oversized.

As I mentioned at the outset, Sunshine Models has announced the 42000 and 43000 series cars will be released Fall 2011. I�m not sure if the Sunshine Models will be the as-built height or the modified height (or both). I�ve dropped the folks at Sunshine a note and will update this based on any information I receive from them.

föstudagur, 5. ágúst 2011

Foreground Trees

August 8, 2013 Update:
I've been getting some questions on the Crepe Myrtle trees, so I added a couple of pictures of the trees in bloom to this post.
One of the trees in bloom:

Here's a closeup of the bloom. When these die off they have to cut from the tree. It's one fall gardening chore I actually like doing!

I want to work on some scenery - for a change of pace from track and wiring and also to have a place to pose some "finished" photos, especially around my bridge scene. The problem was I didn't have any foreground trees. So I decided my "weeknight" project - for those times when I had a few minutes in the evening - would be to build up some leafless deciduous trees.

Last spring we had a bunch of landscaping done - and we ended up with several Crape Myrtle plants. These flower in the summer, one flower on the end of each branch, and the seed pods and flowers turn brown in the fall. To get the plant to flower again you really need to remove the seed heads from the plant. Here's one of the plants in the side yard - this was taken in late spring.

You can see the seed pods on the dried out bloom below - I kept these cuttings thinking they may make decent tree armatures. They do, but it takes a little bit of trimming. Of course, the seed pods have to be removed and the "droopy" ends of the branches need to be trimmed off as well.

Here's the "stripped" armature - ready to have the finer branches added:

I used the pieces of the fine Super Trees sold by Scenic Express applied one at a time and secured in place with hot glue - much easier than the CA I used to use to build up trees. I always ended up with little bits of SuperTrees on my fingers!!

Here's a tree just about ready for the paint shop (I'll paint them primer gray with a dusting of "Camo Brown" on the ends) - On this one I also plan to remove that oddball branch on the bottom.

I don't plan to make forests of trees this way. This is strictly for foreground "specimen" trees. But I'm pleased with the way the Crepe Myrtle branches make the trunk and main branches look more robust and the Super Tree foliage adds the finer branch structure. I've made about a dozen of these in the last week of evenings - which should be more than enough to scenic the bridge scene. That's tomorrow's project.

þriðjudagur, 12. júlí 2011

Missed opportunities? What might have been?

When I tore out the upper deck (and frankly, most of the lower deck) on the layout last fall I seriously considered other options - some radically different than anything I've done previously. One possibility I contemplated was a East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR layout in On30. I couldn't resist the Bachmann model of no. 11, and since I remember visiting "Tweetsie" in North Carolina with my kids when they were little - and even getting a few cab rides in no. 12 - it's always been a tempting theme for a layout.
Another possibility I hinted at in a conversation with Bernie Kempinski was an On30 layout that was patterned after the Maine Two-Footers. This certainly isn't the first time I've flirted with 2-foot modeling in 1/4" scale. Back in my MR days, the very first plan Iain Rice and I collaborated on was an On2 layout (this was the days before On30 took off) based on Phillips (o maybe Strong), Maine on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes RR. It's never been published, but I did find the plan and have posted it here.
Bernie, always willing to be a trouble maker, and perhaps sensing a convert to O scale, quickly fired off a track plan for the layout area patterned after the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington. I'd forgotten about it until we were watching "Aerial America" on the Smithsonian Channel the other night. Basically, the series is an aerial tour of one state. the episode we saw was filmed in Maine and featured the a look at the Wiscasset waterfront.
Just for fun, and maybe to offer you some inspiration, I've included Bernie's trackplan here. The footpringt is very close to the current HO layout.

As I build my "simplified" layout - which still has several dozen turnouts and a lot of buildings I find a LOT that's appealing about the 15 or so turnouts on this layout.
But not this time - I have too much invested in the CV of the steam era to change at this point.
But I also think this will be the last CV layout - the next one (if indeed there is a next one) will likely be something very, very different.
So part of me wants to file this plan away on this blog so I can come back to it, just in case.

sunnudagur, 3. júlí 2011

Peninsula Campaign - Part 3 - Decisions, and more planning

This should be the last of the "planning" posts for the peninsula project. Sure, there will be more planning as construction commences, but I'm ready to start building.

I've decided "option 2" is the best choice (from the previous post). This decision means I have to (1) figure out if I'm going to add a second mill - where the Branchline creamery kit is shown in the earlier pictures and (2) determine a logical way for the river to gracefully exit the visible portion of the layout.

I don't want to use a bridge over the river as bridges are a little problematic, especially on curves, but mostly because I want to avoid a non-prototypical bridge intruding onto the Waterbury scene. The answer seems to be a culvert. After all, a culvert is really, in essence, a small bridge with the added advantage of being very subtle.

For this scene I think I'll go with the arched stone culverts offered by New England Brownstone, (http://nebrownstone.com/culverts.htm)

If you aren't familiar with NEBS masonry products you need to check them out as they are some of the most realistic stone and brickwork you'll every find.

With the river taken care, the next step was to select what to use for "the second mill." The Berry Mill is a multi-building complex - an old wooden mill building with several outbuildings. I've narrowed the choice down to one of two possibilities for the second mill - the first would be a building scratchbuilt based on this prototype photo:

That leads us to possibility #2. About 12 years ago - maybe longer - I bought and started building a kit from South River Modelworks called "Lamson & Goodnow." The issue has been I've never finished because I could never find a place for it on any of the layouts I've built in the intervening years. Perhaps it would work here? Here's what the key buildings in this complex look like.

This photo was taken on the upper level of the previous version of the layout. I may well use it on the peninsula scene - the brick buildings would contrast nicely with the primarily wooden Berry mill complex. Besides, I have the kit so it seems a shame not use it. But the issues I've had "placing" L&G over the years shows a real problem with these craftsman structure kits. We can easily be lured in by how great they look on a diorama, but it can be a real challenge to incorporate them into the layout.

Perhaps the planning isn't quite done yet . . .

miðvikudagur, 29. júní 2011

Waterbury Peninsula Campaign - the planning continues . . .

A few days ago I described the basic approach I'm taking with the peninsula area. When I started laying out the path for the waterways, I quickly determined one of two options - both of which are shown in my rather rough sketch attached.
The first shows the river arranged as I've been planning - essentially the water "disappears" (somewhat gracefully, I hope) around a bend and between two low hills. One of those hills forms a "background" for the feedmill and freighthouse in Waterbury.

OPTION 1:

The area around the station/feedmill will remain a "freelance free zone" - in other words it will be prototype specific. Some of the rest of Waterbury will be freelanced as needed to best fit the space.
NOTE: The white building in the lower right is a Branchline creamery kit. The white line through the center represents a road. (hey, Rick Johnson I'm not . . .) Not sure the creamery will remain in that location.
Although this looked okay on paper, and in initial planning - looking at it now I'm thinking the river/feedmill/background hill is just a little too cramped. It just doesn't look natural. To look right a mill should have a intake and an upper pond, with a falls, and a lower pond. I have that here, but it looks too forced - and the lobe end of the peninsula would end up with a few town buildings, a street, and a bunch of trees . . . and believe me when you model New England the last thing you need is a reason to make even MORE trees . . .

OPTION 2:

This shows my current leanings - and it offers the advantage(?) of possibly adding a second mill (with another dam/falls) in the location currently occupied by the creamery building.
More importantly, even without a second mill complex, I think the water course looks a lot more natural. The hills (represented by the stacked foamboard) can be moved slightly to the right - which will free up the area behind the feedmill and freight house.
Disadvantage - I'll have to add another bridge to the mainline along a curve in the foreground. It doesn't have to be a particularly long bridge, but bridges, especially on curves, can be a real pain. One possibility is a large culvert (or even two culverts) is one possibility. The other may be to do what Paul Dolkos suggested and simply let the river "disappear" behind some trees.
Perhaps that bane of New England modelers - all those trees - are useful additions to our bag of tricks.

It's almost time to fire up the foamboard excavation tools . . .

mánudagur, 27. júní 2011

Peninsula Campaign - Part 1 - Planning*

I've been accused on not doing "enough planning" in the past. I'd say I do too much planning, but it tends to take a 3-d form like this.

I spent some time last evening creating and arranging mockups (of structures, and of some of the landforms) on the lobe end of the peninsula.

The peninsula in question is located at the entrance to the layout area of the basement. One side of the peninsula is devoted to the Waterbury, Vermont scene, the key elements of which are the station, the feedmill located directly across the tracks from the station, and the freight house (which is not mocked up in these photos). While there were small industries located trackside in Waterbury, I'm not planning on modeling all of them.

The question of how to handle the "other side" of the peninsula has been a particular sticking point. I've long had an interest in water-powered mills in New England - but modeling one of a narrow shelf is problematic since to accurately portray how they function there has to be an "lower pond" and an upper pond, separated by a dam. Also, some of these mills were massive rambling affairs - what I was looking for was a (preferably) wooden mill - definitely more of a scenic highlight that an major traffic generator for the ole' SNE.

I started with a BEST Trains kit (http://besttrains.com/products_1008.html) for the Berry Machine shop in Wolfeboro, NH. When I got that kit, Dave Emery mentioned to me he had plans for the rest of the mill complex. He kindly lent me the 3-ring binder filled with drawings for each of the mill buildings and detailed information on how the mill operated. Believe it or not, this place was in business into the 1970s - still making rail shipments until that time.

After spending some time sketching out the plan, I figured it was promising enough to move on to the next step - a three dimensional mockup of the entire peninsula. I don't do this for every scene I model, but with all the elements involved here I felt It was important to see how the water, the mill buildings, and, Waterbury station scene would all fit together. And, perhaps most importantly, see if I could maintain some visual break between the two sides of the peninsula.

The photos show how this has progressed to this point.

The first image shows the Waterbury station scene - note: the structures are obviously unfinished or "stand ins" at this point. In the second photo, there will be an industry (a canning plant) built "into the hill." You can see the end of the canning plant spur in the lower left corner of the picture:

The next photo shows the view looking back from the "mill side" peninsula - NOTE: the roof height on these mockups will actually be lower on the modeled scene since I have to "excavate" the river bed. The red mockup in the background is the Machine Shop - the penstock and boilerhouse (outlined on the paper) are also included in the BEST Trains kit. River will go between the large mill building on the right and the grain mill and woodshed (the two mocked up buildings on the left. River will then widen out to form the lower pond beyond the penstock, with the water flowing "into the hillside" to the right (behind the main mill structure).

Here's a view looking from Waterbury towards the end of the peninsula (NOTE: the looming 1" scale dollhouse is only there for me to finish wiring it . . . it doesn't reside there permanently!)

Initial assessment:
1. The elements will all "work" and seem to fit the space without looking overly crowded.
2. The hills may have to have an unrealistically steep angle behind the feedmill to help mask the end of the backdrop and still allow the depth for the mill. One possibility would be to shorten the main mill building slightly - the other would be to make the ridge one piece of foam taller. Also, the trees add about 3-4" of height to the ridges.
3. Even if some of the rooftops on Watebury are visible on the mill side - or vice versa - they will look like roofs poking through the trees - so this may not be a big problem.
3. Photoshop backdrops for the sky will be a necessity for overall "pretty pics" of this end of the layout. Close up, low angle shots will work much better in this section.

*The name of this thread is presented with all due deference to the Duke of Wellington, General McClellan, etc . . .

miðvikudagur, 15. júní 2011

A bold fascia color choice?

I haven�t posted on this blog lately simply because I�ve not done much on the layout. Oh, I�ve done plenty of thinking about the layout, but not much actual progress has been made. The reasons are many, including spring fever, a large amount of landscaping work that started in late March and is only now winding down, and simply a loss of inertia. A little bit of planning never hurt anyone. And daydreaming about that next layout is perfectly harmless, provided it doesn�t overshadow progress on the layout you�re actually trying to build.

But this bout of analysis paralysis has been the worst I�ve ever experienced. In short, I�d taken down all but the basic benchwork for a large, basement filling layout (that I�d built in near record time) and things haven�t fallen back into place as quickly as I thought they would. I have a number of structures and building mockups � I must have arranged, rearranged, and then re-rearranged them a bunch of times. Nothing seemed to look right, nothing was working right. In short, I was frustrated � burned out � and somewhat ticked off at myself and the layout.

So, as I�ve been busy at work at and puttering around the house for the last few months I�ve been doing a lot of second guessing what I�m planning to do in the basement. �Is this the �best� benchwork footprint?� �Should I model this town or that town?� I�ve even questioned era and prototype � after all, I�ve been doing some form of the Central Vermont steam era thing for well over a couple of decades. Perhaps it�s time to do something truly different?

I�ve decided the answer, at this time, for me, is �no.� I have the necessary collection of rolling stock and locomotives (too many of the latter, but that�s a story for another day) to come pretty close to accurately recreating the CV of the late steam era. I have a plan for most of the layout that I think will be interesting to build and operate. A huge question still remaining is what �Town 3� will represent. Perhaps some form of White River Junction? Perhaps a semi-freelanced industry such as a paper mill or limestone quarry. Or maybe another �typical� Northern division CV town � (If that�s the route I choose then the two most likely candidates at this point are Swanton or Randolph). Since I don�t really know what I�m going to do about the south end of the railroad, I�m going to loosely glue a few Atlas code 83 turnouts and lengths of flextrack in place as a temporary staging yard.

What I need to do is focus on those sections of the layout that are fairly firm in my mind � Waterbury and Essex Junction. After all, there�s no reason to let over thinking prevent me from making some headway on the rest of the railroad.

What does any of this have to do with installing fascia panels?

The Essex Junction trainshed mockup in place.

Plenty. You see, one of the best cures for analysis paralysis is to do something � anything � that resembles progress. In my case, I was sick of tripping over the strips of Masonite and other wood cluttering the basement. Rather than wait until I had a �perfect� track plan I decided my immediate goal was to get the benchwork completed. This in my case meant installing the fascia panels. Once that�s done, the benchwork will, at long last, be complete.

So, what comes after that? All the track is laid in Waterbury � and even wired and painted. But there�s still a lot of track in Essex Junction that needs to be installed. Refining the Essex Junction track arrangement is the next �big� project. I've got the mockup of the trainshed built and have been using it to determine the exact position of these key element in the scene.


For reference, the mockup is about 28" long in HO scale.

View from looking south towards the trainshed.

NOTE: Sky blue is not the final fascia color. Those are actually leftover pieces of Masonite from the lower-level backdrops on the formerly double-decked peninsula.