Large Scale Central

A Personal Challenge

Modeling
#1

So with the completion of WV&K No125, I did some counting, and I found perhaps not unlike some of you I have darn near as many locomotives as I do Rolling Stock…as I count I have 6 operational locomotives (Save for 125 none are stock and range from scratch built to heavily modified) 2 awaiting RC installs, another awaiting a bash to start , one under construction and another on the way! That 11 by my count and only a dozen or so pieces of rolling stock! Helluva way to run a railroad!

So I am placing a moratorium on myself…and challenging me to outshop a dozen pieces of Rolling Stock before December 31…no motive power whatsoever for the next two months… Stay Tuned…

#2

I am finding myself in a similar conundrum, I keep telling myself no more loco bashes for a while, but I don’t listen to myself well :slight_smile:

#3

11? Your just getting starting…move over with that small change. The Borracho Locomotive Works at its high point listed about 70 locos! Now that was a few years ago when things were different and the railroads cash flow was flush. Fast forward to today with the road on harder times and the cash flo w is now a trickle. Management had to sell off alot of the more expensive units so today the line barely squeaks along with a measly 30 locos, many are kept on for parts and management wants that pared down to under 20, so we’ll see how this all shakes out.

#4

That’s the nice thing about having all the rolling stock you need. (More to the point, it’s the nice thing about having a small railroad to where 20 cars is an excessive amount of rolling stock!). I can now work on locomotives to my heart’s content. Just need to finish weathering my scratchbuilt C-19, and I’ve got two more in progress and two waiting in the wings.

Looking forward to seeing your progress…

Later,

K

#5
Bart Salmons said:
So with the completion of WV&K No125, I did some counting, and I found perhaps not unlike some of you I have darn near as many locomotives as I do Rolling Stock.....as I count I have 6 operational locomotives (Save for 125 none are stock and range from scratch built to heavily modified) 2 awaiting RC installs, another awaiting a bash to start , one under construction and another on the way! That 11 by my count and only a dozen or so pieces of rolling stock! Helluva way to run a railroad!

So I am placing a moratorium on myself…and challenging me to outshop a dozen pieces of Rolling Stock before December 31…no motive power whatsoever for the next two months… Stay Tuned…


Yea, we’ll see how that goes…but you do have all freakin winter…and a lot of empty yard to fill up…:wink:

#6

Well, at least we have the excuse that locos make better-looking shelf queens than flatcars do…

My own rough tally: 25 locos, ±70? freightcars, ±15 passenger cars, 4 whimsical cars, and 15 four-wheel ore cars are currently under construction.

Like others here, I have too many locos for my regular operations, and too many cars too, to be honest, but I do love 'em all and try to swap 'em in and out fairly regularly…

My regular operations, solo or with a buddy, require sixteen freightcars, three passenger cars, and four steam locomotives. A third operator allows us to call on one more loco, 5-6 more freightcars and a combine.

Oops… I haven’t counted cabooses. I keep a couple only on the pike pro forma; I find they get in the way of operations, but a train isn’t complete without one…

I have way too many of them, mostly stuffed away out of sight. You?

#7

We will see.

#8
John Le Forestier said:
Oops... I haven't counted cabooses. I keep a couple only on the pike pro forma; I find they get in the way of operations, but a train isn't complete without one....

I have way too many of them, mostly stuffed away out of sight. You?


Nope…a proper cabin is actually on the list I have a 1:22.5 one that is standing in right now…

#9

Not only do you guys have too many engines to fit on the layout, there are too many for the operations you could actually justify on the amount of track you have on that layout. On those hindering cabeese JLF mentioned … that must be the reason the 1:1 guys finally retired them :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :lol:

#10

There’s a guy in this neck o’ the woods who often turns up at train shows with a trunkload of table lamps he’s made using surplus Large Scale cabeese for the bases. It’s like when they invented word processing, and folks speculated that typewriters might be useful as boat anchors. :lol:

#11
John Le Forestier said:
There's a guy in this neck o' the woods who often turns up at train shows with a trunkload of table lamps he's made using surplus Large Scale cabeese for the bases. It's like when they invented word processing, and folks speculated that typewriters might be useful as boat anchors. :lol:
The advantage of word processing ... there's no excuse for typos.

The advantage of FREDS instead of cabeese … the conductor gets to smack the engineer when there’s a screw-up without having to walk the length of the train.

#12

Ok…Project No1 crossed off the list…the last of a set of 4 undec AMS boxcars I got a couple years ago…

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/bart_salmons/_forumfiles/challenge001.jpg)

Basically added KD couplers, working airlines (Ala Bruce The Great), and decals for identity purposes…

#13

OK so that must be the 4 pieces of rolling stock you said you have. What’s next???

#14

No…the other three actually got done years ago…i think the hopper that was sitting behind it all this time is next…

#15

I spend Summer operating sessions noticing all the Railroad things I want to paint and fix up each Winter, and making promises to myself… Nice work, Bart. You gonna weather it up a bit, or leave it paintshop fresh? I generally find that’s a difficult decision for me, so at that point I stall. Then eventually I go ahead and weather m’stuff - moderately - and I’ve never regretted it. (Well, not since I was a kid and I overdid it on a few at the very first - with opaque, oil-based, non-removable paints, of course!):frowning: :slight_smile:

#16

Encouraged by Bart’s personal challenge I looked around for projects I never got around to and found a TOFC that had been damaged prior to my retirement 8 years ago. I remember buying this from Wholesale Trains for $65 when the Canadian dollar was worth 63 cents American. By the time it reached my door the shipping, brokerage fee, currency exchange, Provincial and Federal Sales Taxes transformed it into a $140 car. The first year I had it it took a 6 foot tumble from the top of a cabinet. That really bummed me out, and it has languished in my train storage areas ever since waiting for repair. Today I put it on my work table and looked it over. All the parts were still there despite two moves, although some were damaged. I spent the afternoon repairing it and adding Kadee couplers.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/son_of_a_cnr/TOFC.jpg)

An interesting car you don’t often see. A little too late to be put in revenue service this year as our club railway is closed for the winter, but it is one more project off the list.

#17

Wow! I’m being a positive influence for a change!

#18
Bart Salmons said:
Wow! I'm being a positive influence for a change!
Don't worry, it won't last :)
#19

I would like to make my first project an LGB stock car I got from a dealer friend who never did it either … It is an old stock car that someone kept green around the lettering but painted the rest of the car black! I would like to return it to the green. What could I use to strip the black paint without damaging the car? I know it’s an old LGB car because it even has springs in the trucks! The first patient.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/doug_arnold/_forumfiles/cattle.JPG)

#20

PRojects No2 and 3 done today… first was a Bachmann hopper that I converted to a 1:20.3 two bay long ago…trying to get away from the obvious EBT look I added peaked ends…

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/bart_salmons/_forumfiles/challenge002.jpg)

Here you can see a bit of the process of doing the same thing to a three bay hopper…Stock Bmann on the left, a widened to 1:20 proportions car in the middle, and the process of peaked endeding on the right.,…

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/bart_salmons/_forumfiles/peakedend02.jpg)

With a two bay conversion there is a bit more work as a bay has to be cut out tad more tedious… The 2nd project of the day was one of my scratch built War Emergency wooden hoppers…this was part of a batch built years ago, but lost its trucks during the 4-8-0 120 build (the tender now rides on them) so new trucks were built from parts and a decal applied. The white square around the roadnumber indicates a car retrofitted with interior steel sheathing making it appropriate for coke service…

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/bart_salmons/_forumfiles/challenge003.jpg)