To new beginnings!

The years march on like rows of soldiers with no base, no idea what’s beyond the horizon. Unstoppable and infallible, time is something we can observe and participate in but you never really hold in your hands. This year has brought me a lot of growth and personal development in my life as well as a great amount of knowledge and experience in my hobbies. I think too few people know the real value of doing something you love. Not just something you’re good at, but something you have a passion for that makes you happy. Recently I sat and took stock of what I really had in my world, within reach; I have love, family, talent, wonderful friends and a vast amount of opportunity. I suppose if I were honest the opportunity has been intimidating for a long time, and perhaps my comfort in my career and the good friends I have in my professional life, were enough to ward me off following all of that opportunity until this point.

In this moment I sit here, on the beautiful patio of this beautiful home I live in, with a fine cigar in one hand and an immeasurably finer little lady against my shoulder. The sun is setting over the treeline, the kitten is batting at the glass door desperately trying to join us in this comfort and splendor. My love asked me what I want. I turned to her and said, “I’d like to make a move in my life toward working with the things I truly enjoy, not just do what rakes in the paychecks.” She smacked my arm and informed me she was curious what I might want for dinner. Still, my response was true and honest. It just so happens that, in the last week or so, I had built up my own website and begun marketing my skills in a very specific hobby. I love working with scale models, and I possess the keen eye and steady hand it takes to be a mechanic on things almost comically small. Since my stint began as the local “service guy” for certain models at the LHS (Local Hobby Store) my hands are itching for a new project, some new miniature creation, on a daily basis. It’s exciting, doing what you love… and even a cozy desk job pales in comparison. Incidentally, I absolutely love to write, tell stories, weave a tale. Inspired by a wonderful now-departed man who was always there for me, I picked up a pen and a notepad. Poured myself a decent sip of scotch whisky, and leaned into the work hard like it was a gale force wind… 100k words later I’m working on a three-book series.

So; if you enjoy old-man hobbies, old-world ideas or a good period mystery novel? Stop in and say hello. I’ve decided to put some talent and opportunity to use. Shouldn’t we all?

click on those bubbles…

New inspiration!

I’m waking up with a cup of coffee, looking around at the new place and surveying my potential layout space. This morning I woke up with a new dose of excitement for my hobby, a renewed vigor to build a small layout to showcase my beautiful little trains. Among the post-move cluster of boxes downstairs is a project I have long been meaning to finish is a Z-8 Challenger that, while intended originally to be an NP locomotive, I have decided will fly the flag of SP&S! Much to be done there, including installing DCC and sound, but for now it’s in pieces trying to get that old Con-Cor mechanism back up to snuff.

I have, in all, about 10 locomotive projects in some stage of completion or disrepair. Nevermind that for the moment, because I have nary a layout to run my running trains on! That will change quite soon. I’ve got a custom cabinet coming to store all my little N-gauge jewels, being made by a good friend/woodsmith who works for cheap beer and burritos! Once that’s done, the layout will be build on top. In the meantime, my other diesel projects include an SP&S FA-2 AB pair that need oxide red roofs, and modernized chassis. I’ve got a Milwaukee F-7 4-6-4 to build too, but the GHQ kits are best handled one-at-a-time haha….

All in all, the list could go on forever, but today I will start by simply picking up a decal sheet and making that challenger Seattle-ready. Wish me luck!

Back, & with a project! Northern Pacific Challenger build!

So I got a wild hair up my arse about wanting some bigger NP steam. I acquired an A-4, which I love, but the fleet ain’t done! I decided to buind a GHQ NP Z-8 as my first real foray into modeling (not just paint & decal work). Let me just say, what a task! The instructions are….. dated. More images (or better ones) would clarify everything. Nevertheless, I persist!

An HO scale model here….

Already found a half-dozen things I’d redo or do differently.

The key to making this a quality runner? Code-55 friendly filed-down drivers, replaced pilot & trailing truck wheels, and using an Athearn Challenger tender chassis! I’ll post pics of the tender/chassis line-up, but suffice it to say that with two small mods to the tender chassis, and some careful filing, the Rivarossi tender shell is the exact, perfect fit onto the Athearn’s frame! I can’t imagine an easier way to install DCC & sound (plug & play!). Wish me luck? If I fail at this, I’m switching to fingerpainting.

Partially built, you can see the original parts amongst the modified and cast-pewter kit parts

Intermountain F3/F7/F9 fixes: turning radius and grade derailments gone!

Turn those F’s upside down, you’ll note that your trucks’ swiveling can interfere with the stepladders, but only a small detail part on the trucks actually makes contact; it’s the flat, squared-off “brake hardware”. Maybe it’s meant to be a brake line? Not accurate to a Blomberg B truck anyway. CUT IT OFF! See the left side, the red shaded area, that’s the culprit. There are 4 per bogie, you’ll have to decide which ones are right for your lead/trailing bogies based off interference by checking it (or cut them all off for uniformity?)

Seems like trucks on all of the F-units (not FT’s as fas as I know) can benefit. From what I can tell, the cast-on detail is so far from the real brake hardware I don’t see it as a “loss”. At this scale, it’s almost impossible for them to cast the part properly (in appearance) anyway.

For me this modification (just cutting/beveling off a tiny bit of delrin) fixed two issues. Not only the immediate end of some mystery derailments on grades, but also it appears I can tackle about an ~8″ radius curve with my F units now. WIN!

Check out the “where to cut” photo below, and the Wiki link on Blomberg B bogies.

Cheers!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blomberg_B

Cut off those “brake hardware” corners, you’ll be glad you did!

So here we go, a long-overdue bump of a tired and quiet blog (the crickets aren’t chirping? They died!). For what it’s worth, the blog is titled after three joys in my life and I have been partaking in all three less-than-often, until recently. News abounds and my heart is truly light with excitement as the year unfolds into the most trying, interesting and somehow amazing year I’ve had yet in my 20’s. Let’s start with the toys, then move onto…. er, more toys.

The trains have been at the station for far too long. Of course, their gross numbers have dwindled in weak areas and grown mightily in the score of Iron Horses! Ferroequinology, I believe, is the term for the study of the Iron Horse. To truly appreciate it, one must go back to the roots of locomotion and put the spotlight on steam. My diesel rosters have been picked-clean of anachronous modern machinery and non-northwetern motive power. After the fat was trimmed, my loco boxes were looking awfully scarce…. like vultures picked those bones clean. Of course, I still had all the diesel I could ask for, so I had to really sit down and rethink what was missing. The consequence of this is, simply put, I had to get MORE STEAM! I’ve now got almost a full box of nice steam locomotives, some wearing NP monads and lettering, some in eastern roads waiting for their new assignment. All of ’em I want, even those wobbly old Model Power limpers that pull a half a boxcar.

The recent focus? Mallets! I had purchased a stunning Rowa 2-8-8-2 (for a fantastic deal, no less) and the thing is equipped with, no kidding, a smoke generator. Never seen one on such a small loco! With any luck, I’ll be chuffing around the tracks with a proper NP Z-3 Mallet sometime very soon (decals to set, tenders to swap, et cetera). What a project! ONe of the cool features here is the “shorty” tender run behind those old helper locomotives- with a short operating distance, why bother pulling extra fuel when that horsepower could be pushing that damn train uphill? Check out this old RVN pic. What a beast!

Another well of joy for me has been the recent, rapid releases of some very cool Northern Pacific equipment. Forst off, Centralia/Intermountain has just announced their coming NP coaches, not just in their prior Loewy green colors but in PINE TREE SCHEME as well!! Not to mention their new entry (with this same Coach car run) into the SP&S market. Sounds like someone over ther at IM has NP fever too! Atlas has announced reruns of some nice cabeese in new NP numbers, and let me tell you, the detail on those cab’s will have you hoarding them as well! Rapido has new Loewy cars en-route, having taken pre-orders some time ago. Life-Like has previously produced a highly regarded 0-8-0 yard goat switcher, and their new run announcement includes two NP road numbers! Very sharp models, definitely one of those in my future. Yeah, it’s a good time to be a Northern Pacific modeler! It’s also time to batten down the hatches, there’s sure to be stormy seas when the wifey sees all these new toys on my workbench! No, not really. I have my hobbies & she’s got hers, but the excitement she fakes when I show her new stuff is really, truly telling of how much she loves me 😉

Now on to some real steel… The stable of 1:1 scale toys grew a touch recently, with the regaled return of my 1966 Plymouth into the family motor pool (ok, keys stay with me but it’s not like my dollw ants to drive the thing)! I had sold the car last summer to a really great guy out in the boonies of Bodega Bay, but here I was surfing Craigslist and saw the car up for sale! Needless to say, whe my heart jumped a beat I knew I had to have it back. Now after a tune-up and some mechanicals, that old Chrysler power plant is purring like a kitten. Time for some bondo and spraypaint! No, sorry, kidding. I plan on having it actually painted at a shop, done once and done right. Some cars are well worth the extra time and effort! The details of the car? Don’t expect much in the “go”- that 225ci Slant Six is all you need but not much more. The car’s cool points? No rust, Clean interior (black bucket seats, console shifter, yeah baby!), rallye wheels, and damn fun to drive. We’ll see how the summer goes, but as of today? Project #1.

Might as well discuss some stogies while I am here! My humidor is staying better-stocked sonce the move last fall; my apartment complex is a non-smoking joint (lol) and I am respecting that. When I can, I pull out a nicely-aged Padilla and spark it up on a trip (next stop: who cares) to remind myself that the “good life” is anywhere you make it. So I do…. I make it good. Every day, every damn day of every week of every year I do something that makes me happy. If I can only offer that one bit of advice, trust me! Now as far as where to buy those tasty stogies? CI: Cigars International. Good prices, good service, and none of the snooty “culture” BS that half the tobbaconists in California will try and push on you. Check ’em out, I promise it’s better than a kick in the junk! If you don’t like ’em just send it to me. Or even if you do like ’em.

I’m dreaming of a green christmas…..

Specifically two-tone green, with a dash of perhaps gold or yellow stripes to match! Winter is setting upon us here in the Bay Area, and I find that my mind is wandering as I try to entertain myself with the (steadily more boring) internet. I can’t find my focus! What with the holidays, family moving, car troubles and et cetera there are things that could better use my attention than reddit and Trainboard (blaspheme! LOVE Trainboard and the guys & gals who lurk those forums).

This year, Christmas was spent with family (both on the eve and the day itself), giving gifts and getting them was certainly not the focus of the time we spend together. In fact, some of us had asked not to receive gifts as we take pretty damn good care of each other year-round! Now, while everyone got a chance to open up something nice, I find that the most enjoyable moments of Christmas were clear to me. First, during our little unwrapping session, I had directed my brother-in-law Todd, who is a rabid train nut and a recent N scale convert, to open the bag I had assembled for him. The tag contained a simple little riddle, directing him to open the wrapped boxes within in a vry specific order. His initial unwrapping was a standard Con-Cor Northern pacific coach, followed by a diner and a dome and finally an observation car, all bearing the two-tone Loewy green colors I love so much. The fifth and final unwrapping was something I am very proud to say is as good as it gets- an Intermountain Northern Pacific FP-7 locomotive, brand-new in jewel case. Quite a fine piece, indeed! I happen to have two, one of each (prototypical! they only owned 2) road numbers. Todd was, needless to say, quite excited to get them on his tracks!

The second, and notably more poignant, gifting that I was excited about was a gift for my father. He is moving back home, to New York, in a matter of a couple weeks. Something he had mentioned some time ago that would be a fitting present, would be a photo album of the family (us three kids) and our lives…. something for him to remember us by on those days he misses us most. Of course, my brother Jason spared no effort in collecting and refining a gamut of family photos (embarassing candids and all) into a wonderful archive of our own lives’ joys and accomplishments. Apple offers an “iBooks” bookbinding service that offers a striking amount of flexibility and customizability for your photos, holding the book I felt as though I was reading an archival manifest of fine art, rather than some digital photos and text-laden borders. Quite a piece of art. Of course, dad was very happy with this….. that’s an understatement, but I need not go into great detail about how emotions rose when confronted with a gift that is tied so closely to someone so wonderful moving so very far away.

Now back to the topic of holiday hauls- there is a stack of new boxcars and reefers (all ~1940 style, see my previous “wish list” post! haha) sitting on my workbench, and a partially finished string of classic Northern Pacific “Butterknife” scheme cars receiving a hand painting. Of course, due to scarcity of proper decals, this shall be a “foobie” train (mock-up) to give me something coordinated to drag behind my multitude of Intermountain EMD F3’s and F7’s in NP’s handsome 1947 scheme…. there’s a preview of my (admittedly rough) handiwork below! Perhaps I’ll finish this thing up this week, a nice evening project while I rest up in anticipation of the coming of 2012. Yes the paint is a bit shoddy but eh, I like it….

in-progress, missing a final stripe….

The wishy-washy wish list!

There’s too much nice stuff in this world. I have too much free space. Coincidence? I think not! So; at the request of a family member,  am putting my wish list “out there”. I now refuse to miss out on American consumerism at its finest…. the “gimme” season known as Kwanz….. um, er….. CHRISTMAS! For what it’s worth, these days I seem to be stocking my own humidor…. but I sure could use a nice lighter…..

Ebay most-wanted list!

Non-ebay wants: Here and here !

“And here, children, is where the warehouse holding all of Brian’s sh*t is located.”

Times, they are a-changin’….

Outside my café

What a summer! Went by like a silver streak…. and it was in many ways quite wonderful (and often funner than said Gene Wilder comedy). I have divested myself of iron money-pits for the time being, yes the three Plymouths are gone to good homes. Being a Mopar guy, of course, I had to stay in the family with regards to my daily driver. A well spent few grand later, and I now own what is likely one of the cleanest M-body mopars in the bay area, if not Northern California! Won’t dwell long on it, but this Chrysler spent its life garaged and babied by a retired war hero in Sebastopol. Not everyone is a fan of these old fuel-chugging emissions-choked cars, but with a few tweaks and mods they’re quite a nice drive. Mine happens to also have the smoothest, cleanest and prettiest leather interior I’ve sat in….

Now that I have my vehicle situation handled, every other paycheck need not be invested in a hard-starting noisy beast! Of course I’ll miss the days I spent on the highway behind an oversized steering wheel, feeling heat through the floorboards and a rumble resonating through an old well-worn bucket seat….

I do plan, of course, on returning to my former ways and purchasing/driving another classic car. Not today though, and not soon. I have had my fill of “projects”, and it seems reasonable for me to grow the hell up and just buy a finished car that always starts. I like to fiddle and tinker, I just don’t want to have to!

So in the meantime, I have stockpiled a few more rare and/or collectible N gauge items (there’s more trains than track, which actually sounds like a euphemism for lunacy!) and tinkered on a nice 2’x4′ double over/under loop. Let me tell you, it’s a good thing I have more motive power than freight tonnage; an 8% superelevated graded curve is fun to see, but takes a bit more tractive effort than a prairie or 4-4-0 can handle! All in all it’s temporary and fun, so that’s (little) money well spent. There are a few nice pieces I have procured, including a diminutive replica of a train station still-standing in my region of rearing; my father recognized the build and was as enamored as I. Thank the preservation-minded north easterners for the relic, thank some north eastern hobby folks for making it easily attainable!

I’ve been working on some terrific cigars recently; yesterday it was a La Gloria Cubana Serie N that had my palate simply awestruck. The right cigar at the right time can be a beautiful thing. I’m working my way through some 5 Vegas Maduros that seem to be consistently tight and canoeing…. not a common problem for the normally 5-star cigar brand. Oh well, you win some/you lose some. Of course, for the pennies I paid I suppose I still kinda won! Furthermore, some Fonsecas and Cusanos have trickled through my smoking list recently. I have a few different Cusanos from a delicious sampler, and they came in a 4-veriety 12-pack so I’m smoking my way through 4 similar and delicious cigars three times. I have found Cusano  to be somewhat of an underdog- not oft seen in the lounges or blogs (from my experience, ymmv) but a reliable and enjoyable smoke (to the nub!) nonetheless. Then there’s the Macanudos in drawer 6, or the sun-grown untrimmed torpedoes, or the…. hell, there’s too many to list right now!

I should share this next bit, it’s saddening on a rainy day- I relocated halfway through writing this, from a nice pleasant cafe to my deperately-in-need-of-a-maid apartment (my fault!). Now I am sitting here being forced to listen to some hip-hop garbage my neighbors are blasting from their minivan speakers. I regret two things right now: 1) not staying in a quiet, comfy and classy environment and 2) living near Oakland. Take that as you may, but myself? I simply can’t stand hip-hop/rap “culture”. It’s angry, it’s ignorant and it’s really quite offensive. Some of the garbage I hear in those songs makes me pity the fools who take it literally, other things I hear make me despise the fools who wrote it. OK, stepping off the milk crate now.

Back to more positive (and appropriate for this blog) things; a particular new product has caught my eye, something I had long-ago ordered and am (with any luck) soon to receive. It’s a replica model of a once often-seen and quite beautiful style of passenger railcar; the Western/Eastern style smooth side dining car. Several prototypes can be seen here, and the models I’m referencing currently adorn this page over at M.B. Klein. The cars I await look like this-

Wouldn’t it have been something grand, taking a cross-country trip dining and sipping scotch in these pieces of rolling art? I am sure (relatively) that some folks who visit this blog have done just that. With regards to style, something screams “art deco” to me from this car’s fascia; perhaps it’s those smaller side windows (likely in the kitchen of the real car) or the skirting adorning the car…. of course there’s a very Modernist paint scheme (a la Raymond Loewy) decorating the particular road name’s pullmans. I’m more a fan of the earlier “Pine Tree” paint scheme these cars carried through 1953,  but that’s a picture for a different post.

It’s sunday and I have spent half of it drinking coffee and thinking about all these wonderful additions to my life, now it’s time to partake! So off I go, to smoke another tightly rolled 5 Vegas Maduro the size of a baby’s arm, and maybe play with some trains. It’s raining, and seeing my all-too-recently washed & waxed ride get piddled on by dark, looming clouds is almost too much 😉

 

 

 

BOOM! Winning.

Northern Pacific GP-18 pulls this small freighter.

Recently, I have been fortunate enough to make two winning bids on the big E-auction site; you know the one. First, I pulled a very special gift for very little money…. I managed to buy a complete, new-in-box 1990’s-era Life-Like American Workhorse train set, in my roadname (Northern Pacific). I’ll point you back to my first post,  my opus on the joys of unboxing the first truly awesome gift I recall reciving; this very trainset (worth a read if you’ve got a couple minutes!). Those memories still run deep, and I had a bit of a…. moment while unboxing the new one. What a trip down memory lane…. half my life away, those memories still hold clear and happy. Here it is, sitting in front of me on my antique coffee table, waiting to be played with….

The second “win” of the month, I’ll admit, I had no intention of vying for when I had first seen it listed. As the auction wore on, I relaized I may not have to fork-over the $400 this special collectors’ set often commands! How much did I pay? Let’s just say I feel like I stole it 🙂

Con-Cor North Coast Limited, Northern Pacific Railway

This is the Con-Cor Northern Pacific Railway North Coast Limited boxed collector set, one of a series of named passenger trains released almost 30 years ago. There were quite a few of these decorated (and sometimes compromised/fantasy painted) passenger sets, suffice it to say almost every major railroad received this treatment using whatever Con-Cor had available to fill the consist. Of course, this one is special to me because I have wanted this particular set since I can remember, one of the first “golden calf” pieces of N scale for me. I recall pining for it as a new model railroader, after seeing it on…. you guessed it, E-bay. The paint scheme is very true to original, with two-tone green carbodies striped in white and generally (on the prototypes) kept clean and shiny. The Vista-Dome cars are one of the neatest parts of this set; long glass domes adorn two of the passenger cars, giving the passengers (whether real or miniature) a breathtaking view of the trains’ travels. Long before I knew who Raymond Loewy was, I loved his color scheme (even having such a Locomotive printed on the side of my own coffee mug at age fifteen!). Of course, you old fogeys and rail buffs likely know he had a hand in streamlining the planes, trains and cars (notably Studebakers!) throughout the mid-twentieth century. Simply beautiful!

Rare as can be, and with quite a beautiful presentaion here in N scale, The North Coast Limited was known as one of the fastest, most luxurious Western trains; so proudly did NP serve those Western terrirories that many of its locomotives were adorned not with the name of the railroad, but the italicised slogan “Main Street of the Northwest”. They truly meant that, and it showed in their takeover of the northern routes early in the 20th century. There are various reasins for the proliferation of passenger service in the area, including vacation travel and business expanmsion; NP served a wide array of clientele and offered excellent dining (famous for their “Great Big Baked Potato”) to almost any traveler, most any trip. Keep those bellies full and those eyes gazing into beautiful scenery, you’ve got a recipe for repeat business!

Con-Cor offered a very nice presentation job with these, using the fiberboard woodgrain boxes usually found on expensive gifts and small home decor in the 1970’s and 1980’s (boy, how style has changed). No vacuu-formed plastics here! When the set arrives, I will be sure to post a video of this beautiful trainset traversing my small layout, pulled by those powerful (and strikingly stout looking) EMD F-3’s. An A-B-A consist leads this six-passenger-car train around, only one locmotive is powered in the set; I know from my experience with these locomotives, it’ll fly around those tracks just fine. Let’s hope the postman pays me a visit soon!

For now, I sit in my quiet, comfortable living room and tinker with the Life-Like trainset. It invokes such vivid memories of my childhood afternoons shunnning video games for a much more creative pass-time. Even the paper manuals and plastic box inserts have that familiar, heavy smell of gear lube and old printers’ ink. This set is going to stay in the box for now, as I have plenty of other trains to toy with…. yes this one stays new, stays safe and stays waiting patiently for me to open it up and relive some of my fondest years of childhood….

Maybe I’ll bring it out around Christmas and really live it up!

-B

Planning!

I’m sitting here at work, listening to a playlist of songs from the early 90’s that were on the radio when I first started Model Railroading. Boy this takes me back…. I used to spend hours addressing the little details, winding my locos around my NTRAK modules (bought after the plywood-and-grass-mat proved bland haha) and I would spend literally hours tinkering and hauling little trains. I sold those off about, um… fourteen? Yeah, fourteen years ago. Good thing, too…. what’s the point of Ntrak modules without enough to have a loop? Yeah, I never thought that far ahead when I bought ’em. I should have built my own, but I was a kid and they were available/cheap. I’m over it.

I spent a couple hundred bucks the last year or so, and built a practice layout (gosh I really should post pics), enclosing workbench table and everything. Grass, scenery, trees, ballast, switches, turntable… Fun project, sure, but I can only watch those trains go around the loops (2 ovals, 2’x4′) about four times before I start snoring. Yeah, it’s that bad. I think I am done with it, perhaps some other newbie will want to buy it for a song and run it for his kids.

For the time being, I have spent my efforts and resources collecting and modifying quite an impressive fleet of locomotives, not to mention all my freight cars and passenger consists! It’s been a long trip from 2 locos and some Rapido-equipped cars… I’d list all my stuff here but it’d be a long read 🙂

The new layout will be different. It will be big, it will be long and well built and movable (in separate modules). I measure. I sketch and visualize and brainstorm. There are thousands of railroad photos on my hard drive, and I scan them all for new ideas, for inspiration.I have an opportunity to finally make something of my own- make a layout suiting my wants and needs, fitting my space, meeting my standards. Something that will provide me with the exact operations and capability that I want, running my own trains. This is exciting as hell! There have been few times that I have racked my brain this hard on a project, usually I just attack head-on and get it done. Not this time, no… I want everything to be purposeful and inspired, well placed and useful.

So here I sit, planning…

Learning a lesson!

I have disassembled and reassembled locomotives countless times. I have tinkered, fiddled-with and messed-with more miniature things than I can remember. Sometimes, I find a glitch in the reassembly process. Last night I hooked up my new DCC controller to the small layout, and began reprogramming and running trains- I found a glitch. One of my locomotives, a venerable old Atlas Classic GP-7, was making a painful whining sound! I recall it had begun last month after a decoder install and I shelved it. “Not tonight” I thought… I wasn’t going to let that nearly-new little loco continue acting up. Fixin’ time!

Upon disassembly, I found that everything was spinning freely and in its place. There were no rubbing parts or otherwise. I had to disassemble and reassemble the locomotive four times (decoder included) before I figured it out! It was the darn bearing blocks. Four little squares of plastic that have internal “fingers” that, when installed vertically, are held against the shaft of the worm gear and create a low-friction/ low-movement environment. Without installing the bearing blocks vertically (smooth sides of each block facing you when installed in the half-frame), these little puppies will make an awful racket that will drive your basic instincts to grab a hammer! Don’t smash. Just fix.

New toys!

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way a perfectionist- I don’t have to have the nicest of anything, and I don’t have to nit-pick about little details or flaws in a product. Having said that, I do notice these things. I do recognize quality when it’s seen, and poor workmanship when it is glaring. This is not one of those times. In fact, I have to say that my recent few additions to my locomotive collection have been quite a surprise in terms of quality and detail! Of course, nobody is ever surprised when you tell them your Lexus is nice, but when you got it for the price of a Chevy Cobalt that’s when they’ll start to notice!

Anyway, thanks to the marvels of Ebay I have several new toys to talk about. Forst off, I came back from a trip to Hollywood a couple days back to find a nice little USPS box waiting for me; inside this box I found a bubble-wrapped plastic jewel case filled with about three ounces of precision-cut, laser-printed, four-axled, silver corrugated AWESOME. Kato is a company well known for their quality and detail level, and this RDC (Rail Diesel Car) is no exception! The photo below, provided by Kato, simply does not do the car justice- the included roof detail is superb, and the windows/interior look quite believable. I’m curious as to whether I’ll be able to light-up the interior when I add a DCC decoder! As of right now, I have noted two things; the headlights reverse and show white (front end) and red (back end), they can be see as 4 micro holes along the front roofline. Also the LED’s constant lighting came on at a surprisingly low voltage! The motor they use to move the light locomotive is small and hidden under the floor, with good pull and smooth acceleration. Starting and stopping is a different story though, and I imagine I’ll be playing with the speed-steps in DCC to drop the start voltage for smoother takeoffs, as well as adjust the top voltage to bring the maximum speed to somewhere below its current 1 thousand miles per hour…. 😉  Despite the quirks, $40 well spent indeed.

 

My second new toy is a similarly striking and detailed model of, by many accounts, the most important diesel-electric locomotive ever built. I am talking, of course, about the Electro-Motive Company’s  FT locomotives. (Two separate links for the EMC and the FT’s, also diesel-electric is longhand for “diesel” as the engine powering the locomotive only actually powers the electric traction motors in the axles of each truck which means there is no mechanical link from the diesel engine to the motive power of the engine)

These first-generation locomotives had only ever been offered as N scale models in brass, and the good people at Intermountain Railway Models decided it was time to change that. Their tooling on prior locomotives was impeccable, and I truly believe that their FT’s are another line on a long list of “oh wow!” N scale models. The set I purchased was an Ebay last minute bargain, and worth every penny (and then some!). I purchased the set, brand new from a reputable seller, for $71. That’s less than half of their retail price! How could I resist? The Santa Fe Warbonnet scheme happens to be in my top three all-time favorite schemes; I was actually impressed by the color richness and paint detail when it arrived! The photo above clearly shows the details of the separate metal-wire grab irons, and the side grates along the top of the locomotive are etched brass. The headlight’s color and brightness are stunning, and the smoothness of its starting and creeping leaves me wondering if it’ll ever get much better? I’ve not heard a quieter locomotive, save for maybe the Intermountain FP-7 set I also call mine!

The FT was a unique locomotive for several reasons- one of which being its odd, almost haphazard-looking truck spacing. The trucks are set-out almost to the ends of the A locomotive, but only on one end for the B! The reasons for this are long-winded, suffice it to say it’s unique and quite an attention getter at eye-level compared to most other diesels I have seen. Another feature EMC offered was the drawbar coupling between units. While it may look like two separate locomotives above, EMC had designed, build and shipped most FT sets as a set, referred to as one locomotive. The new 16-cylinder diesel engines inside the locomotives were simply too large to house in one road locomotive without extending it further than the design called for; a second locomotive AKA a booster was added to carry the extra horsepower. A drawbar permanently coupled the sets as an A-B configuration, but Santa Fe and several other railroads ordered theirs as a coupler-linked, non-permanent set. While this impacted the number of train crews required, it allowed more switching and servicing flexibility for the roads who ordered their FT’s separatable. Of course, the one flaw with the Intermountain unit is it does not properly reflect this detail in its lack of an end window for the engineer to operate the B loco independently. Other than that, I’ll simply say this- these locomotives are stellar, and deserve a place on any transition-era layout. Heck, I’d put them in a display case if I wasn’t running my set all the time. A big thank you for Intermountain on this one!

Holiday cheer, and some N scale updates…

Laid out before me are all the tools I need, but at this very moment I have none of the requisite energy to move forward with the task… I am sick. Last night was a blur of television and NyQuil, waiting for sleep to come and heal my weary body….. this morning brought no relief. Despite all this, I am excited! I am excited for the holiday coming, I am excited for the work I have done on my own little hobby as well as Todd’s (we built his layout, as planned, in a day). I am more than excited about getting home today, hopefully to find some freshly delivered Ebay-originated packages of model railroad goodies to further my little 8-square-foot world. Christmas time is a time for toys, laughter, and cheerful feelings and it seems I am quite full of holiday cheer! I am quite sure I’ll be making someone’s Christmas quite memorable this year, details to come after I actually give her the gift 🙂

Here’s what has been done lately on my own layout- not much really, but the grass is a nice start to all the scenery it needs. I’ll be going down to the LHS this afternoon to get a bit of foliage and ground cover to start really filling out the details here-

The mixed ballast I used came out nice, in my opinion, and looks similar to what can be found in my own locale, as this little layout will likely pay homage to a bit of local lore. With all the lighting and painting and gluing left to do on the buildings, I have a lot of opportunities to add some character from familiar places to each little structure. I received a box of several pre-built buildings yesterday, and with some reworking I should be able to have them all looking quite snappy by next weekend! I still need to push the box containing the unbuilt miniature sawmill under my girlfriend’s nose; she promised me she would build it up nicely so she could claim some stake in our little living room centerpiece-to-be!

Another recent addition to my collection is a pair of TCS CN-GP decoders for my Northern Pacific freight engines; the decoders (when installed inside a locomotive) allow me to run multiple locomotives on the same track, while individually controlling the locos without affecting the others. Quite a nifty little setup, I am sure after getting them all installed I’ll have fun teaching Todd the ins & outs of Digital Command Control. He’s like a kid in a candy store, with his trains… his purchase of an HO scale Northern Pacific GP-18 makes my heart warm- I have 2 of those locomotives, but in N scale. Anyone who has seen my collection knows my adoration for the ol’ NP, whose herald adorns most of my collection and even a few antiques around the house! I have a nifty little gift for Todd this Christmas, my help in building his layout notwithstanding. Again, details to come after the “big day” 🙂

Other recent developments include my addition of a painted cab interior in the NP FP7, which is visible through the windshield, and some new additions to the collection of a six-car flatcar set all individually numbered, and a new set of NP reefers to line up next to the meatpacking plant behind my other three reefers- all six are a beautiful argent silver and look quite realistic in a consist, perhaps to be pulled behind my BN GP-30 around the loops….

Speaking of the GP-30, I had a little lesson in the quality of Kato Locomotives the other day! The GP was whining and grinding around the curves, and making one hell of a racket. I pulled the shell, and found almost every internal part to be bone-dry! That simply is not acceptable- I took care in removing every part and piece, I lubricated the bearings for the work gears with light oil and the truck gears/worm gears with white grease (teflon type). I had never seen such a freerolling truck before, the little suckers both went off the edge of the table into my lap with almost zero slope to the surface. Those low-friction Kato/Atlas drives are a thing of beauty. After lube and reassembly, I took the engine for a spin at half-power and over the course of a minute of running, the engine sped itself up (noticeable both visually and audibly!) and smoothed out, taking on a near dead silence while running, and to top it all off the loco coasts to a stop when power is cut- flywheels sure do their job. For a $30 Ebay loco, new-in-box, the only thing I can think of to possibly make this model nicer would be some proper couplers and a decoder! Otherwise, an A+ all the way. Have you got one? If not, I highly suggest it- you won’t be sorry!

One last note- I have found that the couplers and trucks on my Con-Cor Passenger car set are painfully inadequate. I’ve replaced the front coupler/truck of the RPO car with a Micro-Trains set that proved to be a good fit and looks wonderful, but could be cost-prohibitive at $10 a set for 9 cars. I’ll be looking into bulk packs. Otherwise, I’m slowly but surely banishing Rapido couplers from everything I run, and I say good riddance! The cars do not seem to be friendly to my tight radii on the coffee table layout either, so it seems I may be forced to retire the set until I have a larger layout at my disposal. Last night, while running the train around a bit, I had a derailment of the trailing observation car. I decided to run it a few more inches to see if the couplers would hold up, and it hit the left-hand switch just right. It rerailed itself onto the inner track, and for a brief period I was running perfectly on two different tracks with one car! Honestly one of the most cockeyed things I have ever seen…. but entertaining nonetheless.

Fun in the hobby shop!

http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd232/sactown58bugg/RxR/?action=view&current=MOV03329.flv

The link above is a video, a snippet of a conversation about my work-in-progress, and we’re talking briefly about how my lovely lady at home is going to build me a tiny little sawmill to compliment my N scale coffee-table layout. The layout belongs to Bruce, who is the proprietor of Sacramento’s largest hobby shop- Bruce’s Trains. He has been working on this little N-scale project for fourteen years, and it looks as beautiful as when I had first seen it over a decade ago. Very nice guy, especially if you like what he likes. Since the little layout’s early iteration Bruce has modernized some buildings, he has powdered the roofs and ground with snow, and his locomotive roster includes some of the finest, smoothest, quietest jewels of locomotive miniaturization that have ever been produced. I also like that (as you may notice) he is running mostly Northern Pacific locomotives! This is pertinent to me because I just-so-happen to be running NP as well! In fact, while I was there, I purchased a nice little Christmas gift for my layout, something I have been wanting for an excruciatingly long time- Northern Pacific Lowey F-units! The full-size brethren of my new little green giants were the primary motive power, for years, of the famous and breathtaking Northern Pacific “North Coast Limited” passenger train. Here’s a brief example of its legacy-

 

 Naturally, I have decided to model a nice rocky terrain and some very dated, 1950’s style buildings and locations (“I like Ike”?). My inspiration comes from the likes of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest and Rear Window, in that everything will be clean and squared and forward-looking for the times. Graffitti was never to be found, people put on their nicest suits to travel, and the little white picket fences were on every street, with children merrily (and safely) playing inside them. Times long past, yes, but not forgotten- not even by those of us who never had a chance to really earn such memories…. so we make do by re-creating it. Here is the newly minted micromechanical incarnation of my forest green muse-

A work of art to be sure, and more…. eh, flattering photos are sure to come. Proper light is tough to find sans-coffee at 5:48 a.m., let alone any other time of the day! I just had to share 🙂

Like a child’s eyes at Christmas

A family member and great friend, Todd, is hunched over a cabinet right now. He is feverishly cleaning small things, miniature things, with a cotton swab and god-knows-what-cleaning-agent in a little porcelain cup. His hands are blackened with dirt and his eyes are red form squinting, but he’s got a big grin on his stubbled face and nothing else matters right now.

He mirrors me in many ways, in his love for nice cars and his appreciation of old Star Treks (I can be a geek at times, I know). Until very recently, I had no idea how very much we had in common. It turns out, as I see from his rows upon rows of little plastic houses he is furiously cleaning the years of dust from, that until he was about fourteen years old he had a neatly detailed and beautiful HO scale model railroad (more “empire” than “train set”). He and I spent an hour Saturday un-boxing 2 tubs of his old trains- his locomotives and his boxcars and his houses, shanties, apothecaries and even a little Italian restaurant with a red awning, for which he had printed out a little tiny menu for its plastic patrons!

It has been 15 years since he had even opened the boxes, since he had put any thought at all into what to do with those crates of DC-powered childhood joy. After a flurry of visits to the hobby shop and excited conversations about layouts, track plans, and light-up 4″-tall somethings; we have a plan! I’ve designed his loop-and-a-siding of track, I have pored over size constraints, and I’ve bought him a Ben-Franklin-worth of track and switches and cork to glue it all down…. what a project! My Christmas gift to him is this- the means to once again feel like a child, to renew his love of detail and making something mass-produced and common into something eye catching and so-very-uniqe. I’m almost as excited as he is! Of course, I have been working on my own N scale project quite a bit this week (not to mention the amazing locomotives I picked up Saturday, but that’s another story) and I’ll be poring over a cabinet, gluing and cutting, for a few evenings this well as well! I wouldn’t have it any other way….