Category Archives: Site Updates

1:48 (US O Scale 1/4"), Acrylics, Atlas O & HO Scale, Design Updates, Manufacturers, O Scale, Oils, Pastel Powder, Powders, RustAll, Site Updates, This Site, Weathering, Web

Site update: 02 December – More weathering photos

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I’ve completed the remaining weathering of the body of the 40 foot Hi-Cube. There may be one or two more minor tweaks that I’ll make to get that just right look, overall I am very happy with this cars look. As an experiment using multiple techniques that I’ve not used altogether before I’m very happy and will try this next on a HO scale car. Where are we up to?

Flash on showing most of the car completed
Flash on showing most of the car completed

The second round of body and roof weathering has gone on. Keeping in mind that this car ran mostly in the dryer states and most of that in Texas in my modelling location there is a preponderance of dust and rust and not a lot of rain weathering. I believe that I have another of these cars in my O scale stash and will document the weathering as I go in the next week for all of you.

Interior shot showing the walls and weahtering
Interior shot showing the walls and weathering

I am particularly pleased with the internal look of the car. I hand painted the interior since I wanted a little tooth on the interior of the car, adding some Acrylic Painting Medium to the cheapo acrylic paint to thin and help it settle.

Close up of the wall and floor weathering
Close up of the wall and floor weathering

Minor touch ups to the door openings remain, to add the dings and rusting, prevalent around boxcar doors. Overall I’m pretty happy with the outcome. There are still the trucks to do, but we’re getting close. More again soon.

1:48 (US O Scale 1/4"), Acrylics, Atlas O & HO Scale, Manufacturers, Oils, Pastel Powder, Powders, RustAll, Site seeing, Site Updates, This Site, Weathering, Web

Site update – November 29

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I’ve been laid up the last two days due to some (hopefully) simple skin surgery to remove another unusual mole. Being unable to lift or move too much this week gave me some much-needed time to catch up on some modelling that I’ve put off for far too long. Today’s work has been added to the weathering section, and shows Atlas O’s completely incorrect model of the Cotton Belt 40 foot Hi Cube.

A little history

The real SP & SSW cars in SP class B-70-36 are both small in number and used in captive service for high volume – low weight appliance service from major appliance manufacturers to distribution centres. The cars were 40′-6″ long hi-cube box cars; they were all built by Pacific Car & Foundry in 1966 and had 5001 cubic foot capacity, Hydra-Cushion underframes and 10′-6″ Youngstown sliding doors.

Image courtesy T. E. Cobb via railgoat.railfan.net

They came to be nicknamed the “Ugly Ducklings” due their awkward appearance. Built for appliance service and used later in their life for other roles the SP cars in class B-70-36 were numbered as follows:

  • SP 659100-659111 and had DF-B loaders

The Cotton Belt cars (the highest number) in class B-70-36 were numbered as follows:

  • SSW 36014-36126 DF, DF-B, Car Pac loaders

The car being weathered, as provided by Atlas, is car number 36000 which was a wooden sheathed car of a completely different class. The car is actually a Pullman-Standard built Hi-Cube boxcar built for the D&RGW in November of 1967 (see image below). Built for Whirlpool appliance service D&RGW’s 67422 (shown below) had Equipco load dividers and was assigned to load on the Erie Lackawanna at Marion, Ohio. 67422 was also equipped with Pullman-Standard’s ‘Damage Free’ Hydroframe and was painted in the Grande’s contemporary ‘Action Road’ livery.

Image courtesy of James Belmont via railpictures.net

Weathering the model

On this model I’ve tried a multi-disciplinary approach. I’ve used just about everything in my weathering tool chest. Oils, Acrylics, RustAll and Weathering Powders. It’s a bit of an experiment in seeing how to integrate all the different techniques I’ve used. You can head on over to the new page now or take a look at a couple of images of the work today.

Early afternoon shot of the weathering on the roof
Early afternoon shot of the weathering on the roof
Lower resolution image showing the weathering on the floor
Lower resolution image showing the weathering on the floor

I’ll be posting more photos tomorrow as I work on finishing this car. Enjoy the full-page.

Site seeing, Site Updates, Sites of interest, This Site, Web

Site update – 14 November 2016 – A new Kendallville Indiana image gallery

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A big thank you goes out to Charles Malinowski who recently offered me photos of the Kendallville Terminal Railway Co to post here on Andrew’s Trains. I’ve added a new gallery page in the USA Gallery section for his photos of the line. I’m hoping that there are more to come for this great and very modellable shorty shortline railroad.

Update 1: New Gallery Page

charles-malinowski-image-4

The new gallery page link above takes you to Charle’ image set, at what appears to me to be West Rush Street. The image above is full of Autumn (Fall) detail and I just love the time worn look of the railroad. There does not appear to be a single straight piece of rail in the photo, great stuff. Enjoy the link and let me know if you like Charles Malinowski’s images.

About, Ballarat Tramway, Museums, Site Updates, Sites of interest, This Site, Web

Site Update – 13 November 2016 – Ballarat Tramway #18 Page

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During 2016 Ballarat Tramway museum’s number 18 has undergone some major mechanical work to keep her running. Among the works being undertaken are motor rewinds, wheel reprofiling, work on the axles to bring them back into true, work on the Brill truck, journals and bearings. All of this is normally underneath the tram and out of the public view.

During our regular Tramway Tuesday working bee members have been involved in preserving the tram, and thankfully preserving the skills involved in maintaining trams like Grandfather used to. It is only one benefit of volunteering at a working Tramway Museum.

I’ve updated the number 18 page with a gallery for the work being undertaken. I’ll add photos as I take them over our Southern Hemisphere summer as she gets put back together. These photos are a rare and interesting chance to see under the skirts of a tram. I hope that you enjoy them.

Drop me a line or post a comment on the page if you find something you like.

 

1. Small, About, Layout Design, Site seeing, Site Updates, Sites of interest, This Site, Web

October 31 – A very big thank you to all

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It’s been a long road, with many changes since the original Andrew’s Trains site hosted by FotoPic went under. With files lost, and images gone, and an audience to rebuild it seemed a big hill to climb. After some time I’d gotten the HVL website (www.huntervalleylines.com) established, files and images uploaded and people coming back to visit and a lot of good press going.

Then change rolled around again and before I knew it the hosting company no longer supported my prefered image and blogging packages. With the loss of that support all the content I had worked so hard to upload, discuss and write about was gone.

In 2013 I made the move to the WordPress free version. It was a hard decision to start again for the third time but it seems that it was ‘the charm’. Sometime yesterday a visitor dropped in and viewed the site and helped to double the stats from 2015.

When I started this blog in 2013 I did so very quietly, to get my feet under me while I began transferring data across. 2014 was quiet again as I got used to the platform and my direction.

2015 was the year that things really took off. I had more time to work on the site and the content (though sadly I’ve been grossly under employed since this time in 2014 after being laid off).

2016 has made me very glad to have stuck with it, to get it done and rebuild. With more time to develop the content (the upside of being laid off) and less spent on the mechanics of the site, projects coming out of mothballs with the freeing up of a little money over the next 6 months, I look forward to what I can give back to you.

site-stats-october-2016
Site stats to October 31 2016

I’m a one man band. There are times when I just don’t have the energy or the time to post. Sometimes there is too much to post. I’ve done the best I can to make it all work. Thanks for being willing to come along for the ride. Small layouts are my thing. I enjoy the fact that they are easy to build, take up little space and allow you to operate when and where you are able.

In summary I just wanted to say thank you for your ongoing support, suggestions and comments. I love model railways, and small layouts in general. Mostly I like my fellow modellers who share their dreams, their schemes and even their memes about railway modelling.

All the best, and for those who like my family are Northern hemispherically influenced, Happy Halloween.

1. Small, Exhibition, Inglenook, Layout Design, Layouts, Liked off site, OO Scale (4mm:Foot), Scenery, Site Updates, Sites of interest, Switching, Web

Site seeing: August 31 – Winter is going (at least down here)

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Winter is over, although where we live in Ballarat at 420m (1370 feet) above sea level, you’d be hard pressed to tell that change of season has arrived. Our mornings are still cold, the winds are still lazy (they go through and not around you), and the weather is not shiny or happy. However, my seasonal allergies have kicked in, and the Wattle has been in full bloom for about 3 weeks now. I’m sniffling, my eyes are streaming and I look like I’ve gone five rounds with the late, great Muhammad Ali. My allergies and the weather are not the reason for today’s end of Winter post…

Site 1: Croft on the ScaleFour society’s website

Built as a shunting puzzle (Inglenook) and based loosely upon the real Croft goods (Darlington, NER, not Leicestershire LNWR), Croft is a magnificent example of simple effective display and operation. The image below courtesy of RMWeb and Steve Taylor.

I could go on at length about this layout, or I can let you soak up the atmosphere of this image and then follow the ScaleFour link above.

Site 2: RMWeb’s Croft Gallery

Go, look, mind blown.

Hope that this gets your creative juices flowing. Looking forward to the Southern Spring.

1:43.5 (7mm Scale), 1:48 (US O Scale 1/4"), Design Updates, HO Scale, O Scale, OO Scale (4mm:Foot), S Scale, Scales, Site seeing, Site Updates, This Site, Web

Site update: New modelling page

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Ballarat - May 2013
Ballarat – May 2013

I’m slowly working to catalogue and curate all of my railway and modelling related images. I’m doing this in part so that I can share them all with you here; also to allow me to find the photos I need for modelling when I need them.

Site update 1: Modelling Page: High Cube Shipping Containers

There are several useful resources available on the above link. These include:

  • A gallery of detail images of a 40′ HC container taken in 2013
  • A downloadable PDF for all HC containers sizes in metric and imperial should you wish to make your own (especially for the 3D printer)
  • Details of suppliers in most of the popular scales including some free through more paid resources

I hope that you find this useful for your modelling purposes. Drop me a line if you make use of any of the resources.

About, Acrylics, Ballarat Tramway, Museums, Oils, Pastel Powder, Powders, Site Updates, This Site, Weathering, Web

Site Update – 17 July 2016

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I’ve been quiet the last month; too much work and not enough time to focus on more enjoyable things in life such as modelling. Additionally the weather in Ballarat has been amazingly cold and that has put the brakes on any outdoor activities including spraying and other painting tasks that I have waiting to be done.

In the meantime I’ve been working on a couple of models and updating the site; adding several new pages and a new section and a gallery. Enough of the blather and let’s move onto what’s new on site.

Update 1: New section – Weathering

BLI Trackmobile weathering
BLI Trackmobile weathering

I’ve been asked by several people to show how I weather my railway models (at my local model club, and online) and I’ll be building up the information here about how I weather using weathering powders, pastel powders, graphite and acrylic and oil paints. For now there is a gallery of some of my HO cars fleet. There are other cars (in HO and O scale) not yet complete that I’ll add over time.

Update 2: New subsections in Ballarat Trams

IMG_1674_2&3 Road_Bergonia's Monday_In the morning LightAs a volunteer conductor on the Ballarat Tramway Museum I have unprecedented access to the trams, and the infrastructure of the tramway museum. Slowly but surely I am collecting tram and infrastructure photos of the tramway. Each tram and the tramway infrastructure have their own page. While mostly empty I’ll be filling each page with images taken over the last several years. Mostly my images were taken in the last 9 months and are representative of the current state of the museum fleet, grounds and infrastructure..

As always use the links on the menu at the page top to get around.

Liked off site, Site seeing, Site Updates, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing – Tueday 14 June 2016

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As you tool around the web you come across some interesting and useful sites. I’ve found it hard to have a simple to find and use repository since the end of basic HTML coding. I’ve bookmarked and so on but I wanted to have a better place to go.

So today I’ve added a new section for these resources.  I’ll add site links when I find them; adding information about the sites so that you decide their value before you visit them.

Visit the following two pages:

Enjoy

Site Updates, This Site, Web

Site Update – May 21

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It’s been a rather busy month with the doing and the finding of new work. However, late last week I finally got around to updating and uploading images and new pages. Let’s get into what’s changed and what is new.

Galleries section

In the USA section (that’s been empty for far too long) I’ve added two new subsections, and galleries beneath each one. Of particular note are the Austin TX, and Kyle TX areas.

Kyle, Texas in particular had some great rail served classics from the long gone era of railroading when we first moved there in early 2001. Including a two spot Quonset hut for the local Co-Op. All gone now of course, but forever kept in posterity here.  It would make a great modelling challenge, and something that would work from the post-war (WW2) period through the late 80s to early 1990s period. There are also some other Co-Op related buildings in this new gallery too.

The Austin, TX gallery has two new subsections for review:

East Austin

  • TSE Boxcars – showing a set of detail images for Texas South-Eastern Railroad Company (reporting mark TSE) boxcars parked up near the HEB supermarket off East 7th Street.
  • Historic buildings – East Austin Ice Factory – shows an iconic med 20th century ice factory serving the East of Austin. Not a lot of photos but enough to draw inspiration and make a great model from.
  • Railroad infrastructure – shows a few shots of the area between 5th and 7th Street in the same area as the Ice Factory. And some fascinating track formations in the few photos that I have.

Bergstrom Lead

  • This is all of the photos from the article I wrote sometime ago on modelling the Bergstrom Lead in Austin’s South.