Railroads and Ice Cream in HO-Scale
Le Mars will need a bunch of split point derails like these: In previous posts I talked about some of the geometry details of these derails. Since there’s nothing commercially available – cutting up a turnout doesn’t have nearly the right geometry – these will have to be hand-built. This was my first attempt from…
Read moreOne thing I noticed while reviewing a bunch of prototype photos for the Coalporter project is that the FRA striping (the reflective yellow stripes) on the sides of the cars were somewhat grungy. I have some of the Fusion Scale Graphics freight car marking stripes and was curious how it would work to apply them…
Read moreBack when they first came out in the mid 90s in N-scale, I got several of the E&C Shops Coalporter gondolas. They were very nice cars, especially for the time and even more so in N-scale. After changing modeling scales a few years ago, I’ve seen these same cars – in HO-scale – occasionally come…
Read moreBoDeans Baking gets piles of pressure differential cars in LeMars carrying flour. Walthers made a model years ago as a kit, and these can still be found on the open market. But the detail is a little lacking, without some significant rework. Atlas (BLMA) also makes a very nice Trinity 5660 version. But fortunately, Prairie…
Read more“The backdrop is done.” Words I’ve never spoken before. The layout has taken a bit of a backseat lately but over the last few months a push was made to complete the benchwork and backdrop on the rest of the layout. Part 3 covered the backdrop on the transload/plastics side of the layout. Now it’s…
Read moreModeling “today” has some perks: high-resolution satellite imagery, county databases, and the ability to visit in person. However, one disadvantage is when things on the prototype change. This evening, while looking for something else on Google Maps, I noticed two major changes in Le Mars. First, the transload continues to grow. It started with two…
Read moreI thought I was done with the Hapag-Lloyd container back in Part 2, but something wasn’t quite right. The weathering seemed too “soft”. The Ammo shaders did a nice job but something was off yet I couldn’t quite place it. Then, in an unrelated conversation with Scott, he mentioned Pigma Micron pens that can be…
Read moreContinuing from Part 1, the MoPac gondola got received end grab irons in much the same way as the ones on the side, following this Randy Curlin photo of MP 643310: A Tangent brake wheel (TSM-1054) was used in place of the one provided by E&C Shops. The detail and “fineness” seemed a little better…
Read moreAnother piece of the puzzle is starting to fall in place In the continuing effort to build out the rolling stock fleet for Le Mars. From this photo, borrowed from the Burlington Junction Railway website, two gondolas were identified, UP 96253 and MP 642856, both carrying rebar for unloading at the transload. A little research…
Read moreFollowing up from Part 1, here is the container after applying all the decals: Next step was to apply a coat of VMS Matte Varnish. While the “standard” method is to apply a coat of gloss over the decals, followed by the matte finish, I chose to skip right to the matte after watching the…
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