I'm away from home so I couldn't take new photos, but I do have a recent (but blurry) photo of my desk and I haven't updated since Wednesday.


My desk is a mess of tools and projects, which seems to be its default status. In no particular order, what you see here:

• A WIP scratchbuilt trailer and a Tyco trailer to use for height comparison
• A Union Pacific RPO by Rivarossi, on my desk for filing away of some surfaces so that the roof and glazing can be removed more easily
• A Tyco unloading boxcar being painted (pink for body, lilac for doors. Paint now done, it just needs a roof hatch)
• The lilac hopper back out for further progress on its paintjob
• A pink gondola also having its paintjob worked on (now done)
• 4-8-4 chassis and motor with drive wheels, with my scratchbuilt tender behind it. Awaiting construction of loco body as well as pilot and trailing trucks
• Tyco operating crane car, dismantled for ease of sorting out the thread. (Taken care of since photo was taken)
• Former derrick car being converted to a piggyback flatcar

Not shown is the work on the Accurail autorack, which I've been making homemade uprights for

Still no photos of the other stuff yet. Sorry. But I do have a photo of another project:


This is an old Athearn dome car that I'm modifying with an interior and all that. I'm currently working on the important process of cutting out part of the floor and replacing it with a depressed section of floor because there needs to be vertical clearance under the dome for a room.

Guess who's back! Sorry for being away so long. Have some updates, with more to come.


The Gloor autorack is built. Working on finishing the paintjob, there's a lot of little bare spots I'm having to deal with.

I've gotten back to work on the Roundhouse Pullman Palace cars. I'm substititing brown paint for wood panel texture here, hope that's not too much of a copout. I also created a template sheet for cutting out internal window frames - those would be conspicuous in their absence, especially as I plan on lighting the cars.
Also started on a new project:


It's a grand terminal station building. An interior is planned, since with those big windows it'd be a waste not to have one.

Long-overdue photo of the second autorack



Three pastel boxcars. The yellow one is Athearn, the robin's egg blue one is Varney, the pink one is the Tyco Unloading Boxcar



Pink Mantua gondola, and the lilac Roundhouse hopper. Both also acting as temp storage for random bits



And finally getting down to business on the planned freelance 4-8-4. Can anyone identify the loco chassis I'm using? I know, but do you? :3

Lots going on there, Brendan.   :thumbs

Indeed, and now there's even more.

For instance, there's this motor I'm repairing. I accidentally trashed the upper insulator and one brush spring. So I've cut a new insulator to fit, and actually made (though it's not shown) a replacement spring, which I'll be trial-fitting once I have the LH pickup wires soldered to the pin that anchors the spring.


There's also this express reefer that I've been scratchbuilding. I'm almost done with it, at least as far as the body goes. Haven't started on the truck sideframes yet.

So, I've got the body done and painted. The green isn't quite accurate I don't think, but it's the closest I had and I"m out of spare paint pots for blends. Still, it's got it done for now so I can move on to the roof.

I'm proud of the door hardware - in case it's hard to tell I made that myself. The locking bars are lengths of paperclip, with thin strips of paper rolled around the ends and middle. The handle is a snippet of wire glued to the side, with a sliver of paper over it to form the catch. The hinges are card, with holes poked in it to form dimples to act as rivet/nailhead detail, and snippets of wire to represent the joint. How well does the detail show in the photo?

So, here's the reefer's current state.
It's almost done, though I am going to repaint the green because I have hunter green now, which seems a better match for an REA reefer.
The truck frames are scratchbuilt from cardboard and other things.

Here's a shot of some of my first sideframes under construction (On subsequent cutouts, I left the bottoms of the W-iron sections intact):


And here's the first completed streamline truck:

Progress, Brendan.  I like your springs.   :thumbs

Thank you Max. Here is the streamlined observation car with the finished bogies fitted:

As well as an interior:


Speaking of interiors, here is an upgraded interior for a Bachmann 85' full dome:



I buit the stairs, the lower-level walls, the bar, the phone and furniture in the courier-nurse's room, the dumbwaiters, the body of the liquor cabinet (cabinet interior is a Paul Friedlund pic)

The dome car itself, repainted for the Pegasus Bay Railroad:


A GS-4 shell being painted up as one of the Pegasus Bay's "Strawberry Specials":



The Pegasus Bay Railroad's logo:


And what's on my desk at the moment:

A WIP scratchbuilt 16' fish van, a Baldwin DR-4-4-1500 "Sharknise" being painted up for the New York Central, and a Tyco Clementine gold car getting its cleats and reinforcing straps painted

Bumping with an out-of-date progress pic of the fiah van:

A similarly-dated photo of some coach sides being marked out on cardboard (going to be an LNER Diagram 55 coach and matching brake):


And a photo of one of the LMS Bain eliptical-roof coaches sold in Bachmann's Thomas range, with the bogies and underframe weathered (they started off gloss black):

Update with a project I don't believe I've posted here yet: a model of Daisy (a single-car version of a Class 101). Her body is made from two dummy Tri-Ang trailers (sawed the cab off one and the corridor end off another),
The motor bogie and the wheelsets in the other bogie are taken from an HO diesel; I transplanted the sideframes from the displaced bogie onto the motor one, and modified the axles of the wheelsets to ride in the journals of the non-powered bogie. I also cut a custom-fitted pickup from brass sheet and screwed it in place.

And here's a pic of my fitting homemade buffers to the van chassis (as well as a homemade Spratt & Winkle-type coupler)

Gah! Why didn't anyone tell me I'd forgot the photo? Well, here it is now.. not that it seems anyone will care…

Didn't like to say  


Ed

[user=1338]Ed[/user] wrote:

Didn't like to say  


Ed

I would have appreciated it if you had..  :sad:

So, what do you think of all I've done?

Interesting thread Brendan, you've done some quite amazing things with older models.

Obviously I know very little about the US outline stock, but it's nice to get a view on what others are doing.

Didn't mention the missing picture at 7:00am this morning my time, as I thought I might just be being daft and missed the obvious, and then I got side-tracked.

Keep it coming.



Ed

It's a good idea to read the posts after you hit Send, Brendan.

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

It's a good idea to read the posts after you hit Send, Brendan.

I know, I know. I just spaced on that this time because I was busy.
Thank you for the kind words Ed.

Just so you know there are more of us reading the posts than just those who comment.