First Post of 2021!

I did a little re-vamp of the site. Trying to better organize it so it looks a little more professional Still a ways to go, but we will get there! In the meantime, it's been a hot moment since I last updated things! And work on the W&A has been progressing steadfastly. 

Winter is here!

 

In the car department, several new pieces of rolling stock have been cranked out. We'll kick things off with a lovely cut of coal jennies. During the 19^th century the largest single commodity moved by rail, tonnage wise, was coal. The vast majority of it was shipped in 2 axle coal jennies, 4 axle wood truss hoppers, and gondolas (hopper bottom, drop bottom or solid bottom). They were a huge component of eastern railroads. So, getting a cut of coal jennies was essential. Especially for a project that I will talk about later. These cars are 3D printed in kit form and come in a pack of two. Assembly is quick and the cars pack a lot of detail. These sort of models are fine examples of what 3D printing an accomplish. 

I altered the models slightly by only having kadee couplers at the front and rear of the cut. Otherwise, they are chained together permanently in prototypical fashion. As of right now I have 16 of these little buggers. Making a fine cut. Although the prototype often moved them in cuts of 100+

I also apparently now collected Oppenheimer refrigerated cars. As a nice collection of these cars appeared on Ebay at a price that was too good to pass up! One of the cars was a nice wooden kit.I didn't build any of these, just merely added them to the collection. I gathered four of these cars, all of different heights and styles. I like that they all have unique profiles, makes them more interesting to have in a train. The firm of S. Oppenheimer & Company was started in 1868 in Chicago. The sausage casing distributor was started by Mr. Sigmund Oppenheimer, who emigrated from Mannheim, Germany in 1868 and flourished for nearly a century. 

Mmmmm....Bratwurst.

On the subject of refrigerated cars, the carshop cranked out this subject. This car started out life as a LaBelle Colorado Midland Hanaran reefer. But at the very start of the build, I tossed the instructions out and cut the car down to a 26 footer. From that point on enough material was introduced and the car design changed that I can sit back and firmly call this a scratch-bash. This one was a very lovely build and it got me to thinkin' (which could be dangerous). I hope to have a few more scratch-bashes in the future. Goodness knows I have plenty of kits waiting in the wings. 

The paintwork is purely fictitious. However I based it on lithographs of Hanaran cars, as well as a number of photos of Merchant's Dispatch cars. The Georgia Railroad lettering was simply to tie the car into the local. 

The stovejack means this car is a true summer and winter car. Being able to refrigerate produce that needed to stay cool in the summer. Then keep warm produce that was susceptible to freezing in winter. 

Also, on the subject of bashing. Here is a flat-top caboose built from a Walther's wooden drover's caboose. I had a 2-pack of these sitting around forever. One of which I long ago painted into W&A colors and has been a part of the active fleet for years. This one was sitting around...waiting for inspiration to strike. It went together surprisingly quickly! In two build sessions split across two nights after work I cut the car apart, pieced it back together, then painted, primed, and detailed it.

 

This went together far better then it had any right too. And I have another car from the same set waiting for a future project.

One of the big announcements from the car department is the arrival of passenger cars for a name train! I've long wanted to have a solid name-train for the W&A, and had looked at how I would go about acquiring cars for it. I had started with a set of Con-Cor cars for the coaches, and a few Roundhouse Overland cars to turn into sleepers. These were nice, but I wasn't really in love with any of the models. The Con-Cor cars were big and chunky and the Roundhouse Overland cars...well....they were everywhere and more of an amalgamation of prototype features then an actual model of any single prototype...also did I mention that they are everywhere! I also really wanted the cars of my name train to reflect back on the rollingstock first used at Disneyland in the 1950s. Otherwise known as the Retlaw 1 equipment. (Retlaw....nice one Walt. Took you all afternoon to come up with that one.) 

This all changed when a set of three brass old time coaches appeared on Yee Ol' Bay of E. Built by Samhongsa in 1981 and imported by Beaver Creak Models, this set had an RPO, a combine, and a coach. A single Observation car was also available as an add on and wouldn't you know...there was one of those available too! 

 

 

An RPO for the mail

A Combine for the luggage and passenger accommodation!

A coach, lavish and warm. Perfect for a day trip, yes sir!

 And bringing up the markers is a beautiful observation car. Yes sir, she's a fine and dandy train. 

So, after paying far more then I should have, these cars are now a part of the fleet and make up what will hopefully be my new first class name-train! Excuse me while I dip my credit card in a bucket of ice. 

So, remember that project I spoke about earlier? Well, at the very start of this blog, way back in the dark ages, I had started work on Marceline 1. The very first iteration of what would become my layout. This was a micro-layout designed to fit on a shelf. It got as far as benchwork when the decision was made to increase the size of Marceline so as to accept NMRA and then Free-mo module standards. This relegated the bench-work for that first layout to the dust bin. 

Or did it?

 The layout rose from the ashes as I decided to revisit the micro-layout idea while Marceline proper underwent some work at a friend's workshop. (More on that in a future post) Welcome to the town of Tumbleweed. The micro-layout focuses at the very end of a spur-line on the W&A. Spur serves one purpose. To reach the coal rich mines of the Big Thunder Mining Company's Davy Jones mine. The track plan is a relatively simple ‎Inglenook design. Cars go in empty, get switched around for loading, then go out loaded. Other traffic might be a boxcar of supplies or a flatcar loaded with timbers and lumber for the mine operations.

The mountainside was built from foam and covered with Sculpt-a-mold. Track-laying started gaining in December. I hope to have a full report on this project coming, as some exciting things have happened to push this project along.

Yes sir, things are moving!