Engine 22
Finally completed the paint job on the local switcher for the town of Port Kelsey. This little Proto 2000 0-6-0 has a sound decoded installed (another Dan Kirlin job), sounds and runs great! I painted it and weathered it a few weeks ago, and just recently did the lettering on the side of the tender and the numbering on the cab.
Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris
Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris
The lettering on the engine was done using a stencil I produced on the laser cutter. I used a sheet of label paper that is available in 8.5×11 sheets. From this I laser engraved the lettering through the label, but not through the backing. I removed the stencil from the backing and stuck it to the side of the tender, adding the small pieces of the inside of some of the letters, like the “P” and the “A”‘s. I very lightly dusted the stencil with Floquil Primer with the airbrush, and removed the stencil. The results are great! Much easier than rubbing down those individual letters, which always seem to come out crooked, and I constantly run out of “R””s!
Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris
13th Tour
Its been a few days since the tour and I thought I would post a couple of pictures of the day. Overall the turnout was down, I think the final tally was 780 registered, we had 300 (exactly) here, which is a record for us, almost half the people registered came here, which is encouraging. Thanks mom for counting…
The weather has to be just right to get a large turnout, if it is snowing, or threat of freezing rain, only the hard core modelers will show up, and the opposite is true, if it is warm and sunny, only the real enthusiasts will come. The weather being very warm and sunny kept a lot of people at home raking their lawns….
Nonetheless it was still a very good tour, one of the best yet for us! Had lots of fun and kept the trains running all day. Colin and Brian came through with their offer to run trains for the day, and it looked like they enjoyed themselves, they stayed for most of the day. Maybe they would have left earlier, but they couldn’t likely get to the door!
A couple of times the crowd was so dense we could not let anyone else into the basement, but that didn’t last too long.
Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris
Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris
In the weeks following the tour we have the “owners tours”, four evenings which groups of the owners will open their layouts again to allow the other layout owners open on tour day to drop by. I find these are as enjoyable as the layout tour itself! Tonight is the first of the tours, mine is on the last evening next week.
With this out of the way I can get back to construction and start up some limited operating sessions, finally!
I think they are having a moment of silence…..
Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris
Tour day this Saturday! (updated April 6)
Only a few more days until the annual Doubleheaders Layout tour and like every year I am scrambling to get everything ready.
I am happy with what was accomplished this year, the trains are running on the lower deck, and the upper deck has one of the larger towns completely active. Last week I was able (finally, after 12 years) to run a train into the original Port Kelsey module, that has been waiting for a train for a very long time. I now can have some limited operation on the layout while I work on getting the remainder of it going. Only a few more years….
In the meantime I thought I would post a new picture, this is one of a Proto 2000 0-6-0 that I repainted and weathered on Sunday. This one has sound and runs great! To date I have bought 4 of these, and 3 of the 0-8-0’s. They are the perfect sized engine for my layout, and double head together very nicely.
At a flea market on Sunday I managed to pick up another 0-8-0 from a store that was there, they had an inconspicuous box marked “0-8-0 with DCC $150” I bought it and when I got it home I was pleasantly surprised to find it had a Soundtraxx decoded in it! Well worth what I paid….
I have a local engine guru, Dan Kirlin, of Kirlin Scale models, installing a sound decoder in a Pacific for me as well, and I am expecting it from him this week, so in total I now have 3 steamers with sound, which is starting to sound good….
If you happen to drop by be sure to introduce yourself as a blog reader, its always great to meet the people on the other side of my screen.
click on image for larger view
Image copyright 2005, Tim Warris
April 6 Update
While I should be cleaning up for the tour, I always get a dose of energy just before, and this year is no exception. I decided to add a ship to the front of the layout.
Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris
No, I didn’t build it last night, this was built 15 years ago when I was just a little model railroader (ok, littler). This model took me 3 years of working on it on and off to complete, I would be afraid to count how many hours went into it. I remember buying it at a hobby show in Toronto in November and telling the salesman it was going to be a Christmas present for my dad. He asked “your dad likes to build model ships?”, I said “no, I am going to build it for him”. He then asked “for this Christmas”, “Of course!” was my answer, while, he had a bit of a laugh over that idea. Little did I know it would be 4 Christmases later before he got it!
Recently my dad moved to a much smaller house and had no room for the ship (it was in a large display case), so I inherited it! Fortunately it is HO scale and coincidentally I had just the spot for it. I will be adding a large wood dock in front of the ship, shown in the picture by the white paper. Tracks will be on the dock, along with a busy scene of a ship being unloaded. I may need to raise the level of the water up 2″ or so to get everything at the right level.
Here are a couple of “before” shots of what the layout usually looks like a few days before the layout tour, after a few months of intense activity. You will have to drop by on Saturday to see the “after” pictures…
