General Electric U28C and U30CG in Warbonnet Red

I thought I'd throw back to the late 1960's with a look at GE's late entries into the passenger diesel market prior to Amtrak.  The models are Trix models from the 1970's with my own "tricks" added.



General Electric U30CG

GE's attempt to match EMD's FP45's.  Not very successful as they were taken out of passenger service due to derailments.  (The derailments may not have been the locomotives' fault).  Went on to occassionally power the "Super C", Santa Fe's first attempt at high speed piggyback service.  The U is for Universal, 30 is for 3000 hp, C is for 6 axle trucks, the G for a steam generator.




General Electric U28C

Both models have brass handrails installed, but I did this so long ago, I have no idea what brand the detail parts were.  Microscale decals were added, as well as new air horns.  But the biggest and best addition was.... 



Chassis

...the Kato chassis.  I squeezed the Kato chassis into the Trix shells.  It required some shaving of the frame and trimming of the trucks, and modifying the pilots, but the performance of the Kato motors made it worth the effort.  I just wanted to save those Trix shells.

Thought I'd show you some cars in today's video.  Many of the Santa Fe cars are custom painted and decaled. 

References:
AT&SF Color Guide... by Lloyd Stanger
Santa Fe Freight in Color,  Part 1 Boxcars, by Stephen Priest and Thomas Chenoworth
Furniture and Automobile Box Cars by Richard Hendrickson





Custom painted and decaled.  Con Cor car.  Note black SL logo.  Decals custom made by Custom Rail Graphics




IC Lightly Weathered




Custom painted and decaled and weathered  




Custom painted and decaled and weathered.




Maine Central weathered




Custom painted and decaled and weathered.  No yellow "Super" in Shock Control



CP 50' Mechanical Reefer. 

Side panel riveting picked up nicely with chalks used for weathering.  Chalks are my main weathering material.

Micro Trains car weathered, beat up side panels.

Custom painted and decaled and slightly weathered.

Custom painted and decaled and lightly weathered.

Note yellow DF logo. (custom made decal) 



PRR Center Depressed Flat Car

Load has been painted green and industrial decals appllied.  Really enhances load appearance.  Tie downs made with "silver metallic thread" availabe in sewing stores. When I bought this thread, I was the only guy in the store. I consider myself a true "train nerd".



Custom painted and decaled and heavily weathered.

Represents plug door box from 60's era.

Custom painted and decaled and weathered.  Yellow SL logo, with replacement brown 8' panel door.

Custom painted and decaled and weathered. This paint scheme goes all the way back to the mid 1950's  Large "DF" stands for "Damage Free".

Custom painted and decaled and weathered.  Paint mixed with white to represent fading.

Custom painted and decaled and weathered. Note yellow "Super" in Shock Control logo.

Railbox 50' plug and sliding door

Heavily weathered PC 50' boxcar.  Penn Central equipment poorly maintained prior to merger into Conrail.

Avideo of this train can be found 0n YouTube at:  http://youtu.be/KTPXVdVOF0M

Addendum to Weathering MT Auto Racks

Con Cor Auto Racks and Vert A Pac car in Video on YouTube

IC "Vert A Pac" Car

I saw an advertisement involving this freight car in the early 70's showing how the sides pull down into ramps, then Chevy Vegas were driven up the ramp, ramps were closed, leaving the Vegas nose first.  Accommodations were made at the factory for various fluids in the cars.  I don't know if these cars were still in service in 1981.

Santa Fe Auto Rack  Red Paint Scheme

All of the Con Cor cars have "N Scale of Nevada" photo etch panels.  These panels are no longer available.  (If someone has some extras, I need 6 more.)  This improved the appearance of the Con Cor auto racks remarkably.  I also modified the extensions on the Micro Train couplers, thus shortening the distance between cars.

Close up of Santa Fe Logo

The "t" in Santa Fe was applied in house by spraying Santa Fe red on a piece of sheet metal, then spraying on the "t", and welding it to the car.

Southern Pacific

SP auto racks were notoriously filthy.

Soo Line

Santa Fe in Mineral Brown

Denver and Rio Grande Western

Grand Trunk

Rooftops

Really weird precise weathering patterns.  I believe they follow the riveted sections.

SP rooftop

Canadian National

Chicago and Northwestern

I will deal with the Red Caboose Auto Racks in a future posting.

Prototype Photos:

I have posted a N Scale video of a 1981 Auto Rack train on YouTube at:

http://youtu.be/XxzUouLStgo

Weathering Micro Trains Auto Racks Pt. 2

Weathered Photoetch

The lower photoetch shows where the Tamiya masking tape was applied. Remove the masking tape and weather the remaining panels with streaks of rust from top to bottom. Streaking may continue to a lower panel.



Weathering the Roof

The above photo shows the weathering of the roof from left to right, with the initial streaks to the finished product.  Start with streaks of oils where rivets holding rooftop panels would be, and then dry brush across the rooftop.  The end result is on the right.   When that is done and fully dried, on to assembly.

Pieces for Final Assembly

Carefully position photoetch to side of model and put end caps in place.  Slowly add pillars to model one by one, working from ends to the middle, while making sure the end caps are in place.  The photoetch will try to slide out of position at first, and you must take care doing this.  After one side is in repeat on otherside, again, making sure the photoetch does not slip out of the end caps. 

Finally, pop the roof in place and attatch the weathered  (I am sure you have done this) trucks.  MT has a number of different wheelsets to chose from, including brown (rust) wheelsets. 

At this point it is time to spray Dull Cote over the entire model.

When finished, your model should look something like this.........

Assembled Weathered Chessie System MT Auto Rack

 Weathered Burlington Northern MT Auto Rack

 Weathered Santa Fe MT Auto Rack

 Weathered Rock Island MT Auto Rack

Thanks for looking up this blog.  I hope you found the last two blogs on weathering these models interesting.  Soon I will have a blog on weathering the Red Caboose Auto Racks, which require a different approach.  Next week, more N Scale action on the Needles Division!

 I have posted an N Scale video of a 1981 Auto Rack train on YouTube at:

http://youtu.be/XxzUouLStgo

Weathering Micro Trains Auto Racks Pt.1

Weathering Micro Trains Auto Racks Pt.1

Chessie System Auto Rack

Stock MT Auto Rack between two weathered MT Auto Racks. In this week's blog I will show you how to take apart the MT Auto Rack and weather individual pieces.  It is not a quick job, but very satisfying as different parts of the prototype weather differently.

Materials

Materials include a working space, lots of prototype photos (mostly shot by yours truly in Cajon Pass, CA), chalks, dull coat, oils, Tamiya masking tape, clay stands, more chalk and plenty of dry brushes

Intial Disasembly

Pop out the end caps and remove the roof.

Support Pillars

Very carefully (VERY CAREFULLY!) remove the support pillars from the plastic centerpiece. Gently press each pillar to some soft clay, basically so they won't break and you won't lose one.  When they are all removed, you will be able to move the photoetch portion of the model aside for  weathering. 

Disassembled Auto Rack

Removal of the support pillars allows the photoetch panels to slide off.

Oils and Chalks

Prior to applying chalks it is necessary to dull coat the entire model first.  I prefer Tamiya dull coat, but I believe the TS-80 dull coat has been discontinued. 

Weathering the Pillars

It is better to weather the pillars separate from the photoetch panels as they weather differently, mainly because on the prototype they are made from very different materials.  Spreading the chalk over the pillars allows you to vary the weathering on each pillar, but on most of the prototypes, the weathering seems to be reasonably consistent.

Dry Brushing with Chalks

Create streaks of rust, dirt, etc., by brushing straight down on the frame.I myself prefer this method rather than airbrushing the entire model.  It ends up looking much more realistic.

Creating Rust Streaks

You can create rust streaks by utilizing a toothpick or a pin to dab a spot of oil paint at a point on the model and brushing downward.  You can either brush down just after you dab on the oils or wait till the dabs dry, and use a little paint thinner on the brush and again brush downward.  If you haven't tried this method yet, experiment on some of your scrap boxcars.

Refer to Prototype Photos

Mask Off Accordingly

Use Oils to weather panels

You could also use any type of rust colored paints, but don't forget to vary the amount of rust on each panel, as it seems no two are the same.  Blend different rust colored oils together to create different shades of rust.  Do not spread the oils or paint on too thick, as you can clog up the the holes in the photoetch panels.  When the oils have dried, spray on dullcote.

Next week I will show you assembly and the results of a few weathered MT Auto Racks.

I have posted an N Scale video of a 1981 Auto Rack train on YouTube at:

http://youtu.be/XxzUouLStgo

Santa Fe Super Fleet FP45 Businesss Special

Business Special powered by Super Fleet FP45's

FP45's 93 and 92 leading Business Special

With Santa Fe concentrating on double stack trains, it was necessary to go out and promote this business with potential customers.  Today's train carries Santa Fe executives and sales people with three 4-4-2 Regal class sleepers, a Big Dome car, and Business Lounge.

Business Special with three sleeper cars from the Regal 4-4-2 series

Dome-Lounge Dormitory car and Business car

Dome Lounge Dormitory car from 550 Class

The small window section indicated the location of the crew lounge dormitory.  This is different from the original Big Dome cars as they were strictly lounge cars, and on those cars, all windows are the same size.
This car made froma Bachmann Big Dome car with M & R sides added for better detail and correct window placement.  Most of the Bachmann shell was removed and the sides carefully added to the window framing.

Business Car Topeka

Kato business car modified with 6 wheel Commonwealth trucks, wheel wells carved open and new taillight arrangement.

Santa Fe Super Fleet FP45's 92 and 93

As mentioned lasst week, these are highly modified Lima shells on a
C44-9W chassis.  New ladder steps and air conditioning unit part of improvements, along with the obvious repaint and use of Micro Scale decals.

BLMA fans

My FP45's have BLMA 48" fans installed, replacing the crude fans molded onto the model.  It is a relatively simple project producing fantantic looking results.  Something not really necessary to do with the Athearn models.

BLMA fans

Some of the fans have a center plate.  I am not sure as to why there are two different types as they both have eight blades.  They were also installed as needed and relaced with what was on hand.  I also repositioned the horns per the prototype.

You can see  a video of this Business Special on YouTube at:

                       http://youtu.be/nBhmUS-dkKY