Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
About a year ago, a few Pre-Depression Era railroad modelers embarked on a group kit build. We chose a Pennsylvania Railroad GRa class composite gondola kit, but we opened the door for other gondola models that fit the era. It’s time to share the progress!
Continue reading “Gondola builds”
I’ve been noticing various types of cranes in prototype photos of team yards and tracks. They do not show up everywhere, but cranes are a detail to consider when modeling a scene in the 1900-1940 years. The 1923 image above documents passenger cars parked at a team yard in Washington DC for a Shriner’s convention. They aren’t easy to spot. but there are several cranes in the background.
Continue reading “Cranes”
Many aspects of model building are repetitive. These might be details or processes used across several similar models, or many of the same details applied to one model. Sometimes I will procrastinate completing a model because of all the same small details that need to be installed. Like installing 36 small brackets on a gondola. Those are the brackets in the lead image.
Continue reading “Repetition”
As I started an HO scale resin freight car kit, I noticed something odd about the grab irons. The drop portion of the grab iron wasn’t at a right angle to the legs of the wire detail part. When I look at a prototype photo like the one above. I see drop grab irons at right angles.
Continue reading “Being picky”
Many freight car kits include a parts fret for brake hardware. Resin kits often include a Tichy Train Group parts fret seen in the above image. After I use the KC brake component and a couple other pieces, the fret becomes extra stuff. Once you have gone through several of these, they start taking up space.
Continue reading “The extra stuff”