Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
The image above is basically how a resin kit build begins. A few kits on hand at the workbench can spur action. Once you begin one, it’s very easy to keep moving along and build more. This isn’t the complete stash as that is overwhelming. I just pulled a few that looked interesting and decided to take the great leap forward.
With a move to a new home looming on the calendar, the layout work has stopped. In mid-April, my wife and I decided to have a few areas of the new house upgraded before moving in to live. As I am between employment opportunities, I could be on site to answer questions and keep the work moving forward. I set up a small table into my new hobby space along with some basic tools and a few resin kits. I started building on April 28. Along the way I learned a great deal and enjoyed almost every kit. The dates noted are when the build for each kit started. Continue reading “Recent Resin Freight Car Kit builds”
Through the course of our hobby years we meet a variety of people who inspire and encourage our own efforts. I met Jim Kubanick a number of years ago when he moved to Morgantown, WV. He became a member of the model railroad club where I was a member at that time. We share an affinity for the common and uncommon freight car, and the history of freight cars. Jim has built a number of fine models and he has shared tips and data as I progress in building the many kits in my stash. As I am still getting settled after the move to Texas, Jim will guest on this post and share some of his models and notes. Jim works in HO scale and concentrates his efforts on the early-to-mid 1950s.
I am in the process of moving to Texas, so I have a guest blog post!
Collaboration and communication with other modelers who have similar interests can spur progress on a number of projects. My friend Harold Oakhill is modeling the Ulster & Delaware Railroad in the heady days of the early 1920s. We regularly discuss developing an era-specific freight car fleet. Of the many details, paint and lettering are frequent topics. Harold recently wrapped up a few HO scale Westerfield Pennsylvania Railroad XL box cars, which were the backbone of the huge PRR box car fleet in the early 1920s. Please follow along as Harold discusses his concerns and methods in the finishing steps for these models.
This post began as six separate email updates with a few friends to share upgrade ideas and techniques for the HO scale Accurail USRA hopper models. Since everything worked out pretty well, and the images are decent, I thought I’d share it here. Most of the images on this post can be seen in a larger size after clicking on them.