Equipment - and where to put it

 With all of these spectacular new models from the manufacturers, we have amazing opportunity to recreate railroading in scale.  In fact, the only real downside to this is the fact that each of our railroads has only so much track, and for most of us, even less storage and staging.  It requires some creative solutions - like a new storage area beneath Euclid Yard!

While I have added cabinet shelving for storage of equipment off the layout (see https://onondagacutoff.blogspot.com/2024/01/making-spaces.html ), the process of building the long-awaited office car special train got me thinking that we need a shelf yard where trains can be stored without having to manually add them to the layout trackage.  

Brackets were added to allow for a new level.  That process is well underway now, with the yard largely assembled as well down on the floor. 

The tracks are glued to plywood, which was assembled and painted up.  This maximizes clearances and won't adversely impact operations based on other projects with track glued directly to a wood surface.  One key is to leave some room for seasonal expansion and contraction of the lumber by ensuring the joints are just hare loose.  

Wiring for track feeders will be next before installation.  And a final challenge will be a long lift-out bridge to connect the yard to S&I track 2 on the Island.  

Good progress!  And having a place to store these new trains will greatly add to the joy of running - some more variety will help with the illusion of the world outside, and we can all enjoy that.  

Weeks passing blink by blink

 You know it is a life full of opportunity when you're handling more than you thought you could, and still have things you haven't started yet.  It really does make me hope I am not making any repeated mistakes, because there's no time to check to see what the results have been.  

This is when the hobby can be most satisfying to me.  Competing priorities and the demands of relationship, work and volunteer responsibilities all comes from the same well of time and energy.  Making the effort to get to the workbench or layout and make a little progress is always one more thing, but it almost always is satisfying and in any case, it is one step closer to something else off the plate.  

For example, somehow we are almost a month past Springfield already.  Between new leadership at work pushing hard on items I control and the ongoing process of husbanding a young family with excited, involved kids time takes on different weights.  Of course a minute is a minute but when doing two things at once, that minute feels different than when we are relaxing.  

'DemClams', however, are a constant - they keep getting bigger.  I love an easy Sunday morning coming down to find all three watching cartoons.  They get along about as well as a family can, which is both a blessing and fun.  It is awesome to be part of raising these kids, and I am grateful to be able to be home as much as I am.  And I am especially grateful to Kristen who fills in the gaps and keeps the wheels on the car as we bump along on this journey.  

Onto the next moment!

Springfield Show Wrap-up: 2025

The big Amherst Society Railroad Hobby Show at Springfield, MA was January 25 and 26, 2025, and by all accounts was a great success again.  More than 27,000 attended the show and it was the usual intersection of model trains, operating layouts and displays, manufacturer booths, vendors, hobby media, craftsman, exhibits, and photographers.  Importantly, thanks to Rich Wisneski, Teddy & Pete were able to join with him this year for their first time!

Photo courtesy Dennis A. Livesey

It is hard to describe how wonderful it is to see the boys doing their thing, and learning to walk a tradeshow like this one.  They were fantastic!

The boys were amazed at the scope and scale of the event, held in 4 warehouse sized buildings.  The OC table had books and shirts for sale, as well as stickers and pins and a chance to talk to customers and guests.  Sales were good and much better than last year! 

Sharing the hobby has never been more fun, and that the boys will have these memories going forward means a great deal to me.  It is a major effort to make this show happen despite all the headwinds at work and the constant effort that life in my 49th year can take, but it is worth every ounce of effort for rewards like this.  

Lots of fun to come - just another part of this amazing hobby!

More new arrivals: Big Dash-7s from Rapido Trains

Things are getting better and better for Conrail modelers!  A variety of great products arrived right during the holidays and it's been busy enough that there hasn't been time to even dig into them right away.  But, here's a first look:  

Right off the bat, it is clear that these have been worth the wait.  Wow!  A handful of small issues were easily corrected - steps had some loose on a few of the end wells, and a few grab irons were bent by packaging.  But for models that travel 9000 miles across an ocean in a shipping container I have no complaints.  The dimensions, mechanism, detail, decoder, lighting and sound are amazing.  

Rapido is working on a C36-7 and rumor has it the second run of C30-7s is going to include a coveted model for Conrail guys: the C30-7A.  So much good to come.  Stay tuned!  

Reflections on Progress and Principle

It's Christmas Eve, 2024, somehow already.  This has been a year of intensity.  There has been some great progress but some monumental challenge, too.  

Progress on the OCS continues, and brings a great deal of satisfaction in a time when I am feeling flattened by so much.  Recent progress is getting trucks modified for car 12, and it went well, thanks to great resources by Wes Reminder again.  

Walthers makes aftermarket trucks, these being the GSC 41-N-11 models.  They are nicely done, and an even swap for the stock trucks with the Budd Lounge.  But a few changes are needed to more closely match the photos.  

Here's the changes on the left:  I modified the brake cylinders, machined flat the covered bearings and installed new exposed roller bearing caps, removed the exterior brake shoes, and installed a new level surface on the top.  I still need here to remove the vertical strut, before painting the trucks the correct CR Pullman Green color.  

Again, what a satisfying project.  The modified trucks on car 12 are on the left above, with car 27 on the right.  Between the roof changes and now the trucks for 12, it is neat to see the two together.  

A good friend of mine insists that time in your later 40's is a 'lunchpail job' - one where you wake up each day with the alarm, and go to work, then go home and do the family thing, and the drive-the-kids-to-activities thing, and deal with elderly family thing....and then crash at the end of your day only to have to do the whole damned thing again the next day, sometimes out of sheer principle.

It is hard to keep perspective.  So much we have and so much we do is only because of our good fortune, or hard work, or perseverance - or a combination of all three.  The feeling we ought to have is one of gratitude, not grind.  And yet our daily chores seem a grind, despite our best intentions.

Those chores, our volunteer activities and our lunchpail jobs have a lot in common with detail projects like this one.  No one makes you do anything, really, in your 40's.  You're the adult now, and so the motivation has to come from you.  And that is the case with work, fatherhood, husbandry, and modeling.  Sometimes you gotta just get up and get moving out of sheer principle.  It isn't always fun or rewarding, not right away; in any case it doesn't feel like something I have the energy to do.  

And here we are, Christmas Eve 2024...despite all of that.  When it isn't magic for you, that means you are the magic for those around you. 

May peace find each of us in 2025!   Merry Christmas! 

Number 401!

Somehow, I only noticed that the last post was number 400!  Hard to believe there are that many, but in any case that makes this 401 and I am grateful to have this archive available - and for all you readers who keep an eye on it.  It is a neat little niche in the OC story to have such a neat chronology of the successes and the trials, the mistakes and the learning that has all gone into this.

The next challenge is part of the growing OCS fleet, and that is to model accurately the 1994 version of car 55 - the former ATSF 'Big Dome' that was purchased from Santa Fe by Conrail in 1989 in its stainless steel glory, and repainted to the OCS green in 1993.

I need it painted - and painting over actual aluminum plating is a new challenge for me.  Stay tuned!  The first step is always to disassemble the car, so that much is ready to post here.

Best wishes as we approach Christmas and Hanukah, too, and no matter what you celebrate may peace be with you in the year to come.  

A New Adventure

There is a lot changing 'in the 40's' for me, as there seems to be for many people.  One of those things is a new interest that is growing for me in modeling passenger equipment, thanks in part to detailing up the Hickory Creek last month and also in part to the inspiration delivered by the new Rapido E8A locomotives in Conrail's executive Office Car Special paint scheme.  

Suddenly, I have a need for older passenger cars on the Onondaga Cutoff!

The fabulous research by Wes Reminder, a longtime Conrail modeler and fan of the executive train, is documented and available at his great website:  https://www.the-boring-the-adoring.com/conrail-blog

The basics are there along with Wes's spectacular modeling.  Each car on the prototype train has a whole story to it, and many were modified through the years.  I am working to emulate his work to create models for 1994 that will fit in line with the OC and with the regular operation it supports.  I will model several cars using the Walthers passenger cars available to get models that are close, and then will modify, detail, light and paint them to match prototype photos.

Walthers cars are great, and come apart with the sides as a separate molding of styrene.  When you remove the windows too, now you've got a side that is easy to strip.   

While the parts soak in 91% isopropyl alcohol, I worked on the new paint color. No one makes the correct color available for sale for custom painters, so we have to mix our own.  Here's my first try ever using TruColor paint.  This is a mixture of their Southern Green, PRR Brunswick Green, Pullman Green, and a bit of black.  

Close, but too light, by a slight margin.  So back to the drawing board.  

Too dark.  Hmmm.  A light sanding and back to the drawing board.  

Success!  At least, close enough for my eye.  

With the paint figured out I turned to detailing some of the interior of the first car.  I made the beds and painted the features to match photos I found online of the interior, or at least close enough.  I also installed lighting and replaced the wheelsets to ensure good electrical pickup.  

As you can see, I am getting into this and having fun.  It's satisfying work and will lead to a great new addition to the railroad. 

More coming, soon!