A fun side project - Rapido's C36-7 video!

We are all familiar with Rapido Trains and their funky, silly, and wonky videos they have always done in support of their products and the hobby at large.  

This week, my family had a chance to do one for them - and it's now live over on YouTube!

This one was a ball to make, the whole family having laugh after laugh as we put it together.  Fun for the whole family, as they say!  

The direct link is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qUTDmeGZhs

Thanks for watching, and to Rapido for all the fun!

The new Rapido Trains C36-7 - wow!

 Now and again, a model release comes along that changes the look of a whole roster.  Like the B36-7 a few years ago, the new Rapido C36-7 follows the same pattern.  It's a beautiful new model!  

These were delivered to Conrail from GE in 1984, and were amongst the last Dash-7s built.  Conrail ended up rostering just 25 of them, but they were very common on the Chicago Line as maintenance for years was based at Selkirk.  

Weathering coming soon on this, and even more fun is that Rapido is doing a release video on it too, using my family as the (hokey) actors.  It will be a lot of fun, and I will share the link here when it is posted!  In the mean time, this is just yet another great example of a wonderful development in the hobby, one that I hope can continue.  The OC just got a bit more prototypical!

Moving Right Along!

 A few projects have been in the works lately, the sorts of projects that fit around life and work and the things that keep families moving forward.  

The first of these has been a recent focus on finally getting my model of LMS 702, a GE C40-8W, up to snuff.  LMS stands for 'Locomotive Management Services' and was a subsidiary of Conrail and Canadian National, as Union Pacific was reportedly also interested but backed out. These units were ordered in an effort to buy a pool of locomotives that could be used on either railroad in times when the company was short of power: the Canadian grain rush for CN, and the fall peak intermodal season on Conrail.  

In any case, these locomotives were built for LMS and delivered in Conrail colors but simple block lettering for LMS, numbered up from 701.  

They were C40-8Ws, but were built late for a Dash-8 - in fact, concurrent with C41-8W and C44-9W builts at the GE plant in Erie, PA.  As such, these last Dash-8s came with a Dash-9 radiator cap, and with Dash-9 style grab irons on the nose.  Otherwise, they are straight Dash-8's.  Therefore, they are fairly unique in the world of widenose GEs.  I wanted to change the Atlas model into one that matched the prototype.

This meant cutting into a nearly finished model, one with auxiliary lighting in place thanks to Garden State Modelworks.  Not a good idea!  And not an ideal change at this point.  But we do what we gotta do, right?  This project had been occupying space on my cluttered, overbusy mind for years and years.  Time to eliminate the rent-free guest.  

Rest assured, it's not a good feeling for me either to cut into an expensive model like this.  Not fun at all.  But we do need sometimes to remember that improvements take some demo sometimes.  The Dash-9 radiator cap, seen in the bottom above, is available from Kato directly as their part 966000.  But it's a bigger piece than the Dash-8.  So we pop the Atlas part off, and cut to make the new part fit.  Little by little!

A motor tool, like my Dremel above, makes some of the grinding and cutting easier.  Slow and steady wins during kitbashing, though.  Take your time.  The first part is the sides, and the back needs a razor saw cut to make the narrow, even slice to preserve the rear hood.  

Put it in, then remove it and work a bit more to get the fit just right.  It's a slow and delicate process, but worth it.  And once we start, there is no going back, so don't overdo it!

Test fits came out well, though.  Some underside of the new piece also needed trimming, little by little.  Once it was good, I used Testors plastic cement to fix the new radiator in place.  And...it didn't work, as the Kato plastic did not take to the glue.  I turned to Walthers Goo inside the shell which did a great job.  

While that cured, I reworked the nose, drilling new holes and bending wire grab irons as well as installing upgraded (and blue) sand fill caps per the prototype.

Those cured as well and it was time for paint.  Grabs were easy with the microbrush, but the radiator required a lot of masking so the Scalecoat II spray paint wouldn't ruin the factory decorations.

With a bit of weathering and an overspray of dull coat, though, we can now see the difference - the LMS unit on the left and a stock Conrail C40-8W on the right.  Note the thinner Dash-8 profile, and the three core sections of radiator on each side, compared to the deeper Dash-9 section with just 2 sections per side.  I am thrilled with the finished product - a subtle detail upgrade that puts to rest a longstanding pet peeve, and now adds just a little variety for operators.  Here we go!  

Finally, Markers for the Office Car Special

 One of the curious parts of modeling office car passenger trains is that each car has a defined role in each train, as opposed to repeated roles in different trains.  This is to say that the goal of a freight car is to create 'plain jane' sorts of rolling stock, where in an OCS train, each car is a gem - memorable and unique in its own way.  

The one thing missing from the Onondaga Cutoff OCS was a train to bring up the rear - to 'carry the markers' as it is said.  Technically, a train requires a powered vehicle equipped with a headlight and with its rear end protected by a marker.  Markers can be cabooses, red lamps, or a headlight on low beam settings.  So, we needed working red marker lights on a formal inspection car.  And now, we have one:  introducing CR 7, my custom Conrail inspection car.  

Each of the cars in the OCS is special for a different reason, and the prototype includes cars similar to this but quite a bit modified from their original appearances.  Given that several prototypical models are currently under development for Conrail 1 (a six-axle open-end observation car like this one) and Conrail 9 (a closed-end theatre car equipped with a gigantic glass window on the rear end), I had a choice to make.  I could kitbash a close faximile of Conrail 2 or 3 or 4, all open-end cars like this, which would take 50 hours or more.  Or, I could take one of the new Broadway Limited Imports plastic open end obs cars, based on a PRR prototype, and create a stand-in car that will carry the load for now. 

I decided to take the latter route and number the car into an open spot on the roster.  While a 'foobie' as the rivet counters will note, it will look the part, fit the bill, and leave me with more than 40 hours of time with which to improve the layout this fall.  

But, for some reason BLI only lit the markers on the closed end of the car, which while neat doesn't help those of us that will be using it as it was intended.  So, I added working rear markers, wired to terminals provided on the PC board.

With that done, the lights work in concert with the other lights that are on/off via a reed switch on the board.  Very clever, BLI - but next time, if  you include markers that work, make sure they're on the obs end!  

To further add to the plausibility, I changed the bearing covers to roller bearings reflecting what Conrail did to all its cars in the 80's and 90's.  I also added figures as needed.  

 

Next, I removed most of the rivets to give the car a more modern welded appearance.

Finally, it got my custom Conrail Pullman Green paint via my airbrush, and then was decaled using Prime Mover Decals set for Conrail executive equipment.  

The resulting car, visible at the top of the post, is exactly what is needed with working markers now to be the last car of my OCS. I am excited to have a completed train, and when more cars come to market, they can be added easily.  For now, we are ready for service!  

A Guest Appearance

 Sometimes things work out in ways hard to see coming.  And so is the pattern in 2025 forming up.  As it turns out a family trip to see relatives in Australia will cross paths with the 2025 annual convention of the Australasian Regional National Model Railway Association, and allow a sort of guest appearance for the OC as one of the clinics featured in the schedule.

A full accounting of the presentation will be available several weeks after the convention, so you will be able at a minimum to see the slides and presentation as it will be after the live convention on Saturday August 23.  

More to come on this in what has been a remarkably unpredictable 2025!

The Time Warp

One of the best things about digital images is that you sometimes come across them in folder and get to enjoy a quick look at the past.  They're buried on the PC somewhere, or in the cloud, or wherever and occasionally you just run into them while looking for something else.

There is always something in those folders that makes me smile.  Here's NS 212, the Atlanta, GA-to-Croxton, NJ daily piggyback train on April 29, 2006.  Back in that era, conventional cab leaders were fairly common on 212, and today's had NS C39-8 8655 leading.  This was awesome back then and even more so looking back now.  

This image was made very nearly 16 years to the day from my first experience trackside at Pattenburg, NJ.  Pattenburg had quickly become a favorite place for me to spend time.  Those 16 years seemed like a long time back then.  Today I realize that April 29 2006 is 19 years from 2025!  A lot has happened. Time plays tricks on us and making images of railroads is one of the portals where time can seem to bend in our minds.  

This scene is similar today but the C39-8's are long gone from the NS locomotive roster.  I am glad I made time to make this image, and glad to run across it today browsing for some documents at lunchtime.  

Good thing there is plenty more to find!

The Long View

This hobby of ours is a long-view hobby.  At least for my case, it has stuck with me my whole conscious life, while other hobbies have come and gone again.  This long view requires diligence and a commitment to mindful appreciation of what we are modeling.  But, it's endlessly interesting and fun, too, so it doesn't feel like something to rush through.

Part of a longer game is that we remember things that impressed us even from decades past.  In the pages of Model Railroader magazine, I recall having seen some beautiful maintenance equipment on Michael Tylik's modules, one shot even on the cover of MR.  Years later I was told those models are from a company called Custom Finishing, a tiny firm whose kits were hard to find and even harder yet to assemble.  

A few months back, though, I came across a collection of them by Jerry Britton, and Jerry was downsizing his collection.  I made an offer which was accepted and the models now live on the OC.

 Here's the scene now, after some painting, weathering, repair and modernization of the cast-metal ballast tamper and tie handler crane.  Add in some Mt. Vernon shops decals, and we are set!

With fabulous 3D printed models coming on strong and with secondhand brass models like the single-track Jordan plow behind the tamper, these little cast metal kits complete the scene.  It's been more than 30 years in the making to get them on the Onondaga Cutoff, and seeing that come to life has been a really rewarding part of the long view.  

Don't be afraid of long term goals!  Keep your eyes and mind open, and you get your chance finally to make it happen.