altivo

On the spur of the moment this morning, we decided to spend the afternoon at the Great Midwest Train Show in DuPage County. Bit of a drive, but it was a huge model railroad flea market and fun to browse. Here's the point where I'm supposed to admit that I bought a bunch of stuff I didn't need, but the truth is, neither of us bought anything. Still, we had fun and saw a lot of interesting things.

Now, here's a picture of two N scale boxcars with Detroit Toledo & Ironton RR markings:

But I didn't get these at the show. I bought them off Ebay last week for $4 apiece. We saw two or three just like them at the show, offered for the same price. I saw no other DT&I rolling stock, though. If I had seen some appropriate items without markings, I might have bought them to customize myself, though. These two cars need some detailing to make them stand out better, but all that requires is a fine brush and a little thinned down paint. I'll photograph them again when I'm done with that.

I was really hoping to find a bargain on an N scale locomotive, but no such luck. I have very specific ones in mind, and again I want to be able to "brand" them for the DT&I. I'd like a good steam locomotive, and for the post-WWII era I'm after, it should apparently be a 2-8-2 heavy Mikado style engine, at least as far as I can tell from period photographs. I'd also like a GP-7 or GP-9, or even a pair, and preferably the earlier 7. Most of the Diesels we saw were later, heavier models, but the Geeps were what DT&I used at that time period.

Current Mood: artistic
Current Location: Frigid oak grove

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

avon_deer

Those will be the things that rattle past my house at night.

From:

altivo

*lays on the air horn as he passes, spelling out your name in Morse code*

.- ...- --- -.

For some reason, train noise doesn't bother me nearly as much as other traffic sounds. Probably because it's less frequent and not as loud. Also I grew up with it.

From:

avon_deer

Oh it doesn't bother me either. I have double glazing, and I have got used to what little sound you CAN hear when they pass. But it was a worry when I first moved in, I admit.

It is actually far worse when one of these sits outside my house, with it's engine just ticking over.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1gAO9VN4RMg/SwSB4e5G4yI/AAAAAAAAEcA/-zYthvVWxWM/s1600/X+AL+0Z70+70001+C.jpg

From:

avon_deer

From:

altivo

Oooh, nice photo. Yeah, when they sit idling they can be irritating. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to happen so much in most places. Like steam engines, the big Diesels are a pain and time consuming to restart if they are shut down and allowed to cool off. The idea is to keep them working all the time unless they need repairs.

When we lived in Chicago, there was a passenger rail station just two blocks (under a kilometer) from our house. It was convenient when we wanted to use the train, and we took advantage of it almost daily. The locomotives did make a racket when they were standing in the station, but usually that was only for a minute or two before they moved on. City buses, though they never passed closer than that, made a lot more noise.

From:

avon_deer

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=wf15hb&hl=en&ll=53.670109,-1.474488&spn=0.000605,0.001206&sll=53.683298,-1.505924&sspn=0.073606,0.239296&vpsrc=6&hnear=Wakefield+WF1+5HB,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=20 << my house is labelled "A."

If you pan over to the tracks, you can see the junction they have to stop at...close is not the word. :D

However as I said it's easy to get used to.

Sorry about all the incorrect threading btw..I am having trouble this afternoon,

From:

avon_deer

From:

altivo

Yeah, that's far enough away to be tolerable. Especially if you have good insulation and windows.

From:

songdogmi.livejournal.com

At first I thought of Leland Stanford, but I figured you'd like this better:

It's an icon of a railroad icon!

(Sorry, but Wikipedia's image was of a canceled stamp.)

From:

altivo

Maybe I should make an icon of "Casey Pony" or "Casey Wolf" except I'm so cautious I'd never have been in the Casey Jones situation.

Henry Ford owned the DT&I from 1920-1929, so maybe I should use him as a model? ;p

From:

songdogmi.livejournal.com

I wouldn't think Henry Ford would make a more palatable icon for you than Stanford, even if he did own the right railroad. :)

You're making me reconsider my notion of putting together a Lake Superior & Ishpeming train.

From:

songdogmi.livejournal.com

(Gah, and now *I'm* misthreading things. Oops.)

From:

altivo

Mmm, I didn't know about the LS & I at all. That should have some really cool scenery you could model. Deer along the tracks, too. Or wolves, without too much of a stretch. Especially if you go back in time and do it in the steam era.

N-scale is not terribly expensive and yet it's small enough to fit in about half the space of the more popular HO trains.

Judging by what I find immediately on Ebay, there are fewer items floating around with that line's name already on them. You'd be doing some custom painting or decal work, but probably worth the trouble.

From:

songdogmi.livejournal.com

It wouldn't need to be a big layout, because it's not a big railroad. :) But it would need considerable elevation in the landscape. And a harbor. And perhaps a ship in the harbor. Ooh, now this is sounding big.

I never managed painting and detailing on models very well when I was a kid. My partner did, though. Maybe I can get him to do the lettering.... so what if he did cars and airplanes. How hard can a train be? :) Don't answer that.

From:

altivo

Trains are a little easier, actually. They usually offer flat surfaces, for one thing. The size of N scale models is a bit daunting, and might require magnifying glasses. Common logos and identifying numbers are available in decal form, which helps. It certainly should not be hard to paint the base color on items that need it, though an air brush might be a good idea.

Most of the commercially produced rolling stock I've seen appears to be silk screened, with predictably fuzzy results. Decals are probably preferable to that if applied with care. Silk screening also means that they make many-many cars with the exact same appearance. If you want realism, you know that no two boxcars or hoppers should have the same serial number on them. ;p I'll be changing one of these by altering the final "4" to a "1" on both sides of the car.

I'm already resigned to painting my own cabooses (cabeese?) since they were indeed in use during the era I'm looking at and DT&I had an unusual paint scheme for them. I'm not worried about matching the red and yellow perfectly though. I saw an interview with an ex-DT&I worker who said they used to go to the local hardware and buy whatever paint was on sale that week. XD

From:

casey382

Read your last tweet. No, keep going.
Here's this ad again. Model Power 2-8-2s $59. Best price you'll see.
http://www.trainworld.com/2-12TW_N_Layout%201.pdf
Then you can stop for a while.

From:

altivo

Thanks for the pointer to Model Power. I've looked at that brochure several times, but I was mainly looking at the Atlas and Kato items. Of course, item number 7470 on Trainworld's web site is a refer car and not a locomotive, but I'll figure it out.