quod erat demonstrandum : 9 + 3 = 9

[Waldbahner]

Hello railroaders,

yesterday, I got the chance to prove that 9 +3 will be 9 !!!

Some of my first logging railroad cars in 2"-scale have been a short logging caboose (#9) and a tool car (#3), each build on top of a heavy duty single truck. Meanwhile, I doesn'z like the caboose anymore and the toolcar was build "very strong" and looked more than a toy as a model.



First I removed the trucks on this cars and mounted them to the coach, as the larger trucks are looking much better on this car. Next I build a new 18' car frame and placed the hood of old caboose #9 and most of the tool car stuff on top to create a new workcaboose. This time, I removed all electric equipment from the toolcar as my logging railroad will be placed in the era 1900 to 1910.

Here are two preview pictures of the work in progress. This evening I'll final mount the trucks as I missed the right hardware for this job.





I hope you enjoy my work.

Gerd

[finescalerr]

Nice salvage job. Perhaps you could repaint it and leave it outdoors to weather naturally ....  -- Russ

[Waldbahner]

Hello Russ,

naturally weathering is a good idea in this large scale.
I've to do something on the frame as it looks to shiny and new. Also the trucks could get some dirt on.

Gerd

[marc_reusser]

Cool. Looks like you had fun rebuilding this. The little shack looks like a great place for kids.


Marc

[lab-dad]

Neat!
Must be real fun working in such a large scale.
Glad to see you working toward reality rather than a cartoonish rendition.
Thanks for posting!
-Marty

[Waldbahner]

Good evening.

Marty you're right. It's a lot of fun. But the models are very large and heavy, so handling them can be very hard from time to time. You'll also need some room to store all this stuff. But when ever you're able to build a large scale railroad - I'm sure you'll enjoy it as it is close to the protoype when comming from any smaller scale.

So, here are actuall photos. I finally mounted the trucks and spend some "weathering" to the frame. Photographing outside without flash light gives much better results.




The new crew car is half way done and will be finished tomorrow.



Cheers, Gerd

[lab-dad]

I'm curious, why not just go full scale and use 2'  or 18" gauge?
Wouldn't be that much more work, would it?
Obviously more in materials cost.
-Marty

[finescalerr]

For what it's worth, a reader who owns both full scale and model size locomotives once told me it is less expensive to buy a 1:1 scale loco than to have a model of the same engine custom built. -- Russ

[marc_reusser]

Gerd,

I like the crew car. It reminds me of the Dixie Lumber Co. cars.  The dissconncts are a nice touch.

It also reminds me a lot of this image of the Madera Sugar Pine LCO. moving their camp cabins.


Marc

[Waldbahner]

Hello,

Marty - There are still some small differents between 5"-gauge and 18" or 24" gauge.
Since I live in Germany, it's not common for "normal" people like me to own a large property to build a railroad in 18"+ gauge. Even 5" isn't possible at my home and properties are very expensive.
And don't forget that you'll need much more room to store such vehicles in larger scales and they have much more weight. ^^
So building in 2"-scale may be the top level for my posibilities and I like it a lot. Normally, I would prefere Fn3 and say that's big enough, but riding and operating a large scale steamer is fun and gives me a touch of the real thing and I operate my logging railroad in a kind of role playing game (okay, sounds a bit cracy... But it's true)

Finally a have a friend in Dresden, Saxonia, how is building a light railway loco in 6" scale for 10.25" gauge. It's ONLY a very small diesel loco but weights over 400kg and isn't finished yet. But I think his loco will run for the first time until the end of 2009. Actually he's installing the reverse gear. You'll great detailed posts of his project here at www.dampfbahner.net => http://www.dampfbahner.net/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=3695 and http://www.dampfbahner.net/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=2196 for example

There are also some videos on Youtube. Please note that the loco is just rolling down hill. He has to push the 500+kg train up the hill each time since the drive mechanism isn't complete yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOBGJJRsHGc

Marc -  you remeber me that I'm still looking for the book "Pino Grande"...
I took the drawing on Lennart Elgs website for my crew car. As this car is also designed for 30" gauge I just scalled it up.
http://web.telia.com/~u85436044/pix/crew_car.jpg

BTW the car isn't finished yet. I just added the boards to the other to sides and painted the body simillar to the work caboose. Window glases, door and roof are still missing as also the steps and handrails, lettering and other detail stuff. But I think the car will be ready to run tomorrow.

[Waldbahner]

Good morning,

my work train has been finished just in time on late Friday evening. So I ran the whole train on out club layout this weekend. Here are some photos.

The work train


The new crew car


Ready to leave Woodsend station


Yardswitching at Woodsend station




A club member presented his Shay steam engine, built from loco gear castings. My "little" Shay is sitting in the background. The steam engine weights more as my loco frame and runs very fine on air.


I hope you enjoy the pics.

Cheers, Gerd

[lab-dad]

WOW!
Now thats cool!
One question; you commented how heavy and large your stuff is. How the heck do you get it around!
The Shays are very impressive! I'd love to see / hear more about the engine.
-Marty

[Ray Dunakin]

Gerd, your work train is a beauty! Thanks for the pics.

[Frederic Testard]

Gerd, seeing your work train run on this outdoor layout must have been a great pleasure. Are these models "naturally" heavy enough to track well, or do they still need some sort of weighing?
The Shay engine near your "little Shay" looks very nice.

[Waldbahner]

Hi,

don't worry about the weight of those cars. One wheel set weights 5 pounds and you've tow or more of them on each car. For normal trackage and operation, it will work. But pulling a heavy car at the end of an empty sting of log cars is difficult as a very light car between heavy loads. It's the same as in prototype.

To transport my railroad stuff, I build a wooden rack. This is mounted in my van with an clamping belt and the railroad stuff can be loaded very easy. The lower tracks are designed to hold the disconnects while the center spur on top will hold the steamer.



Bye, Gerd