Peter Hall attended Train Fest last month and has filed the following report with the Resin Car Works home office. Bob Kosic sent along additional photos and details on the Mod-U-Trak HO scale layout. Click on any image here to review a larger size.
The venue was the Milwaukee State Fair Park’s new indoor arena. The area is about a football field wide and three fields long – huge. The crowd was over 19,000 for the two-day event. I hadn’t been to a model railroad event this large in a long time!
Many of us take time to reflect upon people, work, and events at this time of year. We gather as families to celebrate the relationships we have and the new people that have joined our world. We consider the efforts of our sweat and offer hope for better days ahead in our families and community.
Resin Car Works has had a solid debut year and I have many to thank for their efforts in this fledgling venture. A special holiday thanks goes out to our patterns and casting people, Tom Madden and Aaron Gjermundson, our kit instruction and decal creators, Ken Soroos, Dave Campbell, and Bill Darnaby, our prototype historian Ed Hawkins, the web guy Eric Hansmann, and our blog contributors, Paul Doggett, Charlie Duckworth, Peter Hall, Bill Welch, and Craig Zeni. Many of these people have also helped to guide Resin Car Works with ideas and actions. Frankly, I could not have done this alone and I am thankful for the extra hands. It’s the talent around us all that make this hobby special.
Most of all of course, I thank all the modelers who have bought our kits as your purchase reinforces our work to produce models of interesting railroad prototypes. I hope some of you will share your kit progress so we can post it here on the blog.
The first snow has fallen here at the Hodina ranch, a sure signal to move hobby projects along on the layout and for Resin Car Works. We have many hopes and dreams for the months ahead but for now we are thankful for our families and friends. Enjoy a festive Thanksgiving!
Frank
And now for something completely different! Peter Hall needed trees to set the distinct scenes on his California layout. Read along to discover his techniques. Click on any image here to review a larger size.
If you model prototype railroading in California, there is a good chance you will need to create good-looking Eucalyptus trees. I model the Southern Pacific Coast Line, and they seem to be everywhere, in groves of many trees or sometimes in lines along the right-of-way or a road.
Craig Zeni recently built an HO scale Yarmouth Model Works Wabash box car kit. He steps in with thoughts on the model and construction processes.
At first blush upon opening the box, this Yarmouth Model Works kit is a lot like many other kits with folded printed instructions, the one piece car body, and the separate floor wrapped in tissue paper. What is different is that one is greeted by the etched running board taped to the inside of the box lid and the balance of the parts in small zip lock bags. One thing I found very refreshing to see are etched parts for the ladders, brake levers and other brake brackets instead of resin pieces. Kadee grabs, Kadee Miner brake wheel, Moloco Miner brake housing, Tichy brake parts, and phosphor bronze wire make up the rest. The included decals are from Black Cat and are very nice, and trucks from Kato. This is a top shelf kit.
The castings themselves are outstanding. Very little flash was evident on the main body casting. I had it cleaned up and ready to go in about 10 minutes; the crossbearers and such not much longer. There are a lot of styrene kits that wish their parts were this clean.
Continue reading Wabash 12-panel welded box car from Yarmouth Model Works