John Golden has wrapped up work on a coal gondola that reflects an interesting prototype. Here’s John with the details.
The Chicago & Illinois Midland Railway was a fascinating 100-mile, heavyweight coal-hauling railroad located in central Illinois. The railroad was assembled in 1905 by industrial giant Commonwealth Edison and was famous for operating long coal drags and overhead freight with second-hand steam engines from NYC, ACL and, DL&W through 1955.
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Malcolm H. Houck has been working on a couple of brass locomotive projects and sent a progress image of his NYO&W Class S 2-8-0 Double Cab. The railroad did not use the “Camelback” term for these locos.
The tender shell was formed from 0.010-inch brass sheet. A NWSL Riveter with a fence for positioning was used to impress the rivets. A new die was made from 01 oil hardening tool steel and finished with a bit of home alchemy heat treating. Malcolm snapped this shot to illustrate a temporary “lay-up” with the major locomotive parts at hand.
No. 45, the westbound KC Local, behind a USRA light Mikado, hustles into Metcalf, Ill., on Tony Koester’s HO tribute to the Nickel Plate Road’s St. Louis Division in 1954. The LCL boxcar behind the rider car looks like a blue-box kit, but its heritage is the last thing on the minds of the local’s crew as they plan their work in town and watch out for superior eastbound trains.
Tony Koester, editor of Kalmbach’s annual Model Railroad Planning and the Trains of Thought columnist and a contributing editor for Model Railroader, responded to an inquiry about his views of modeling a specific prototype vs. using one or more prototypes as the basis for a plausibly freelanced model railroad. Here’s Tony with more.
We keep trying to draw a line in the sand between prototype modeling and any form of freelancing. In my view, that’s both a waste of time and usually based upon faulty assumptions.
Let’s start with prototype modeling. As most of us who have done this to any extent have discovered, we are almost always faced with the choice of not getting much done, often owing to a lack of “complete” information, or the desire to make progress. “Analysis paralysis” is a very real aspect of prototype modeling. Many a grand plan has come to ruin on its shores.
