Jason Hill of Owl Mountain Models contacted the Resin Car Works folks recently with new kit information! Owl Mountain will introduce a pair of HO scale, plastic injection molded flat car kits for Southern Pacific prototypes. These kits should be released very soon. Several of the prototype car classes came into service in the Teens and were used though to the end of the steam era, with many serving additional years in maintenance of way duty.
The RPM Chicagoland conference is looming on the calendar at the end of October. Organizer Mike Skibbe recently sent details on the mini-kit that will be available to advance registrants. A sample model isn’t quite ready at this time but it will be available in four scales.
Nelson Moyer has been busy building his CB&Q layout. His latest adventure has been building a helix. Here’s Nelson with his tips and techniques. Click on any image here to review a larger size.
Multi-level layouts are becoming more popular as they permit longer runs with more towns, sidings, industries, and thus more switching opportunities in a given footprint. The Burlington-Washington Subdivision of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad ran 53 miles Northwest from Burlington to Washington, IA, with trackage rights on the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific from Burlington to Mediapolis, IA, and on the former Burlington and Northwestern tracks from Mediapolis to Washington. The branchline passed through seven towns more or less equally spaced along the route. My goal was to model as many of those towns as I could accommodate in a 13 x 16 foot room.
George Toman returns with a technique to build fairly common underframe details. Here’s George with the scoop. Click on any image here to review a larger size.
Detailing freight car underframes has always been a high priority with me. A couple of common slack adjusters are the Royal F Type and Universal Type. I found these fairly easy to replicate using styrene. My goal was to develop a method to accurately construct these parts using common tools. One can be seen in the lead image mounted behind to the brake cylinder on a Milwaukee Road ribside box car.