Frank’s Models, pt 1

Virtual RPM, , , , ,

Resin Car Works Chief Frank Hodina was recently trackside and grabbed a batch of photos to share on the blog. Here are his notes. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

I hadn’t taken any model photos recently and thought I should document some of my HO scale fleet on a sceniced portion of the layout. I had installed new LED lights on a portion of the layout and I wanted to see how these look under 6500 Kelvin lights. We lead off with Illinois Central 8976, an old, out-of-the-box Life-Like P2K GP-7. Extras details include MU receptacles, speed recorder, air lines to the truck brake cylinders, a new brass horn, cloth sunshades, and Chet French positioned as the engineer. Chet’s a longtime friend and a retired IC engineer. Chet also knows just about everything and anything you could want to know about the IC.

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Illinois Central Enterprise offset hoppers

Resin Freight Cars, , ,

Matt Smith sent photos and notes on his recent IC hopper builds. Here’s his info on the models. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

I picked up a pair of Resin Car Works Illinois Central Enterprise hoppers during last year’s Chicagoland RPM. I had a chance to meet Frank Hodina and Eric Hansmann. It’s neat to meet to folks behind these great kits. I had never built a complete rail car model in resin and I wanted a new challenge. I had dealt with resin years ago during my scale modeling days, back then the pieces were crude and needed a lot of work. Boy have times changed. I was very impressed with the quality and fidelity of castings. The fine detail is amazing!

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Layout Design with Nelson Moyer, part 4

Layout Design, , ,

A Septuagenarian’s Approach to Layout Wiring

Nelson Moyer is back with an installment on wiring his layout. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

I’m getting old, I wear trifocals, and I have severe astigmatism that is only partially corrected. The most unpleasant thing about building a layout as far as I’m concerned is to have to work under it. I have sought to minimize the amount of wiring I have to do underneath the layout by doing as much as possible at the workbench.

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Semet-Solvay Type 27 10K gallon tank car

Resin Freight Cars, ,

Jim Kubanick sent details on his latest HO Scale freight car kit build. Here’s Jim with the scoop.

Well, I’m back to building another tank car. Semet-Solvay 3106 is a Yarmouth Model Works kit modeling a Type 27, 10,000-gallon tank car built by ACF in 1938 to transport industrial solvents. The platform surrounding the large expansion dome is unusual for this type of car and this makes it a very interesting model, in my opinion.

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