2016 Cleveland O Scale Show – November

Posted on November 6, 2016 by George Losse

Yesterday, the Cleveland O Scale Show was held in Kirkland, OH. Sam Shumaker continues to put on a fine show. This one was no different.

There was a fine selection of new and used models for all price ranges. The show was well attended and had over 100 tables sold.

Even in Cleveland there was something of intrest for a Reading modeler. A Gem B8 Camelback, clean and looking as nice as the day it was imported 40+ years ago. Thankfully, someone else took it off the table at the beginning of the show. It was priced low enough that it almost made me stray from my 1952 modeling period and buy a model of a prototype that was retired in 1948.

It was very nice to see Jay Williams and Bob’s Photos at this show. We don’t always see them at an O scale show. I made it a point to bring home some photos for future projects from both of them.

I did have a funny thing happen at Jay William’s table. I was going through a pile of photos of freight cars when I saw an image in the pile that I recognized. It was an image of an H21a. I know the photo because the negative has been in my collection since the eighties. I turned the print over and sure enough it was written on the back “Image from the Collection of George Losse” in my hand writing. It is a small world.

2016 Strasburg O Scale Show – October

Posted on October 16, 2016 by George Losse

On Saturday, I was at the October Strasburg O Scale Show in Lancaster County, PA. It was a beautiful Fall day, not even a distant memory of the Summer Show’s HEAT.

This show was missing a number of the regular dealers. I was told, some had family commitments and some had health issues keeping them from the show. Still, Rich and John put on a great show with just a few less tables. The crowd was steady all day.

I did take care of some business at the show. Carl Jackson returned my Weaver G1 mechanism back to me with the drivers converted to Proto48. I gave him the mechanism at the Strasburg August show and he returned it finished at the October show, about two months later. I’m still waiting for my T-1 drivers from another machinist for over two years now. Not only was Carl quick with the conversion but it looks great also. I’ll have more to say and post about the G1 locomotive this Winter.

For the Reading fan, there was a pair of Reading N1’s built from the old IHB 0-8-0’s (see above photo). While there were neat models they did have some inaccuracies. Considering when they were built, they did look nice. There were also number of Reading switchers on the tables at the show.

All in all, a good selection of models to choose from and a nice show.

2016 Strasburg O Scale Show – August

Posted on August 16, 2016 by George Losse

Well, I had an image for this post…. but it must have melted.

On Saturday, I was at the August Strasburg O Scale Show and it was HOT in Lancaster County, PA.

Now if you remember the April Show, they had a little snow in the morning. Well we could have used some of that in Saturday. Even with the heat, it was a good show as always. They had 100 tables sold for the show and the show was well attended.

For the Reading fan, there was an SGL G-3 in the room and a Weaver G-1. There was also a Weaver Crusader locomotive and cars in the room. Also a couple of Reading switchers on the tables at the show. There was lot of brass models for those into that and a fare amount of parts for different projects.

I did something different for me at this show. Rather then just by a car on the table, the seller was looking to trade his car for another. Turns out, I had an extra model of what he was looking for, a few minutes conversation later, he set this car to the side and we’ll exchange the cars at the next show. That should work out nicely.

I did pass along my Weaver G-1 mechanism to Carl Jackson, so he could convert it’s drivers to Proto48 for me. He was even thinking he might be able to get it back to me by the next Strasburg Show. That would be great!

Kind of wished I’d sent my T-1 drivers to Carl. It’s been over two years since they went out and no word about when they might be ready yet.

Microscale Decals Re-Issues Reading Open Hopper decals

Posted on July 19, 2016 by George Losse

Recently noticed that Microscale Decals has re-issued the O Scale Reading Open Hopper car decal. This has been out of stock at Microscale since about 2009. This is a really nice decal, much more accurate then any other brand that’s been offered.

Also recently back in stock are the B&O E and F unit decals for the early paint schemes.

Protocraft’s General Casting Corp Type 41-N passenger truck

Posted on May 31, 2016 by George Losse

A couple of years ago I picked up a 3-rail seven car set of the SGL Reading coaches for a very good price. It turns out that Protocraft had imported a General Casting Corps 41-N passenger truck which is what is under them. So it looked like the conversion would be rather simple.

Well, nothing is ever as simple as it might first appear. I test fit one set of trucks under a car and thought the car might be sitting a little high. Thinking I had to modify the 3-rail bolsters under the cars the project ground to a screeching halt. The box with the seven pairs of trucks sat on a shelf right next to the cars for a while (it sat long enough for me to have to dust off their roofs as I worked on them).

I just finished a cleaning project in my train-room, well I’m still still cleaning some parts of the room. So lets just say I cleaned a spot to put my old drafting table back in the train-room. Now, I can work on projects on a much wider area. Feeling inspired, I pulled one of the cars down and set it on top of the trucks again. I never did actually attach the trucks to the car. My thought was that I would figure out how much I would have to mill the bolster down to bring the cars down.

I wasn’t exactly sure how much that was so, out came the books. First couple of images were close but it was hard to tell. So, I went through the images I had on the computer. Again the car looked like it did in the photos. Cool, maybe I didn’t have to mill the bolsters after all.

The Precision Scale Company bolster screws fit nicely into the SGL bolsters and they actually fit the Protocraft trucks also. So, it was a simple matter of attaching the trucks using the Precision bolster screws and springs.

Next up for these cars is fitting couplers onto them. Since, they started out as 3-rail cars they don’t have any coupler mounting pads on them.

Mainline Modeler Magazine on DVD

Posted on May 16, 2016 by George Losse

I was reading Trevor Marshall’s Port Rowan in 1:64 site about a week ago. He had a post talking about how the Complete Collection of Mainline Modeler was being released on DVD through the C&O Historical Society.

This is great news. I’ve always liked Mainline Modeler and really miss it since it stopped production. My collection was missing about 40 issues, mostly from the late 80’s. It is the last magazine that I have been keeping, both my MR’s and RMC issues have been cut and I’m just saving some articles and drawings. But this will free up almost nine feet of shelf space taken up by the back issues. I had to order the DVD.

It came in this past Friday and I think it’s great. The scans are much better than other magazines that have been digitized in the past and the files are PDF’s so they are very easy to read.

My only real complaint is that the center spread drawings are done as multiple page scans. Which is not the best to try to print out and use to build something from. So on potential projects where I have the back issue, I’ll save the printed version of the drawings.

It’s a little pricey at $249 for non C&O Historical Society members, but the information is priceless. And it’s so much easier to store than all the old magazines.

C&O Historical Society’s Mainline Modeler order page.

Image from the C&O Historical Society page.

2016 Strasburg O Scale Show – April

Posted on April 9, 2016 by George Losse

This was the view on the drive home. Not the best of weather to be out for a train show, but the April 2016 Strasburg Show was worth the adventure. The show was well attended. The foot traffic inside was steady all day and only slowed down just before the close of the show. I even was able to get a quote from John Dunn about the weather for a Strasburg Show.

In the Proto48 crowd we missed Jim Hawk and Carl Jackson at the show, they both regularly have tables at the show. But there were a number of new dealers at the show.

For Reading Modelers, I did see a number of locomotives at the beginning of the show. There was an SGL G3 with a set of passenger cars, a couple of Weaver G1’s and three tempting camelbacks on a table just across for where we were located. All but one of these steam locomotives found new homes during the show. Fran Pfiel also had a nicely decorated Custom Brass Alco switcher in the Reading Pullman Green.

Other things of interest, there were a number of the hard to find Pacific Limited brass box cars. I saw an Erie ’32 ARA box car, a NYC USRA Design 9’4″ IH door and a half with AB brakes and Gilroy doors, A P&LE USRA box car and a couple of PRR X23 box car. There were also a number of the not so hard to find Pacific Limited cars like the H21a’s and the X23 work cars.

I also saw some Parri cars on at least three different tables. What I remember were a WM fish belly hopper car an N&W triple hopper, a PRR H35 class hopper and a PRR G22 gondola.

There was also some of Norm’s Proto48 Flex track on one table and some High Sierra Models Proto48 turnout parts. Nice to see these also find new homes.

It was great to see and talk with the familiar faces at the show, I also noticed a number of new faces in the buying crowd which was very encouraging. All in all it was another nice show put on by John Dunn and Rich Yoder.

Not Much Going On

Posted on February 5, 2016 by George Losse

Not much new going on.

Here is a shot from yesterday at one of my favorite lunchtime spots, the West Trenton station. This was the second freight to pass while I was there during my lunch-hour, the first was a North-bound train with a bunch of UPS trailers on it. There was one more South-bound train passing before I left. I’m not that into the modern look but they are still trains.

Not much has happened with the layout recently. The good news was I have been going into the basement 4 or 5 time a week since last Summer… just not to work on the layout. As I said to my brother this past week, I moved my film processor into the basement last Summer and have been processing a ton of film since.

I hope to have some new stuff to talk about soon as I have a couple of projects lined up after the processing gets caught up.

Modeling the Reading in Proto48

Modeling the Reading in the Summer of '52

Yearly Archives: 2016