Author Archives: George Losse

2012 Strasburg O Scale Show – October

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I attended the Fall Strasburg Show today. I have to say that was a good show today for me. I got the chance to catch up with a lot of folks today and I came home with a lot of stuff. I hope everybody else there also had a good show.

There were lots on new things to see and learn about today. RCS America was at the show demonstrating their new Raillinx System. I was impressed with their system and the way it was installed on their sample models. Dead Rail is getting closer to being a reality.

I also got to look at the new Weaver Milwaulkee Boxcar. Bob Hiel had a pilot model from Weaver on his table today. Below are images of the car:

One thing I always enjoy about going to a Strasburg Show, is just being in the Amish country. Even their parking lot are fun to look at.

Standard Boxcars? Over represented?

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Model manufacturers love the “Standard” Boxcars. We have commercial models of the USRA Single Sheathed, the 1937 AAR, and the Pullman Standard PS-1. The reason is easy, build one model and paint it in all the roads that owned them. This gives them a great chance to recover their investment in die work for the models. The trouble for us modelers is that it’s easy to have some car types over represented in our freight car fleets. It was worse back when there were fewer models but it still can get out of control fast.

There have been a number of articles and books published about the different “Standard” car types. I decided to do a little exercise the other day. I pulled out the different lists and began to plot the roads that had each of the “Standard” car types. Then I dug out my 52 ORER and found out how many total boxcars the roads that received the “Standard” cars had. That was a total of 769,711.

The total for the number of  “Standard” cars on the roster was  278,979 or 38% of the total cars on those roads. I cut off the PS-1 build numbers at August of 1952 which is when I’m modeling. These totals did not include any 50 foot cars or automobile cars of 40′ or 50′ length. That will be another post.

What does that really mean? If you believe that the free roaming cars like boxcars, flat cars and gondolas will be proportional to the number of actual cars on the prototype rosters (except for home road cars), then a little more than a third of the boxcars on your railroad should be of the “Standard” cars. The other two-thirds of your boxcar fleet should be the automobile cars, the 50′ cars and the railroad designed cars, like the B&O wagon tops, or the Milwaukee Welded Ribbed cars.

If you were going to build 100 boxcars, the thought would be 38 of the cars would be of one of the “Standard” cars. The other 62 cars would be made up of the automobile cars, railroad designed cars and the 50 foot cars.

Now as far as what roads they should be, I believe that the roads that had the most cars of a type are the most likely to be seen based on the proportions, but that talk is for another time.

USRA SS
9756
2
USRA DS
5215
1
23 ARA
66,125
9
32 ARA
11,854
2
37 AAR
60,077
8
37 AAR mod
41,094
5
War Emergency Boxcars
5342
1
44 AAR
34,065
4
PS-1
46,271
6
Totals from the 1/52 ORER
279,079
38

A Nice Little Vacation

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My wife and I just stepped away for a really nice little vacation in the Finger Lakes area of New York. We stayed in Watkins Glen, NY. Turns out our hotel room overlooked the old Northern Central/PRR line through town. This was part of the Elmira Branch above Elmira. I had studied the line from Elmira to Williamsport, PA with the idea of modeling it. I never did start the layout. I just could not put enough Reading into the layout.

The first day a Finger Lakes Railway local came right past our hotel. We didn’t see any other movement on the line the rest of our time there.

On the ride up we stopped at the Red Rose Diner in Towanda, PA. The service and the food was nice.

I did see a couple of station survivors while exploring the area. The upper image is from Montour Falls, NY also on the Elmira Branch. It’s now a doctor’s office.

The second station is from Hammonsport, NY and it is now a police station.

Just as you get into town in Watkins Glen the is the Millionaires’ row of campers/trailers. They looked nice but the locals were not too friendly.

Now that I’m relaxed from the nice vacation, it’s time to get back to the benchwork.

Rails Unlimited – 1932 ARA Standard Boxcar with Radial Roof

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Lee Turner's model of the Rails Unlimited NKP/C&O 1932 ARA boxcar
Lee Turner’s model and photo of the Rails Unlimited NKP/C&O 1932 ARA boxcar

Manufactured By: Rails Unlimited
MSRP August 2012: Flat kit $80.00  Assembled body $110.00
Masters By: Lee Turner

Rails Unlimited released a 1932 ARA Standard Boxcar with radial roof. The masters for this car were done by Lee Turner who also built the car in the photo. I picked up a kit at  this year’s National. Ted is offering the kits two ways, either a built up car body that needs to be detailed or as a flat kit.

Prototype History
The 1932 ARA Standard Boxcar was the first all-steel boxcar adopted by the American Railway Association. Unfortunately for the design it was adopted near the height of the Depression. Because of this, not many railroads had the funds to buy this design. The total number of cars was only 14,500 cars. The history of these cars are thoroughly described in Ted Culotta’s book, The American Railway Association Standard Box Car of 1932 (Speedwitch Media, 2004).

The models are based on two orders of cars for the NKP and C&O which were built with a Hutchins radial roof. The prototype cars were built in 1934, 500 cars for the NKP in series 13000-13499 and 650 cars for the C&O in series 7000-7649.

The instruction list these cars lasting into the mid sixties in large number while a few cars survived into the early 70’s. My January 1952 ORER lists 634 out of the 650 C&O cars in service and 479 out of the 500 NKP cars in service plus 5 cars with Note H. So what was Note H you ask?

“Note H – Individual numbers of cars in service in series 13000 to 13400 having roof hatches and differing in A.A.R. Mech. Designation from other cars in same series; A.A.R. Mech. Designation LC: 13065,  13084,  13213,  13311,  13313”

Regurgitated Information – The Opposite of Research

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The Baldwin drawing for the walkways over the radiator openings on the AS-16’s

How many times have you heard a modeler spew something about a model, that you know to be dead wrong? And you know darn-right well they have not researched it at all, they are just regurgitating something they heard another modeler say. Did that person look at what they were talking about or did they just spit out what they were told? And once it has been repeated often enough, everyone believes it.

One of the reasons I moved some of my modeling interests away from the PRR was the number of times I heard guys comment about the Sunset H-9’s. They all said the same thing about the belpair slope. Did anybody question what research the first guy who said that looked at to make such a statement? Most guys have pointed to the line diagrams of the class. Well these drawing while they are railroad drawings are not accurate for boiler shape. Did anybody research it on their own? Did anybody look at it against photos? Nope they all regurgitate it on que, just like Pavlov’s dogs.

What I have found is that most people that tend to do this have NEVER done any research on their own. I’m not talking about opening a Morning Sun book and believing the fiction that is their captions. I’m talking about assembling a pile of photos (with dates) and looking for the details and when they change.  I’m talking about digging through company records at a museum or a private collection. I’m talking about actually going out and measuring a freight car or a real building. I spent most of a day measuring and photographing the PRR GLe I found in South Amboy back in the early eighties. Or even just doing a full photo study of a car with a hundred or so images not just the three normal images in a photo study; the Three Quarter, the End View and the Broadside.

Even the best authors can miss things. Case in point, one of the Reading Myths, the after-coolers on the FT’s were put on during a shopping in 1956. In a recently published book, on page 111 that statement was printed, there was a photo on the bottom of page 112 with a 1950 date with the aftercoolers on the locomotive skirts. I first thought maybe there was a typo with the date. But most likely not, as the hand grabs were still black and the safety grabs over the windshields and on the nose are not there.  Also on page 110 there was a 1954 photo with the after-coolers also.

Just because it is published does not always mean that it actually was!

So either accept what the manufacturers produce and say is right, “nobody will see it anyway” or get off you ass and do some research.

Good prototype modeling starts with good prototype information.

2012 Strasburg O Scale Show – August

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Eastbound train going through Lebanon, PA

I attended the Strasburg show today. Even though it was only three weeks from the National, it appeared to be well attended. I saw a number of vendors that were not at the National. So we were not looking at the same materials on the tables that didn’t sell at the National as some had feared.

There was the typical stuff on the tables, some dealers but more guys selling off some of their extra stuff, some at bargin prices and some high prices. I did pick up a few kits and even found a box of proto48 wheelsets, but nothing big. The highlight of the day for me was Bob Jones brought me a set of pilot castings from his T-1 kit. They are a two part casting for the pilot. There are some differences but they are very close to the K-1 pilots.

Joe G. was showing off a couple of new things at his table. He had an example of the new turnouts the he has recently posted about on his site. There was a rather large crowd around the times I passed by.  That and being they are gauged for O scale and not proto48, I didn’t get a good look at the new products.

For the first time in a while, I was not selling off some of my surplus models at the show. It felt good to be just a modeler in the crowd. I got to see and talk with a bunch of other modelers today instead of having my conversations interupted by other’s questions about stuff on the table.

Another nice part about not being behind a table, I didn’t have to stay at the show until the end. I got in walked around for about an hour and then my wife and I had the day to wonder through the countryside.

We started our wondering with a late breakfast at Jennie’s Diner out on RT30.  I have been stopping there after the shows for a couple of year’s now. It’s a Silk City Diner built in Paterson, NJ in 1959. Love it’s look and the food is not bad either.

Then we headed up through Cornwall, PA to Lebanon, PA. I wanted to see what was left in Lebanon since studing photos from the ’50’s. The Station is there but not much else. Not one siding downtown anymore.

We worked our way east on the Reading Lebanon Valley Branch. Besides exploring Lebanon, we wondered through Prescott, Myerstown and Richland. I even got to see a couple of Norfolk Southern movements on the line.

Jennie’s Diner on Route 30

Station area Lebanon, PA

Myerstown, PA

Richland, PA

 

2012 O Scale National, Parsippany, NJ – The Model Contest

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Michael Rahiley’s kitbashed PRR SW-9 took Second Place in the Diesel category.

For the second time at an O Scale National, I had the pleasure of traveling with one of the award winners in the modeling contest.  Michael Rahiley won a Second Place award for his kitbashed PRR SW-9 (above image). He also received an Honorable Mention for his Pennsylvania RR Peddler Freight Train Cira 1957.  Congrats to Michael, this was the second time one of his models won an award at an O Scale National. Which is real nice since I remember, many years ago, sitting at my kitchen table teaching him how to build Intermountain kits. He has come a long way.

When I went through the model room the modelers names were not displayed with the models. Joe G. has posted photos on this thread on the O Scale Trains Blog with images of some of the winners in the different categories. Where I had a photo of one of the winning models I added the information based on Joe’s post.

2012 O Scale National, Parsippany, NJ – News

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A view of about half the vendor hall

 

The 2012 “O” Scale National convention was held at the Parsippany Hilton Convention Center, Parsippany, NJ. It was Hosted by the New York Society of Model Engineers. The convention featured over 300 dealer tables, 30 clinics, a model contest, a couple of bus tours and a number of home and club layouts.

What a difference a year makes, this year’s convention was well attended, well organized, and a good time. The NY Society were great hosts, announcing the beginning of the clinics and just being helpful. The Models on display were in a bright room. One thing that could have helped the ease of their viewing, the tables could have been a little higher like they are at a prototype modelers meet. I’ll post photo’s I took of the models tomorrow.

The availability of Proto48 parts was limited to a one dealer selling San Juan trucks, Rich Yoder selling P48 trucks and Steve Grabowski selling some loose wheelsets. That was disapointing and it teamed up with the P48 clinic being canceled because the speaker was not at the show. We missed a chance to show and talk about P48 products at this National.

There were a lot of “New” O scale items at the show as well as a lot of older models to choose from in the vendor halls. Here is a breakdown of the new stuff I saw:

Rich Yoder had pilot models of his announced ATSF Bx-3,-6 boxcars and SK-2 Stock Cars. He also had painted pilot models of his USRA 70 ton triple hoppers.

Bob Stevenson showed an updated Baldwin CNJ Double ender kit on his table. It was an upgraded version of the older LWS kit. He was also showing a C&NW 4-6-0 kit ready to ship.

Rails Unlimited had new resin models on their table of a C&O/NKP ’32 ARA Boxcar with radial roofs. They also had new MILW Road stock cars available.

Southern Car & Foundry was not at the show, but Caboose Stop Hobbies had his line of kits on the shelf including the new ATSF Bx-12 extended height boxcar, which managed to come home with me.

Key Model Imports had the pilot model for the SP AC-12. Stunning model, but thankfully not something I need for my railroad based on an estimated price around $6K.

Atlas O had some redesigned 2-rail trucks that people were talking about (shorter, more prototypical bolsters). Not something a P48 cares about, but the O scale crowd liked it.

RYM’s Bx-3 and SK-2

RYM’s ATSF SK-2 Stock Car

RYM’s Sk-2 pilot model

RYM’s Bx-3 ATSF Boxcar

RYM’s Bx-3 ATSF boxcar

RYM’s USRA 70 Ton Triples

RYM USRA 70 Ton Triple

A View inside RYM’s USRA 70 Ton Triple

Key’s AC-12

2012 Strasburg O Scale Show – April

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Another Strasburg O Scale show is in the rear history books. This was a very nice show. It was their largest show so far,  they added another row of tables in the firehouse and that was in spite of the fact that one of the bigger dealers had another commitment and could not attend the show. Don’t know about the attendance but it was solid most of the day and people were in a buying mood.

For me it turned out to be another milestone show. The last of over 800 feet of O scale flex track moved off my table at the show. Last year when I made the choice to move back to Proto48, I wondered how long that might take to move all that O scale flex track. Turned out to be just about a year.

Ben Brown was at the show thinning his collection down as he prepares to build a new Proto48 layout. Ben had some beautifully built cars and structures on his table that as he put it “were priced to move.” My thought was that he was selling them at a quarter of their value. In some cases they were they were beautifully built kits with full underbody detail for less then what other dealers in the show were asking for the basic kits.

Ben like many O scale modelers who have finished O scale layouts, had said that if they started over again that he would build their new layout in proto48, but he is the only one that I have known, that has actually done it. He has started a new layout in a new location and is modeling in Proto48.

Most of the usual suspects were at the show, and it was good to see them again. I do have to say that there were some new faces in the crowd.  The HO modeler that was asking about O scale at the recent RPM meet was at the show buying O scale models.

I left the camera in the car when I first arrived, I thought I’d have some slow time to go back out and get it. I was wrong, so I don’t have any photos of the show to share.