I am working on the layout again.
And it feels great!
If all goes well, I hope to be spiking down some rail this weekend in Locust Summit.
Author Archives: George Losse
January 30th!
Holy crap that was a fast month!
A lot going on here, mostly life and work stuff, not much new with the layout except that benchwork is moving forward again. I did manage to get away to the Museum in Hamburg this month. It was a great visit! Answered many questions and generated just about as many new ones.
For the people that have asked about Reading Freight Cars Volume 2 & 3, let me just say we are talking with Reading Tech to convert the materials to be published in the Bee Line. More on that as it progresses.
I also pulled out a model project that I started with a friend about ten years ago. After a couple of hours working on it again, it reminded me why I’m in the hobby. It was also wake-up call about the layout. I can’t let the layout get in the way of what I enjoy most about the hobby, which is building freight cars.
RY Models NEW 70-ton Keystone Truck
RY Models New 70 ton Keystone truck – Side View.
RY Models New 70 ton Keystone truck – End View.
Imported By: RY Models
MSRP 12/2012 $42.00/pr.
Description:
With the release of the USRA 70 Ton Triples from RY Models, Rich also introduced a new Proto48/O Scale truck. The Keystone 70-ton pedestal-type side frames truck, which was built by American Steel Foundries (A.S.F.). They appear in photographs of the of The USRA cars throughout most of their lives.
The new truck was produced in Proto48 and O Scale and is available on the new USRA 70 ton cars and as a seperate item. The trucks are available from RY Models for $42.00 per pair. http://www.richyodermodels.com/rym-o-scale-trucks.htm
I received these trucks under my hopper cars and also purchased a couple of pairs to go under a pair of cars I have been kit-bashing from the IM USRA Twins which will rerepresent the spot-repaired cars the NYC rostered later in their service lives.
NYC 915709 – photo from RY Models Website
The photo shows an NYC triple after being rebuilt with a center saw-tooth hopper and you can clearly see the Keystone Truck under the car. The website also shows them under C&O, P&LE, PMcK&Y and Virginian hoppers.
NMRA Proto48 Specification:
I measured the trucks and find that they are within NMRA spec. Here are the measurements and I’ve added their measurements to the NMRA S-4.1 Proto48 Wheel Standards
| Check Gauge | Back to Back | Wheel Width | Flange Width | Flange Depth | |
| Specification Range | 1.124 1.134 |
1.100 1.112 |
0.115 0.120 |
0.024 0.028 |
0.022 0.026 |
| RY Models 70 ton Keystone truck
double insulated axles |
1.132 | 1.104 | 0.115 | 0.026 | 0.023 |
Plus and Minus… Opinions:
On the plus-side: The trucks measured up fine against the NMRA Specification and the track fine under the cars. The trucks do look very nice, they capture the look of the prototype based on the photo I’ve seen.
On the minus-side: They do look slightly compressed (width wise) at the spring area, the photos show a wider three spring front face, as typical with 70 ton trucks of the time. The model has the center spring slightly recessed, almost like the difference between a 70-ton and a 50-ton truck.
Another issue with most RY Models trucks is that they do not have any casting information on the side frames. You know, the cool looking letters on the side frames that in O scale you can actually read. But being able to read them is part of the problem also, what should it say? I know Rich has wanted to model this information in the past and has reached out to a number of freight car experts seeking out this information with varied success. I know first-hand that rather than guess or put the wrong information there he has chosen to not include it.
Overall: The minuses have not held me back from purchasing these trucks. I look forward to their use under my hopper cars for many years to come.
I’m very glad to see a new freight car truck on the Proto48/O scale market.
2012 Cleveland O Scale Show – November
The Cleveland O Scale Show came right on the heals of Huricane Sandy, which was felt from New Jersey all the way to Chicago. Lots of people were talking about the storm. Surprising to hear how many were without power in the other states it hit. A number of people I expected to see at the show were not there because they were cleaning up after the storm.
For those that did go to the show, there were a lot of people selling off collections of built cars, plus a number of folks selling their own extra models. There did not seem to be many dealers with new or current stock on their tables, maybe three or four dealers. That’s not to say that there wasn’t plenty of models at good prices.
There was one new manufacturer at the show, OscaleTurnouts, Inc.™ had a display of their new O scale turnout offerings. They are built up using PC boards to keep the rails in gauge and Right-O-Way castings to make them look great. One feature I really liked, they worked out how far to extend the rail at the end of the diverging routes so that two turnout laid together will be spaced correctly for a 4 inch centerline single cross over. It said to me they have done more then just built a jig to build the turnouts in, they have designed a though out product.
2012 Strasburg O Scale Show – October
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?
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
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
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”
2012 Cherry Valley O Scale Show – September
The show at the height of atendance
Here is a photo from the show. That says enogh.
Regurgitated Information – The Opposite of Research
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 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 cue.
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.