Sorry for the site being down over the weekend. I was reviewing some things within the admin tool for the site and followed the wrong advice. Turned out that created a conflict with a plug-in, which created a fatal error on the site.
Trying to correct that took a little work. Let’s just say that now I know more about editing the database behind the site. Conflict resolved.
I’m back on track and the site is working again. It was a very frustrating couple of days. Back to modeling.
With a nor’easter coming into the area dropping snow, our offices were closed today. Almost felt like a little kid again wanting to go sledding.
This morning the workbench is full of models that were sprayed with Dull Coat on Saturday. The weather was nice enough to paint in the garage. Go figure.
I needed to seal the decals on my friend’s H21. I went through on shot gloss coat and dull coat on a few other models, 17 more actually. Most were cars I either picked up recently and updated the weight dates but others were lettered in recent months.
I’ve seen a lot of different things on eBay over the years. Never saw something like this before. Described as “heavily damaged” brass Overland cabooses. Looking at the details and they appear to be LV North Eastern cabooses. What a shame. These images lifted from the auction.
This morning I was studying diagrams and photos to try to see if I could find a simpler way to construct one of the Reading signature covered hopper cars, the LOb. I was looking to see if I was missing an option of a way to build them.
I opened one of the scans of a Reading Company builder’s photo of the LOb. When I noticed how banged up the ribs were. The ribs were reclaimed for 18 year old 70 ton quad hopper from the HTl and HTn classes. So they were not new. But look at the dents in the ribs.
Then I noticed a couple of things that made me laugh a little.
First, check out the bottom of the closest rib, it’s not cut square to the side of the car.
Next, check out how the board in the tack board on the frame is larger than the hold downs on either side. Would we consider rebuilding those details if it came out looking like that? Most of us would.
Next, look at the class stenciled on the car, “LOb”. The “B” is slightly lower than the “LO”. Even the stenciled built date doesn’t exactly line up level. As O scalers, we do not have as many options for decals as the smaller scales do. We often have to letter a car from bits and pieces of decal sets for different cars. Splicing a class together is common. I know I would have kept fussing with this one to make it line up better.
So are we too hard on ourselves? Maybe a little?
I will admit to looking at what hits the auction site. I have picked up a few things there over the years. Ok, more than I want to admit to, but this auction this week really amazes me. A Golden Gate Depot PRR 10-6 Pullman Factory painted sold for $1731.00.
Someone REALLY WANTED this one. I hope they don’t change their modeling focus in a year or two and try to sell it for this price.
We have all watched auctions that the seller set too high a starting price for something and then it sits on the auction site for months while everyone waits for the seller to lower the price. We all also know folks that have no patience and go after some of that overpriced stuff just because they think they may never see another one and they have to have THAT one.
This one started at a reasonable price of $100. I know I watched it with the thought of turning it into something other than PRR if it stayed low enough. It didn’t.
To put this into context, the new B&O 10-6 Pullmans that Golden Gate Depot has on their website currently are priced at $349 each.
This was not an accident. There were 29 bids on this car. I don’t get it. It’s not a set of cars. It was ONE car!
I’m happy for the seller, we all know the background in the images. Here are some of the images of the car from the auction.
So, I drove 120 miles, one way, today to go to the 2023 Harrisburg All O Scale Meet…
Then I remembered it was April Fools’ Day.
All kidding aside, this is and was a small show. Even though the show was promoted as an “All O Scale Meet” featuring “O Scale 2 Rail – O Scale Traction- Proto48 – On3 On30 – On2 – On18” the dealers were split about 60-40 narrow gauge to standard gauge.
I didn’t see ANY Proto48 at the show.
But I did see some 3 rail and a bunch of tables with S Scale parts.
The O Scale 2 rail dealers were the same dealers I would have seen at Chicago two weeks ago (if I had gone this year) and at the Strasburg Show two weeks from now.
One dealer I had not seen before was Les Davis, who had some absolutely wonderful 3D resin printed figures. That was one of the highlights of the show for me. I did bring home a few of the figures.
Getting the chance to speak with Les at the show was great. It turns out these figures are scanned from real people, mostly his friends, and reduced down to O Scale size. It took a while for that thought to really sink-in with me. Later, I realized, that opens up the possibility of being scanned and an O Scale version of yourself being placed your railroad or in your favorite locomotive. Kind of a cool thought.
Continuing with the 3D printed thought, Dylan Lambert had a sample of the the B&A passenger car and lots of his PCC car drives at the show. So I guess the drives covered the part of the O Scale Traction in the promotions.
There were a couple of table of buildings for sale. But there wasn’t a lot of movement on these tables. Same thing with the one vendor with built up trees and tree building materials. While I thought his prices were very good for the high level of quality of his trees. He seem to have the same amount on his table when I was leaving the show as when I arrived.
After I left the show, I had to sneak over to Enola. I used to shot on the overlook bridge a lot back in the late ’80’s. They have since rebuilt the bridge with openings in the fence on the bridge. It was nice to be back there and catch a couple of trains coming into the yard. I always liked the overhead angles that this location provided. Now with the fixed positions to see through the fencing, the views are a little more restricted than I remember.
Late today I received a message from my traveling companion for the day, “the dealer table sales for the show were up 50% over last year.” Wow, now I’m really glad I did not go last year. I thought this was a small show this year.
So the big question of the day, how was the show? I did buy from three different dealers today. Two of which, I would have seen two weeks ago in Chicago, if I had gone. I think next year I’ll just make sure I go to Chicago and buy from them out there.
April Fools’ Day joke or O Scale Show?
They worked out to be about the same today.
Your mileage may vary.
My General American 1928-Design 6000 Gallon 3-Compartment Tank Car from Tangent Scale Models arrived yesterday. This morning I’m enjoying my morning coffee in my dachshund Christmas cup looking it over this fine new model release.
This is Tangent Scale Models first model released in O Scale. The model is offered with either O Scale or Proto48 trucks. They are not the first to do that in O Scale, both RY Models and Protocraft have sold their models that way.
First Impressions:
It really is a nice car!
It is well engineered, well decorated and a solid model. Handling it on the workbench, I can say it is not as fragile as some highly detailed O Scale models in the past.
Some things are different from most brass imports. Starting with the box. Much thinner construction than often seen in brass models. Yet strong enough to make the trip to the US and keep the model safe from damage.
The Proto48 Trucks are nicely done and very free rolling. They have roller bearings in the journals. The spring cluster is nicely modeled compared to the usual ball point pen type springs used on some trucks. You can’t see through the spring cluster on the prototype and you can’t see through it on the model either.
Here you can see the fine decoration on the model.
Now to point out some of the engineering standouts. The draft gear is nice. Rather than just leaving a place to mount the oversize Kadee coupler box the box and draft gear are one unit to the bolster.
Here it is from the top.
I think it looks even better without the coupler pin.
And now just for a comparison, here is the Intermountain ACF 8000 Gal tank car along side the new Tangent Scale model. You can see the Tangent model is shorter ad the tank diameter is smaller.
I normally go for more of the Plain-Jane types of freight cars. I almost ordered the 1958 version of the GATX black car. I could have easily backdated the dates to work for my modeling period of 1952. I chose instead to buy a car that I didn’t have to modify at all. Looking at how nice the lettering is applied to the car, I’m glad I did.
Some people might think the the asking price is high. If you consider the added price of a custom paint job and a pair of Proto48 replacement trucks, the price comes in under what some undecorated 30 year old brass cars from Pacific Limited currently sells for. I think this new release from Tangent Scale Models is a bargain.
Since the Tangent Scale Models announcement the other day, a few people have been very vocal that they wanted a different model produced. Well if that is truly the case, they can drop the cash and invest in a new company and produce whatever they want. They don’t seem to do more than just complain anyway. I’m waiting for their announcement of a new company and a new model release.
“Caveat Emptor” is a Latin phrase that means “let the buyer beware.”
I had two years of Latin while in High School, but that is not what I want to talk about. I think I’m going to start a new “Category” for the site called “Caveat Emptor“
Today, I saw this on the auction site. It was listed as “YODER PRR 50 TON FREIGHT TRUCKS.” It clearly isn’t.
As you can see in the photos, the truck does not have a spring plank, brake beams or brake shoes. Also the wheels appear to be plastic and without any backside relief. This sure looks like an Athearn truck that was painted red.
We have all done this, buy a pair of trucks at a show to replace a pair on a finished car. When you are done installing the new trucks on the car you put the old trucks into the box. It a convenient place to store the old trucks. I know I’ve done it with some trucks.
Trouble is when someone buys a collection and has no idea what these are and lists them as a pair of brass trucks when in reality they are cheap plastic trucks. It’s even worse when they ask more for the trucks than when they were new from the importer.
Just be careful, not everyone selling stuff knows what they are selling.
Model photos cropped and edited from online images.
During the Proto48 Meeting at this year’s Chicago show, the topic of the blackened wheel treads came up. I was very surprised by how much talk there was about them and how passionate some of the folks were. It never dawned on me that some folks think it’s difficult to polish the wheel treads.
The above image shows a pair of Yoder PRR 2D-F8 50 Ton trucks straight out of the box about to find a home under an Atlas X29. Notice the blackened wheel treads.
I use a small my Dremel with a Rubber Polishing Wheel 320 Xtra Fine grit Silicon carbide. They come 100 in the bag for about $20. I think I found them on ebay a couple of years ago. Since then I may have used a half dozen of the 100 wheels. When they wear down or get a grove in them I just put on a fresh wheel.
I hold the truck in my hand and work the polishing wheel around the wheel. They can get hot so you have to work out a sequence to be able to continue to hold the truck. After about five minutes work, the wheels are polished.
What’s all the fuss? They talked about this issue longer then it takes to polish the treads on a pair of trucks.
BTW, this also works on loose wheelsets. Just polish the treads before you assemble a truck.
All done, now back to putting these under the X29.
Sunset imported EMD F3 A’s and B’s painted decorated for the Reading a few years ago. I did not order any as I DO NOT like to buy any new model sight unseen. This was the first time they were being built and you have no idea if the model will be accurate.
This weekend I finally saw photos of an actual model that was produced. I was not impressed and I’m VERY GLAD I did not order any.
The Reading EMD F3’s were classed as DF-2. They styled very similarly to the later F7’s. The had the later low profile 36 inch fans on the roof. They had the later large angled number boards on the nose. They also had Stainless steel grills on the top of the sides of the locomotives. Outwardly they were often misidentified as F7’s. The only real visual difference is the dynamic brake grid on the roof, they had a pair rectangular roof grids for the Dynamic Brakes instead of the F7’s 36 inch low profile fan.
Below are photos of the Sunset 3rd Rail Reading EMD F3 release.
These views of the A unit show what is wrong with the model:
The B Unit also has inaccuracies:
I’m not a fan of the model companies current practice of producing a run of a model. They expect you to buy a model sight unseen before ANY photos are released of an actual model. I have only done this one or two times before. Haven’t always been happy with what was produced. And haven’t always been able to sell off the unwanted BAD model.
When you mention this to other modelers they just say order it or don’t, the manufactures don’t really care. Well I care. I’d rather have a correct model than the beginning of an expensive project to add to the project list. My project list is already too large!
Faced with the future options of having to order a model before it’s produced, I think I’ve ordered my last new model for this lifetime.
I did not order any of these models from Sunset 3rd Rail. Now having seen the actual model that was imported, I’m VERY glad I didn’t.
Makes me again say, I will not order any models sight unseen. If that means I don’t get the New Whatever, so what? I have more than enough models here now to keep my project list full for the rest of my lifetime and maybe another lifetime in addition.
Model photos cropped and edited from online images.
Prototype images from scanned photos and negatives from my collection.