D&RGW Model Railroad: March 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

Another Tractor

I got another John Deere GP tractor for Christmas. It adds a lot and looks good.

Ready for delivery

Farmer Joe's order is on its way

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

K-36 #481

One reason I haven't had many projects was because I drained my train funds (the wife even let me have a small loan) to make a big purchase. Model Mountain Import On30 K-36 #481.

The box arrives

Snug fit

K-36, 2-8-2, Flying Rio Grande, Black Boiler, Road #481

Oiling instructions and wiring diagrams

Lots of foam

More packing, here comes the engine.

Nice.....

Survived UPS

Tender Packing

Tender

Needs some coal and water

First look together

The K-36 is bigger than my K-28 and requires a minimum turning radius of 28-30 inches to run smoothly (current layout curves 26 inches). Instead of redoing my whole layout, I simply removed the trailing truck and it works pretty good (now it's a 2-8-0, but nobody will know...oh wait, its the internet...dang)

#481

K-36 and K-28

Rio Grande K-36

Difference in size

Tenders

Narrow Gauge at its finest

Photo & Model Contest

As part of the Holsters train show they invite people to enter the photo contest and the model contest. Last year I only entered photos and came away with a first and third place finish.

First Place 2008-Rolling Stock

Blue Ribbon

Third Place 2008-Steam

The photos are all spectator judged, meaning you vote for your favorite in each category. I was lucky to get anything. The stock car is the one on display in Antonito, CO at the station, and the K-28 is up at Cascade Wye near Silverton, CO. I picked to model my stock car after the one in my picture since I had good luck with number 5747.

This year for the contests I entered six pictures and two models. There was a lot of good competition, but I didn't leave empty handed. For pictures I got a third place in the Model Railroad category. The background is actually a big rock in our front yard. Since I don't have scenery on my layout I was trying to figure out how to make a picture of my K-28 look interesting. I Photoshoped the lights in to give it the apperance that is was on.

Mixed freight on the move

Third place 2009-Model Railroad
(Fancy 20th Anniversary ribbons)

For the model contest I entered my D&RGW Stock Car and my D&RGW Tool Car. For the models they do a spectator vote and they also have judges judging the models. There was a lot of good entries, but I was able to get a second place judges ribbon for my D&RGW Stock car 5747.

D&RGW Stock Car 5747

The Holsters' web site mistakenly identified my box car as the winner for a couple of days and had this picture on display.

Waiting to be jugded.
(Freight cars was a large category, it took up two shelves)

Second Place Judges Choice-2009 Frieght Cars

Rio Grande Tool Car 04549

This is one of the projects I have planning for awhile, but finally got around to it. This was straight forward and was not difficult. I started with an unlettered Bachmann On30 box car.

Out of the box

I airbrushed two coats of ghost ship gray and a lot of touch up paint to get a nice even coating.

First Coat

Second Coat

I purchased D&RGW Maintenance of Way decals from San Juan Decals. This allowed me to get the basics, but still needed the decals for the word "Tool Car" and the 04549. I actually looked around a bunch and then found the perfect decals online at Microscale Decals. The only draw back is they require you to have a minimum order of $20.00, so I ordered other items I really didn't need. Anyway I purchased the HO number and letter decals that would let me proceed with my Tool Car.

Decal Placement

I used a picture of the proto type for placement of decals

For this project I used Micro Set (used for 'gluing' the decals down) and Micro Sol (used for softening the decals so they conform to uneven surfaces). This was the first time I used Micro Sol and it worked great.