U18B Kitbash, 1903 & 322

Today's project is the ongoing kitbash of the U18B's. Although Intermountain makes a nice model of these in HO scale, the ones I needed were not available any more, so here I am working with a pair of Atlas U30C shells. Also of note, all of the prototypes I have chosen to model have the much older cabs with square headlight housings, which none of the Intermountain models represent. As part of my effort to always stay on a budget, I supplemented many parts from the Atlas spares on their website. Once painted, these cheap alternatives look just as good as anything from the high end detail parts manufacturers.

For these first two U18B's, SBD 1903 was chosen to lead the pack, pictured with the hose lights plated over:

This was also an experiment in using the cab kits from High-Tech. This is the first one I have ever built and while not horrible it will likely be replaced or touched up at a later point in this process. In addition I modified stock Atlas U23B frames to accept these shells, following instructions from a couple of articles on the subject of U18B's. However, my prototypes varied considerably from all the ones that have articles, so major adjustments must be made.

The aforementioned articles used two different shells merged together, generally the U23B and U33C/U30C. I was determined to make this work with a lone U30C shell. I would say this worked out well, despite the number of cuts that had to be made (4 total). This was my first time cutting up shells, but it did not turn out too bad once I perfected the method. Body putty from Testors was a real lifesaver here as well.

Ultimately I may elect to use Atlas cabs instead of the High-Tech kits, for the sake of cost savings and the simplicity of just dropping it on the shell. Dimensionally they are identical aside from the thickness of the cab walls, once painted it will hardly be a noticeable difference. Atlas seems to produce all 3 variants of the cab (4 window, 2 window, 2 window w/ 2 plated), and all in the square headlight format, which is required of my representations shown here.

The 4 window version above will become SCL 322 as it appeared in 1982, while the other model will be SBD 1903 (ex-SCL 303) as it appeared in 1985. The details on both will be about 90% matching, with the Seaboard System unit simply having different decals and heavy weathering.

Next update should be the completed walkways and pilots.


Train Order Office - Part I

As usual, I find myself awaiting on another pair of shipments to arrive in the mail before any of my projects can continue - the joys of returning to the hobby after so long without having an adequate parts/project stash!

Truth be told, I do not have that many concurrent projects, it seems that way to me from all the research on different aspects of this future layout. That being said the next area of attention is on a small structure that will make its way onto the layout no matter what year after 1978 or so. In the late 1970's, the old ACL depot at Enterprise was sold to a local historical society. However, it was an actively used train order station along the Elba branch, and a replacement would be needed.

Enter the small, concrete block office located on the west side of town, about 2 miles or so from the original depot.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3124430

This small structure is simple enough and is the center of railroad activity for the current Wiregrass Central shortline. I could not find a single reference online to this building, but at least two other known examples exist fairly close to this one:

At Elba, AL
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3492036

And Brundidge, AL
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=765365

As you can see above, all three show the same design, with the Brundidge version being built as a mirrored image of the other two. Looks like they wanted the main window to be trackside, makes sense. I strongly suspect there is a reference or engineering guide for these buildings, but I have no such materials among my collection.

The trend seems to be that these were built whenever the SCL was removed from the original depot in these towns. The original Elba depot was long ago destroyed by a flood, the fate of the Brundidge depot is unknown.

Now, down to the model. This structure is beyond easy to scratchbuild using pre-manufactured materials. The building is a simple 20'x20' cinder block construction and Pikestuff makes a perfect modular set of these in HO scale (part number 541-1006). You would need two packs to make the entire structure. I also ordered generic industrial doors and windows from Pikestuff (541-1200, 541-2104 x2, and 541-3000). At first I feared these doors would be too big or small, but Pikestuff seems to have nailed down the dimensions spot on.

I began with the concrete block walls mentioned above. The Pikestuff set includes 4 large interlocking panels, which perfectly come out to 20 scale feet. For this model I chose to cut these down horizontally to 16 blocks in height, just like the prototype. Save the scraps in case you need them later.

Next up, take the 2x4 windows, and size them up on the model. All the windows and doors on the prototype are three cinder blocks from the top.  Use the above reference photos to gauge the exact blocks distance from the edges. For the wall facing Hwy 84, I chose 1 cinder block and a half back from the left edge. The rear wall has a much smaller window, likely for a bathroom. It also has an air conditioner mounted in the window (use the BLMA detail part). Same as before, mount this window 3 blocks down, and cut along the grout lines on the cinder block wall panel.

Here is where we should be so far:

 

Note that the plastic is rather stout and takes quite a bit of cutting to get the removed sections free. Try and cut along the horizontal and vertical grout lines if possible. Work slowly. This will make for a clean look at the end. Note in the image that my lines did not come out absolutely perfect; later we will fill the small gaps with body putty to give a nice final product.

Part II will kick off when - as you may have already guessed - I receive some parts in the mail.

LXOH 35, LXOH 24 - Part I

Next up are two more of the LXOH family of covered hoppers. For this project, I have selected two cars, LXOH 35 and 24 to represent using the Tangent 4750 undecorated kit. Unlike our previous model, these prototype cars have 18 exterior posts, more similar to the PS 4750 covered hopper vs the 16 exterior posts and unique jacking pads on the 4740.

Here is a decent overview of LXOH 24, photos taken in September, 2013 at Enterprise:

 

As you can see, this car is an exact copy of the PS 4750, however, as you can see in the 3rd photo, these were in fact manufactured by Portec, at their Winder, Georgia facility. This car should be fairly straight forward and easy to replicate, it is a light beige color, nearly grey, and has light weathering.

 

Next, we have WGCR 35, formerly LXOH 35:

 

 

This car has only recently been re-stenciled to WGCR reporting marks. WGCR/LXOH 35 was chosen because of its heavy weathering, blue base color, and it's perfect match to the Tangent 4750 (Pullman Standard) car.

 

Among the assortment of covered hopper cars operated previously by G&O, most were of the Portec 4750 copies, however, the other largest quantity are the rather unique Portec Xtra 4750 cars, which feature a hefty side stiffener along the top of the car:

 

 

Other unique features include 18 exterior posts, the straight angled vs rounded top, unique sideways rectangular jack pads, the sill comes out of these jack pads rather than continue from the side of the car, and finally, the side ladders angle back towards the ends after the last grab iron.

 

Because of these features it would be difficult to modify the Tangent car to match this prototype. This one will have to wait until a closer commercially available version becomes available.

 

Starting point for 24 and 35, as mentioned, will be undecorated Tangent 4750 cars. At first glance, the cars do not require any modification to match the above prototype. The kits require light assembly, details to follow, and the only addition to the model will be the side mounted air line. I ordered a parts sprue I thought would contain the latter part, but it was not included. Therefore, I will be making the air line from wire stock and extra brackets from the 4740 kit.

 

As with the previous model, these also will receive Proto:87 wheels and Sergeant couplers to fit the future standards of the planned layout.

LXOH 68 - Part II

I received parts from Tangent, for the 4740 project only the rectangular, vertical jack pads are required to be added to the stock undecorated model for the purposes of this project. The only other noticeable differences from the prototype is a slightly different air plumbing routing, and the second grab iron on the stirrup - this may be modified at a later time. I cut the new parts from the plastic and removed the flash with a steel file.

 

I had to enlarge the holes for mounting the new jack pads slightly in order to ensure a snug fit. Once I was satisfied with the joint, CA cement was applied with a toothpick and adjusted into it's correct upright position. The new parts contain the small metal ring that is located to the outside on our prototype. A similar metal ring is included molded on the base model, located on the inside of the jack pad and was carefully removed and filed smooth.

 

At this time I also removed the trucks, couplers, lower draft box, and the small metal piece inside the coupler box for painting purposes. To that end, a suitable paint for this project turned out to be an alternative to "charcoal grey" rather a "chalk board black" will be used instead so that the model turns out with a pre-existing matte black finish. At this time I will not be applying the small styrene strip for the Gulf & Ohio logo mount, I elected to instead apply this feature after painting is complete (to ensure paint makes it's way behind where the logo will eventually be located).

 

 

The paint ended up coming out great this time around, however, as you can see in the above photo the photo-etched walkways popped off their supports. I suspect this is because I painted outside, and the heat expansion difference between materials caused the warping while the model was drying - perhaps it will settle back down once it returns to room temps, we shall see. If not, extra effort may be needed to even it out.

 

Overall, the paint job came out at a nice, semi-glossy black as I imagine the prototype looked when freshly painted. After the decals are applied this car will receive a nice weathering job to bring out the fine scale Tangent details.

 

It will take a rather large assortment of Microscale decals to bring out all the lettering on this car, which I have ordered and will await before continuing this project. Of note is that I am going to attempt using the GM&O decal sheet to splice together a believable G&O logo. More on that once the decal sets arrive.

 



LXOH 68 - Part I

While awaiting the next release of undecorated U18B's in August, a new project will be undertaken in the meantime to keep my interest up. In this case, an addition of a 1996-2011 freight car for the future layout is the center of my focus.

The car in question is rather unique in itself, LXOH 68, which was one of the few (if not the only) covered hopper car that wore a full Gulf & Ohio railways paint scheme:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1270017
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1406819

Gulf & Ohio railways maintained a sizeable fleet of 4740 and 4750 covered hoppers, although most were a close match to the Pullman Standard version, many of them were actually built by Portec, a new defunct freight car manufacturer. These cars were numbered LXOH 1-84, inclusive.

When Genesee & Wyoming took over the Wiregrass Central, many of these hopper cars were also sold and quickly stenciled to "WGCR" reporting marks. LXOH 68, however, has not be spotted for many years now.

Primary spotting features of this car to me seem to be the angled roof, rectangular jack pads, and an air line running along the side of the car. An undecorated Tangent 4740 was selected for this representation, as the features more closely match that car than the 4750 version. Through the available parts for sale on their website, I chose to order the "alternate" jack pad kit which includes accurate ones for this model.

Fortunately this model is fairly straight forward - charcoal black paint, white stencils, reflective markings, and data from Microscale, and a bit of styrene to build the logo mount. The largest challenge here is locating suitable decals for the G&O wings logo.

At the moment, the project is waiting on an order from Tangent to be filled. Two undecorated 4750 models were also purchased in order to represent LXOH 24 and LXOH 39 at a later date. Currently the only work I have been able to accomplish is replacing the stock wheels with Proto:87 wheelsets.

Parts List:
Tangent - Pullman-Standard PS-2CD 4740 Covered Hopper (RTR, Undecorated)
Tangent - PS4740 “Alternate” 1969+ jacking pad parts
Tangent - PS4740 Grab Irons and Other Parts
Testors - Charcoal Grey Enamel Paint
Microscale - 4", 7", 8" Stenciling Decals
Microscale - Pullman Standard Data - White
Microscale - 1990+ Lube Plate Data
Microscale - 2005+ Reflector Striping - Yellow
Proto:87 Stores - 36" 100 Ton Wheelsets
Sergent Couplers

Change of Direction

Clearly, this project was put on hold. Due to a rapid series of extreme life changes I was unable to even get my original project off of the drawing board. Currently I find myself in a state of being unable to host a layout of any kind at the moment, at least in HO scale. Therefore, I have shifted gears to working on projects for a future layout with the same theme.

The idea is the future layout can still effectively represent most of the 1978-2016 period with the changing of era specific details: railroad equipment, signs, buildings, vehicles, etc. To this end, a couple of older reference photos are available here:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4478666
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3124430
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3492036
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3191195

These images show an SCL U18B working at Enterprise, the two small block TO office buildings constructed and used by the SCL/SBD, and finally a train over the now abandoned Enterprise-Elba portion of the branch line.

As I have chosen 1978-79 as my starting point, a healthy assortment of U18B's are in order. Other motive power up into the Wiregrass Central era include the patched U33B shown above, Seaboard System GP38-2's, and based on photos from Dothan: GP16's, U23B's, GP30's, and other patched/repainted U18B's. With the Dothan Subdivision being a secondary mainline, I would imagine whatever power could be found on hand at the yard in Dothan was utilized on the branchline locals. In addition, the SCL and SBD may have maintained an independent road switcher based in Enterprise in order to handle switching of the various industries there. However, evidence of this is obviously quite difficult to come by.

The ultimate plan for this project includes the custom detailing, painting, and weathering of the prototype's motive power on this branch. The starting point will be undecorated Intermountain U18B's with FB-2 Bloomberg trucks. 9 of such locomotives will be built, with the ability to represent the SCL era with 5 locomotives for the period 1978-1983. A family lines U18B will supplement the year 1983, a patched SBD U18B for 1985, a full SBD U18B for 1986, and finally an early CSX U18B for the final years before the Wiregrass Central takeover. This ratio will represent the steady transition to the more common use of GP16's and GP38-2's, among other power, in the mid to late 1980s. At the same time this allows representation of the SCL-FL-SBD-CSX mergers and the unique period for paint schemes this produced.

Upgrades to the stock U18B kits from Intermountain include replacing the cab, replacement lighting, and accurate frame details.