Weekend Photos - August 2025

[webenda]

You might remember this effort to craft a Hornby-style level-crossing for the clockwork tinplate from a few months back, using a catalog pic of a 'OO' version found on the net.

I remember. Looks better but some road traffic is still going to have a problem with the grade. For example, this video from Standard Gauge Railroader:
https://youtu.be/VXLD4BVK7Dw?si=lmt01Xx7i_1rYGXZ

[healey36]

That is very astute of you, Healey. Have you seen coal in waterways before? I picked them up at Cumberland Falls State Park.

Not that large, but sadly yeah, I've seen a lot of coal that's been washed down into streams and creeks. I went to school up in Western Maryland (Frostburg State) and spent quite a bit of time with folks that live(d) in the Georges Creek coal basin. After nearly 200 years of mining activity thereabouts, you find a lot of bits in the waterways (not to mention the extreme acidic nature of the water due to mine runoff). Coal, being relatively soft material, erodes into a rounded form pretty quickly as it tumbles downstream. Some folks living in this area would send their children down to the creeks and streams to pick up the bits, using them as fuel for the kitchen stove.

[healey36]

You might remember this effort to craft a Hornby-style level-crossing for the clockwork tinplate from a few months back, using a catalog pic of a 'OO' version found on the net.

I remember. Looks better but some road traffic is still going to have a problem with the grade. For example, this video from Standard Gauge Railroader:
https://youtu.be/VXLD4BVK7Dw?si=lmt01Xx7i_1rYGXZ

I'm not sure an automobile could clear the revised version either.

[healey36]

Marx Jubilee loco and "new" Canadian Pacific tender:



Locomotive paintwork looks quite dull by comparison.

[webenda]

I drive through many highway rock cuts where I live in Kentucky.


The cuts drop a lot of talus.


Real rocks!

[gregj410]

You may need to beef up the bench work

[healey36]

A buddy of mine embedded some real rock in the scenery on his HO pike. They were small chunks added in amongst HydroCal cuts and hillsides. Eventually he ripped it out and replaced them with plaster casts using Woodland Scenics molds. Looked similar, maybe better, and weighed much less.

[webenda]

What if I make a mold from the rock, fill the mold with Lightweight Hydrocal Plaster, paint the plaster gray, and give it an India Ink wash?



Would I still need to reinforce the layout?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

What if I make a mold from the rock, fill the mold with Lightweight Hydrocal Plaster, paint the plaster gray, and give it an India Ink wash?

Too much work; really worried about weight?

[webenda]

No, not worried about weight. It is a door layout, and the taller rock, the one I plan to use, only weighs 3.0 lbs. For comparison, one of my locomotives weighs 5.0 lbs. I suspect Greg was imagining the entire door piled with rocks.

I brought Play-Doh into the conversation to demonstrate its use as a mold material.

[healey36]

The PlayDoh idea actually got me to thinking. I have a number of Woodland Scenics rubber rock molds, and they work well, but if you use them multiple times on a single "face", the repetition can be noticeable. Making new casts using some actual rocks pressed into PlayDoh would likely work pretty well. I was thinking about buying a can of FlexSeal that I could use to pour "rubber" molds, but wondered how difficult it would be to get that stuff to release from the rock (or whatever you're trying to make an impression of).

Here's a terrain square I made a few years ago as a prop for taking some photos of 1/100-scale wargame figures:





The rock outcropping is made using Woodland Scenics rubber molds. They work pretty well, cutting the castings to fit whatever you're trying to do. As Wayne noted, some basic base coat paint, a bit of ink or diluted black paint, and some off-white for dry-brushing will yield pretty believable results.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

..........Woodland Scenics rubber rock molds, and they work well, but if you use them multiple times on a single "face", the repetition can be noticeable.

Break them (chisel) and use the fragments more randomly than the full castings. Or, go get some more real rocks.

I've used slate and limestone from the area that my layout might represent. Still using some "stone dust" in scenery around structures that I build that came out of the New Enterprise quarry down the road...

[healey36]

Got the Marlines Jubilee a bit of track time out on the mainline before packing it up to clear space on the layout:



Seen here heading south off bridge #305, the train's a bit short. Need a couple more coaches to throw behind it.

[webenda]

The Marlines Jubilee looks mighty impressive from that angle.

The door layout has a new livery, an MTH 2-8-0.



The MTH 4-6-0 to the right has a story. Some time in the 80's I looked at it in the display/counter at Arizona Trains (when Arizona Trains was in Tucson, Arizona.) It sat there for two years. Out of curiosity, I asked, "Is that engine in the display case for sale?" The salesman said, "You can have it for $20.00 on one condition... You never bring it back to this store!. It doesn't run. It has been to MTH three times for warranty repair, and each time it comes back with the same problem. It just buzzes. It won't move."

The 4-6-0 was an easy fix; I just threw away all the MTH control boards and replaced them with a rectifier.

The MTH 2-8-0 was on eBay as "Parts Only" with a starting bid of $9.99. The bidding was already at $48.00 when I discovered it on eBay. I waited until a few minutes before the end of bidding and got it for $50.00. This MTH 2-8-0 has the same problem the 2-6-0 had; it just makes a buzzing noise and does not move. Now to fix it.

[healey36]

I look forward to seeing how you do it, Wayne. I like the look of that ten-wheeler...it'd be fun to find one of those.

When my MTH stuff starts to go dark, Sarge as described the process of replacing the electronics with Dallee gear. I'm up for it, just waiting for the locos to fail. I have an MTH 9E that went dark a few years ago...took it to an MTH service center and they did a hard reset to bring it back. Is that even an option anymore? No idea.

Speaking of bringing things back, I found this little cuckoo in the bottom of an estate sale lot I acquired ten months ago:



Despite being in pretty nice cosmetic shape, I couldn't get it to run. Gave it a quick clean with a mini-vac, a touch of clock oil, fiddled with the pendulum, but the best I could do was a run of ~ 30 seconds or so. I had convinced myself that it was likely a Chinese knock-off and seriously considered sending in into the bin. However, I've got this mental flaw that says most things are reparable and deserve a shot. Sarge suggested a shop up near Lancaster, so off it went. They said, nope, it's a German clock, likely tourist-grade, lol; give 'em a few weeks and they'd get it sorted. They called a few weeks ago saying it was ready, and being in Lancaster last Friday for other matters, I swung by the shop at the end of the day and picked it up. It runs great, torments the sleeping dogs, and reminds me of the little cuckoo my grandfather had hanging in his dining room. Unfortunately, it's a one-day runner, so you gotta pull the waits up every day; that's a bit of a PITA.

Anyway, the clock's done, the ZW got a refurb, and the 1688E got a new idler gear, all projects I needed some expert help with. Barely dented the project pile, but we move ahead.