Weekend Update for Mar. 21-24, 2025

[Paul S.]

Please update us what you've done on your model railroad this week/weekend. This weekly thread is intended for us to post snippets about our layout/project progress, rather than be a substitute for our layout-build or project threads. Think of this topic as a mini update on what you've accomplished during the week/weekend. The administrators/moderators will start a new update thread each Friday.

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So fellow RMRers, what have you been up to this week?

[Paul S.]

I've been focusing on two things this week: the final batch of trees for the Slate Fork; and HOn3 rolling stock.

Here's a Precision Scale Models brass Conoco tank car I've acquired.

As you can see, it needed couplers installed before going into the paint shop. But here's a close up of the coupler box.

It wouldn't accommodate even a MT 1015, which I would't use anyway for HOn3. So I used a Dremel milling bit and carefully routed out enough room for Kadee 714 couplers. Thankfully, when I finished, the coupler height matched my Kadee gauge nearly perfectly.

I'm replacing the airbrake hoses with better brass castings. I'll probably replace the trucks and wheelsets with Kadees too. These don't roll quite as well as I'd prefer.

[Russ C]

I remember an old logging tank car I once had (had walkways up top with handrails). The brass trucks sounded like it had sticking brakes.

[craigtownsend]

Need some suggestions on how much I detail the interior of the caboose. The proto picture I have shows a guy leaning out the cupola window and I was thinking of keeping that look. One side with window open, so I'll definitely need to model the cupola area. But what about the rest of the interior? The end windows will be see through so a conductors desk might be nice but how crazy do I go?

I'm asking this because the last interior projects have gone way over board... Like installing piping and wiper motors on the cab interior of a GP30. Or the pneumatic cylinders etc of the Snow Dozer.

How often do you actually look inside clear windows on a model? Railcar or structure?

[Cody]

For small windows, I don't think it takes much interior detail. A desk and chair will look good. Add a small rectangle of paper for the paperwork the conductor is working on, and that's pretty cool. Get down to modeling the pencil he's filling out the paperwork with, and while it's impressive, chances are nobody will notice except for close up photography (which can be hard through a window anyway). Of course, I'm an N scale guy, so take that for what it's worth.

[Paul S.]

Cody 's got the right idea, Craig. The main thing is to get the model on the rails. You can always add interior details later as you visually interact with model. If you can't see the details, most others won't either.

[craigtownsend]

Good point Cody and Paul. I can always go back and add more if I feel the need too. The Snow Dozer project was intended to have a removable roof so that kinda lead me to super detail that interior.

[Ianscale]

Laying down road this week. I’ve so busy hadn’t much time😕

[Paul S.]

Planted more trees on the Slate Fork:

https://realisticmodelrailroading.ne...7952#post37952