Model Train Journal

It's going well kind of lol. Certianly not proto48, but maybe 1935 style...

Better than me - I spike maybe every fifth tie. More photos please.

Ye! every fourth or second for me. It's looking good thou, it's amazing the satisfaction you can get from laying some track.

Sorry, I'm linking these from that other forum lol





It's slow, I need to cut a groove in my pliers lol too cheap to buy a pair. Really liking that Max Gray 200 ton flat I was lucky enough to find as well. Will go good with that scratch built crane.

Dennis If your cheap, I guess I am too. I cut a "T" in the end of my blind needle nosed pliers with a Jewellers graver, works great!

Yes, I need to get back on this, been really busy as work this month and its pretty much killed any hobby funtime lol... I did recieve most of another Mi Loco Hudson though. Will post some pictures when I get a chance...

Dennis You didn't buy the die cast bronze Hudson (Congress Tool and Die must have shot of a bronze boiler or two at some stage) or the other one that was complete and had the bronze frame?? I would have loved, to have gotten the incomplete one, getting anything to Australia is expensive right now thou.

Dennis You didn't buy the die cast bronze Hudson (Congress Tool and Die must have shot of a bronze boiler or two at some stage) or the other one that was complete and had the bronze frame?? I would have loved, to have gotten the incomplete one, getting anything to Australia is expensive right now thou.

How could you guys possibly pass this one up? Gorgeous matching tender!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166343498470?_ ... %3A4429259

I should have bought the other one with the brass frame too and swapped it out with this one. Lapse of judgement on my part. I did think about it but I forgot later.

By the way, my bronze boiler was sand cast not die cast. But that doesn’t mean Congress tool couldn’t have done it too. The other possibilty is maybe the guy did some bronze parts first to prove it out or maybe he made some bronze sets of castings after he defaulted on payment to congress tool and die. Who knows, lots of possibilities. The K5’s seem to have a lot of bronze parts on them too.

I have a publication of the “Model Railroad Manuel”( Craftman ) from 1934 It has a whole artical on building a NYC Hudson lt looks like that $999.00 Hudson could be the kind of result you might get from following such an artical. The price thou!!?

Got some nice German made Varney spikes and finally cut a tee slot in my plier jaws. Works like a charm now. Making some progress, but will need to buy a few more boxes of those Varney spikes. The slimmer Micro Engineering spikes bend really easy in my ties which I think are a little tougher than soft sugar pine they use for ties... Probably another good reason for using the commercial ties lol.




This is a nice prewar Walthers built up boxcar early enough it has the cast bronze frame and looks perfect with Auel trucks. I have a couple more of these cars with the proper Walthers PRR combo coil/eliptical spring trucks.



And the P&S EP3 races a Baldwin GG1... Need to find some Walthers Pantos for the G

Nice progress, Dennis, and clean looking installation.

I have boxes of random vintage track supplies, including quite an assortment of spikes. If you send me a photo (or post it here) of the spikes you are using, with a measurement of their length, I will see if I have any.

Jim

Dennis, Just curious what code your rail is? It has a nice look!

Rich

Thanks guys,
Jim, these varney ho spikes are working good for me, I’ll link up a picture of them. They come in a little box of 3000. Must be from the 50’s. They are fairly short, 1/4 to maybe 5/16” I’d say. After the micro engineering spike challenges, I was looking for some that were a little beefier.

Rich, It is American Flyer S tinplate rail surprisingly. It’s tall, about .205-.210 on the mike.