Model Train Journal

Eighty-five degrees today, so I've been getting some stuff done outside. The list includes a coat of paint on the garage (always a fun task) and a new shed for the back garden. The shed project might get deferred due to the current cost of lumber. Never thought I'd live to see the day a common 2x4x8 would exceed six bucks.

Saw these illustrations when reading through 1924 editions of Railway Age. I've not seen a shrouded Shay before (although I'm sure there were others); these were two of four built for the New York Central intended for switching service between its 30th Street yard and St. Johns Park freight station in New York City, a line of just 2-1/2 miles:



The four locomotives, built by the Lima Locomotive Works, were standard Class 60, two-truck types with special housings to meet New York City requirements (presumably for safety). Kind of a buzz-kill if you like seeing all of the machinations of the Shay-type locomotive.

I'll bet that horse was a bear to handle. $57.00 for a sheet of plywood. Low grade cdx.

A great photo, Wayne, almost the exact set I received for Christmas around 1960 or so. The only difference was the locomotive in the set I received was made of formed sheet-metal, but it had the same tin UP tender, SAL gondola, and UP caboose. It came with a simple circle of two-rail track. Looking back, it's hard to believe Marx was still making, and that there was a U. S. market for, mechanical/clockwork sets.

A couple years later I received a Flyer Mountaineer set (1956) which The Old Man bought second-hand from the local Joe The Motorist's Friend store. I still have that one, or at least most of it (the transformer and the 977 action-caboose somehow disappeared over the years). S-gauge, it came with an oval of two-rail track. Here's a head-spinning video of the same set a guy posted a few years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlI5tdyAUqo

The Old Man was rather disappointed in the set, as he was a die-hard in the metal-is-better-than-plastic debate, and the 283 loco and tender both featured plastic shells. Considering the beating it took, Gilbert's plastic held up pretty well. Here's a shot of my 65 year-old 283:



Last time I had it on the track it ran well, although the smoke had diminished to just a wisp. Repacking a Flyer smoke element is a bit fiddly, but I've done it at least once on a 290. Might have to add the 283 to the project pile.

Healey

robert. wrote:$57.00 for a sheet of plywood. Low grade cdx.

Ran to Lowe's this AM for some garden odds-n-ends; while there I checked on the plywood...$89.00 for a sheet of 5/8-inch good-two-sides exterior grade. Yup, shed ain't happening this summer.

healey36 wrote:

robert. wrote:$57.00 for a sheet of plywood. Low grade cdx.

Ran to Lowe's this AM for some garden odds-n-ends; while there I checked on the plywood...$89.00 for a sheet of 5/8-inch good-two-sides exterior grade. Yup, shed ain't happening this summer.

Seems to vary drastically from store to store. I paid 9.13 for a 2x4 the other day. Ridiculous

Can you tell where the back drop starts and the real scenery begins? Me either, even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. Other than trying to match color shades of the the real scenery with the back drop I had no plan. I find the transitions in modeling the most difficult part to achieve.

gregj410 wrote:

healey36 wrote:

robert. wrote:$57.00 for a sheet of plywood. Low grade cdx.

Ran to Lowe's this AM for some garden odds-n-ends; while there I checked on the plywood...$89.00 for a sheet of 5/8-inch good-two-sides exterior grade. Yup, shed ain't happening this summer.

Seems to vary drastically from store to store. I paid 9.13 for a 2x4 the other day. Ridiculous

This will lead to a big spending hangover.

gregj410 wrote:

healey36 wrote:

robert. wrote:$57.00 for a sheet of plywood. Low grade cdx.

Ran to Lowe's this AM for some garden odds-n-ends; while there I checked on the plywood...$89.00 for a sheet of 5/8-inch good-two-sides exterior grade. Yup, shed ain't happening this summer.

Seems to vary drastically from store to store. I paid 9.13 for a 2x4 the other day. Ridiculous

Going to have a serious impact on new construction. Glad my far shed is full of lumber and "stuff". Needed ~3/4 of a sheet of heavier thickness plywood for a project, but I'll improvise.....

gregj410 wrote:Can you tell where the back drop starts and the real scenery begins?

To be honest, it took me a couple of looks. It seems a decent blending to my eye.

It's always tough trying to transition 3D scenery with the flat plane of a backdrop. It can also vary considerably with the distance, the view angle, and the lighting. Sometimes it will look brilliant from straight on, but take a couple steps in either direction and it might look not so great. This looks good to me.

Fashioned a ladder from a bit of 1/4-inch hardware cloth that I trimmed down using an old pair of tin snips, then painted black with some left-over Krylon:



Made a half-hearted attempt to stain the "concrete" a bit; I didn't want to overdo it. I had a pack of 55-gallon drums from Rusty Rail, none of which had found a home before this. Figured I'd use a couple here...what's an oil storage shed without some leaky barrels? The seams look a little weird, but whatever.

This could be an EPA Super-Fund site before I'm done with it.

Healey

Looks pretty cool for printed stock. What’s the add poster on the side say?



Finally getting back to this. Started the roof last night. I was motivated by discovering a place on the layout where I think this might work.

Clyde Beatty Circus:



Snagged from an art poster site, shrunk down, printed, and slapped on. I've gotten halfway competent using MS Paint, so I could have just pasted it into the TT magazine scan, but that didn't occur to me until after I'd printed and assembled the building.

The Cole Bros. used to bring their circus to my hometown back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Clyde Beatty had an association with that show, and it traveled originally as Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. At some point they dropped Beatty's name (I think Beatty had died back in the 1950s). Anyway, I never thought much of the Ringling show that used to come once a year to the Baltimore Civic Center, but going to see a circus in a tent was pretty awesome. The circus set up at the local agricultural center which was just across the street from the house I grew up in. Watching them roll in and set up was pretty interesting. They'd be in town for two nights, at most, then pack up and head out.

I think there are still a few small traveling circuses around, but the PITA folks and their ilk have pretty much killed it off. I can't say I ever saw an animal mistreated in the years they would be our brief neighbors. The elephants were always the big attraction. Kelly-Miller Circus came for a few years during the 1990s and early 2000s, but I think that was the last of it. I'm glad I had the chance to take my kids...nothing better than the smell of fresh popcorn and sawdust.

Interesting photos, good looking buildings in this post.

Murph gave me an idea for a Kootie factory.

MurphOnMillerAve wrote:Kooties ?

The KOOTIE factory.


Kootie parts from the factory on their way to the Kootie Integration Center (temporarily stored on my computer desk shelf.)


Completed Kootie on way to Kootie Warehouse (well... in a light box for photography, not really going anywhere.)