Model Train Journal

Well, the last of the mighty red oak (quercus rubra) is down, this last bit weighing in at 6800 pounds:



Some eighty years old, I'm sorry to see it go. When we bought the place thirty-seven years ago, I noticed it had some wilt in the leaves by mid-summer. The agent at the University of Maryland Extension Service said red oaks are susceptible to a blight of some form and that the tree was likely to die in a year or two. An arborist mate of mine gave it annual trunk injections of an anti-fungal, and we fertilized the hell out of it, managing to keep it going for nearly thirty-five years. This spring, however, about two thirds of it didn't leaf out, so it was time to go.

I hate losing a tree, especially one on the southern side of the house, but we still have a pin oak and a willow oak on the property, along with various maples. Maybe this'll cut down on the squirrel traffic.

Well, you might get a few weekends of fireplace use from it?

I took some of the smaller limbs (up to eight inches across), but I can't handle this big stuff.

healey36 wrote:I took some of the smaller limbs (up to eight inches across), but I can't handle this big stuff.

Need a bigger saw?

That and a better back.

With the tree project out of the way, I'm looking at other items in the fire. The signal/switch tower is temporarily on hold while I wait for an order of Xacto blades to come in. I fired off one order to Amazon, but that was fulfilled by a 3rd-party vendor in the wrong size. No worries, I can use those for other projects; I sent off a second order, this to one of the model supply vendors I frequent. They shipped me the entire bloody order except the knife blades, which they now say are on back-order. Okay, whatever, no shortage of things to work on.

In the meantime, Sarge flipped me a few pics of his childhood Hornby tower. I think Howard based his paper version on the Hornby, so it was nice to see what the original looked like. I was specifically interested in the stairs, and now have some ideas on how to best proceed. I'm also contemplating an attempt at making a Marx playset style interior for it. Not going to do any of that until I successfully build the staircase.

Another project that's hovering near the top of the pile is this pair of Dorfan passenger cars. Why, you may ask, and I might be hard-pressed to explain the attraction. I think it's the diecast passenger figures Dorfan included in their coaches (no postwar-style frosted glazing with passenger silhouettes, and certainly no empty seats for Dorfan). But jeepers, what a mess:



As far as I can tell, the coach's paint is original and the color about right (not too faded or dirty), so how to find a match. Somewhere I read that NAPA and other auto parts outlets can get you a custom-mixed spray can, but the cost is steep. I looked through the paint chips in the TCA book looking for a match, thinking maybe I could find something Trainenamels, but no exact matches there. Still looking around, suggestions welcome.

healey36 wrote:
Another project that's hovering near the top of the pile is this pair of Dorfan passenger cars. Why, you may ask, and I might be hard-pressed to explain the attraction. I think it's the diecast passenger figures Dorfan included in their coaches (no postwar-style frosted glazing with passenger silhouettes, and certainly no empty seats for Dorfan). But jeepers, what a mess:

Those diecast passenger figures really set these apart from the other tinplate cars. I don't think I have ever seen any of them.

To be honest, I've never even taken the time to crack them open. Next chance I get, I'll lift the roof and take some pics of the interior.

I bought the battered observation from Ray Ellen over at Vienna station, specifically to see what the fabled passengers looked like. The cost was nominal, and seeing the condition, I had no plans to do anything with it. Then a couple Yorks ago, I found the coach on a guy's table for ten bucks. So now I have two thirds of a train, so I'll need to revisit the observation. I'm not sure if there's a baggage or combo to go with them.

The Dorfan freight cars are really nice too, especially the hoppers. Makes you wonder why the locomotives were so awful.

Okay, not a great photo, but you'll get the idea. Dorfan's diecast figures are nearly profile in form (not a complete body, no seat). They are riveted onto a piece of L-channel that is itself riveted into the floor, running the length of the car. One truncated figure appears at each window opening:



Very cool (although it would have been neater with whole seated figures in actual seats). No window glazing, and no interior light. The observation has a single light on the exterior platform.

There's a simpler project ahead of this one (I think). More to follow.

Too bad we don't have more members on this forum interested in tinplate.

Here is a link to the history of Dorfan from the TCA There is a picture in there of the blue cars you have with the engine that pulled them

http://www.tcawestern.org/dorfan.htm

Like I said, they made some ghastly-looking locomotives (I'm more familiar with their electric-profile locos, the ones that are so susceptible to catastrophic zinc-pest). That pic is a validation of the paint color, so thanks for that. I recall reading of the predecessor connection with the Fandor Company in Europe.

I've got your Fourth of July essentials right here:



Photograph by F. A. Loumis, Detroit Publishing Company, 1906 (courtesy of the Library of Congress).

While I try to find paint for the Dorfan project, I think I'll take a crack at getting this Lionel 601 back into shape:



I think it'll be a relatively simple task of bending a few tabs, than extracting the corroded panel of windows/doors for a refurb. I've got a set of repro decals in the box. The rest of it looks okay to me, just requiring a thorough wash and polish, reattachment of the glazing, then a rewire No interest in addressing ninety years of minor scrapes and chips.

Well, got the first step done, extracting the embossed window/door bit from the car body. It's held in by eight tabs, four of which are below the "seat":



Took some careful bending, reaching in through the car-end doorway end a couple opposite-side windows, but managed to get it out without breaking any tabs. I was thinking of running this through my brother's bead-blaster, but it doesn't look that bad. I think just a bit of sanding with some fine paper, steel wool, and a polish with the Dremel, then we'll be ready for a repaint. I'm going to bend open the tabs that hold the frosted acetate while I've got this bit out; should make it easier to re-glaze once it's back together.

Not a ton of photo-worthy progress going into the weekend, but quite a bit of work has been done:



I got the corrosion on the window/door insert cleaned off, and thankfully, not much pitting in the metal. A wire brush on the Dremel at 10000 rpm didn’t seem to do much; I had much better luck with a foam sanding block with its fine grit, then gone over with some fine steel wool.

I had a can of inexpensive light-gray primer here, which was perfect as it was thin and didn’t risk obliterating the embossed detail. The stamped car numbers were in relatively good shape, so I masked those off to preserve them.

Finding a good match for the original Lionel “cream” paint was tough. I contemplated ordering a can or jar from Trainenamels.com, but the cost was prohibitive ($10/can or $9/jar plus $15 shipping), so I headed out to see if anything was available on the box-store paint racks. Most of the paints that were close were tinted to match the “almond” color of appliances. The Lionel color has a bit more yellow in it. I eventually found a can of Rust-Oleum “Ultra Cover” (327944 Satin Ivory Silk) that seemed close enough, especially if the lid was a true sample of the contents. I haven’t had the best luck with spray paint of late, but figured if it didn’t work, I could just clean it off and start over. Two light coats on the exterior, one light coat on the interior, then five hours under the heat lamp.

I had purchased a set of 600/601/602 decals years ago for this project, and I actually managed to find them without too much digging. Matter of fact, I actually found two sets (further evidence of an ongoing problem of duplicate purchases at train meets or online). For now, all I needed was one “OBSERVATION” line, so that was easily cut from the set and applied using a bit of MicroSol. The font is a bit off from the original, but good enough for what I’m doing. Once that dried, I gave the whole thing a shot of ModelMaster clear gloss, hoping that might add a bit of protection for the future. If you look closely at the car numbers, you can see the slight difference in tint between the original and new paint.

Lastly, I gave the car body a good scrub with some water and mild soap. Fellow tinplaters sometimes cringe at my use of water, but I’ve had no problems; the key is to get the piece thoroughly dry afterwards. I use a paper towel, then a microfiber cloth to blot up the moisture. An hour under the heat lamp assures evaporation of any residual moisture. I then gave the exterior a polish with Meguiar’s cleaner-wax. Now everything is shined up, scrapes, chips, and all.

Ready for reassembly.