Train Board April weathering challenge

Been working on weathering a few more cars this month and also trying out some techniques with acrylic washes that I had not tried before.  This months trainboard.com weathering challenge was to complete 3 to 4 box cars for a short line.  These could be of any era or type of box car.  The natural place to start is to look through one's collection for at least one short line car.  All cars needed to be either Micro-Trains cars or at least have wheels or couplers from Micro-Trains.

The only one I had was this Atlanta & St. Andrews (ASAB) Bay 50 ft exterior post box car that I bought at the NSE convention last summer.



Next I started looking for prototype images on the Internet of ASAB box cars.  This particular railroad was a good choice as there were quite a few both in the scheme showed above and also box cars purchased from other railroad and patched.  I enjoyed learning a bit about a railroad that I did not know anything about before.

Here is the prototype reference photo I used for this car.  I choose this one because it had a replacement door which made it unique.





And this is how the weathered model came out.  I ordered the replacement 10 ft Superior door from Micro-Trains, they come in a 12 pack so I think I now may have a lifetime supply of those.

The ASAB had acquired quite a few cars from the Wabash Valley RR and Micro-Trains had recently issued a model of one of those types of cars so I picked one up at my local hobby shop to be the 2nd car.


Here's the finished model of the 2nd car.  Patched and re-numbered to match the prototype.  All the cars in this project got BLMA metal wheel sets with the wheel sides painted rail brown.  This car got one axle set painted oxide red to simulate a recent replacement.

Don't know if this car had also been from Wabash Valley RR so I used a Micro-Trains model of a Cadiz RR 50 ft box car that I picked up on ebay as my starting point on this one.



Here's the finished model of ASAB 7401.  After patching and re-numbering as needed all of these cars received acrylic washes, dull-coat, and weathering powders.

The 4th prototype I chose was ASAB 7443 which seemed in better shape than the others.  I happened to have a Micro-Trains 25000 series Conrail box car that I used for this one.


Everything done the same way on this model just a bit lighter.  Also added Microscale reflector decals to match the prototype photo.

The roofs of each car were painted all silver or silver just along the lower edges as if the original paint was peeling and the galvanized steel or aluminum of the roof showing through.  Then acrylic washes and weathering chalks.

These weathering challenges have been fun but I have not been doing so much on the layout so unless the one for May is particularly interesting this will be the last one for me for now anyway.

Building a low wood trestle

In the foreground of the scene on the Wesso section where the WP tracks are crossing a dry creek I want to use a wood trestle.  It will  not have to be very tall and will need to curve to match the 18 inch radius of the track.  Also, I want to make it a ballasted deck.

Since the last post the WP right of way re-alignment has been completed and a coat of tan paint seals all of the Wesso section except for the area where the wood trestle will be.  The creek bed may require further modification to accommodate the trestle.

Here is a prototype example of the type of trestle I am describing.  This particular straight trestle is in Arizona.

After looking at various options I chose a kit that I had used before as the starting point for this project, the Bar Mills Models Low Boy Trestle. I had two of them on the California Northwestern layout. The box shown in the photo was holding left over parts from the old layout, it now comes in a bag.



These are great kits right out of the box with options to build it as a straight or curved trestle.  For this project I am using almost all of the parts plus some left over from before.  I am also using some strip wood that I had on hand. The deck is made from .020 stryene sheet with a pair of curved .125 brass tubes bonded to the center to give it some extra support.

Crossing small creeks and drainages

I have been feeling kind of stuck lately on exactly what I was doing with the area on the east or left end of the Wesso section.  In the recent post Land contours for the Wesso section I had shown how I created an area for a river bed.  I had thought of using some bridges to make this the first crossing of the Humboldt River but because this is on a curve I realized that would not work so well so I came up with another idea.

Besides using various types of trestles and bridges to cross the larger rivers, the railroads use several types of culverts to cross smaller creeks or other types of low laying areas that provide seasonal drainage.  With the tracks of both the SP and WP built up as they are there are in this location there are many places that use these culverts.

Several model kits are available in N scale to model a box type concrete culvert.  I was drawn to this one by Blair Line because I like the year of construction being part of the structure.  I plan to use this for the SP track in the background and then perhaps use a low wood trestle for the WP track in the foreground.

In this photo I am partially filling in the riverbed with insulation board scraps.  The assembled box culvert kit and some track are temporarily in position while the Liquid Nails holding the insulation board scraps in place is drying.  In the foreground the WP right of way is in the process of being re-aligned and will cross this area on a low wood trestle.