Anyway, it fits in 28 feet, although a little more compressed than I had envisaged, but not so much that the essential elements are overly compromised.  If Peco did a #6 wye, that would help.  The north ladder switches should be wyes, and that would help swing the north end of the yard around in a more manageable curve.  Of course, a few more linear feet would also help…

I’ve altered the original plan from Model Railroader, just for comparison.  Clearly, using Illustrator makes for pretty track plans, but the scale of objects and the track geometry is just made up… dangerous territory for the novice layout builder, and one reason I don’t like many of the glossy track plans books that are available.

I really do like Guadalupe, it’s probably the only pike I’ve consistently come back to over the years (eighteen years in fact) that never fails the imaginary ops session that runs in my head whenever I look at a plan.  And as the years have gone by and I’ve added more information to the pile, it just gets better.

Oddly, the one time I could have visited it, I didn’t.  Isn’t that strange?

Just to get some idea of how far HO plastic models have come in the past few years, check out the modelling of the weld and the EMD sticker in this cruel close up.

So I guess you could say that this is proof that some sort of progress is being made with the HO pike, even if it’s only periodic collecting for that time in the future when I assemble a bunch of sticks into a semblance of a layout.  Guadalupe still figures prominently in my thinking, so I grab stuff that’s suitable as and when I see it and can afford it.  To round out the fleet, I need at least one more SD40, a trio of SD45s, another SD40T-2, at least one SD45T-2 and a trio of GP40-2s.  At least… Actually what I should do is post here one of the train lists I have for Guadalupe and match the locomotive roster against it.  Otherwise I shall just keep buying what I fancy, and that’s no way to run a railroad.

There are rumours of a loft conversion, rather than a shed.  It’s all dependent on sloughing off the Big Financial Commitment, but we’re almost there now.  I have to say, after the winter of storms , wind and rain and having to repair two sets of shed roofs in a howling gale, I’m a little off the idea of a shed.

The loft is awkward, but initial surveys seem to suggest a length of 28 feet or so, which should be enough to house a decent model of Guadalupe and a cut down version of the SMVR (for which I’d probably sub one of my industry plans) in front of the staging tracks.

I seem to spin between four recurring themes in my model railroad dreaming.

• G scale US SP/UP 2000s switching
• Ho scale US SP Coast Line 1980s mainline + branch
• O scale UK 1950s, variously Vine Street, Coleford or Dursley
• OO scale UK 1980s, Highland BLT, usually Kyle-alike or similar.

Once Dapol bring out their state-of-the-art Western, I’ll doubtless add the 1970s Cheltenham St James scheme to the day dreaming.  After all, it was seeing the Westerns in 1976 that got me into trains in the first place…

I did bring some goodies back from the Fall 2011 trip to Arizona, among them a huge cardboard box that I spent hours carefully packing and taping only to have US Customs hack it all apart to make sure drugs and bombs aren’t toy train shaped.

Oh well, safely back in the UK and now the days are getting longer and lighter, it’s time to see ‘what’s in the box…’

So here is the big yellow thing.  First impressions are a little mixed.  The bodyshell and the roof nicely capture the appearance of the prototype, and it is a different style to the Aristo or USA Trains boxcars.  The finish is nice, and the stand off detail is commendable.  I had to tweak the grabs a little to get them all nice and straight but the flexible plastic is up to the job.  Further study reveals a couple of less pleasing elements though.  The ride height is too high, by eye I would guestimate around 1/8 – 1/4 of an inch which makes it look a little like it’s standing on its tippytoes.  The truck frames also look wrong, more like an old time Bettnedorf than a Barber S2.

Most weirdly, all the end detail – ladders, hand brake wheel, handrail, are mounted far too high.  I had been made aware of this on some long forgotten forum post, and was dreading trying to reposition the details.

If you look at the rib above the top of the end ladder, you can see the holes where I’ve removed the ladders, hand brake and hand rail.  I wonder why the designers had them so high up?

However, Imagine how pleased I was to find that all the details simply pop off and can be re sited easily.  The ladders in fact seem to be installed up side down, and don’t even require new holes to be drilled.

But the biggest problem was the ride height – getting that squatting on its trucks look is essential to giving some sense of the mass and heft of these vehicles.  An initial dismantling revealed a couple of nubs moulded onto the bolsters that accounted for about 1/8 of an inch, but not enough to correct the teetering in high heels look.

A closer examination while taking comparison shots of the LGB Bettendorf against its replacement Aristo Barber S2 reveals where the other 1/8 inch comes from.

If you look at the LGB truck on the right, you’ll notice that the bolster is mounted flush with the top of the sideframes whereas the Aristo bolster is mounted below the top of the side frame. This would suggest that swapping the trucks (which I would have done anyway, as I want Barber S2s with rotating bearing covers as standard) will address most of the ride height issue, and removing the little nub bumper things from the bolsters will sort the rest.

Now that’s the kind of modification work I can handle – not so much that it makes it pointless buying rtr, but just enough to personalise the car and make it look much more authentic.

All I need to do now is stock up on Aristo trucks…

All the stand off detail seems to hint at casting possibilities, don’t you think?

I really don’t want to be fabricating ladders, grabs and so on from stock shapes if I can avoid it.  I need to find a source of decent walkway material though.  I notice most kitbashers in the USA use USA Trains spares, if I can’t find suitable brass replacement from someone like Eileen’s Emporium then I guess I could pout in a bulk order to USAT for walkways, trucks, ladders, brake gear etc.

That swayed the painting and decalling towards Golden West Service, so I had a play with doing my own decals.  Not got the decal paper yet, but a couple hours work in Photoshop and this is the result.

They’re based on a mixture of photos, Microscale sheets and some fudging in Photoshop.  I’m pretty sure I don’t have all the data correct, but who’s to know?  It’s the impression that counts, and the logos are key to establishing that.

If these work ok, then doing the Santa Fe logos and so on for the GP38 should be a breeze…

And it is big, and it ate a huge amount of plastic card and structural shapes. If I did this again, I’d seriously have to consider making one side and one end and then resin casting. Which would also allow me to mass-produce a number of cars relatively quickly. The way I built this was too costly and too time-consuming – in all senses, a one-off hand-built prototype.  It probably cost as much to build as it would have to have bought one rtr, not that the LGB RBOX (the nearest equivalent in rtr) is ever available as far as I can see…

Anyway, here it is.

Couldn’t resist a comparison shot, alongside an old Athearn RBOX.

I’m quite pleased with how the I beams look, but I wish I’d made more of an effort to assemble a more accurate coupler box.  The ends of the car look a bit spartan at the moment, lacking air hoses, couplers, crossover platforms and ladders and so on.

T’other end…

I’m not sure whether to paint it yellow and black as an RBOX or blue for Golden West Service.  Both are signature schemes for the espee though.  Since I have to make my own decals, there’s no difference in work involved, although the GWS scheme is simpler by virtue of being a single, all-over colour.

So, reflecting on an unprecedented six weeks of – for me – focussed activity… would I do it again?  For sure, but differently next time.  I really fancy a go at a gondola, but in metal.  Brass sheet and channel should give a really nice, heavy rolling piece of kit don’t you think?

I may get round to it this weekend, but not holding my breath.

For some ‘light’ relief, I got hold of a sample of some Llagas Creek code 215 tie plates.  They look pretty good, I think.

They add an extra complication when assembling the track, so I need to sort out some sort of jig if I’m going to use them in bulk…

But they do manage to capture the essence of what I’m aiming for.

This is the main outside Globe, Az on the AZER line.  It’s not as rickety as an industrial spur, nor as groomed as the Espees Sunset Route.  Sort of nicely in between.  My version comes out looking reasonably close, although it clearly needs weathering and joint bars to complete the effect… Interestingly, the AZER track has a four bolt joint bar, not the more common six bolt.

I’m quite pleased with the overall effect.  It needs a little fettling, seems to be riding a little high above the trucks in this shot.  And then all the details need adding; ladders, crossover boards, brake wheel and chain, hand rails, tack boards, door furniture, grab irons, brake rigging…

So there’s quite a lot still to do, but seeing it actually look like what it’s supposed to was a real morale booster.  Hell, I even have plans for the next freight car already…

As for the decals, after looking at the price for made to order from the USA, I’ve decided to have a go at printing my own.  I have a decent quality colour inkjet, and I’ve found a product called crafty paper which includes water-slide decal paper.  I can use some of my own photographs, load them into Photoshop, scale them and arrange them on an A4 sheet and get whatever road names I want. I’m tempted by Golden West Service as it’s a signature for the area I’m modelling but prudence will probably dictate I try a more modest patched rust box.

But printing my own decals means I can consider re-doing my GP as an ex- Santa Fe patch job.  I’ve already made a start on dismantling it to rebuild the pilot, modify the cab and if I remember to buy some masking tape tomorrow…

I’ve finally got one side complete, apart from tackboards.  I’m not entirely happy with the door runners but in the end it was a case of ‘oh, whatever…’ as I couldn’t find any pictures to help sort out what they should look like.

In the end, I think they came out ok, and the door came out pretty well which tends to compensate.  The door bumpers are the second attempt.  The first ones didn’t look right, and mainly ended up stuck to my fingers rather than the runners.  Why is flesh a better gluing surface than plasticard?

So to cheer myself up, and as a spur to get on and finish it (oh god, another door and door runners and two ends to go yet… oh, and the darn’ roof) here are some pictures of the current state of play.

The door came out rather nicely – it’s made up of 21 separate pieces…

…and my second attempt at a convincing door bumper.  Not bad, but the random glue run off will have to be disguised as ‘corrosion’ when it gets a final paint job.

Thinking of final paint schemes, I’ve no idea what it will finally wear.  Or where I’m going to get any decent decals from.  If I had the cojones, I’d paint it like this one I saw at Tehachapi.

Even though I saw it in person, and have the photo to prove it I still don’t believe it.  It looks like a rubbish weathering job on an old CSX box.  You can even still see the initials under the paint…

I’ll probably settle for a nice plain bauxite job and hope I can find some ATSF decals from somewhere.  Could I get away with O scale ones?

Lesson one – I’m pretty sure now I should have made the spine from metal – for weight, strength and rigidity – and made the cross members from a single piece of bar sitting in a notch in the spine so that the beams are continuous across the width of the car.

As it is, I made the spine from six 3/8” I beams welded together, and they’re not that strong nor terribly rigid.  Plus I also managed to glue them to the car floor slightly off-centre.

Lesson two – use a slower setting CA glue… That way I could adjust things for a few moments.  The near instant contact glue I’m using is damn’ fast and a couple of my parts are off kilter, and will have to stay that way.

I need to re-look at underframes and re-think how to do one more prototypically, as my 1:29 model one has exactly the same function to fulfill. I’ve finished one side, at least I’ve finished the framing on one side.  That just leaves the doors, door fittings, door runners, door bumpers, tack boards and jacking pads to add, plus the frame cut-outs for the steps.

Anyway, some pictures of today’s progress.

The end of the car features visible I beam stringers.

I’m not sure I can be bothered to include full stringers inboard where they’ll never be seen… but then again, I’ll know they’re not there…

Lesson three – always use a jig to ensure accurate repeating elements… wish I’d done that for the stringers and the spine.

I’ve called this confessions of a reluctant scratchbuilder, as I really don’t think I would have gone down this route if there was an easier way to procure 1:29 rolling stock – like buying it from the local hobby shop, for instance.  Having said that, I think I’m enjoying it.  I’ll know for sure when it’s finished.  As for cost, I’m not sure it’s that much cheaper.  I’m astounded at how much material this one car is consuming, and have you seen the price of Evergreen and Plastruct these days?  Next car will probably end up being a gondola to save money!

Add in the time factor, and the cost of the specialist imported detail parts and I think this car must be getting on for about 2/3rds the rtr retail price. I can see how other folk in this scale have turned to resin casting to offset the high cost of a one-off build.

What is available is also variable in quality, with the USA Trains 4 bay hoppers and modern tank cars probably at the top of the pile and LGB 4 bay hoppers at the bottom.  Still reasonable models, but they need a bit more work than the USAT ones.

Also the range is limited.  Aristo do a nice Evans 53 foot plug door, USAT have introduced a superb 60 foot plug door, LGB do a nice 50 foot outside ribbed RBOX, but there is nothing like the multitude  of freight cars you can get in HO or even in O scales.

So that leads me to this:

A scary amount of plastic card that, once glued together, should resemble a 53 foot flat top rib sided single door box car.  Or something.

But first, I need to go into town to buy even more plastic card and plasweld…