Firefly in the paintshop

A previous post mentioned how I used a printed tender wrapper on the Jupiter to more accurately represent the artwork on the locomotive. Since the success of that project, I'd been planning to update my 2-8-0 Consolidation, the Firefly, with a similar modification. 

The Firefly was my first attempt at kitbashing and some of my skills have since improved. Comparing the locomotive side by side with my more recent efforts made me want to have a second run at it. The areas I wanted to improve were mainly the tender, which had some poorly colour matched and ill-fitting decals and the cab, which had some shaky hand painting. 

The old Firefly - I feel my skills and techniques have improved I wanted to correct the poorly sized and coloured tender decals and hand-painted details on the locomotive, which were not sharp.

I started with the tender shell, giving it a bath in isopropyl alcohol (thanks Galen for the advice). Once the paint was removed, I repainted it with a darker shade of blue which more closely matches the Scottish blue of the decals. Like my other decals, I'm indebted to the artwork of John Ott. I've used the artwork for the Jupiter as the base, as I really enjoy the combinations of the dark blue and deep reds. I lengthened the artwork in Affinity Photo to create a tender wrapper in the right dimensions and found a font that closely matches the Jupiter's to write the name 'Firefly'. 

The tender after its alcohol bath before being tidied up. Not much to look at, but the red plastic is the lip from the IHC 4-4-0 tender. The rest is a Roundhouse 4-4-0 tender shell with a slice taken out the middle to lower it. 

The wrapper was printed on good quality, 80 gsm copier paper. Despite my initial concerns, with the Jupiter project, the copier paper worked really well for a wrapper. I found that long wrapper decals on decal paper had a tendency to stretch out of shape when wrapping around a tender if I wasn't careful. Copier paper doesn't have the same issue. The quality appears the same to me. I sized the decal to the same dimensions of the tender side so I do not have an issue with the raised edge. I touched up the edge of the paper wrapper (which is flush with the edge of tender) with the appropriate paint before applying the wrapper to the tender. To finish it off, the tender needed some foot stirrups. I harvested some off a surplus tender, painted and glued them on. 

I then turned my attention to the cab. I had a dilemma at this point. I really like wooden cabs, and three of my six locomotives are fitted with wooden cabs. It is probable that Jupiter's cab was not painted blue and had a varnished wood finish or was painted to look like faux wood (apparently common). This is the approach taken by John Ott for his locomotive art prints I have not yet repainted my Jupiter model and wondered about applying this colour scheme to Firefly's cab as well. In the end, I decided I would retain the blue and red scheme for the Firefly, resolving to repaint Jupiter someday. Otherwise almost all my locomotives would end up with wooden cabs. As much as I like them, it is nice to have variety.

The striping on the cab made from leftover red decals. 

So, the cab was also stripped and repainted. To do the red striping on the cab I tried applying paint to a flat piece of strip wood and then rubbed the wood over the raised details on the cab. This only applied paint to the very top of the edges but the finish was not as crisp as I wanted. After several attempts, I abandoned this approach and I cut up some red decals (on actual decal paper) into lengths and set them in place. A paper decal was used for the name board on the cab. To round it off, I placed some glazing in the forward cab windows. 

The tender with stirrups and the wrapper applied. The drivers were changed from Humbrol Red to Humbrol Scarlet.

I repainted the pilot, headlight and sand dome in the dark blue colour. I also applied a paper decal wrapper for the sand dome and on the headlight side panels. To finish the model off I repainted the drivers and the wheels in Humbrol Scarlet. This is brighter than the Humbrol Red I had used previously, which just seems to set off the rest of the locomotive. Final details included a bell cord (more about those later), whistle lever and I glued the engineer and fireman back in place. 

I think the final result looks pretty sharp and I'm very pleased with how it has turned out. The original locomotive was a bit scruffy, but the new version really stands out. Do you think the new colour scheme is an improvement? Have you ever returned to a project and refreshed it?

Firefly 2.0 - There is less red on the cab, but I feel this is balanced by the red on the headlight, dome and brighter red on the wheels.

The new Firefly on the trestle. 

A very special leaving present

At the beginning of the year, I left my job of 13 years to complete my theology degree. It was a hard decision to make as I really enjoyed my role and the people I met in local government.  But I am finding my studies very engaging and enjoyable. 

My colleagues are a good bunch and commissioned this fantastic caricature of me as a leaving gift. They even got it framed. I think it is fantastic! They did a superb job communicating with the artist about the sort of trains I'm fond of, all unbeknownst to me! There were many reasons why this was an incredibly personal and significant gift for me and I'm very grateful to my friends and colleagues at the Gore District Council for this thoughtful gift. It was great working with you all over the last 13 years. You all give so much and make such a difference in our community. Thank you. 

                                    

The artist is Shaun Yeo from Invercargill, New Zealand. As you can see, Yeo is a talented cartoonist and illustrator who also accepts commissions.

I hope you enjoy the creative flair. Who knows, perhaps if you're searching for the right gift for a fellow modeller, they may appreciate the uniqueness and whimsy of a caricature. You may be able to find a local cartoonist who could help you out.

 

10,000 visits

According to the counter on the left-hand side of the page, the blog has clocked over 10,000 page views. I'm also pleased that people find the content on my YouTube Channel interesting. Currently, it has 331 subscribers and is slowly growing. It's not the numbers that are important, but that people find something enjoyable in the content. 

Thank you to everyone who has visited. It's great knowing that people can share the enjoyment of a great hobby, even though we'll likely never meet in person.

I've not had much time to work on the layout in the last month or two. However, I have taken some more photos of various scenes. I've also updated the banner on the blogs front page. Most of the locomotives on the old banner have since been repainted or replaced so it was in need of an update.

 

Griffin crosses the trestle near the redwood logging camp.

Another view of Griffin crossing the trestle.

Jupiter in the background.

All the companies locomotives at Cass.

What's in a name? - How and why I named my locomotives

All the locomotives on my railroad, bar one, have names. I've always liked the practice of naming locomotives rather than simply numbering them.

Railroads were, and continue to be, in competition with each other for passengers and freight. Retailers today entice customers with a well-presented shop front or with an easy to use website. Before the turn of the 19th century, locomotives were part of the 'shop front'. They were highly visible (and audible) advertisements for your business. Subsequently, the railroads took pride in their locomotives making sure they were kept clean and shiny. Naming locomotives was a way of adding personality and a story to your business. Accordingly, names often involved some form of superlative image of elegance, strength or speed.

As railroad empires grew in size, the practice of naming locomotives became increasingly difficult. Administration could become confusing if a name was reused. Perhaps grand names were open to the possibility of ridicule if they didn't live up to their name. For example, if a passenger locomotive named Cannonball came in late or a freight locomotive named Goliath failed to make it up the grade the irony would not be lost on the public at large.   Eventually, naming locomotives was dropped in favour of simple numbers, along with their colourful victorian era liveries, which were exchanges for the all too familiar black. 

I have six locomotives, and while from what I can see naming locomotives seemed to have fallen out of favour by 1895, I like the story it tells and the personality it brings to the railroad. So I continue the practice, arguing that the Thoroughfare Gap Railroad is small enough for naming locomotives to continue to be practical. 

All the locomotive names on my railroad were once used by the Central Pacific Railroad, and are taken from a copy of their 1968 locomotive roster, which I've included below. (Full resolution can be found at the CPRR Museum website here. You can see that towards the end of the roster they started to run out of inspiration for new names and began using slight variations of the same name!

I decided to pick names from this list to try and keep a degree of authenticity in naming conventions for that period. Ultimately, I picked names that appealed to me, but there was some personality involved in the choices. 

• Jupiter - This was an actual Central Pacific engine (as seen as promontory), so she keeps her name.
• Firefly - I just like this name. It didn't sound too grand and didn't want too many locomotives with names from mythology. 
• Leviathan - While in reality, the reak Leviathan locomotive was a sister of Jupiter, I chose this name because the image of strength it carries and bestowed it on my ten-wheeler which is at home at the head of passengers or heavy freights. 
• Mountaineer - I love the mountains and mountain railroading. My railroad edges around steep cliffs and ravines to create a sense of drama. A mountaineer is nimble and surefooted, characteristics of my fast large drivered 4-4-0.
• Griffin - The powerful and ancient mythical creature that rises from the ashes. What could be more appropriate for a locomotive kitbashed from a number 'dead' locomotives?

The only locomotive not named is, of course, 119. I have not been able to determine if at any point the Union Pacific named its locomotives. But certainly, by 1869 they were using numbers. As my model represents 119 as we think she looked, I've simply retained her number.

Have you named the locomotives on your railroad (officially or unofficially) or can you recall seeing or riding any named trains like the 20th Century Limited (USA) or the Night Limited (NZ)? Please feel free to share in the comments below.

Maintenance of Way train

Some time ago I found an IHC maintenance of way (MOW) set for sale second hand. The cars were all different colours and road names. I've always liked grey MOW cars so repainted and detailed them. 

I kept the IHC trucks but replaced the wheelsets with Walthers Proto 33" wheelsets. I probably should have replaced the trucks too, as they are not the best. Even tuning with my MicroMark truck tuner hasn't made the wheelsets roll as freely as I would like. However, the train still rolls pretty well, stays on the track and doesn't spend a lot of time on the layout, so it's not really an issue. The one drawback is that several of the cars are very heavy relative to my other rolling stock. I find that the Jupiter and 119 cannot pull a full MOW train up my grade. In the future, I may put a couple of cars on a diet and remove some of the weight. 

The train is made up of a blacksmith car, complete with forge and a stash of tools. A rail and tie car, a derrick car, and a gondola with ballast. Add a flat car to the mix and you have everything you need to respond to a wreck or maintain the tracks.

Blacksmith car

Rail and tie car

Derrick car

The full MOW train parked on the canyon trestle.

East Peak Oil Co.

Turn of the century modeller, Don Ball, has a fantastic layout set in California in 1895. You can check out his blog here. Don is a prototype modeller and his work is exceptional; his layout has been featured in Model Railroad Hobbyist and the Railroad Model Craftsman publications. 

Don's Stockton and Copperopolis Railroad features several oil depots and tank cars. Oil traffic was something my layout was lacking. While you can't have it all, I liked the look of what he had done and a few months back I went about adding a scene to the layout.

Don had modelled part of an oil distribution centre on the edge of his layout (see page 10 of the MRH layout article linked above). I had an area at the end of my team track that was underused where I could try something similar, but less detailed. I built a fence around the area for the depot with gates and made a sign, based on the one on Don's layout. 

The tanks themselves were from MDC old-time tank car kits. I painted and recalled them for the Union Tank Line and mounted them on 30' flat cars. Gloss black paint made good authentic-looking oil spills. Since taking the photos below I've added oil spills on the ground and made the area look a little more 'used'. Overall, I'm pleased with what it brings to the layout in terms of interest and operations.

Modelling only part of an industry or structure can be a good way to make the layout seem larger than it is. Have you used this technique on your layout?

Railfanning on the Thoroughfare Gap model railroad

If you've watched everything on Netflix and YouTube during the COVID-19 lockdown, then here is another video to help with your train fix.

The company photographer spent the day on the other side of the canyon with one of Mr Edison's new moving picture cameras. It was an effort to drag the equipment up there. But it was worth it to capture the several trains grinding up the grade and over the two bridges to Thoroughfare Gap, on their way to Teresaton.