kcspur: 2017

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

The "rustults" are in!

**Updated**

I mentioned in my previous post that I was going to try creating prototypical rust on steel model rails. After a dunk in a saltwater, vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide bath, the results -- er, should I say "rustults" -- are in. I primarily used the method documented at this link, specifically the ratio of "4 parts white vinegar, 1 part hydrogen peroxide (3%) and 1/2 part of salt" found in the comments section.

See for yourself:

The rust is real, folks...but...maybe...it's a little too real.

Critiques on Day 1:

Inconsistent application: Perhaps this is because it's been only a day and they are not continuously exposed to the conditions to keep rusting.
Inconsistent coloring: The foreground piece is mostly black or grey, while the two pieces in the back are very, very orange.
Too orange: The hobby industry says paint your track "rail brown", not "rail orange"...
Fragile: Too much handling and the rust comes right off. It could make a nice weathering powder though... To be fair, the same happens to real rails; that's why the top surface is shiny after use.

For comparison, here are some shots of the prototype track:

If there are any readers who'd like to comment, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Updates on Day 14:

I think if I hit them with the salt solution again, the rusting would continue and perhaps sink in a bit. At least once source I read said to go back with a soft toothbrush to knock down the loose stuff and then repeat until satisfied.
After several days, it seems less fragile
It isn't any less orange
The rails smell like vinegar, perhaps need to tone that down in the mix

Other sources pointed to nitric acid but also said that that's a pretty harsh chemical and I've not yet looked for a supplier of that.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

I have returned!

There's a distinct risk that a low-traffic'd blog would lose its whole readership when 9 months elapses between posts but hopefully my reactivated progress and some new posts will start to reverse this.

I just returned from a visit to the 2017 "March Meet" in Chicago, IL where several new rolling stock acquisitions were made. See the updated Equipment Roster page for the latest updates.

I also acquired a few other smaller items like real limestone loads for delivery to Carthage Marble and the first turnout parts from American Switch & Signal.

While no actual layout construction has begun, I'm embarking on an experiment to try to accelerate the rusting of real steel rail (code 125 as discussed earlier); we shall see what results develop with that.

Hopefully this will mark the start of some more regular postings!

Equipment Roster

*Updated 07 April 2017 -- Added a few more cars; I think the roster is looking pretty solid now.

*Updated 18 March 2017 -- Mass update with acquisitions through this date

*Updated 19 July 2015 -- Moved some cars to individual pages.

With my recent visit to the Chicago March Meet O Scale Show and this post, the conversion to P:48 (O Scale) is fully on! The roster of equipment is up to five boxcars, mainly because that's the most prevalent car type serving industries on the spur and one can never have enough boxcars.

Each of these will be a project in and of itself. First is conversion it from standard O scale (using a 5' wheel spacing) to P:48 which uses the 1/4" to 1' scale and honors the prototype's 4' 8 1/2" wheel spacing and second is enhancing some of the details with replacement (Protocraft) couplers, wire grab irons, etc.

I'll try to structure this page with a photo of the model plus either or both prototype information and photos.

As is often the case with model freight cars, the manufacturers take several liberties with selectio of car numbers, application of paint schemes. I wouldn't be surprised if I had to perform some renumbering along with the detail work.

Research on these cars is incomplete. I give a fair amount of credit to RailcarPhotos.com for reference material. Of course, this is only one of many sources and I'll be most grateful to any reader out there able to deliver additional research bits on these cars or the accuracy of the models themselves.

I need to dig out my ORERs from storage a see what else I can learn.

An additional research site that I recently found is: Eric's Railroad Car History

(Larger pictures can be viewed by clicking the reporting mark text links)

GB&W 7080

Conversion work has started on this freight car, see details on the GBW 7080 page.

IC 150022

This car is a 53' double plug door boxcar manufactured in 1971 (according to the printed car data) by the Evans Products company. I (yet) wasn't able to find an exact prototype photo, but did locate one of a similar car lettered for the Frisco. I also found several examples validating the paint scheme in the mid-to-late 1970s era.

RI 33821

According to the model lettering and box description, this is a 60' car intended for automotive service (stenciled return to Flint, Mich). Having found this picture of a 50' car in the exact same scheme, I'm skeptical about the correctness. According to the printed car data, it was manufactured in Nov. 1966 by the ...

L&N 100161

The manufacturer lists this as a 50' PS-1 boxcar and my (limited) research to date indicates that it is likely a stretched rebuild of a 40' PS-1 (Pullman-Standard) box car. I found two examples of really good visual matches, albeit with different lettering schemes, doors and car numbers.