"basic", as in "basic transportation". "B" is also for "Bee", as in "the Bee", a good example of basic transportation:
The Grand River & Northern Lake Erie, known commonly as the Erie Northshore, bought her to augment their locomotive-drawn passenger service.
When she first buzzed into town, dressed in a paint scheme based on that of the Northshore locos,
the locals dubbed her "the Bee". She's been buzzing from town-to-town now for some time, a maid of all work.
Some days it's passenger service out of Dunnville, with a heavyweight coach as a trailer:
Other days, a carload of express:
Or perishables, bound for Lowbanks:
Most often it's an insulated car loaded with fresh fish out of Port Maitland (captured here in an overhead shot at Chippawa Creek, courtesy of Secord Air Services):
Of course, with room for mail, baggage, and passengers, she's quite the complete train all by herself:
And only occasionally does she fail on the road and need a helping hand:
"The Bee" (that's what she's called in the Timetable, too - the Northshore's own "name" train) was built from a Rivarossi combine, hacked into three sections then pieced back together. I added some extra windows in the passenger area, and a window from an Athearn Pullman for the Postal section, then scratchbuilt doors for the baggage area, postal section, and the operator's cab. The windows in the cab area were cut out, then framed with strip styrene. A new underframe was added, along with a UC passenger brake system:
The front end is a mish-mash of parts from Cal-Scale, Detail Associates, Details West, New England Rail Service, and Roundhouse/MDC, along with some scratchbuilt parts. The pilot is from a Bachmann Northern (the rest of that loco is in service on Deano's Rock Valley Sub).
The passenger section has seating (from PikeStuff) for 32. (The inner vestibule wall is modelled, but is fastened to the roof section.)
The window shades are cut from sheet styrene as a single piece for each side of the car, then cemented along the top edge to a .010"x.060" styrene strip, which is in turn cemented along the top edge of the styrene window "glass". This keeps the styrene cement away from inside of the visible windows.
As you can see in this view of the underside, the business end of things is the front frame and partial fuel tank from an Athearn bluebox F7. I used the Athearn truck, but substituted Detail Associates' C-Liner sideframes, as I thought they looked more suitable.
The rear truck is the stock Rivarossi truck with Athearn passenger car wheelsets. I reversed one set, then added homemade wipers for more reliable current pick-up for the motor.
For power, I added a Mashima flat can motor, mounted in silicon on its flat side for better driveshaft alignment. To the front of the car, a "U"-shaped sandwich of multiple layers of .060" sheet styrene has been cemented to the interior of the plastic body, then screws were used to secure the Athearn metal frame in place:
Visible at the top of the photo is the underside of the roof, with about 12 oz. of lead weights fastened beneath the clerestory.
"The Bee" is numbered in the Erie Northshore's 600-series for locomotives, and as such, is quite a bit more powerful than a car of this type would normally be. Even with only one powered truck, she can easily handle 7 or 8 freight cars on the Northshore's 2.5% grade east of Elfrida. She'll soon also be the only diesel left on the line, as the other, more modern ones are being sold-off, anchoring the layout more firmly in the '30s.
This concludes our lesson for the day on the letter "B".:-D
Wayne
The Grand River & Northern Lake Erie, known commonly as the Erie Northshore, bought her to augment their locomotive-drawn passenger service.
When she first buzzed into town, dressed in a paint scheme based on that of the Northshore locos,
the locals dubbed her "the Bee". She's been buzzing from town-to-town now for some time, a maid of all work.
Some days it's passenger service out of Dunnville, with a heavyweight coach as a trailer:
Other days, a carload of express:
Or perishables, bound for Lowbanks:
Most often it's an insulated car loaded with fresh fish out of Port Maitland (captured here in an overhead shot at Chippawa Creek, courtesy of Secord Air Services):
Of course, with room for mail, baggage, and passengers, she's quite the complete train all by herself:
And only occasionally does she fail on the road and need a helping hand:
"The Bee" (that's what she's called in the Timetable, too - the Northshore's own "name" train
) was built from a Rivarossi combine, hacked into three sections then pieced back together. I added some extra windows in the passenger area, and a window from an Athearn Pullman for the Postal section, then scratchbuilt doors for the baggage area, postal section, and the operator's cab. The windows in the cab area were cut out, then framed with strip styrene. A new underframe was added, along with a UC passenger brake system:
The front end is a mish-mash of parts from Cal-Scale, Detail Associates, Details West, New England Rail Service, and Roundhouse/MDC, along with some scratchbuilt parts. The pilot is from a Bachmann Northern (the rest of that loco is in service on Deano's Rock Valley Sub).
The passenger section has seating (from PikeStuff) for 32. (The inner vestibule wall is modelled, but is fastened to the roof section.)
The window shades are cut from sheet styrene as a single piece for each side of the car, then cemented along the top edge to a .010"x.060" styrene strip, which is in turn cemented along the top edge of the styrene window "glass". This keeps the styrene cement away from inside of the visible windows.
As you can see in this view of the underside, the business end of things is the front frame and partial fuel tank from an Athearn bluebox F7. I used the Athearn truck, but substituted Detail Associates' C-Liner sideframes, as I thought they looked more suitable.
The rear truck is the stock Rivarossi truck with Athearn passenger car wheelsets. I reversed one set, then added homemade wipers for more reliable current pick-up for the motor.
For power, I added a Mashima flat can motor, mounted in silicon on its flat side for better driveshaft alignment. To the front of the car, a "U"-shaped sandwich of multiple layers of .060" sheet styrene has been cemented to the interior of the plastic body, then screws were used to secure the Athearn metal frame in place:
Visible at the top of the photo is the underside of the roof, with about 12 oz. of lead weights fastened beneath the clerestory.
"The Bee" is numbered in the Erie Northshore's 600-series for locomotives, and as such, is quite a bit more powerful than a car of this type would normally be. Even with only one powered truck, she can easily handle 7 or 8 freight cars on the Northshore's 2.5% grade east of Elfrida. She'll soon also be the only diesel left on the line, as the other, more modern ones are being sold-off, anchoring the layout more firmly in the '30s.
This concludes our lesson for the day on the letter "B".
:-DWayne
