Erie in N scale

[Chris333]

Blake,

I used to live in Niles, now Warren and about 300' out my back window is the old Erie main! I guess for the erie it was call Deforest Jct. because the B&O crossed over the Erie right down the road. The tracks are gone, but the old B&O is there they(CSX) use the small yard to sevice the steel mill (WCI). I work at the newspaper in Warren right in front of where the Erie 2 track main turned into a gauntlet track and ran down the center of the street for 2 blocks. Levittsburg is right down the street too, where the main split 4 ways (cleveland,kent,youngstown,and the Y town cutoff) Most of all the tracks are now gone.

I need to work on my passenger equipment, BTW last night I extended the coal boards on my mike, figured why not since its not painted yet (waiting on a headlight casting) I will try to take some more pics.

Chris

 

[Chris333]

2 birds with one stone

 

[Lighthorseman]

Beautiful!!

Really, really nice work, Chris! Please post with your progress.

 

[Blake]

I see you also added an Elesco. Is that the Detail Associates one? I see you've discovered CDS Lettering too. When I was out in your area, I was very disapointed to find very few Erie tracks and very few structures. When we visited Mantua, the guy there was happy that we were so interested in his station. He gave me a very old 3 foot long wooden sign that reads "Bell out of order". I am 99.9% sure that this was an original Erie relic from the 1910 era. Only the railroads would make a sign that would tell you that the bell was out of order insyead of fixing the bell! Leavittsburg was just a field when I was there. There was a building in Warren, wasn't sure if it was Erie or B&O.

 

[Blake]

Another thing about that Berkshire. If you switch the traction tired wheesets out so that both are on the rear axle and then replace each original tire with 2 Kato tires, the loco will pull much better. What station was the one you built? Looks like Thompson PA. Came out great. I scratch built a station loosly based on an Erie station.

 

[Chris333]

Blake,
Yeah thats a detail asso. water heater and pump. I filed the ends off the heater and made new one out of round pastic rod. Detail parts are so crude sometimes. I put the airpump on the pilot and made a brass shroud for it too.

CDS lettering is great, but hard to line up sometimes. I have a few cars with only one "good" side speaking of decals I just ordered 55 erie sets from northeast. Have you ever used them? They have a caboose set! They are out of business, but the daughter still has all the old stock. Her name is Susan Welcome and Her E-mail is : swelcome@ohdela.schoolone.com I just herd back from her today and ordered.

BTW so sorry everyone about my pic quality I have a very cheep digital camera (no auto focus)

Chris

 

[Chris333]

Thompson PA, yep you must have pretty much all the Erie info stashed away that I do! I have drawings of the Erie station in Niles in my computer. I'm sure you know about:


http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/el.html



Soooooo many drawing and pics here and track layouts too. I wonder if people who model other roads have it this good.

Chris

 

[Blake]

Well, I have been to Thompson, PA and that is the only station left on that line. I have it photographicly saved in the old brain pan. I too made the brass shield for the air pump but I scratchbuilt the Elesco stuff. Make sure you spray those decals with either Microscal Liquid Decal Film of Microscale Gloss before you use them. They are VERY thin and fragile. I hope you didn't get any of the RS / GP sets. They just fell apart in the water even after gloss coating them. When I did get a set that finally came off the backing alright, they were so translucent that they looked green on the loco. I had to double decal the loco and when I was finally done, I had used 7 sets of decals! When I wrote to the owner of NE he replied with a very nasty letter explaining to me that his decals were the best and that I had no apparent painting or decaling skills. I threw out all of the remaining decals and switched to Microscale. I have heard of other people having the same response. Hmm, wonder why he went out of business? If you have trouble with dry transfers, try applying them to clear decal film, then brush on some Microscale liquid decal film. They will then apply just like decals. Also, you can go to this military modeling dry transfer company's website. Click on APPLICATION TIPS. They really helped me when I started using transfers.

Archer Dry Transfers

 

[Warbonnet-fan]

Nice work, Chris

Chris, very nice layout! I can tell the area of the country by the scenery, and your bridges look great. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Chris333]

Hey thanks for the good words. If I had a better camera, I'm sure I would have some great pics for ya.


Blake,
Had a decal problem this morning. I painted my mikado and went to decal. Did the cab and everything was fine. Went to put the diamond on the tender, used the right size on my 2-8-0. So I opened a new set of decals (mircoscale steam) after soaking soon as I touched it, it turned into about 20 parts It was an older set in a older package, so I guess I need a new set before the mike is done. Hope I can use some of the northeast sets, at least the large diamond for the hoppers. Kinda sad there not available.
BTW it was an older mike, I ordered drivers from the new mike so they all pick up power now. Runs much better now.

Chris

 

[Blake]

Get a bottle of that Microscale liquid decal film, it works great. Just brush it on and whoosh, new decals. In the Microscale Erie hood diesel set, there are a bunch of small diamonds that go on the sides of GP-7's, 9's and RS's. These work great on hoppers with the yellow Erie diamond. Prime Mover Decals has an Erie caboose set and the diamonds in there are the right size for the large diamond on the hoppers.

 

[Chris333]

Blake,
Thanks I will need some that decal film.

I was workin on my berkshire today. I reworked the firebox so that it is stright down instead of flared out. And also filed the frame to match.
Ordered commonwealth tender trucks from Con-cor, hopefully they will help the power pickup. I plan on adding wipers to the one side of the drivers also.
I filled in the hole from the sand dome, what did you plan to use to replace the dome?

The prime mover decals look nice, I wish they could print them in N scale.

Chris

 

[pondman]

Foam in layout

Nice looking layout Chris,Isee you are using a lot of foam in it .Did you put the plaster right over the foam?Would like to know as i' am working with foam too .

 

[Chris333]

Pondman,

Yeah the plaster is right on the foam. Some of the smaller "rocks" I cast, poppped out of the mold and glued down. The bigger ones that had to follow the contour, I put down "wet". I stuck some pins in the foam at way different angles and left them sticking up a hair so the plaster would stick. I also wetted to area down with a spraybottle. After they hardened I worked them into the area with sculpamould (spl) and sprayed india ink washes along with earth colored washes along with some drybrushing. I use the cheep craft store paints for scenery. Its acrylic thinned with water. I have a little stach of real rocks that I look at to get the coloring right.

Hope it works out for you.
Chris

 

[Drew1125]

Very Very Nice!

Hi Chris!
Sorry I'm a bit late giving you the "welcome aboard", but I haven been around for a week or so...
Man, that is one fine looking layout, & some very nice modeling!

I got into N scale a couple of years ago, & since then, I have come across so many people doing such fantastic work in this scale!
Thanks for sharing!

 

[Jay Gould]

I'd like to add my voice as one more who, more or less (mostly "more") models the Erie Railroad. I grew up in Deposit NY, right at the foot of Gulf Summit, the Erie's steepest mainline grade. On the other (west) side of this climb, 12 or so miles away, is the great Starucca Viaduct. The Erie dieselized early, so I almost missed steam, but not quite. I was bitten by the bug, and my model RR is almost all steam. Aside from old Rivarossi locos, I have three Kato 2-8-2's (3212 and 3214 have elescos, but not as nice as Blake's) and a new 2-8-0 from Bachmann (1647).
Among my near-obsolete Rivarossi's, I have a pair of 0-8-0's (247 and 250) that are OK (but the LL SW-9-1200 is so good that I'm compromising on "steam-only" for yard work). I do have all the Erie deisels ever offered by Atlas or LL, but they see limited use. Living in Syracuse for 30+ years, I also developed an interest in the DL&W and, of course, the NYC, so I have some Mikes and Connies (and Hudsons) decalled accordingly. The result is a branch railroad jointly owned by Erie, NYC, and DL&W called the Winesburg and Spoon River (W&SR), which are a pair of midwestern small towns in American Literature (I was an English teacher in my actual real life job). I even have a weathered 2-8-0 under that livery, but the trackage rights are used heavily by the three "owner" railroads. My layout has a double-tracked 1.5 mi. main line (2.2 if you take the long way over a, yes, viaduct) and goes past these two towns. I also have a sort of empty space on the layout where I might add part of another "town," called Grover's Corners. Well, I have a limited number of interesting details to add, but this is already an awful lot for a 1st post; nevertheless, I was very glad to hear of others who share my interest in the great Erie RR. ---Jim W.

 

[sumpter250]

Chris,
Welcome to the gauge! Nice layout! Hope to see a lot more of your work.
Pete

 

[Matt Probst]

Hey Jim W.! Welcome to the gauge. Loved that post. How 'bout some pics?!

Matt--Hershey, Pa.

 

[Jay Gould]

Matt P. Thanks for the welcome; also the suggestion that I include pics---that'll motivate me to upgrade my skills! I only started using a computer less than a year ago, and I don't have the wherewithall to send attachments yet. But my son has a digital camera and a scanner and tons of computer savvy, so I'll get him to help me out (except he works 50 hrs/wk so it may take some time). My layout is nice, maybe a tiny bit above average, but at the same time it is probably the most jury-rigged one ever built, because although I have great love for railroading and miniaturization, etc., my mechanical skills are limited. I'm good at decaling and weathering, not bad at scenery---but I have never liked electrical stuff, even in high school physics class I fell down on that. So I do have lighted buildings, for example, but if something goes wrong under there, I have the most depressing jungle of wires you ever saw, and I have no clue anymore which wires go to what. Still, I love the hobby, and when the excellent 2-8-0s came out, it really reinvigorated my enthusiasm. I was so inspired that I even got rid of a useless industrial area. put a mountain in its place, and a tunnel through the mountain. It came out pretty well, given that I was working with somewhat limited space. That's when the hobby is the most fun. Speaking of 2-8-0s, I also got a MDC one---a little before my "era," but I try to patronize anyone who makes N-scale steam---and it sits in the yard coupled to my short MOW train. Every now and then I take it out for a few inspection laps. The Erie always used helper engines to get trains over Gulf Summit, and the pusher would signal to the lead engine with its lonely whistle, and the lead engine would signal back. As a little kid I used to hear this (plus echoes, even!) at night when I was going to sleep. I was so young when steam went out---too bad! The last time I saw a steam engine on the Erie, it was a big 3300 Berkshire behind the caboose helping an ABBA set of diesels get over the mountain. They couldn't do it without the Berk helping them! A last, moral victory! ---Jim W.

 

[marty w.]

Chris,
Great looking layout and great pic's.
Marty