The Whiskey River Railway

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
lead truck located!

I got a lead truck located, and put in with your big locomotive for show and tell.


I noticed looking at the parts, that the 4-6-0's use the same crank pins as the Heislers. I have some of tom's old Heilser parts, including drive trucks that are all there except the crank pins. we might be able to piece together two of these to provide a small drivered option for your Super American, or a good way to build it into a reasonable small drivered 2-4-4-2.


I am ghosting today, was up all Sat morning working, stayed up all Saturday, and the storm kept me up all last night. my new roof was just in time it blew strong enough to blow furniture off my front porch. Have been doing a lot of nothing today This week I lost a lot of sleep (it's hard to sleep through roofers tearing off your metal roof. Last week I spent a lot of time getting the roofing deal put together. God willing I will be at the train club tomorrow night close to six to stay until just after eight.


Bill
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Well I made it back to the "Party" safe and sound. While back I went to the train club to meet up with Bill and Tom and afterwards go to see Tom's progress on his garden layout. I was very impressed with the big bridge he's working on and although it was night and kind of hard to see it still looked amazing.

Later on we went down to Chattanooga and went down to the hobby shop featured in the back of Model Railroader. Well worth it, that place is stocked with tons of great stuff and older kits. I ended up picking up two building kits, one Walthers undec X29 kit, a unlettered wooden kit built reefer and seven or eight older MR's. Among them is one from May 1981 with the Mineral Point and Northern track plan in it. I plan to go along those lines to set up my modules which in turn should work out pretty decent when I find a permanent home for the layout.

Until next time,
Tyler
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Well I made it back to the "Party" safe and sound. While back I went to the train club to meet up with Bill and Tom and afterwards go to see Tom's progress on his garden layout. I was very impressed with the big bridge he's working on and although it was night and kind of hard to see it still looked amazing.

Later on we went down to Chattanooga and went down to the hobby shop featured in the back of Model Railroader. Well worth it, that place is stocked with tons of great stuff and older kits. I ended up picking up two building kits, one Walthers undec X29 kit, a unlettered wooden kit built reefer and seven or eight older MR's. Among them is one from May 1981 with the Mineral Point and Northern track plan in it. I plan to go along those lines to set up my modules which in turn should work out pretty decent when I find a permanent home for the layout.

Until next time,
Tyler

Hi Tyler,

We sure enjoyed your visit. Looking forward to when you are back here and "out of the party" in Afghanistan for keeps.

Chattanooga is my home town and is a great RR town. There is a wonderful "moving" RR museum that your family would enjoy called the Tennessee Valley Rail Road Museum TVRM. It has plenty of 1:1 rail road action and is well worth a 2nd visit to Chatt.town. Check them out on the web at www.tvrail.com

If you can post some pics of the article on the Mineral Point and Northern I would enjoy seeing the layout plans.

Please stay safe and get back here soon.

Doc Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Tyler,


We are thankful for your safe trip, and look forward to your return stateside.


I'm glad you like Tom's big bridge. I am glad to see the big truss in it's location on it's 3rd railroad, having been a feature on my Dad's outdoor railroad, and then for the last 16 years or so on my Dad's Tinplate RR. I'm glad I found a home for it, and Tom is making it look better than it ever has before.


Bill
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Well Doc, you told me to come back soon and so I did. I am back for good earlier than expected, my wife needs surgery to have her thyroid removed and they're just going to keep me back since it'd be a waste of money to send me back for six days then redeploy with my unit.

Also I did find on EvilBay a Bachmann large scale narrow gauge boxcar which I will letter for the WRRy and present to Doc Tom. I really like the fact that since it's huge you can see every detail and how the couplers work. It came from the factory green so I think I'll keep it that color as I like it and since none of my standard gauge equipment is green, I'll just say the railroad painted their narrow gauge stuff green. Why not? It's my railroad afterall :)

Anyways I should be able to make it Monday as my wife's surgery is on Tuesday, I'll see you and Bill then!

-Tyler
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Welcome Home

Well Doc, you told me to come back soon and so I did. I am back for good earlier than expected, my wife needs surgery to have her thyroid removed and they're just going to keep me back since it'd be a waste of money to send me back for six days then redeploy with my unit.

Also I did find on EvilBay a Bachmann large scale narrow gauge boxcar which I will letter for the WRRy and present to Doc Tom. I really like the fact that since it's huge you can see every detail and how the couplers work. It came from the factory green so I think I'll keep it that color as I like it and since none of my standard gauge equipment is green, I'll just say the railroad painted their narrow gauge stuff green. Why not? It's my railroad afterall :)

Anyways I should be able to make it Monday as my wife's surgery is on Tuesday, I'll see you and Bill then!

-Tyler

Hi Tyler,
That is good news!!! I am glad you are back for good. I am sorry your wife has to have thyroid surgery. I am praying that all goes well for her and she has an uneventful recovery.

Thanks for planning the B.mann box car for the LRRR. That is a very kind gesture. The RR can use the Box Cars for interchange service at the saw mill and bringing goods to the lumber camps.

Tyler, I will not be able to make this Monday's Choo Choo Club unfortunately. I will be at the museum Lionel Layout installing this C47 pictured below. The kids should have fun pressing a button to get the props to spin and turn on the flashing LEDS on the wing tips and white LED landing lights. It is a modified 1:48 "O" scale model. I did it in military markings ( Berlin Air Lift prototype) to honor all you great vets!!!!

Doc Tom
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Gents,

Thanks, it's good to be back for good. I forgot that I might have something else going on Monday so I may or may not make it to the choo choo club. We'll see. Also I did draw up the potential plan from the 1981 MR so it's adapted to the modules in progress but I just need to find where I put it. When I find it I'll throw it up here.

-Tyler
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
MP&N Adaptation

While I couldn't find the plan I drew up I did take a pic of the plan from the MR magazine. I thought I brought it with me but maybe I packed it in with my other RR books and mags that are somewhere in a container on its way back here. Or maybe they fell behind my bed in Afghanistan... who knows. Anyhoo here it is, and maybe since I have a wee bit of freetime I'll draw it up on my good ol' MS Paint.

-Tyler
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
While I couldn't find the plan I drew up I did take a pic of the plan from the MR magazine. I thought I brought it with me but maybe I packed it in with my other RR books and mags that are somewhere in a container on its way back here. Or maybe they fell behind my bed in Afghanistan... who knows. Anyhoo here it is, and maybe since I have a wee bit of freetime I'll draw it up on my good ol' MS Paint.

-Tyler

Hi Tyler,

That looks very good. A nice medium sized layout with a lot of operating potential.

Let me know if you need an extra hand for building bench work etc.

Doc Tom
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
I'm assuming I left my conjurings of the railroad back in Afghanistan in the container like I thought. Either way the other day I had some spare time while my daughter went down for a nap to draw up the plan on MS Paint. Mind you absolutely nothing is drawn to scale and is just a general representation of my plan. Also as it stands, the town of Dreisdale which I laid track for already is backwards in my drawing and since I like the plan so much I'll have to redo it.

And Dr. Tom, this winter I'll take you up on that offer.

Tyler
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Very nicely done Tyler. I like the concept of connected modules. It allows you to get the RR built "one bite at a time."

Yes I will be glad to help with construction when Winter comes.

Doc Tom
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Turntable

A while back I asked Bill to set aside a old Atlas turntable that was collecting dust at the Clarksville MRR club for use on the WRRy. Recent discoveries also led me to find four neat Athearn Hustlers, a partially complete Roundhouse boxcar shell with it's doors and guide rails and a Heljan turntable kit. The Hustlers are too new for the WRRy and will be painted up and used as mill switchers on the Clarksville club. I have a frame for the boxcar shell and the Heljan turntable bridge will be chopped up and mounted to the base of the Atlas turntable. This last weekend I bought two 10" knitting hoops to use as the turntable pit walls and plan on cutting them a little shorter so they'll fit better around the circumference of the Atlas base. Now just to find some time...

Tyler
 

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Z

Zathros

Wow, the C-47 pictured is awesome. The designs for the layouts is just excellent and very informative. Thank You! I wondered how the beginnings of a lay out are done. I have a fair amount of "N" scale trains and some "O" scale. I have contemplated making a layout with the "N" scale in the background to give the illusion of distance. Does this sound crazy? :)
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
A while back I asked Bill to set aside a old Atlas turntable that was collecting dust at the Clarksville MRR club for use on the WRRy. Recent discoveries also led me to find four neat Athearn Hustlers, a partially complete Roundhouse boxcar shell with it's doors and guide rails and a Heljan turntable kit. The Hustlers are too new for the WRRy and will be painted up and used as mill switchers on the Clarksville club. I have a frame for the boxcar shell and the Heljan turntable bridge will be chopped up and mounted to the base of the Atlas turntable. This last weekend I bought two 10" knitting hoops to use as the turntable pit walls and plan on cutting them a little shorter so they'll fit better around the circumference of the Atlas base. Now just to find some time...

Tyler

Tyler,

That is a neat sunken pit turntable you are planning. Already looking very good.

Doc Tom
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Zathros,
The N scale concept usually works out, but like all things planning is part of it. My first hand experience is with the Seymour MRR club up north (der eh!) in Wisconsin. The main layout is HO but eight to 10 or so feet from the floor there's a N scale loop on top of a mountain. The height of the mountain it sits on gives it the correct depth perception of it being far away so that worked out. Also in what they call "The Book" of John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid there's pictures of one of his towns set way back in a corner (Akin, maybe?) and in addition to using scaled down models (N scale and smaller) he gave them a lighter color to add to the depth, mimicking clouds and horizon. All in all, if you do it right you'll get great results.

Like John Allen fashion, he spent lots of time planning before building a single portion of his layout. From what I understand once he laid down his master plan he stuck to it for the most part, I can't see that entirely happening with my plans. Just the other day I picked up a copy of MR's 43 Track Plans from the Experts and saw a plan I can slightly modify for use as my north end terminus (Tubbs). I'm figuring out right now how to modify that to conform to my needs, as it has a use for my turntable I'm working on but I'd like to keep the branch line idea to go to the quarry.

Until next time,
Tyler
 
Z

Zathros

Well, my appreciation for this end of the forum has grown immensely! You guys rule. :)
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Aww man Zathros, you make me feel all warm and squishy inside. Thanks for being a great follower!

On another note, I was planning to go up to Wisconsin for Trainfest but the proverbial shit hit the fan but that plan fell through. My buddy was going to drive me up to WI since he has family up there but we both had last minute issues so that plan fell through. I can feel it already... I'm about to have railroad withdrawls.

Tyler
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Workin On The Railroad

Lately I've noticed the amount of projects I've set aside and told myself "I'll get to those someday". Well today was that day to start working on some of them. First up was my Johnson and Big Beaver Valley Railway boxcar I found on eBay. When I got it the car had narrow gauge trucks and couplers on it, and since the WRRy doesn't have a narrow gauge line that needed to be changed. The swap was simple and straight forward with only minimal modification needed to the ends for the Kadee coupler boxes to fit and washers under the trucks to raise coupler height.

The caboose pictured is WRRy C1, an old Silver Streak kit that somebody assembled partially and I get the pleasure (used loosely) to finish. When I got it the car had no trucks, hand rails, and the air reservoir had been attacked by zamac poisoning. So what I did is carefully find the easiest way into the car body without damaging the sides which was in this case to remove one of the ends. I had to remove the steps which I did on both ends since on WRRy cabooses they'll be painted black along with the underframe and they'll be set off to the side. Since I gained interior access that's when I added weight to the car because it had very little weight to it since it's a wooden kit. I use self-sticking 1/2 ounce tire weights for weighing my cars as I have a box available from when we cleaned our ancient motor pool out back when I was in Korea. Also when I was in Korea I stocked up on parts, gaining the leaf sprung arch bar trucks for a really good price. I later found out why they were cheap, the hole where you stick the screw in was disfigured and out of round. The Dremel tool made that a quick fix with the router bit (see the two truck picture, before on the left and after on the right). I then screwed the trucks onto the body and set it on my 10" section of test track. Seems like they were grabbing onto something, like maybe the body. Unfortunately I didn't get to finish my work on the caboose today because my wife HAD to show me something on tv and then my daughter woke up from her nap. Oh well, there's always another day.

I plan to clean up the metal ends from caboose C1 the same way I cleaned up all the other metal parts from my other projects with hobby paint on them, when I was in Korea I found out that floor wax stripper worked really effectively. I just let it set in straight stripper for 5-10 minutes, then wearing gloves take a old toothbrush and scrub the paint off. If it comes clean, rinse it off with water. If not, back in the stripper for another 5-10 minutes and repeat.

Well it's bedtime, I have a interesting day lined up for tomorrow.

Tyler
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Hi Tyler,

Very nice work. Those cars will be a great addition to your growing railroad fleet.
Doc Tom
 
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