Walthers Mainline SP-T&NO GP9

Diesels of Southern Pacific subsidiary Texas & New Orleans, although they were lettered for SP in SP-style paint, had two key differences. One was that they had three-digit road numbers. Another was that they didn't necessarily have the full packages of warning lights of the parent units. However, T&NO units routinely got to California mixed with SP units. Walthers Mainline has produced GP9s with T&NO headlight style and numbers. I ordered 408:

You can see SP-T&NO 408 in the photo above with 5607, a full SP GP9 from an earlier Walthers Proto run, behind it. 5607 has the full light package plus Proto factory details not present on 408. However, I think 408 is a satisfactory layout-qualiry model. Below is a Roger Lalonde photo of siaster loco 434:

The SP placed train numbers in loco numberboards until 1967. Before that, unless the loco was a lead unit on a train, the number boards were empty, as shown in the prototype photo. The Proto model of 5607 has empty numberboards, but the model of 408 has the unit number, which is incorrect. I may change this.

T&NO 408 was built in May 1954. In the 1965 SP renumbering, T&NO units were renumbered into SP number series, and 408 became 3408. In the 1970s, it was renumbered 3301.

HOn30 Layout Pulled Out Of Mothballs

I pulled a small HOn30 layo0ut out of storage after about 27 years. I first became interested in what RMC called HOn2-1/2 in the 1960s, when it first introduced the scale, and I had a small Minirains layout in my dorm. Then I discovered that while 2+ foot gauge was rare in the US, there was a lot of it in Europe, and I started a layout based on Austro-German prototype. I startted it in 1989 in a different home.

I eventually got the scenery to about 50% but put it on the back burner. Not lonmg ago I pulled it out again to try out some of the new OO9-HOn30 UK prototype items. The loco is a Bachmann Talyllynn Ry No 1. The UK modelers are a little lulewarm about this, since it's just a cleaned-up Thomas series loco, but I like it. The brickworks is an old Pola kit with some tweaks.

A Second Central Vermont GP9

As I said I would, I ordered a second Walthers Mainline Central Vermont GP9, this one 4445. The CV was the last railroad I grew up with, turning 21 in the White River Jct area.

As mentioned, both units will get winterization hatches and CN style spark arresters like GT 4448 in the photo. I'm still puzzled why the factory added snowplows to the short hood end, which is the rear on these locos, when they assembled the figures in the cab facing the long hood front -- and the decoder is also factory programmed for long hood front.

I don't have a photo of 4445 from the front, but here's a photo from an unknown photographer off the web of 4447 with its plow on the long hood end:

My first project on both these locos will be to figure out how to pry the plow off the short hood end and reattach it to the long hood end.

Bachmann Silver Series 4-Wheel Caboose

I really like the Bachmann Silver Series 4-wheel caboose, which is a somewhat retooled version of a model that's probably been in their line from the start. I have more of them than I should:

Not long ago, I found another one on eBay. It was bright red with an incongruous New Haven McGinnis "NH", but it was cheap. I discovered that if I just brushed the lettering with some Walthers Solvaset, the letters simply floated off. With that problem solved, I masked off the black of the roof and cupola and sprayed the car boxcar red. Then I applied decals from the K4 NYO&W loco and caboose decal set.

Here's a prototype photo off the web:

Close enough.

Vintage eBay Find

A fun sub-hobby I enjoy is occasionally finding vintage items that can be restored to operate compatibly with contemporary equipment. This usually involves replacing trucks and couplers, but it may also involve adding weight and sometimes cosmetic improvements. Not long ago I found a Chateau Martin wine car on eBay that I'm pretty sure is a Laconia kit from the 1950s.

This is exactly how I got it from the seller (it was pretty cheap). A prior owner had converted it to Kadees mounted with wood screws, so that's one thing I don't need to worry about, but the trucks will have to go, and the roof probably needs sanding sealer and new paint.

The prototype is a General American Pfaudler milk tank car (the tanks are internal within the wood carbody), the same thing as the much more recent Athearn car. Chateau Martin used it for wine. For some reason, as far as I can tell, Athearn never brought its model out in the Chateau Martin scheme. A web search shows Lionel brought one out in 3-rail O, AHM did an HO freight reefer in this scheme in the 1950s, and Roundhouse did a 50-foot HO express reefer in this scheme, but neither is as close to the prototype as this 60-year-old Laconia car.

Tony Thompson's blog has a post on this same Laconia car. He pretty much agrees it's an OK model as is, and nothing better has come along.

There's also a history of Chateau Martin and the wine cars at this site. They ran from 1940 to about 1974 in the basic magenta paint wirh several different lettering schemes. The traffic was between Waterford, CA and Bronx, NY, where they were unloaded at a Chateau Martin bottling plant, but they somehow seem to have appeared in freights all over the country.

Progress On Fat Lou's

I've finished the detail painting and weathering on the Downtown Deco Fat Lou's Liquor and have also added the wall signs.

I decided to position it with the front facing the front edge of the shelf. But as you can see, while I've figured out exactly where it should go, I still have to level things out and clear the surrounding area up.

The detail painting and signage went much easier than I expected. The basic model should be complete within the next few days. The signs in the kit are Downtown Deco's older style, not actual decals, but printed on thin glossy paper. I cut them out and mounted them on blobs of full-strength Elmer's glue the general size of the sign itself. I squished the signs into the glue and straightened them out, then left things to dry. The glue shrank and pulled the paper signs into the brickwork pretty well. If glue seeped out from the edges of the signs, that was OK, it was invisible when it dried.

Opening Up A New Photo Angle

I decided to begin opening up a new photo angle to a corner of the Manhattan Transfer section of my layout, which I've bern neglecting from the start. I want to add several Downtown Deco kits, starting with the Fat Lou's Liquor, kit DD165. Below is a photo from their web site:

I've gotten as far as assembly of the plaster sides and basic painting:

Most of the work that remains will be in the detail painting and weathering on the walls and adding the signs and roof details. Then several more structures in the bare area to the right, and then other street details and vehicles.