Lemonade Out Of Lemons

Fifty years ago, I used brake fluid to remove paint from plastic models. It was messy, and it sometimes dissolved the whole model, or at least twisted it out of shape. Eventually I switched to Easy Lift-Off, apparently still available from Testors, which worked a little better, but these days, I pretty much avoid painting whenever I can, especially because factory paint jobs are so much better. But here's an old Varney car that didn't quite make it out of the brake fluid:

Before I tossed the whole thing, I remembered I'd seen photos of hoppers whose backs had broken. This was common enough that railroads had elevated tracks in yards where the loads of bad-order hoppers like this could be dumped into cars in better condition and continue their journeys, so I decided to push on with this one. I even replaced the cast steps and grabs with brass ones.

I lettered the car with a Herald King Decal set. The big question was what color Westmoreland Coal carx were. I think the Herald King instructions said the car was red, and I probably used Floquil Zinc Chromate Primer for this one. However, manufacturers mostly did models in black, including Old and Weary Car Shops and Micro Trains. Bowser, though, did a model gon in red. Protutype photos seem to go both ways:

Playing Catch-up With ACI Labels

I finally realized I have to start playing catch-up with putting ACI labels on my equipment from the 1960s and 70s.

The Kartrak system with ACI color-coded labels was an unsuccessful program that lasted from 1968 to 1978, so it covered the period of the first big mergers, N&W, PC, ICG, BN, SCL, Chessie System, etc. It apparently failed for two reasons, fist, the ACI labels got dirty and unreadable, but more important, the program required labels on all cars, but it didn't require the railroads to install readers. So it never quite got going.

I think I stopped putting ACI labels on the cars that should have them when I ran out of the Micro Scale decal data sheets that carried them. For many years, they were the go-to source, but eventually Micro Scale became hard to deal with.

I looked at the current sources, and for now, the least expensive is from K4 Decals, whch I'm using for the current project.

Back when I was modeling in the 1960s and 1970s, it was hard to find photos that showed where specifically the ACI labels were mounted on a particuiar prototype car. These days, with internet sources like the Fallen Flags site, this is much easier.

In Praise Of Walthers Mainline

I recently picked up two Walthers Mainline SD60s that a retailer seems to have been anxious to clear out. I assume these were the least popular roadnames from the last run, and they let these sound-and-DCC locos go for roughly half price.

Between the paint and drives, I'll take just about any roadname, especially since for some decades, pretty much any roadname can turn up on any prototype railroad. The paint is even, opaque, and sharp. The sound is budget, reduced-function, but that's fine, especially for a trailing unit. The only CVs I need to tweak are CVs 3 and 4, acceleration-deceleration momentum. which I switch to 0, simply because I'm used to it as an old DC operator.

For some time, I've noticed that the Walthers quality assurance is head and shoulders above the competition. It's been some years since I had a loco with a missing part (a cab side window), and Walthers supplied a new one by return mail.

Track Cleaning Hack

The problem with track cleaning cars is that if the track is dirty enough to need cleaning, the loco pulling the car is going to have spotty performance on the dirty track. Sometimes I daydream about getting a radio controlled battery powered "dead rail" loco for this purpose, but it suddenly dawned on me that I could hook a 9 volt battery onto an ordinary HO diesel chassis and have pretty much the same result at far less cost and trouble.

I wound up ordering a 3-pack of what Amazon calls a DAIERTEK 9V Battery Holder with on-off switch at $6.99. I used an old Stewart/Kato F-unit chassis that had couplers mounted. I disconnected the ttrack leads from the trucks to the wire bus on the plastic mother board and soldered the leads from the battery holder to those same wire leads. I installed a 9 volt bettery, taped the holder to the chassis, turned the on-off switch ON, and it went whirring away.

I can turn the Stewart chassis back to a model loco simply by untaping the battery holder, unsoldering the battery leads, and reconnecting the track leads from the trucks, but I would probably add a DCC decoder if I did this. If the whole idea doesn't work out, that's what will happen.

My layout cleasrances are set up for "Ezceeds Plate C" auto parts cars and such, and the battery holder has no trouble with tunnels and bridges.

My main line is an oval in a sort of double folded figure eight, about 160 feet. At 9 volts, the Stewart chassis runs at a medium-slow speed, which avoids derailments. It takes several minutes to do a complete transit of the main line. A big advantage is that the layout has really too much hidden track, but this setup will clean in the tunnels. The hookup works on 2% grades on the main line.

The photo shows it coupled to an A-Line track cleaning pad mounted in an Athearn box car. I've also used it with a Bachmann track cleaning tank car. So far, it seems to need at leastr a dozen transits of the main line to get things in acceptable shape. Full testing is still under way.

A Few More Howard Moore Photos

Howard Moore's photos are fairly difficult to date. But this one is of a Santa Fe F3 that looks like it was in from its first run to Los Angeles after delivery in November 1946:

ATSF 16 was the class unit of the 16 class. In their original form, they had no lower headlight on the nose, and there was a third porthole in the A unit sides. The lower headlight and revised side vents were added over subsequent months. They remained on the Santa Fe's most prestigious passenger trains for their whole careers.

Here is PA-1 51, again just after delivery in September, 1946. It's posed on a special Pacific Electric siding on Exposition Boullevard in Los Angeles, where railroads often displayed new equipment:

ATSF 51 was re-engined by EMD in 1954.

Here is Santa Fe FT 158 in Barstow during the 1946-7 period.

The Santa Fe equipped some FT sets with steam generators and painted them in red and silver in 1946, contemporary with the other photos here. The last passenger FTs were returned to the freight scheme in 1954.

Howard Moore Photos

Last week, a guy named Richard Wilkens posted on Facebook,

In 2025, the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive was donated the collection of Charles Givens. Within the collection was a group of 4x5 negatives that Charles purchased and he noted it as the "L.A. Collection" but he did not know who took them. Most of these were taken in Southern California and appear to be from around 1946 to 1948.

He then posted several scans, hoping someone might have information. As it happens, I knew the photographer right away, because I'd bought 8x10 prints of the same photos from just that guy, Howard Moore (1916-1998). He was one of Athearn's first employees, and he took the photos because Irv Athearn sent him out specificslly to take photos of rail equipment that Athearn might think worth manufacturing as models. I believe Howard had previously worked for a camera store, so he was capable of using a large-format camera. Here's one of the scans Mr Wilkens posted:

In 1947, the eastbound UP Train 2, the Los Angeles Limited, was scheduled to arreive in San Bernardino, CA at 1:55 PM. The sun angle and position of the train suggest this is that train, with new FM Erie Built units. From my collection, here's his shot of what is probably the eastbound Santa Fe Chief, Train 20, probably in San Bernardino the same afternoon. In 1948, it arrived in San Bernardino at 2:18 PM. UP 981-A was UP's first Erie built, renumbered from 50-M-1A in 1946, renumbered to 700A 9n 1948.

Eleven sets of Santa Fe FTs were painted in the passenger scheme in 1946 and ran in that scheme for several years.

I got to know Howard about 1980 when I was doing custom work for an LA hobby shop. I visited him and looked at this photo collection when I delivered projects to him. Here's an Athearn S-12 that I detailed with scratch built warning lights before Details West made the castings. He took the photo on his small layout:

I bought several dozen 8 x 10 prints from him back then, and I enjoyed his stories of railfanning and his lifelong friendship with Irvin Athearn. I'm glad I was able to identify him to the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive as the photographer, but now I realize I need to get back to scanning the rest of those 8x10s. I'll post more as I do so.

New Kato N UP ES44AC In Union Pacific "Small Flag" Scheme

Kato recently brought in a run of N scale ES44ACs in the Union Pacific's 2022 "small flag" scheme.

But it's worth noting that UP recently releaaed a photo of its American 250th Anniversary 1776 locomotive in what's basically just a revival of the former "large flag" scheme (UP photo):

The original "large flag" scheme lasted over 20 years, from 2001 to 2022. A big disadvantage of the scheme was that the flag could become so dirty and/or faded that it amounted to desecration:

I still remember my Boy Scout training in display of the flag, and I've sadly got to conclude that UP's decision to drop the large flag if they couldn't keep it clean was long overdue.

One point to note is that Kato's factory cab roof detail is as the locos were delivered. The photo above shows the prototype in as-delivered condition in November, 2012. However, after this time PTC antennas were added to the cab roof, changing the appearance greatly:

The photo above is from 2014, when this installation was pretty much complete. A loco with the as-delivered cab roof shouldn't have the 2022 "small flag" scheme. I'll have to see what kind of N scale PTC antenna I can find.