Conrail #0 - Part 5 - The Finale

Here we have Part 5 which is the last part in the series. Conrail #0 was a fun scratch building project over the past few months and I am sad that this critter is done. Now I can move forward with X481 since this one is completed. 

Here we have one of the vents that is on top of the roof. I took polystyrene and cut them to length. I then used super glue to hold them together. Once the pieces were dried ( after about 10 minutes ) I then glued them on top of the shell. The two cylinders on top of the shell have since been painted blue.

Next while the vent was drying, I got out the decals and found the F that way it is designated which end of the front of the critter. I cut the decals out and placed them in water. It took about less than a minute and they were ready to be applied to the front. I will say out of the entire scratch build, this was the most difficult thing to do. You can see how small the F's are and getting them in the right position was no easy task since the front of the critter isn't that big. Once they were applied, I took micro sol and set them in place.

I know other people use micro set but I found that it does not work as well as the micro sol does. The micro set works well for removing decals while micro sol works great for setting decals. Everyone has their own taste and we are all learning. Right now lets continue on with Conrail #0.

Up next is finding the lights that were on top. As of right now the lights are wired and are only for display purposes only. Eventually I plan to have the lights set up to blink orange but right now that's not on the table. I found two identical lights off of a old RS1 locomotive that I figured would best suite the critter. I glued them onto some polystyrene and left them to dry. I then used my Dremel tool to cut them out and sand the edges smooth. After all that was done, the lights were glued on top of the shell.

Now onto the final Part of this 5 Part Series. Below is the final product. I think the critter turned out pretty good. Everything is painted that needs to be painted, all the decals that I currently have are on with the exception of a few which will be added at a later date. I hope you all enjoyed this 5 Part Series. There will be more series coming in the future. But for now, enjoy Conrail #0.

Shop Goat X481 - Part 2

Welcome To Part 2 of the 3 part series on Shop Goat X481. Work has progressed some on this shop goat. I did manage to get the other end closed off and started to paint the goat. There isn't as much detail on this shop goat as there is on Conrail #0 so getting this goat finished will be much easier.

Here is the other working end all closed up and waiting on paint. The battery box has also been glued onto the frame and is drying in these pictures.

Here we have the paint being applied with a paint brush. I don't own a air brush system yet so all the scratch built stuff and repaints that you see is all done using a paint brush.

The metal coupler clip you see in the above picture will be cut off before the rest of the front of the goat can be completed. A new coupler will be glued on since this goat will actually not be used to shuffle locomotives around. Each time that it is viewed on the layout, it will be coupled up to a different locomotive to give the illusion that it is working.

This concludes Part 2 of the 3 part series. Stayed tuned for Part 3 in the next few days.

Conrail #0 - Part 4

Today we continue with Part 4 of 5 with the series on Conrail #0. Work on this critter is progressing at a good pace as work has started on the top of the unit. Below you will see the process of making the cylinder tanks that are on top of the critter. While working on this unit I keep referring back to photo's but I am taking a guess as to what else is on top of the unit. I haven't found any photo's of the top just side, front and rear views of the critter. I am trying to get it as close as possible with the resources I have.

Here we have the cylinder tanks positioned on top where they will be sitting roughly.

Next the cylinders are glued down onto some polystyrene and left to dry for about an hour. After they are dry, they will be cut off, sanded and then painted before being glued down on the top of the critter.

Here we have the final result after cutting the cylinders off of the polystyrene. They didn't turn out to bad in my opinion.

This is all for Part 4 of the series. Part 5 will be posted in a few days as I want to get the rest of the pieces cut, painted and glued on. That is all for right now.

Shop Goat X481 - Part 1

Conrail X481 is another small shop switcher or shop goat as some called it. It was used at the Collinwood Shops on the Conrail System. X481 was a battery operated shop goat that was used to move locomotives around the shop area. The top speed of this unit was 3-4 mph. This unit lasted past the Conrail corporate dissolution into CSX and Norfolk Southern. X481 was used a truck from a retired locomotive loaded down with heavy batteries for power. In this 3 part series you can follow along with the building of Conrail X481.

X481 is using the same style of truck that is on Conrail #0. Here we have the frame already glued down onto the truck in the first picture. The second picture shows the top part that will go on top of the frame. This is where all the batteries and components will all be held. 

Here is a better view of the battery compartment. I still need to cut a piece of polystyrene to cover this end of the shell. The other end has other been cut and glued on. Once that piece is glued on, it will be time to paint both ends. Once that is done then, it will be time to work on the top of X481.

Here we have the shell sitting on top of the frame. This gives you a good idea how it will look. This is another piece of equipment that I have done a ton of research on and the shell does in fact sit on the frame how it looks in this picture. There is a small lip all around the unit. The shop goat will be used at the shops in Cresson, Pa as Conrail #0 will be at the Blairsville Shops.

This is the end of Part 1 of the series on the Shop Goat X481. Part 2 will be coming in the following days.

Conrail #0 - Part 3

Now we begin with Part 3 of 5 with Conrail #0. Here we have the critter painted up in Conrail blue and we can see the details to the front of the locomotive. There is the front door, steps, and coupler. The small metal clip that held the old coupler that could been seen in the previous post has since been cut off and a new coupler has added.

Here we have the decals applied to both sides of the critter. I did a bunch of research to make sure that the decals would be applied correctly. I wanted to make sure they were the same as they are on the bigger locomotives and sure enough they are.

This concludes Part 3 of the series. Part 4 will be up in a couple of days as work is nearing the end on Conrail #0.

Conrail #0 - Part 2

Today we continue with Part 2 of 5 of Conrail #0. Conrail #0 once finished will be located at the Blairsville Engine Facility. These switchers were used to shuffle locomotives in and out of the facilities on the railroad. It helped cut exhaust fumes in the buildings they were working in.

The front and rear bumpers were built with .030 polystyrene. Cutting the angles were a little bit of a challenge to get the right angle. 

Building the sides up of the battery locomotive. I am using polystyrene size .040 sheets to build under the frame, bottom plate, and all the sides. 

For the top piece, I used .030 polystyrene and the front access door I used .030 polystyrene. Once all those pieces were glued on, I started to paint it by hand with Conrail Blue.

Part 3 of the series will be post tomorrow.

Caboose, Cabin, or Cabeese

Conrail had many different type of Cabooses during the first years and into the mid to late 1980's before they were replaced by the FRED or EOT as they were called. Some did survive into the late Conrail era but were only used as shoving platforms which was to protect the train and crew. They could be found on local jobs or seen being shuffled around the yards. Below is a collection of pictures from the collection of Cabooses I have so far to date.

Class N-9 - During the Conrail Era these were used on transfer jobs, hence why these were called a transfer caboose.

Class N5C - Former PRR Class N5C. These were common all across the Conrail System and was the staple of the Caboose world on the PRR.

This caboose is still being worked on

Class N20 aka Northern Style Caboose. These cabooses came over from the Reading Railroad when Conrail was created. I only have one N20 Class caboose right now.

This caboose is another still being worked on.

Class N5G - Former Lehigh Valley

This is the only caboose on the roster that has lights on the inside right now.

Conrail #0 - Part 1

Conrail had a wide variety of switch engines across their system. You could go to each yard and find more than two different type of switchers but there was only a couple places where you could see unique switchers. One was at Enola and another was at Conway. I believe there was a third one but I am not quite sure where it was on the Conrail System. While these small switchers weren't given a class, if my memory serves me correctly, they were remote controlled switchers. This series will be a 5 part series on Conrail #0. These little critters are non powered switchers on the Blairsville Cutoff. There will be another series on the other shop critter as well in the near future.

The very first Conrail unit on the roster was Conrail #0. The nubs on top of the truck were ground down a long with the top of the metal pins. I did a bunch of research on this little switcher and found that I did in fact have a couple spare trucks that were pretty darn close to the ones Conrail used.

Here we have the single truck that is the base for Conrail #0

Supports added underneath of the frame to help support the plate.

The underneath of the frame has been painted black while the top of the frame has been painted in Conrail blue.

Part 2 of this series will be posted tomorrow

A Look Back

In this post we are doing a flashback to the Conrail equipment that used to run the mountain grade of the Blairsville Cutoff. The Conrail roster had many 1st and 2nd generation diesels on the roster and many of the 1st generation diesels were worn out. Below are a few pictures of the locomotives that are in "storage" on the Blairsville Cutoff.

SD9 #6910 & GP35 #2263

F7a #1694 & F7a #1707

There are other F7's but this is just a preview of what the Flashback era will look like when an operations session will happen in the future.

Dog Leg Lumber

Dog Leg Lumber is a small lumber operation located around Armagh on the Blairsville Cutoff. The lumber companies primary locomotive is a C420 ALCO locomotive that hauls logs down to the lumber mill to be turned into lumber. The ALCO was purchased secondhand from another railroad which it is unknown which railroad it was purchased from as the paperwork was lost over time.

Dog Leg Lumber #268 on the workbench getting the proper decals applied before being pushed into service.

All the decals have been applied and now all that is left to do is put the handrails on and it will be ready to go.

The small lumber railroad operation does have another locomotive that is being built in the home shops of the Dog Leg Lumber Company. A SW7 was purchased along with another switcher engine that are being built into one locomotive.

RS3M - Part 1

Here is a pretty neat project that I have been working on for the past 6 months I would say. This engine will not be a regular on the layout but will make appearances when I have a flashback era on the layout. It will come out with the F7's, SD9, and other older equipment. Anyways, the RS3m was rebuilt in 1972 under Penn Central and didn't receive the number 9950 until 1973. This locomotive is unique as it had it's short high hood removed and a large porch was added. 

The RS3m was used primarily as a switch engine and on local runs between yards along the Penn Central and then Conrail. 

The RS3m is my first locomotive scratch build and I will say that it is trying me in every way possible. I am learning new things along the way. The only issue I have ran into was that only one set of trucks will be able to have power to them as the front trucks will just "float" there for the time being. I'm hoping in the near future I can figure out how to get them to where they aren't floating. The above pictures is about 3 months into the build. 

The next step I took on was after changing out the shell was to remove the single exhaust stack and add two new one. I also added the rear fans and wasn't to sure that it was supposed to look like that but after looking at multiple photo's, everything is correct. The blue Conrail cab that is seen in these photo's has since been removed and replaced with a different cab that better suites the locomotive. This is at the 6 month mark for the locomotive. There is still plenty more for me to do with this locomotive.

This concludes Part 1 of this project. Part 2 will be coming in the next week or so.