Sunset Reading EMD F3’s

Posted on August 28, 2022 by George Losse

Sunset imported EMD F3 A’s and B’s painted decorated for the Reading a few years ago. I did not order any as I DO NOT like to buy any new model sight unseen. This was the first time they were being built and you have no idea if the model will be accurate.

This weekend I finally saw photos of an actual model that was produced. I was not impressed and I’m VERY GLAD I did not order any.

The Reading EMD F3’s were classed as DF-2. They styled very similarly to the later F7’s. The had the later low profile 36 inch fans on the roof. They had the later large angled number boards on the nose. They also had Stainless steel grills on the top of the sides of the locomotives. Outwardly they were often misidentified as F7’s. The only real visual difference is the dynamic brake grid on the roof, they had a pair rectangular roof grids for the Dynamic Brakes instead of the F7’s 36 inch low profile fan.

Below are photos of the Sunset 3rd Rail Reading EMD F3 release.

These views of the A unit show what is wrong with the model:

The Dynamic Brake is not modeled correctly on the model. It’s a blank hatch cover. It should be two rectangular screen-covered grids
The Grills at the top of the car body are not modeled correctly. They should be made to look like stainless steel grills like an F7.
There are a pair of PRR style lifting brackets on the nose of the locomotive that should NOT be there.
Missing the number board on the top of the nose door.
Missing nose door handles

The B Unit also has inaccuracies:

Dynamic Brake not modeled
Missing lettering with unit number and class called out just in front of the rear side door.
Grills at the top of the car body should be like the grills on a F7.

I’m not a fan of the model companies current practice of producing a run of a model. They expect you to buy a model sight unseen before ANY photos are released of an actual model. I have only done this one or two times before. Haven’t always been happy with what was produced. And haven’t always been able to sell off the unwanted BAD model.

When you mention this to other modelers they just say order it or don’t, the manufactures don’t really care. Well I care. I’d rather have a correct model than the beginning of an expensive project to add to the project list. My project list is already too large!

Faced with the future options of having to order a model before it’s produced, I think I’ve ordered my last new model for this lifetime.

I did not order any of these models from Sunset 3rd Rail. Now having seen the actual model that was imported, I’m VERY glad I didn’t.

Makes me again say, I will not order any models sight unseen. If that means I don’t get the New Whatever, so what? I have more than enough models here now to keep my project list full for the rest of my lifetime and maybe another lifetime in addition.

Model photos cropped and edited from online images.
Prototype images from scanned photos and negatives from my collection.

Strasburg O Scale Show – August 2022

Posted on August 7, 2022 by George Losse

The Strasburg Show was yesterday. The weather was fine, no snow this time, but it is August in Pennsylvania. The attendance was a little down, but that was most likely because the weather was nice and guys had other commitments pulling on them. Life does happen.

It was a fine show. This was the first show with Rich Yoder on his own since John Dunn retired from hosting the shows. Rich did a fine job hosting the show on his own.

Sadly John had family commitments that kept him away from the show. I was looking forward to seeing John be able to just kick back and enjoy the show for a change.

For the Reading Modeler, I did see one of the Gem 0-4-0 camelbacks on a table. I later saw the box under someone’s arm, the model was on it’s way to a new home before the end of the show.

For the Proto48 modelers in the crowd, I did not see much on the tables. Rich Yoder had a few Proto48 trucks on his table. Mostly the National B-1’s, Vulcan trucks and just three of the Bettendorf caboose trucks. A couple of pairs of the caboose trucks made their way home with me.

It was announced that the October show will host a live auction during the show at 12:00 noon. There will be three items offered for auction, a hand crafted “Sethion Sinks Diorama” built by Martin Brechbiel, a Yarmouth Model Works PRR X31f built-up kit by Chris Crane complete with a correct pair of RY Models PRR 2D-F12 trucks in either O Scale or Proto48 and a Diamond Scale 105′ turntable kit.

WB: Painting In Good Weather

Posted on June 10, 2022 by George Losse

This is a slightly different Workbench post for me. We have had some very nice weather this Spring, low humidity and warm days. I do have a paint booth, but I prefer to paint outdoors. During the Summer months the humidity in New Jersey can keep me from painting.

This is my simple set up. An old Kitchen cart, my compressor, a tub that holds supplies before painting, an upside down old cookie sheet and a plastic lazy-susan. I use the cookie-sheet when I’ve used some spray on strippers for models. So now it’s just a part of the set-up.

I wheel this out of the garage and set up along side the house. I had used this set-up in the back of the house before but the side gets sunlight longer. I can paint longer into the day.

I start with the model inverted and paint all the surfaces visible for this angle. You can see this covered hopper car sitting on a 5×7 film box. The film box allows me to move the model from the painting area without any trouble. The model is then set out on the back porch to bake a little in the sun.

After about a half hour of baking in the sun, I add a pair of “shop trucks” (in this case partially built Intermountain trucks without wheelsets) and invert the model on the top side of the box.

Once the visible surfaces of the top of the model are painted, I again move the model onto the back porch to bake in the sun. After another hour of baking, they were dry to the touch. They still had some fumes, so I let them set out there until the porch was in shadows.

Below were some of the cars from earlier in the day. I needed to break up all the red being applied with a couple of gray cars. Next up some black cars.

Modeling Standards

Posted on May 30, 2022 by George Losse

The title is simple but can mean different things to different people. My own thoughts on standards has evolved over time.

Standards can be as simple as making sure your models meet NMRA standards, so they operate properly. Or it can be how many details are you going to add to each model before you can call a model done.

To me, the NMRA standards are the bare minimum. If it doesn’t meet the Proto48 standards for wheels it will not operate properly. That is the starting point, for some it is the end point. Those modelers don’t care about all the different details. How many times have you heard them say they only break off anyway, why bother? Maybe that is what’s nice about the hobby, every modeler can make that call for themselves. There is no right or wrong answer, just what’s right for you and your modeling.

This post is more about what I am standardizing on now. It’s not a certain level of detail. Today the Standard I’m using is more basic than that.

This morning, I was attaching the plastic bolsters to a 40 year old Precision Scale model. The hardware package supplied when the model was imported has disappeared in the years since the model was imported.

So today, my modeling standards are something as simple as tapping the holes for a 2 mm screw which are my standard for mounting the bolsters to cars. Same thing for mounting of the couplers to the car body. The tiny hole for the coupler on the model (top photo) is tapped for another 2 mm screw.

Below shows how the same standard was used to mount the PSC Bolster to a Lionel Berwind GLa. Allowing a pair of Proto48 trucks to be mounted completing that part of the conversion. Now I just need to touch up the screw head with some paint and it all disappears.

Interchange Track: A Couple of New Baldwins Arrive

Posted on May 28, 2022 by George Losse

There were a couple of arrivals this month on the interchange track.

First was an Overland Baldwin AS-16 nicely painted with the internal drive. The drive on the models with fuel tanks are through the fuel tanks. When the tank is removed, the gear tower is exposed. Not so on this model. This one came in a trade worked out at dinner in Chicago this past April. It a fine looking model to start with but there are a couple of things to adjust to make it more accurate for 1952.

Next up is a long awaited Central Locomotive Works PRR RT-624. This project started as a run of the CLW Baldwin DT 6-6-200 kit being custom built by Lou Houlemard, the owner of CLW.

Some of the PRR modelers pointed out the differences between the original kit and the PRR version of the locomotive, the RT-624. So Lou had new art drawn up for the PRR version and had new etchings made for the PRR locomotive. Lou offered the locomotives with or without Dynamic Brake and with or without Trainphones.

The drive is built by Jay Criswell of Right-O-Way and was set up for Proto48. It runs nice an smooth and quiet just set up for DC running. I still need to paint, decorate the model and install the DCC into this, but I’m very pleased with this custom built locomotive.

Having grown-up in the New Jersey suburbs around Philadelphia, I saw a lot of Baldwin locomotives in the area and they are a favorite of mine.

Strasburg O Scale Show – April 2022

Posted on April 23, 2022 by George Losse

The Strasburg Show happened today. Before the show opened, John Dunn spoke to the crowd. John went through their normal announcements talking about the modules set up in the bay and the tree-building demonstration that was scheduled.

Then Rich spoke and announced that John was retiring from hosting the shows with Rich. Rich spoke about John’s contributions to the show over the years they have been putting them on. While Rich was speaking he also smartly recognized John’s wife Patty’s help and contributions to the shows. Their combined leadership has made the show a success.

After that surprise announcement, they let the public into the show. They had a very strong turn out for the show. It was later mentioned that it was one of the best attended shows ever. Traffic was steady throughout the day. The buying was also spaced out throughout the show. I know I almost emptied my table by the end of the show.

Berkshire Car Shops with their great high quality 3D printed buildings. These looked great but I didn’t get a chance to talk to them about their products as there was always a crowd when I went by their tables.

For the Reading modelers, I did see a couple of the SGL cars in the room on two different tables. A nicely painted RY Models Fishbelly Twin Hopper made a short lived appearence on a table before heading under my table.

There was an Overland T-1 at the show. It was a very clean example of a nice model and even had a set of the Overland decals included. Late in the morning, I saw it under its new owner’s arm as it was going to it’s new home.

On the Proto48 front, there was also a very brief siting of some Overland Conversion wheels for some of their diesel models. They quickly found a new home.

The show also featured a nice traction module set up in the engine bays at the Fire Hall. The Module set up featured both an elevated section and surface line in a nice city scene.

Chicago O Scale Show 2022 – Layout Tour: Rockford O Scalers

Posted on April 16, 2022 by George Losse

One of the nice things about going to the Chicago Show over the years has been going out on layout tours. I have had the chance to see a bunch over the years. This year we rode out to the Rockford O Scalers’ layout.

Even though the Rockford O Scalers have been a regular on the layout tour, I had not been to the layout before. Usually worked out that that the group I was riding with didn’t want to travel that far to see the layout. It was about an hour drive to get there. I have to say that it was absolutely well worth the drive.

The layout is 57×30 plus a staging area and is basically two double-track mainlines. One on the outside of the room and another loop on the inside of the room. The “club” started in the 1990’s as a modular group. The modules were used to make up the inner loop.

While some may find the track plan too basic, I think the simplicity of the plan allows the railroad to be completed and enjoyed. For me, the most impressive thing about the layout was how it was brought to life by the small everyday scenes modeled. The use of people and vehicles makes you feel like the models are alive.

You really get the sense that the railroad is moving through the towns modeled, not like a lot of layouts where the everyday life is a second thought.

I want to thank our hosts for taking the time to share their railroad with us. We arrived close to the end of the scheduled open house and they found the energy to explain and showcase the railroad to us.

The first floor was equally amazing to see all the models displayed. Everywhere you looked there were models displayed.

Chicago O Scale Show 2022 – The Models

Posted on April 9, 2022 by George Losse

One of the best things about the Chicago show is just seeing so many nice models at the show. Here are some of them, not in any order just a ramdom sampling.

Next up are some images form the modeling contest. I know why they don’t list the names of the modelers but I really do wish they would. I’m less concerned with the contest as I am with the modelers who built the models. I would be nice to know.

Chicago O Scale Show 2022 – The Meetings

Posted on April 6, 2022 by George Losse

The Proto48 Meeting
Paul Hanson hosted the meeting to a packed house.

Norm Buckhart was the first speaker. He spoke about his current release of 50 foot boxcars. Norm also spoke about his upcoming run of tank cars which are due in late 2022 or early 2023. This run will consists of multiple varieties of cars, most never having been produce in O Scale before.

Norm also spoke of the next run after the tank cars, round roof box cars. The box cars will be imported in late 2023 or early 2024. The round roof box car run will consist of multiple variations of the PRR class X31 of 40 foot boxcars and the PRR 50 foot boxcars in the X32 and X33 classes. In addition will be two classes of 40 foot cars for the Seaboard. I’m really looking forward to the Seaboard cars.

Next to speak were Ross Dando of Twin City Cars (on left) and Jon Cagle of Southern Car & Foundry (on right).

Ross was up first and spoke of his new offerings including a new double etched spike. That brought about some crowd participation and interaction. Ross also mentioned the development of his next release for Twin City Cars, a steel USRA rebuilt car from a USRA double sheathed boxcar. Gene Deimiling wrote about that is his recent blog post. I’m looking forward to that car.

Jon Cagle spoke about his new kit of the Howe Truss boxcar. The new composite side model is similar to the previous release of the steel sided Howe Truss Sand Springs box car. The difference is this is this car is accurate for three or four railroads instead of one shortline railroad with a total of four cars on the roster. Four cars total in 1952 when the were over 800,000 boxcars on the rails, what is the likelihood of one of them going past you trackside?

Jon also mentioned that his tank car kit are back into development. He had samples in the past at shows that looked great and well beyond anything that had been done before. They never became completed kit masters, but it sounds like they will later this year.

As Jon spoke you could hear his passion for what can be done with resin casting. And he also spoke about what others have recently released with resin. How some manufactures need to do more work with their masters BEFORE committing to making molds and casting resin. Without naming names, all that are facing having to sand 3D stepping out of roofs knew exactly what he was talking about.

After the presentations from the three manufactures, Paul Hanson showed off a modern MTH locomotive that had been converted to Proto48. This sparked some discussion about the difference between Finescale modeling and Proto48 modeling.

I have always believed that equating Finescale and Proto48 does more to exclude potential new Proto48 modelers from trying out Proto48. Below is the text of a post I made about the subject in the past on the OGR Board which pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject.

“Proto48 is about correcting the gauge of the rails and running with fine wheel widths and treads. There is nothing in the Proto48 standards about truck widths and there are absolutely no “requirements” beyond the gauge and wheel standards.

Just because some Proto48 modelers build finescale models, doesn’t mean that every Proto48 modeler has to build to that level. And I would point out that there are a lot of O Scale modelers who build models to finescale levels also. A Proto48 model does not have to be a finescale model and a finescale model does not have to be Proto48.“

The O Scale Kings Meeting
David Vaughn hosted the O Scale Kings meeting. He discussed the current efforts of the group. They working on operating name change to O Scale Central. Acknowledging that some have had issues with the name of the group over the years.

There was discussion of developing new O Scale module standards which would also be inclusive of past modules built to NMRA or Free-Mo standards.

It was also suggested during the meeting that O Scale is positioned to take the lead on developing standards for DeadRail or Power On Board. It was noted that members of the O Scale Kings were working with representatives from the NMRA to help guide that discussion.

While the crowd was thinner than the Proto48 meeting which was held in the same room. I think that was because it was not the Business meeting of the O Scale Kings which was held the next day. I was not able to attend the business meeting.

Chicago O Scale Show 2022 – New Models

Posted on April 4, 2022 by George Losse

Just returned from the 2022 Chicago O Scale Show. I always think this show can’t get any better and it always does. Another great show!

There were some new models from various manufacturers at this show, as well as a host of used models. Here are some of the new models I saw at the show.

Atlas O Scale
Bob Lavezzi had a display model of a new release for Atlas O Scale. It’s an 89′ Auto Rack. While too late for my modeling period of 1952, it is a fine looking model and great to see Atlas O releasing a fine looking new model in O Scale.

Southern Car & Foundry
Jon Cagle from Southern Car & Foundry has released a new model of an ARA Standard Car with a Howe Truss. This model is similar to their previous release of the Sand Springs car but this is the composite version of that car. Jim Zwernemann did a wonderful job on the master work on this car. SC&F sold out of the kits he brought of this car on Saturday.

In addition SC&F had additional models of the previously released 1932 ARA Standard Boxcars available at the show.

Rails Unlimited
Ted Schnepf had a new release of a UP 50 foot composite boxcar.

Twin Star Cars
Ross Dando had the last two kits for his beautiful Rock Island flat car for sale at the show. He did say that that kit would not be re-run in the future, So I hope those that wanted one bought one while it was available.

Ross has also picked up Bill Yancey’s line called Modern Era O Scale resin kits. Ross had details and new kits in the lane. The modern era O Scalers I’m sure are very happy to see that line continue.

Steve Grabowski
Steve had a sample of his PRR 2D-F8 truck at the show. He will be producing a limited run of plastic kits of this very common PRR truck in both Proto48 and O Scale. But you have to pre-order the trucks as the kits are going to be produced based on the orders and will not be a stocked item.

Modeling the Reading in Proto48

Modeling the Reading in the Summer of '52