One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward (part 2 of the prior post)

The name of this post should be "Is It Better to Leave Things as They Are? (Part 2)". Before anyone takes me to task over my choice to strip the paint off the model and literally start all over again, the model was built over 40 years ago. What paint was originally used and how the model was finished are long forgotten. Unfortunately I had, at the start of the project, painted over the decals on the letterboard when they should have been removed. This short cut lead to my having to do more work.

The original goals of upgrading the model were:

• paint the letterboard maroon
• re-letter the car to my layout's name
• rebuild the interior

However, to get the model looking OK and in operating condition the following was done:

• painted striped off
• model exterior upgraded
• exterior painted with tough-ups
• lettered
• gloss over-coated
• re-wired
• interior rebuilt
• interior lighting rebuilt
• passengers and crew installed
• roof repainted

As you can see many more things had to be done to the model. Hence the names of the posts: "Is It Better to Leave Things as They Are?" and "One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward ". 

Least you think the model could have been left unfinished and picked-up later to work on, when my wife saw the model on my work bench she said, "Never sell the 'Lois Ann'. I want it for myself!" She knows the model and keeps tabs on it.

What was anticipated to take 2-3 weeks time has required 8 plus weeks. Part of the additional time was caused by avoidance on my part as other non-model projects came up.

This is the interior of the roof with the new lighting installed. The lighting uses 16 volt bulbs. Newer 1.5 v lighting wasn't used mainly due to cost and the need to get the model completed.

The front of the model is to the right, The lighting strip has been installed and needs to be painted white the same as the ceiling of the model.

The new interior was built-up from styrene. Much of the same layout was used, Starting at the front, right, is the cab. The companionway is to the top of the model. In the kitchen is Ike trying to figure out what to do with a giant lobster, The dinning room is next. Ike is not only the cook but also the attendant for the car, He set the table.

Lois and I are seated in the solarium-parlor with two guest Eric Bronsky and Bruce Moffat.

On the dinning room wall is a map of the Insull electric railways.

After the dinning room is a library which contains many books on electric railroading and information on Insull's empire.

Next is the master bedroom. 

The solarium parlor is next. Unfortunately no close-up interior photos were taken of this part of the interior.

Guest can sleep in the solarium parlor on a fold out bed made from the long seat next to the bulkhead. The tables and chairs have to be moved. Sleeping accommodations are mentioned mainly because sleeping accommodations for the crew seem to be missing. But then, it's only a model. 

The interior could have been altered more than I did when the model was first built many years ago. When the model was first built the motorman's operating area across the front of the car was added along with a door in the side of the car. For now Mike, the motorman, and Ike can sleep in the motorman's operating area in hammocks! 

The finished model with its new paint and lettering is on the railway.

The paint was purchased just for this model. It has the new orange color which to my eyes looks a little on the pastel side.

Cheers,
Ed

Is It Better to Leave Things as They Are? (Part 1)

For our honeymoon, my bride and I went to a vacation resort on one of the many small lakes west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Most of the days were sunny, warm, and beautiful. On a day which was was cold and rainy, I talked by bride into going to Milwaukee supposedly to go shopping and sightseeing.

In the back of my mind was a plan to visit the Walthers shop at 1245 N. Water St. If you're my age you may recognize the address and be able to tell how long ago this was. The store was small with some of the many models built from the kits Walthers offered for sale displayed.

One of the display cases had a car from a kit almost completely assembled. Only the painted, finished sides were left off.  In case you are not aware, the way Walthers passenger car kits (including their interurban kits) were to be assembled - the floor, ends, and roof were to be attached and painted. The interior was to be added next. The sides were painted and lettered. After the window material was added, the sides were to be attached to the model with glue and if needed nailed onto the floor and roof.

I wanted a souvenir of our visit to the Walthers store. At the time the Walthers interurban kits didn't interest me. One kit which did interest me was a short, Lionel size, executive or business car. It was about the size of a steel South Shore car before lengthening. The kit would make a great business car to be run on a trolley line although it was wider than most interurban cars.. 

A couple of years after purchase, the kit was assembled with a Walthers interior kit used. The almost standard Wagner Baldwin 8440 power and trail trucks were installed. The only alterations were a motorman's door at the front right of the car, the cutting of 2 windows into the front end, and installing a door in the center of the front end. Trolley poles were installed on the roof. The balance of the car had appropriate traction items added.

The model was paint traction orange with a black roof and underbody. Now the question came! What to name the car? The executive decision was to name the car after my wife, "Lois Ann".

Fast forward to today -  the "Lois Ann" was starting to look a little old. The paint was very dull and the interior looked its age. I wanted to paint the letter board maroon so the car would be orange and maroon. The name of my railway, the "Chicago & Utopia Railway" was to be on the letter board. 

The process of taking the car apart has started. The trolley poles have been removed and the roof is loose from the body.

The model was taken apart. Alterations were made and the interior was upgraded. The letterboard was maroon with a new railway name in gold letters. There was a rebuilt interior. Then "things" didn't go as planned! When a coat of Glosscoat was applied to the car body, one side of the car was blotchy!

The only way to correct the problem was to completely repaint the car. BUT, with a simple repaint over everything would  give an uneven finish with the outline of the old decals showing. This called for a striping of the old paint off and restarting the painting process.

The repainting is in the next post.

Cheers,
Ed

CERA at 75 - The FRTM Inspection Trip

On Sunday, September 22 CERA scheduled an Inspection Trip to the Fox River Trolley Museum (FVTM) (http://www.foxtrolley.org/) in South Elgin, IL.The weather was fantastic!

All of my tickets ended up being folded.

Before any trips stated about a dozen Museum volunteers; motormen, conductors, and ground crew; gathered around the dispatcher to hear instructions. All the CERA members present were given a schedule of trips for the day.

All rides at the Museum are from Castlemuir, South Elgin, to Coleman and then on to Blackhawk Station in the Jon Duerr Forest Preserve. For CERA the schedule was set-up so cars would meet at Coleman where a passing siding existed. At Coleman CERA members could exit cars for photos. We had a choice of getting back on the car we had just exited or take another car.

The cars in operation were:

• 304, AE&FRE 1923 St. Louis lightweight interurban
• 43 & 45 CTA 1959 St, Louis rapid transit car
• 715 CNS&M 1926 Cincinnati Car Co. steel interurban
• 20 CA&E 1902 Niles Car Co wood interurban

Other equipment in the Museum were available for viewing and if possible enter for inspection. My photo taking was centered on 4 reasons for going to the Museum. 

• To meet Joseph Hazinski and show him my model of AE&FRE 49.
• To photo and ride AE&FRE 304.
• To photo and ride CA&E 20.
• To see and photo the CSL 6 the street railway Post Office car.

Joe Hazinski is the fellow from the Museum who shared plans and info regarding AE&FRE 49. The model was the subject of prior posts in this blog. I had brought my model of 49 along to show to Joe. He liked the model!

Here is Joe Hazinski with 304. Joe operates 304 and has been working on the car along with other volunteers. 304 is painted in Shaker Heights Rapid Transit colors. Eventually the Museum will repaint it in AE&FRE colors.

The smoker section of 304 showing the interior bulkhead separating the 2 sections of the car.

The operator's controls for 304. The blue "thing" is a set of plastic steps to be used at Colman where the grade was below the normal platform level for loading 304.

CA&E 20 waiting for brake test before going to its run.

An interior photo of 20 taken from the smoking section. Note the bulkhead. All the bulkheads had sliding pocket doors. The original CA&E woods came without a lavatory. The length of this series of cars was about the same as a Metropolitan "L" car.

A scheduled meet between AE&FRE 304 and CA&E 20 at Colman.

The CSL 6 street railway Post Office car. This car was built in 1891 by the American Car Company. It looks like it needs a new coat of paint!

The graphics on this car are fantastic!

Other cars are the Museum include CA&E 458, the exterior of which is being painted a little at a time.

CTA 45, which is reotinely run with CTA 43, at Coleman.

AE&FRE 5 which was the topic of a prior post in the blog.

Since the FRTM is less known than IRM, some comments are warranted. You need to visit the museums web site www.foxtrolley.org to read about the museums history and other information. The museum is small and short in track length. The original ROW was the Aurora Elgin & Fox River Electric Railway.

The museum has less income sources both in riders and donations. The museum can use your help with manpower and money!

Also interesting to note the museum does not cross any streets, probably due to insurance costs, and has no track connection to a railroad. The only track connection was removed by the railroad to which it was connected.

Cheers,
Ed

CERA at 75 - A Dinner and Program, with a Booklet

On Saturday September 21, Central Electric Railfans’ Association celebrated its 75th Anniversary at the Chicago Marriott O'Hare. The event began with a cocktail hour where many friendships were renewed.

 
Dinner followed at 7:00. Everyone at my table was happy with the meal and the service. After the dinner the program began with Ray DeGroote as the Master of Ceremonies. He presented Myles Jarrow, Member #23, with a Founder’s Award plaque for his many years of service to CERA. Then a surprised Ray DeGroote received an award for his own years of service to CERA.

Next on the agenda was a short PowerPoint presentation by David Sadowski.  The Ghosts of Fantrips Past featured photos of CERA fantrips through the years, spotlighting the North Shore Line.

Problems with turning out the room lights and resolving computer glitches were an ironic throwback to years ago when ‘Big Bertha,’ CERA’s ancient slide projector, used to jam. But after a short delay the feature program began. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad's closure, Walter Keevil compiled and edited the 8mm and 16 mm movies of several CERA members into a DVD.  Many of these superb films were being shown to an audience for the first time.

While watching the slides and movies, I relived many of my own memories of the North Shore. The audience saluted each of the evening’s events with hearty applause.

At the conclusion of the program, every attendee received a copy of Trolley Sparks Special #1: A 75-year Retrospective.  This soft-cover book was edited by CERA Member John Marton.

 

The contents of the booklet include:

·         a brief history of CERA; 

·         a list and, where possible, a photo of all the Directors of CERA; 

·         a dialog about members, meetings, and special events; 

·         a list of fantrips; 

·         a list of publications; and 

·         comments concerning the future of CERA.

Sprinkled throughout the book are photos and reproductions of fantrip and special event flyers, reproductions of Bulletin covers, fantrip ticket stubs, car drawings, maps, and receipts. The first 75 members of CERA are listed. Unfortunately most of them are no longer with us.

Although photo reproduction is not of the best quality, this book features a wealth of history about CERA. You can check to see whether your own bookshelf has a complete set of CERA Bulletins. And, did you know that CERA sponsored over 200 fantrips? After looking at the photos of CERA Directors, I found myself saying, "I didn't know he was a Director!"

Next will be the Fox River Trolley Museum Inspection Trip.

Cheers,

Ed 

  
Thanks goes to Eric Bronsky who edited this post.

CERA at 75 - The IRM Inspection Trip

The 75th Anniversary of the Central Electric Railfans' Association (CERA) was celebrated over September 20, 21, and 22; 2013. Everyone who reads this blog has benefited from CERA. They published many books and booklets on traction topics plus has operated many fan trips during the 75 years CERA has been in operation.

This is not a review of the books, fan trips, or the individuals involved in the 75 years. To celebrate its 75 years 4 separate events were held. I attended 3 of the 4 events.

On Friday September 20 an Inspection Trip of the Kenoska Streetcar Society http://www.kenoshastreetcarsociety.org/ was organized. I was unable to attend as I was out of town on this day in the opposite direct of Kenoska from Chicago.

On Saturday, September 21, an Inspection Trip of the Illinois Railway Museum (IRM) http://www.irm.org/ was organized. (Also see the blog written by Randy Hicks http://hickscarworks.blogspot.com/2013/09/cera-75th-anniversary-visit.html ) The day was beautiful!

For the CERA members IRM had train sets of CA&E, CRT, CNS&M, and CSS&SB cars in the IRM collection to ride. The cars of each Insull company were in trains. Also for the CERA members IRR 65 and one of the CSL cars were running. It was IRR 65 which was the start of IRM.

CWT 144 was originally out for viewing but was placed back in the barn. It was not available for rides since the trolley loop was blocked by the Nebraska Zepher most of the day.

Here are some of the many photos taken by me. (After reviewing all of my photos taken I realized the photos were taken from the eyes of a model builder. Not all of the available equipment was photographed. Plus the photos taken were mainly of details of the cars.)

The IRM volunteer with CRT 1024 above is Tim Peters. He is rebuilding the car back to its condition circa 1910. He gave me a personal guided tour of the car showing and explaining what had been done along with what still needs to be done to finish the car. It's work like this done by volunteers which make IRM the great Museum it is!

Finally, when the word "volunteer" and "railfan" are defined; this photo explains it all!

This is Dan Buck who along with his brother Chris are volunteers at IRM and members of CERA. Dan and Chris operate the steel and wood CA&E cars at the Museum. They regularly attend the monthly CERA meetings and events.


Next is the dinner!

Cheers,
Ed

Cleaning-Up the Work Bench and Planning Ahead

September 2013 is a time of change for this blog. It's not that nothing is going on, but rather a time to clean-up in more ways than one after the last project.

This month is also clean-up the house to get rid of old cans of paint, old electronic equipment, and other items. We have as much as 35+ years of old paint cans stored in the basement along with 20 or so years of electronics. Our Village has special days for the citizens to turn in these items for disposal.

On a better note, there's the celebration of C.E.R.A.'s 75 years as an organization dedicated to traction. Over the years C.E.R.A. has sponsored many fan trips, monthly meetings with guest speakers,  and published many excellent books on the subject of Traction.

C.E.R.A. has a series of events planned for the weekend of September 20- 22. Check their web site for more information.  http://www.cera-chicago.org/celebration.php

 Along with the prior mentioned clean-up, there are 3 minor projects to update existing models started. They need to be finished before the next major project starts. I can attest the next project is a major one.

As the 3 minor projects are finished, photos of the results will appear in this blog. To paraphrase a famous saying; so many things to do, so little time to do them!

One of the minor projects involved a Pittman LVT "freight motor" (also called a box motor, express car or motor, or merchandise dispatch car). Over the years, the Pittman LVT "freight motor" may have been one of most ubiquitious kits available in O scale. Even today the kit appears on EBay every now and then.

My Pittman was built as per instructions decades years ago. The only exception was the roof. The kit comes with the very flat, round LVT roof. A Walthers wooden roof was substituted which has a wide clerestory section. The finished model was painted orange.

Several years ago when a photo of the AE&FRE #1 express motor was found, the model was repainted orange and lettered for the AE&FRE. At that time the only decals available were gold. The car was orange with gold numbers and logo. The gold didn't show up very well against the orange.

Today, decals are easy to print on a home computer. Black logos were made and applied. The car's numbers were changed to black.

When my Pittman express motor was originally made into AE&FRE #1, the model was altered to look more like the prototype. Although the photo of AE&FRE #1 was not the best, I could see the windows in the side of the car, the belt rail, and the pilots on the trucks of the car. Almost everything else was an educated guess.

Grandt Line windows were used to alter my model. Grandt Line makes a number of different windows in styrene. If you use a Grandt Line window, the hole for the window can be rough cut to size. The plastic window will fit into the opening and hide the unevenness of the window opening. 

A belt rail made from 2 pieces of styrene was added to both sides. One piece was ACC'ed on its side while a second piece of styrene was laid flat and adjacent to the 1st one. Again ACC was used for glue. 

My AE&FRE #1  may not be exactly like the prototype, but it bears a close resemblance to it.

A giant word of warning about reworking an old model. What may seem like an extremely straight forward project, may be loaded with pitfalls. Watch out for everything from colors of paint, to the finish on the model, to the original glue used, etc. The original wiring of the model may be a snake looking for a place to bite!

First talk over you plans with a more experienced modeler for advice. Sometimes there are no problems, but the next time everything falls apart!

I have other old models which need up-dating. As originally built, interiors and lighting were not installed. Some also need minor parts replaced which have broken. These old models are another story.

Cheers,
Ed

AEFRE 49 - #8 Epilogue

Instead of being an epilogue, perhaps this post should be called "Finishing the Model Part 2". In a rush to finish the prior post which "concluded" the building of the 49, a few items were overlooked. The model was painted Floquil Box Car Red. Testors has completely dropped the railroad line of paints (colors). However, if you check the other paint products still produced by Testors you may find a comparable color.

To be sure of the color, individuals who may have either seen the 49 and/or have color photos of the prototype were asked, "What was the color?"  Walter Keevil responded with a "frame grab" taken from a 1944 Art Cox film. The color looks more red than my model. Perhaps the correct color for the 49 is barn red. Also note the unusual pattern to the siding.

Walter Keevil Collection

The lettering on my model is a decal made by Paul Mayer of Shoreline Decals.

As the post on building the 49 started to gain momentum, Joseph Hazinski of the Fox Valley Railway Museum sent me his drawings of the 49. After making them up with corrections, I sent them back to him.

This photo has Joseph's markings pointing out major items regarding the building of the 49.  He points out many pieces of information regarding the building of the 49. I added one piece of information.

The red markings are the original ones. The green markings were done at a later date. I made my addition in blue.

The one item I left off the model were the small electrical boxes or outlets next to the headlight mounting on the cab. If you look at the photo above it can be seen to the right of the headlight mounting. The electrical outlet is pointed down to prevent rain and other junk from getting into it.

After discovering a Kadee coupler could not be mounted, my next choice was a Clouser brass working coupler now avaialable from Protocraft, www.protocraft.com  However, the Clouser coupler will not mate with a Kadee. This sent me looking at the PSC catalogs for a lost wax brass coupler which worked and would be appropriate for the model.

If you recall from the introduction of this model to the blog, the idea of building a model of the 49 started when the late John Cloos asked me how to figure out the color of a prototype trolley from a black and white photo. John was hoping to make a 1/24 scale model. After the conversation he emailed the photo of the model as it was built in this blog as 1/48 scale model.

 

John Cloos Collection

My 1/48 scale model of 49. It runs very smooth and can pull a freight car or 2!

I hope John is satisfied with my model. 


Cheers,
Ed