Any Wagon Experts Out There?

I need help from those experts on rolling stock in the audience.

I just picked up a lot of three old Mini-Models MLV louvre van kits on ebay, and am looking for additional information on the prototypes of these cars.

From what I can gather, the models were based on a 25-car order of aluminum bodied 40' wagons constructed sometime in the 1950s. A photograph of one of these cars in new condition, 25693, is displayed in Preston's "Goods Train" and the accompanying caption says these cars were painted in the same maroon of the passenger equipment they often accompanied. There is no mention of these cars (at least explicitly) in Beckhaus' NSWGR 1982 rolling stock book.

A photo of the same car in latter day service is found on Rob O'Reagan's exhaustive photo site, taken in Albury in 1979. It appears by this date that electrical conduits for power to the train's hotel services have been fitted to the solebars of the car, and it now rides on modern roller-bearing trucks. It's tough to say looking at a black and white photograph, but it would appear the car has been repainted in gun-metal grey.

The Mini-Models kit includes a decal for number 25677; given that this car was produced in a 25-car lot, and the O'Reagan photo depicts the 25693, I'm assuming the cars were numbered in the 25675-25699 series.

Does anyone have any further information on this series of cars? Their paint scheme?

I really only need one of these cars for the railroad; I'd be willing to swap my two extra kits for a pair of AR Kits MLV cars, which would give me a good representation of three different styles of cars thus coded.

Off on Holiday!

Putting the modeling efforts to sleep now for the next couple of weeks. This upcoming week the boys are off on spring school holiday, so we're getting out of town to San Antonio for a few days; the following week, I'm meeting some railfan/work mates in Phoenix, AZ and we're headed off into the desert mountains to chase EMD's on copper hauling shortlines (and maybe some Alcos on the Apache Railway as well). That'll take me to the end of the month, and by then spring will be in full swing and I've a feeling the first round of yard work will be calling.

I took a break on the Wee Waa efforts last week to clean the layout room and track prior to having Mr. Brad Hinton over for a look. Brad, of Canberra, was in nearby (320km give or take) Austin for a "work convention" (wink wink, nudge, nudge) and kindly decided to hire a car and come up for a look and a visit, which included a stop by my employer, BNSF Railway, for a peek at our network operations center (mind-boggling, especially if one comes from a land were freight railroading is a marginal proposition at best). Great meeting and visting with you, Brad. We had a few trains ready to operate on the Narrabri layout and we didn't burn up any decoders. Next day I drove him to our local mega-hobby shop where we both helped the U.S. economy with hobby purchases.

Inspired by Ray Pilgrim's video and tales of sound decoder programming a TrainO 44, I picked up a Tsunami* Alco 251 decoder and installed it in the newly-arrived 4483. I'll get to hooking up the headlights and tweaking the programming soon, but the sound decoder was too cool a toy to leave in the package until I could do a "full deal" install. It went in easily and the sound quality is superb (despite the lack of appropriate NSWGR air horn). Once I upgrade the software chips in my Easy DCC system, I'll have more sound functionality.

The stock wagon fleet is growing, following a swap between myself and a fellow in NSW who was looking for Trainorama steel S trucks. I'd purchased 8 of them before realizing they were too "vintage" for my era, so I traded for a couple of custom bogie stock wagons and a couple more wooden S-truck kits from Casula. And right after this, an e-bayer was selling a big lot of both Minimodel BCW's and MLV's, both of which I'm in the mood to add to the roster. Between these (and modifying the BCW's per the AJRM article) and the dozen or so wooden S-trucks kits I have on the shelf, I'll be busy building more wagons for awhile.

Finally, there's the IDR KF, MLV and KGH models nearing completion on the paint bench, and, while the spray gun was out, toyed around with a bit of weathering on the Austrains WHX's, which are turning out very cool indeed. Photos of these and hopefully a lot more in our next installment!

* given the tragic events of the last week in Japan, Soundtraxx may wish to consider renaming its flagship decoder line which offers "a huge wave of sound." Prayers and thoughts to all those dealing with the tragedy.

Bedroom-sized layout, version 2: Walla Walla Valley #1

WWV Alco heads onto street trackage on Rose Street.

Walla Walla Valley, version 1.0
2002-2004: The more I learned about the Walla Walla Valley railway, the more my modeling shifted towards adopting a stricter prototype adherence. In the short term, that meant rebuilding portions of the WWTCo. to closer emulate the WWV. The layout shifted from a freelance to a "prototype freelance"--the locomotives and some of industry names copied those found on the WWV, but the track plans, rolling stock, and structures still had little basis in reality. But the layout was a blast to operate--and it ended up being featured in Kalmbach's "Great Model Railroads 2005", which was quite an honor. By the time the magazine appeared in print, though, we'd already moved to a bigger house, and a more fully realized prototype-based WWV layout was underway. . .

There's more than you'd probably ever want to know about the Walla Walla Valley Railway, prototype as well as model, on my website. Lots of historic photographs. A fairly extensive history. Equipment rosters of both the electric and diesel fleet. Recollections of those who worked for the railroad. And tons of stuff about my modeling the WWV, including how the layout was operated and sample paperwork items. . .all right here.

WWV's two HH660 Alcos ready for a day's work at the carbarn.


Leased Northern Pacific Baldwin works the cold storage spur.


WWV leaves Potlatch mill and enters Rose Street, passing the Baer scrap yard.


Side-by-side switching on Rose Street and the cannery lead.

Before I Modeled NSW (part one). . . .

Union Pacific GP9 interchanges with freelanced Walla Walla Traction Co. SW-1 at the WWTCo's small yard.


A good deal of this blog's readership are modelers from Australia, who likely aren't very familar with my modeling interests prior to taking up NSW outline in 2008. So, here's a bit of a recap of the long-ago modeling days of 2000-2004, back when Mary and I were newlyweds and new parents, and a 10 X 12' bedroom in our old home contained my modeling hobby.

A good narrative of these early small bedroom railroads with lots of illustration are available on my Walla Walla Valley website, so I'll just share a few photos of the earliest layouts.


Walla Walla Traction Company
2000-2002: The original bedroom layout, a freelanced former interurban railroad in eastern Washington, making its trade much like the actual Yakima Valley Transportation (but without the steeplecab electrics) hauling lumber and fruit in the late 1960s. Originally, Bachman 70-Ton GE's were used, supplanted with Walthers SW-1s. The layout occupied three walls, hung from shelving brackets 63" off the floor. On the left wall was the Potlatch lumber mill, with three staging tracks (representing Union Pacific and Northern Pacific) hidden behind the mill. The middle wall featured WWTCo.'s ice house, small yard, and engine house. The right wall portrayed the cold storage and packing sheds which loaded mechanical and ice reefers with apples and varied vegetables. As enjoyable as the freelance concept was, what I came up with was so close to the actual Walla Walla Valley Railway that after a couple years decided to just devote my modeling and research time on a prototype railroad, and converted the WWTCo. to the WWV, rebuilding some of the layout to a still highly freelanced version of the WWV.

Silver-trucks on WWTCo 60 were a short-lived experiment. "Too flashy," declared management.

An overall view of one wall of the WWTCo.

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Snazzy SW-1's purchased to replaced the GE 70-tonners pose for the company photographer.

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WWTCo. interchanged with Union Pacific, which used SW9's like this Life-Like model.

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For a small bedroom layout, there was enough work to keep two two-person operating crews busy for an hour or two.

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The Potlatch Lumber mill was a major customer.

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That Static Cling. . .

Thanks be to all who pointed me to the directions for the Grassinator or sent me instructions or PDF files of the actual Grassinator website pages. Seems the US supplier of the Ion Generator is selling these no more--no doubt some sort of "homeland security" concern. I'll try to source them from Australia, where apparently they're still available.

One More Photo?

Though during my era 44 Class weren't operated out to Wee Waa, I can't resist messing with reality just this one time to depict 4464 delivering a rake of shiny new WHX aluminum wheat hoppers to town, as the branchline goods waits patiently in the loop. The photographer was apparently riding in one of many colorful balloons in the yearly Wee Waa Hot Air Festival. Don't you believe it!

Wee Waa progress: Dirt and rock

Rail motor set makes its station stop at Wee Waa; 47 class and guard van for the branchline goods train take refuge on the old stock track.

My guilt is somewhat assuaged. Trackwork and wiring last week at Wee Waa has given way to an initial layer of dirt ground cover and ballast, and by golly, Wee Waa is starting to move beyond the "Plywood Pacific" stage it has languished in for the past couple of years.

The dirt is. . .dirt. It's been sitting in a big bucket in the garage the past couple of years, and while it isn't true Australian dirt, it isn't the usual Texas kaliche. The ballast is Arizona Rock and Mineral Great Northern Basalt ballast, N-scale (the HO stuff looked too coarse). It matches the shade of several photos from the North-West. I'm going to assume it was from the pit in Ardglen? Or possibly from the small ballast quarry near Bellata?

I'd be all hot to get going with static grass and various green shades of weeds and other ground vegetation, but it seems the website that for years had carried instructions for making a cheap static grass applicator--the "Grassinator"--is in "rebuilding" mode. . .which either means it will someday return, or it will be lost to the ether. Hopefully the former, for I didn't bother to download instructions on building the device!

I've shunted the goods train at Wee Waa a couple of times since completing the track and wiring, and it's good fun. Stick a home signal just short of where the tracks disappear through the wall, and it makes the work that much more entertaining not to go beyond the safeworking limits with long pulls or run-arounds.


IDR Delivers. . .

Another fun little box from Australia arrived this week. My order from Hobbyland in Hornsby, specifically several resin kits from Ian Ratcliffe. Beautiful stuff! I purchased a KHG guard van, 1957 fishbelly MLV, and a pair of KF four-wheel flat wagons. The castings are first rate, the instructions clear and well-illustrated. I was quite tempted to put forearm on workbench and with a mighty swipe clear off enough room to get started on them, but I resisted and worked on Wee Waa instead. I'll certainly be a return customer.

Saturday afternoon piccie. . .

Somewhere north of Narrabri. . . an empty block of grain wagons bound for refilling at Moree wait out a cross with an up load during harvest season in the North-West, circa 1974. Two new WHX aluminum hoppers on the head end compete with the relatively clean 44 Class in reflecting the rising sun. All's quiet except the occasional stirring of the Alco 251 powerplant, the call of birds and the occasional hum of rubber tires on the parallel Newell highway.

Of course, all is not as it seems. It's a photo on the layout, of course, but taking advantage of "glinty light" helps pass it off a little more as the real thing. I had cleared off the Wee Waa section of the layout to paint track and base scenery and while leaving the room looked back and saw late afternoon light from a southern exposure window nicely lighting up the scene in something approximating the right at sunrise or sunset "glint" lighting I like so much.

With the usual fluorescent layout lights on, there's nothing special with the scene:




But with just indirect ambient light, there's definitely something to work with. Maximum depth of field (f29), a low camera angle, and long exposure (10 seconds, ei 200) with a 1 stop under-exposure EV value deepens the shadows and keeps the highlights from blowing out. There's not much color in this scene, but there's enough contrast to work with:



From here, it was all a matter of manipulating the color, cropping the scene, and merging the photo with an appropriate sunset view (for the record: Soldier Summit, Utah, 1979). I'm happy with the results. The harsh lighting goes a long way to hiding the fact that I've got no ballast or real sceney down yet. Actually, that's what I should be doing rather than making photos of the layout!