NS Locomotives

With Norfolk Southern selected as my railroad of choice for this model, it became time to review what locomotives I currently own vs what I need to own.  I currently own nearly 30 modern Union Pacific locomotives of which I will need none.  I have decided to keep a few of them though because I have the entire UP Heritage Series locos, and I can use them as visiting locomotive on NS lines.

When I began looking for modern NS locos, I quickly realized that there would be a need to decorate my own.  NSDash9 website is a awesome source for past and current roster of locomotive used by Norfolk Southern.  With the help of this site, I quickly established a list of currently available undecorated locomotives and decals from ShellScale that would enable me to start building my modern fleet.

This is my first batch of undecorated locos to make the transformation to NS locomotives for my future layout.

 I removed all of the windows and headlight plastic from the four locomotive that I had selected to work with in this batch.  Once the locomotives were dismantled They were all given a nice bath with a toothbrush, while wearing gloves to remove any oils that may be on the plastic and the gloves to keep them oil free until after they have been painted.






I failed to take any pictures as the process really progressed but once they were all clean and had been given time to dry, they received two coats of engine black to all the parts.  One thing I can say for NS engines, they are not difficult to paint.  I let the black paint sit over night and applied a coat of clear gloss in the morning to provide the best surface for the decals to adhere to.

The Shell Scale decals are very similar to the Microscale decals, just come on a much smaller sheet.  I based all of the decal locations on images from rrpicturearchive.net.  Because this is a very early attempt  at working with undecorated locomotives and decals I worked with the numbers that were provided with the Shell Scale set, ignoring the prototype road numbers for that model of locomotive.  Of the four that I painted, I had time to apply decals to two of them before having to start traveling again for work.





Here are the two locomotives with at least the decals finished, but I still need to go back and do a bit of paint work now.

Missouri River Bottoms

Missouri River Crossing into Missouri River Bottoms (Earth City)

Wabash Bridge

This bridge was built in 1936 and replaced an early bridge of the same name.  This bridge is currently used by Norfolk Southern to cross the Missouri River near St. Charles on the west and Earth City, MO on the east.

While the prototype crosses the river with city on both sides, on my model I will be crossing from rural on one side of the river to the Earth City Missouri River Bottoms area on the other.

Missouri River Bottoms Industrial Area

Georgia Pacific Corp - Im not sure what this facility of Georgia pacific is specifically used for, but seems to have loads of dimensional lumber about the yard and in sheds, dimensional lumber would be delivered via a center beam car.  Also, I have to assume that the large warehouse is for sheet material that would be delivered in boxcars and unloaded indoors.

Continental Commercial Products - well, they make cleaning products.  They appear to take in covered hoppers, which I assume are full of plastic pellets that they then will use for injection molding of the plastic products they provide (trash cans, floor signs, cleaning carts, mop buckets.... the list goes on and on).

Foam Supplies - I've started to do a little research on the company but really it just continues to say that provide polyurethane systems.  After a bit of research I am surprised to discover how many things are made of polyurethane, the list goes on and on, but for my purposes, Foam Supplies gets liquids in via tank car and appears to ship out via truck.

Also many large warehouses are served by rail:

This is a nice thing on the prototype that would make a very nice element on a model railroad.  Very short rail tunnel under the road.  I guess in this instance, building a concrete tunnel was probably more economical.

NS Coal Hoppers

When finally deciding on the Norfolk Southern as my railroad of choice, I quickly noticed the lack of both rolling stock and locomotives compared to other railroads, especially compared to the model I had been working on.  While my father planned on running it during the transition from Missouri Pacific to Union Pacific, I had been purchasing rolling stock and locomotives to run it in a more modern era.

Since I am devoting a good portion of my future layout to a coal branch, the first priority of rolling stock has been coal hoppers.  I have acquired many of the modern RD-4 Hoppers from Fox Valley Models with private power company names (Alabama Power, Alliant Energy, Union Electric...) but I wanted some NS lettered coal hoppers as well.  While I did find a few NS coal hoppers available from Atlas, I wasn't overly impressed with them, so I started the process of making my own.  The 3-Bay 100-ton hopper from Micro-Trains was going to be my undecorated of choice and after an email Midwest Model Railroad (a shameless plug for a company run by a friend, if they don't have it in stock they always get it for me), I now have 12 of them on my shelf at home. After a little research, the best choice for NS decals seems to be Shell Scale Decals.

Creating the NS Coal hopper

I failed to take any pictures of the Micro-Trains hoppers before I put any paint on them and now I am back out on the road so I don't have the opportunity to take a picture of one of the other 10 that I have not done yet.  The Micro-Trains undecorated rolling stock is excellent to work with.  The only thing I had to attach was the brake wheel and trucks.

1. Cleaning - Before doing anything with the model it is a great idea to wash it.  I use a tooth brush to remove any oils that has been left on the hopper from the factory, or myself handling it before I put on the gloves.

Once the hoppers had been cleaned, I made sure to not touch them anymore without wearing gloves.

2. Painting - Micro-Trains undecorated cars always seem to vary what color they might show up in, so depending on what that color is will affect your choice in priming and painting.  My hoppers were molded in black and I choose to spray with Engine Black.  I have a portable small airbrush booth that I set up on my workbench and do my painting inside.  Here are the two hoppers after a single coat of engine black.

Before applying any decals, the hoppers needed to be sprayed with a gloss coat for the decals to adhere correctly.  I don't remember what type of gloss coat I use but they are available from many different sources.

3. Decals - I would now suggest never starting a decal project like this late at night...

For some reason I began this project late in the evening, and once I started I didn't want to stop till I was done, about two in the morning I finally put down the knife and tweezers and called it good.

Applying the decals was a longer than expected tedious process.  There are a few errors, slips of the knife, edges of other stuff that have snuck in to parts of the deals that I am not perfectly satisfied with, but for a first attempt at doing these tiny numbers in N-Scale, I'm happy with the result.

Micro-Set and Micro-Sol should become your best friends!  The are very simple to use, apply Micro-Set to the area of the model where you apply the decal, and then Micro-Sol with go on afterwards to soften the decal and get it to form closer around detail elements, or ribs in the side of the car.

Also, because this is not the exact hopper that the decals are for, there wasn't enough space for all of the lettering on the end of the car that should have been applied. I ended up keeping all of the decals on the end and left of the cars road number.  I have good eyes and it was difficult for me to read, so im not to concerned about it.

4. Dullcote or Matte Finish - Once all of the decals have been applied it is time to seal them.  I use a Krylon matte finish vs Dullcote because for the same price I get a standard size can, and it seems to work just as well. 

5. Finishing the Hopper - Once everything had been sealed I went ahead and swapped out the plastic wheelsets that came with the hopper for 36" metal wheelsets from Fox Valley Models and install the trucks.

SD40-2 GATX

SD40-2 GATX

This project started almost a year ago, but because of my schedule it is still not entirely completed.  While I have been working on a few other undecorated projects I decided to revisit the orphaned loco and get it a little bit closer to completion.  It has received its road number and a GATX lettering under both windows on the cab.  Also I have finally done though and added the fine yellow stripe across the side of the platform.

Here are the links to the original posts about this loco almost a year ago.

Original Post

Follow Up Post

Cleveland Hopkins

While it may sound like an odd title for a blog about a model railroad, no it is an odd title. I am traveling today for work and while attempting to depart Kansas City we were graced by a lovely spring thunderstorm forcing us to stay grounded for just over an hour. Upon finally arriving in Cleveland, United was kind enough to have already booked me on a new flight out, but it wouldn't be for another two hours. As I wandered toward my gate in terminal D I noticed a NS train sitting in view of the windows, in the rear of the terminal. For the past hour I've sat here in a very quiet part of the terminal, the music through the PA and bird chirping are louder than anyone talking around me, and watched four NS trains roll by, reading my July digital issue of Model Railroader.

Train 1 - mixed freight
Train 2 - unit tank
Train 3 - unit tank
Train 4 - intermodal

One would think that since I have chosen a career where I travel better than 11 months a year, I would enjoy the travel, but regardless of how many times you do it, airports are not generally enjoyable. Often when getting aggravated over people who don't seem to know what they are doing, I have to remind myself that for some of them, this could be their first trip. Anyway, there is nothing like a nice unexpected period of watching trains roll by during the middle of a long day.

Thank You Cleveland Hopkins and Norfolk Southern

 

Train 5 - unit tank
Train 6 - mixed freight
Train 7 - intermodal (tofc and containers on flat cars, no wells...)

Train 8 - mixed freight

Train 9 - auto hauler

Mexico, MO

Second City on the Layout

Mexico, MO

Mexico is served by both the Norfolk Southern and the Kansas City Southern.  The prototype track arrangements makes for a potentially wonderful opportunity for the model layout.  Starting west of Mexico the Kansas City Southern main line runs adjacent to the Norfolk southern main line, so while I will add a bit of cross over between the two railroads within Mexico city limits, I will also model a bit of the KCS mainline.

Mexico was once a major source of the nations firebrick supply with two major refractories in town, the one still visible by Google maps would be a major industry to model if I was modeling before the 2002 closure.

Industries currently served by rail in Mexico:

Mexico Plastics: A division of Continental Products, makes printed plastic bags, such as newspaper bags, bagged ice bags, and phone book bags.  Based on the covered hoppers on their sidings, I would have to assume they receive plastic via covered hoppers.

Miller Warehouse: A large warehouse divided and for lease, at least three of the warehouse spaces inside include loading doors to the rail siding.

Roberts Consolidated Industries: They make all sorts of floor installation products and have a siding that comes inside for unloading, while I'm not sure if they receive or ship anything by rail, the building is still a nice example of rail served buildings in Mexico

The ADM Soybean Meal Plant has facilities on both sides of the mainline with a structure over the mainline connecting the two.  It seems to have an abundance of both tank cars and covered hoppers staged at the facility.

 MFA Agri Services has a facility on the east side of town that has a few grain bins and covered hoppers staged at it.  With the size of MFA state wide, I wouldn't even like to guess what this facility is used for because I'm sure I would be wrong.  However still and interesting location to possibly model with its mixture of building, bins, propane tanks...

There are a few more building in the industrial park with rail sidings, but since I was having a hard time even figuring out the company names, I will have to wait til I visit Mexico, MO to further investigate.

Moberly, MO

First Location on the Layout: 

Moberly, MO

Originally served by two railroads, the Wabash and the MKT.  The Wabash route ran from Kansas City to St. Louis and is the line I have chosen to model. The other line through town was the MKT route from Sedalia, MO to Hannibal.  MKT eventually sold the Moberly to Hannibal part of the line to Wabash and now has become another line of the Norfolk Southern Illinois Division.

There is a small yard in Moberly at the junction of these two lines that still is in use even without interchange traffic.  While I have no intention of building a yard in Moberly on the layout, I do intend to add an addition siding along with a passing track to at least somewhat represent what is there on the prototype.

While Moberly does not have many car loading on the prototype, many of the surrounding towns have grain loading facilites.  On the layout I will attempt to represent the economy of the region by aslo including  a few grain elevators, either in the moberly zone, or in nearby rural area.

Layout Plans

After a few weeks of staring at the NS division map, google maps, and pictures from a long the division I have decided on the following points of interest for the track plan. 6 points will be on the scenic portion of the layout, with  9' long trains, I will need a minimum of 10' between each section in order to have the train never be in two sections at the same time.  My mainline will need to be a minimum of 110' long.  10' per city and 10' between each.  Because the staging yards will enter the layout from a hidden area, they can enter directly into the first town.

While this route would not traditionally have passenger service, many of the towns I have selected have beautiful old stations and I will probably do a few of them on the layout and consider the idea of an excursion train.


Kansas City, MO - West Staging

Moberly, MO - Industry, Small Yard, Station

Mexico, MO - Multiple Industries, Station

Missouri River Crossing
Missouri River Bottoms (Earth City) - Multiple Industries

St. Louis, MO - Luther Yard, Industry, Intermodal
Mississippi River Crossing - Merchants Bridge

Centralia, IL - Industry, Coal Branch Junction, Small Yard
Mt. Vernon, IL - Industry, Interchanges

Huntingburg, IN -  Industry

Louisville, KY - East Staging

Initial Layout Idea

Over the past few weeks since I have decided on NS - Illinois Division as the subject of my future model railroad I have been using google maps to view the line from Kansas City, through the St. Yard, over the Mississippi River via the Merchants Bridge, The National Railway Equipment facility in southern Illinois, "A League of Their Own" Stadium in Huntingburg, IN, and finally into a yard in Louisville, KY.  Narrowing it down from a 500 mile trip to something for a model is going to take a bit of time, but time for planning is what I have an abundance of right now.

Not knowing where, but knowing what I want for a house is at least a bit of something to work off of for making the plans for my layout.  With a standard basement in the midwest being around 28' x 50', I have started my plans for my model with constraints of 20' x 25'.

Here is the layout information that I have so far:

Era: Modern, continually updating it to reflect current equipment

Room Size: 20' x 25' (these numbers will change based on future house)

Control System: Digitrax DCC also using JMRI for control and Android based throttles

Average Train Length: Planning on train lengths around 9 feet (24 cars with 3 - 4 Locos)

Minimum Radius: 18" on Helix (where the coal branch with connect to the mainline.

Turnouts: I plan to use #10 turnouts exclusively on the mainline and will be building all of them with a FastTracks assembly fixture. I also own a #5 turnout assembly fixture and may purchase a #7 to use for some of the industrial sidings it will depend on how the layout comes together.

On my current layout we are using mostly Tortoise machines and I have not decided yet wether I will continue to use machines or switch to manual ground throws.  With the number of turnouts I am sure to have the cost of Tortoise machines may be a hard number to swallow.

Construction Method Plan: Current plan is to build the layout in modules that I will be able to move  (I doubt the house I get in 5 years will be the same house I have in 30).  The current plan is to have the depth of most of the modules at 18" and no more than 8' in length.  The plan I currently have sketched out for bench work includes 2 peninsulas that have a sort of bubble on the end to allow for a larger radius turn that would need to be built as either one piece or two splitting directly down the center.  Because I do expect to have to move this layout at some point, I will be experimenting with some leg work that would easily allow me to mount the second level (coal branch) as well.  I have a few ideas, but they could potentially get very difficult to implement in curved corners, although I have not settled specifically on curved corners yet, so it might not matter.

Illinois Division

Hello everyone, My name is Steve and I travel for a living as an electrician on Broadway National Tours.  Currently I work on a layout with my father when I am not on the road, which is less than 2 months a year.  Eventually I will want to settle down, stop traveling, get a house, family, all of the things normal for most people. There is also a blog for the Missouri Pacific Sedalia sub that covers the layout as it is being built by my father and myself.

This layout is multiple years from ever seeing the first piece of benchwork being built because of my schedule, but this time will allow me to stay active by planning the benchwork (albiet for a slightly smaller than standard midwest basement to easily expand to fit whatever space I get), building and decaling rolling stock and locomotives, building turnouts.  Lots to do.

After a few months of debate about which direction I wanted to go with my future layout, I had finally decided on Norfolk Southern.  While I have a great deal of Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific locomotives and rolling stock, my interest in a coal branch through the hills and forrest is something that I will always have and if I don't make the switch now, it will probably be something that I regret.  I eventually decided on the Norfolk Southern Illinois Division between Moberly, MO and Huntingburg, IN, with Kansas City, MO and Louisville, KY as staging yards.  Also to satisfy my need to haul coal, there are many coal mines in Southern Illinois that while they may not truly be served by the NS, I am making them so for a coal branch on my layout.