HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY 2019!

Well, we are in the final hours of 2018 and the shop crew rolled out their last two cars of 2018 before heading out to their respective celebrations tonight for some well deserved debauchment. They have tomorrow off and the company threw in some amazingly tasty homemade tamales for all present today. This is a tradition that has become a holiday staple here at the Arizona Southern, and is always well received by our amazing people.

Oh, and before I forget, here are the last two cars turned out by the crew:

With that I hear the dinner bell a calling, and I'm about to lock up the place for the rest of the year. The entire crew will be back at it on Thursday, when our regular operations will resume.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The countdown is well underway. My time is not really my own for the foreseeable future. I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Chanukah is in the rear view mirror for 2018, but I hope that was a blessed time for those who celebrate that cleansing of the temple; thanks Judah... 

Thanks for reading this, leave a word if the mood strikes.

December 2018 Stuff...

Not a lot new for December, heck my head is just barely over November's craziness. Not that I'm anti-holidays or something else like that, it just seems that I'm always in catch-up mode, that's all. Where did 2018 go?

Take for instance the fact that AZSO has two seperate ore operations planned for the next layout. There will be two railroad segments modeled, each having its own seperate ore operation. One using tight bottom cars between mine and concentrator/smelter, the other using the older bottom dump ore cars we've had forever. The northern segment will interchange with the Santa Fe for the most part, while the southern segment will have more SP and NdeM transfers and power showing up. All in all this will require a bit of logistics before we can play trains.

Other industries will include "The King" on the AZSO, which is cement. Carbon black various chemicals, oil, old tires, food stuffs for both man and beast will round out what moves on our rails for the most part.

Oh, and one last thing of note. AZSO has just taken delivery of an ancient Varney smooth sided ore car model, you remember those metal cars from when dinosaurs ruled the earth right? While not 100% certain on how, we mean to turn this one off car into a cab car like the one at Magma AZ Copper, now at the AZRR museum in Chandler, AZ.

Thanks for visiting with us, leave a comment if the mood strikes you.

November 2018 Equipment Update

Following hot on the heels of the new look for our future locomotives, our shop crews have been busy applying the new lettering scheme to some recently outshopped freight equipment. The new lettering is more visible and has a slightly more modern appearance, something to help seperate the older equipment from the newer, and give the Arizona Southern a feeling of history all at the same time. The addition of the AZSO heralds on interchange cars will help spread our corporate identity out beyond our home rails.

One of the other cars to receive the new look is the latest addition to our ore car fleet. It seems that Kaiser Steel has cut back it's operations to a point where the Southern Pacific finds itself with a surplus of their distinctive tight bottom ore cars. Seeing the opportunity, AZSO negotiated the purchase of a significant portion of these surplus freight cars. Following are two views of the first car to roll out of the paint shops.

This ore load is made using Copper Range rock from the Arizona Rock & Mineral Co.

Well, as this is being posted, Thanksgiving is just under a week away. That pretty much means it will be 2019 in about fifteen minutes from now. So if I get tied up and don't wish you all a Merry Christmas or a Happy Chanukah or something else, I hope and pray for all of you to have prosperous new year and a wonderful holiday season.

As always, should the mood strike, feel free to comment...

New Look For The AZSO

Well it has finally happened, the Arizona Southern has updated their paint scheme in the interest of economy and simplification. It was not an easy decision to abandon the colors we had come to know and love, but between the the real worlds destruction of all the paints we used to use and the EPA screwing up everything made here, we had to go with Tamiya paints. I've tried some of the others first mind you, but I can not use them as I did Scalecoat and Floquil of the 1980's, and all of those paints are now exhausted. So with this said, here is our first new paint unit, itself a rebuilt RS3 now designated an RS13R.

Here is a broadside of the unit, just for fun. Oh, and let me note here that one of the board of directors, Mr C. Gasparini, suggested a lighter colored roof on the new paint cabs for reflecting the summer heat; we think this addition looks fine and will be well received by the crews.

Thanks for looking, if the urge should strike, feel free to leave a comment. ENJOY YOUR TRAINS!

A Tiny Bit of Progress

Trying to correct the sins of the past, finding homes for all the stuff that got piled on the layout over the years is a daunting task, yet it's a lot closer to finished now than a few weeks ago. In the meantime there is a saying about all work and no play that has to count for something right? Enter a couple of projects that have been sitting on shelves for many years, they have seen the light of day once more.

First attempt at a removable solid ore load,
I guess everything has its learning curve.

Finally got a load made for one of the older AZSO ore cars, it's mostly Arizona Rock and Mineral Copper Range RipRap with a little coarse ballast glued to a .040 fitted styrene base with some styrofoam under the rock to help give it some extra shape. Nice color is it not? I like it. Note: these bottom dump cars are all used between the mine and concentrator/smelter on the Copper Mountain branchline; between El Cobre and White Rock, see map at bottom of this blog.

Then a good friend who lives a long way north of me has provided some decals he acquired down in Old Mexico. I was lost as to what to do with one set, so I made up a car for it. Nothing online seemed to show a prototype, but the lettering was so cool it just screamed to be used. Enter a whoops ordered Accurail red 40' boxcar kit, a data only model and those decals found a home. Should I paint the grabs and ladders silver, white, (platano o blanco) or just leave them alone?

Here is an outside shot of NdeM 61180, this shows the cars
true color as seen under normal lighting.

Here we see freshly outshopped NdeM 61180, a 40' combo door boxcar with the aforementioned decals displayed; Arizona Southern S-1 #69 doing the honors switching behind the old cardboard warehouse wall. The flash makes it look a lot brighter than it actually does under regular layout lighting, but you get the idea. Please excuse the poor focus on the near end of the car, I was in a hurry and did not get that taken care of like I should have.

Thanks to JonC and TonyP for their contributions to the Arizona Southern's legacy. You guys are alright. Love ya brothers!

That is all for now, write if in the mood strikes you, or at least leave a comment. Enjoy Your Trains!

Looking backwards can be like looking ahead.

Something that is lacking on the Arizona Southern are "B" Units of any kind. We have FA-2's but no FB's. The cost has been the main factor, why pay for a cabless booster when for the same funds we can acquire a RS-11 or C-425? 

Still not having any B Units looks funny in a way as to my thinking, we'd have some cast-off FB's at some point, right? Well, as luck might have it TRAINWORLD was having a sale on powered Alco FB's at what I'd call swap meet pricing, so the bean counters opted to get a pair in the mail traveling our way; both for about the cost of regular unit, and that includes delivery.

I know, someday I'll have to sound chip these and get em painted. Of course I can test em using DC for a while as the new switching layout becomes a reality. The FB-2 Units are finally arriving, another day or two and they should be here. Nothing like foisting a cabless unit on a local to help complicate the switching chores; but it will look cool at least.

Looking back at what we were missing, and waiting for the proper moment payed off. We're learning that if you are the first in line for something, you'll pay for that privilege. I decided to get a couple of "B" Units a few years back, but they were around a "C" note in cost apiece delivered, I paid a quarter of that amount by waiting like I did. All too often I jump on an item and then see it 9 months later selling at half what I paid for the thing, and mine is still in the box awaiting a place to run; sheesh! So unless it's a fast moving "bucket list" type of item, the AZSO will be biding its time as to purchasing things that will be peripheral to the layout as a whole. A much wiser man said it a few hundred years ago; "A penny saved is a penny earned."  And that was when a penny actually could buy something.

Thanks for reading this far, leave a note if the mood strikes you. Enjoy your trains!

September? What happened to August?

Funny how a new job can take one's free time and make it as scarce as the cash was before said job came along. Is it not ironic how free time and spare cash never seem to be available at the same time for some of us? Sort of like Superman and Clark Kent, neither being in the same room at the same time.

Been working 7 days a week since mid June and I just took my first whole day off today, Labor Day 2018. True the weeks have been what a true work-a-holic might call part time, but the job requires the utmost concentration for long periods of time and this seems to be much more exhausting at 60 something then it was at 20 something. It's not the years, it's the mileage.

I have been doing some planning though between trips and have found a few treasures for the Arizona Southern RR in the process. Acquired a few missing kits for when scenery becomes a possibility at some future point.

Sorry, not much more to report at this time. Reply if you feel the urge. Peace.

Hauling Copper Ore

Once upon a time, I modeled the only railroad I knew, the Southern Pacific. I saw it all over the Los Angeles area, mostly out near City of Industry and a few times per year out in Tehachapi Pass. Not counting the branchline traffic I saw daily, I'd drive to Industry Yard and park at the east end and just watch until it got too dark; sometimes with a friend, other times alone. It was in these formative years that I made a lot of impractical decisions as of what to model. Being members of various clubs (not all at once mind you) all over the area, I stayed until each club either folded or the politics got too much to bear; you take your pick. As a result of big club layouts, I did gravitate towards long SP style trains. Lots of long manifests, lumber, PFE reefer blocks, cement, sugar beets, and or course an SP ore train.

Now that I'm building, well rebuilding actually, my Arizona Southern, freight cars are, shall we say, plentiful. In fact there are some remaining that might be totally useless as I'm not certain sugar beets and southeast Arizona would go together very well; I'm not sure those cars would work for any other commodity. Everything else works however, and even those 100 ton high side ore cars will be repurposed to haul copper ore from the mine to the concentrator and smelter complex. I was going to acquire those two bay open 100 ton hoppers SP had so many of, but they are ridiculously expensive on the second hand market and frankly they are not worth what folks are asking for them, at least in my eyes. I looked into a few other choices, side dumps and those square Gunderson aggregate hoppers, but again, who needs another big expense when I have a load of the high side ore cars on hand; not to mention some of the "Great Lakes" style cars also with extensions for use on one remote branchline. The drop bottom ore cars are mostly swap meet finds and stuff found on sale over many years, they are all in various stages of completion, none really being ready for prime time though. Here are three.

The bulk of the cars will be of the tight bottom design, basically repurposed SP cars which are now surplus. No longer belonging to any club, running long trains will be a thing of the past. Besides, the only joy of those long trains was blocking all the sidings and crawling along at scale speeds while the "hot rodders" were trying to burn up the rails, turning their trains into elongated slot cars. Most of the modeled Arizona Southern will be within yard limit territory, and maximum speeds will be between 10 mph and 15 mph; only the RDC ever exceeds that speed and never in town or within yard limits.

Quite a few of the old Roundhouse high side ore car kits got assembled many moons ago. A big stumbling block occurred when adding InterMountain wheels to the supplied trucks, the new better wheels rubbed on the supplied metal weight when at the proper height for KD #5's. Several fixes were investigated and what I wound up doing was removing the stock weights, and adding thin sheet lead inside the cars, gluing the same to the floors. This worked out very well and even allowed the cars to remain "happy" while running with my other freight cars while empty. Here are a couple of that style of car in progress. I still need to get the new decals printed up.

...and here is a car showing the lead added to the floor.

Not being certain if you can just buy lead sheet any longer, as now all wheel weights are seemingly cast iron, I suppose one could either use the thinner iron wheel weights or some other shaped metal weight, the only issue is cutting the harder metals at home. The lead sheet we used was cut out on an old paper cutter with relative ease.

Trying to keep costs as low as possible, I figure that repurposing these ore cars is our best bet. That and they look pretty cool behind a couple of big Alco Centuries, rolling past all the cacti.

That's all for now, comment if the mood strikes you.

Covered Hoppers

The Arizona Southern moves much of it's traffic as bulk commodities, cement, copper ore, and gravel are in the majority, but of these three only cement requires an enclosed car. While much of the cars doing the cement hauling come from the Southern Pacific, we also have quite a few of our own cars in this service. Many of them are hand me downs from other railroads, but every once in a while the bean counters allow us to purchase something that might pass for modern in certain circles. Case in point is our 100 ton cars. While these are few and far between, more seem to keep arriving all of the time.

This car was made back on the latter part of the 1980's, well before any shorter Pullman Standard covered hoppers were offered in plastic. Made from an Athearn Blue Box kit, the cost was fairly reasonable considering the time period.

Most of the home road cars are of the 70 ton variety, and are from several builders and many eras when one begins digging through the roster. 

I suppose it's fair to say that our lettering practices are patterned after SP's lettering schemes, but then again, why fix what is not broken? Case in point is this car.

This next car was also made in the earliest days of the Arizona Southern's journey, so old in fact it was one of half a dozen E&B Valley flat side kits that were built when those became available, great at the time, but a bit thick by today's standards, but I still am fond of this model, even the decals were pieced together from SP lettering; I made the Z from two N's.

Anyway, that's about all for now, thanks for looking and feel free to comment if the mood strikes.

A Standard Caboose Design... continued.

In the previous caboose article, I said the baywindow caboose body shown was in the paint shop, so here is how it's coming along. The decision to "modernize" to a simpler one color paint scheme on all future crummies and motive power will simplify things and help give my freelanced railroad a little more obvious history.

The end railings need to be finalized, but that assembly being quite fragile will have to wait until I decide on what sort of marker lights these cars will be getting. I might just go with something simple, like a single bulb over the doors, but that will require a three way micro switch and some sort of keep alive circuit. Things will be too fragile for batteries as are some of my older crummies.

Not plating over any windows, keeping things as simple as I can on these cars.

And lastly, the other side.

Lettering will come as time permits.

JohnH.

Comment if the mood strikes you...

A Standard Caboose Design?

Ever since day one, the Arizona Southern has used many different "hand me down" cabooses. No other way to say it, but the caboose fleet is a tad eclectic. Half the fleet never leaves home rails because they are partly made of wood and the crews seem to think these cars stay a little cooler in the summer months. These cars have all the modern updates, new all steel underframes and even roller bearing trucks, after all it is 1976 and our employees are like family.

Well never being one to be enslaved to tradition, thoughts of a more modern steel car were brought forth at a recent meeting of the peanut gallery; aka the most recent directors meeting. The idea was a sound one so it was investigated further. As luck would have it, our good friends at the Southern Pacific had a couple of their standard C-40-4's available for purchase at bargain basement pricing due to some minor wreck damage, so the Arizona Southern purchased these and embarked on a total overhaul program. Soon we will have roadworthy steel cars we can use in interchange service as well as the caboose pool.

For some reason, when Athearn made their baywindow car, they made the roof overhang a little bit short of the SP car prototype they chose to model. This is easily remedied, and so here is an in progress image of one car having the roof corrected. On our railroad, shade is king, and we are always looking to make sure that necessity is never skimped on.

The ends need to be filed and sanded to shape in this image, which by the time you are reading this will be done and the car in the paint shop (hopefully). The original roof ends had to be sanded straight so the new extension would be level and plumb, not too hard, but easily screwed up if you are not careful. Prep is everything.

More will be reported as time permits, but right now there are just too many irons in the fire so this project in not a top priority. That plus my mind wanders and often decides it needs to take a break from one project and then begin something else. Once in a while we even finish up a program. I'm as shocked as you are about this eventuality.

Oh, if any of you are saying to themselves, "why did he leave the cast on side grabs on?" have no fear, look at this car and tell me it's obvious that the stock grabs need changing. My friend Mark made the C-40-4 model, and I used my phone to grab this photo. One only needs patience and proper tools.

I figure if proper weathering a steady hand applying the safety paint can be used, why complicate something that won't really be noticed on a working freight train? I'm not looking to enter a contest, just have a convincing caboose model at normal viewing distances.

Bye for now.

Comment, or just say Hi if the mood strikes you...

A Work In Progress

The Arizona Southern is a work in progress, and it might be further along had not so many changes been necessary. It never seems to fail, but this private railroad has been through quite a few iterations since it began in 1987. The core concept is unchanged, an HO Scale, all Alco powered desert dwelling railroad, which interchanges with NdeM, FCP, SP, and ATSF along its lonesome route.

Sometimes it gets a little bit frustrating considering how much nicer today's models look compared to the stuff I started out with so many years ago. The budget can't afford to replace it all, so upgrades, things like new thinner running boards, come when they can, as they can; DCC being the new priority.

The big plus is, the hobby itself waited long enough for some really good sound chips to hit the market. I'm talking about Lok Sound ESU's Alco sounds with both the 244 and 251 prime movers being well represented among others. Nice!

The previous layout is being dismantled, and a new, smaller, version is planned which will be kinder to all the older folks who may not be as mobile now (or later) as they were when this all started. Wider aisles and a lot more switching to keep the few operators busy serving our customers, is in the works.

Much of our equipment is made out what's available at the time. Old kits rebuilt of kitbashed make up most of the rolling stock and structures.

Cement is big on the Arizona Southern, and we have a lot of that sort of hopper seen all over the region back in the mid 1970's, but just looking at the differences between these two cars shows the 1980's model vs one of today's cars. Just more things to fix!

That's all for now, comment if the mood strikes you.