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.

 

John Huey

CEO Arizona Southern RR