Chuck

Nice pic looks great!

Charles Ro shows the handrails in stock. The hopper parts and GP9 shell I'd call Ro and see if parts has anything as you never know. Aristo ditch lights. Maybe Navin or Rex Ammerman?

Yep, looking and sounding good!

Years ago a friends dad who had hearing aids pulled me aside and said "I usually turn them way down as don't really want to hear anything this family has to say." Nick, Great hatch cover retainer...very prototypical!

Another year went by and no GP60 I searched and seems these were first announced in like 2010? Been 11 years going on 12 which seems to be Accucrafts time frame. The 1:32 Alleghany took at least that long. The shocker was the 1:32 Big Boy as they made that in a few years. St Aubin financed that project as Pat jumped into the MTH vs USAT BB war. Which brings me to the 1:29 NYC Dreyfuss Hudson. I called and inquired about it as see RLD dropped listing it. Was told yes it's dead but considering 1:32 live steam. He did say they were considering a 1:29 SP Cab Forward. Well that's interesting but no thanks. 12 years from now I'll be in my late 70's and won't be looking for anymore big steam...if I'm still around.

Well that sucks but at least you can get upgraded parts for it! NWSL in my opinion was always overpriced and overrated.

Fantastic! The USA GG1 looks like a real brute! Double headed K4's...Just don't get any better than that!

Great news as I've been hearing nothing but good about the newly revamped parts system! Only downside is I see they've been raising parts & shipping prices in the last week. That flat out shipping price is ridiculous esp. when anything under 1 lb. can go out First Class Mail.

Very nice!

Just ran across this video on You Tube about the 20 year old K-Line O Gauge 21" aluminum passenger cars. I heard a story years ago the Charles Ro never went to China to check on production. Basically all he did was walk over to say a Lionel Big Boy, pick it up and send it to Sanda Kan with the instructions "Make this for me (USA Trains) in 1:29 scale and send me the bill. I highly doubt that but you never know and it makes for a good story. Anyway I've always that the USAT streamliners were copied from the K-Line cars. Seeing they were built in the same factory I wouldn't be surprised. This video shows what I mean. There is some differences such as details but have to remember that the o gauge market is something like $100 million a year.

The observation car I had was the new flat blunt end style that Ro makes these days. I bought a new one but really didn't like it. I have been watching the various auction sites, dealer sites, online g scale markets etc. for a few years and the original rounded boat tail car never shows up. The UP did have some but they also had domes. They called them domeliners and were on mainly the higher end City Of trains. Like this one, the City of Saint Louis. I do like it but I don't really at this time feel like cutting a hole in one of these aluminum cars for a dome...maybe in a year or so. Here's the USAT flat end car I had. I question what's with the ribs when the car is a smoothside? I came across the boat tail end car and bought it. Sold off the flat end version. Upon inspection of my "new" old car I recognized that this was the very same car that I owned years ago and sold! Could tell by the way I mounted the Kadee coupler on the end and the extra passengers that I installed. I converted lighting over to the USAT Led board and changed the 4 lights on rear of car to Led's. That being red rear light, drumhead and 2 side markers. Much better and much more elegant way to end a streamliner! Oh also had to replace the diaphragm as old one was falling apart. Changing those on the vestibule end is a project within itself. Next one I change I'll take pictures and post a how to article as after changing quite a few think I found out the "easiest" method. Also have replacement steps on the rear of car as mine are broken. I received silver ones so have to repaint them tomorrow.

That IS good news!

Rex, That car will be great when you're finished! Would you believe I'm working on same car but UP version? I'm working on tail end changing markers and drumhead lights to Led's. I got my parts in from Ro today as well. Well all it was is Led lighting board and rear side steps. I usually convert the incandescent lighting board over to Led's but I have some of the new cars and want lighting to match. Great on the boat tail car. I recently found a used UP boat tail car and bought it. After I opened it up I realized that it's the very car that I sold some 10 years ago! I had a squared off blunt end car and sold it. Passenger trains just have to have the rounded boat tail car!

A bit curious about the Pola 330998 Reichenbach Station. The Pola website shows as discontinued. Has anyone built or seen one? The thing looks huge and very nice! Just the kind of building I'm always looking for! An ad I seen listed it as somewhere near 4' long x 2' high. Anybody know where a complete may be located for sale?

Yes looking and running great! Wow! Finding a gear that will actually work is another "miracle"!

Yes Rex very nice! Are you using the rounded boat tail observation car??

Well not much accomplished on this E8 as waiting on decal paper to arrive. So I clear coated a bunch of parts the assembled the doors by installing the windows and hinges. Then assembled fans. Made up the artwork for decals using Word. Font style is the Union Pacific's City Of. Found online for free years ago. Red with black outline. I couldn't find much info so just used some pictures to help that I found online. Like this one. Mine are a bit bigger and bolder...artistic license so can see them better as felt the 1:1 lettering scaled down would be to dainty.

Thanks Jan!

Thanks Nick and yes sir...that final 10% of detail takes 90% of the time it seems.

Thanks Juice Jacks but I sold off that SD45 as just too many projects going on.

Well I clear coated the car doors and installed the clear windows. Hot soldering iron to melt the windows to doors. I use a Hakko set at 750 deg. with the standard chisel tip. If wondering here's how USA makes the doors operate. They slide just like doors on the RPO and combine. Here's the parts...Just springs and pins. This is for all 4 doors. Springs set on door. Just set the backside on and depress. Hold down with one hand and press the pins in. They're a snug fit but I can push them "home" with a thumbnail...just don't slip as that's an "ouch" moment. Hmm...something like a thimble would have been nice but I don't have one. Assembled door. Simple design. Compressed door...That's what happens when they're pushed in to slide. Door tracks. Here's the bottoms of them and what a mess. They were screwed and glued mainly because the small screws they used stripped out. The assembly lines don't shut down when something like that happens..."they just fix it" and move on. Doors and track installed. This one is in the open position. They're easy to install into tracks as just pull top piece up a bit and insert door then push top down. You have to think it thru a bit as doors slide to towards the ends. Also leave grabrails off the doors as they interfere with sliding the car floor back into shell. And remove before sliding floor out. All 4 assembled... Mounted on floor... That's as far as I can go until my decal paper arrives so I made the artwork using Microsoft Word. Here's a proof test that I settled on. These are just printed on paper. Letterboard compared to USA's version on a observation car. Red with black outline. Font style is City Of and I found it online for free. The Union Pacific lettering isn't a real font...or it wasn't back then. It was more of the sign painters artistic abilities along with some geometry. For the rest of the lettering I just used same size font as seen here with Sun Valley. Oh the trucks were black and the UP uses silver. I had 3 used silver frames in stock so I painted 1 black frame silver. Also had extra shiny springs so just swapped parts around.

Finished up the color painting. Doors, grabs & steps. Need to make decals for this car and E8 but waiting on decal paper to arrive. Probably start clear coating various parts tomorrow. Picked up this USA PA1 "B" unit recently. Like new and all parts including air hoses! I'll strip and paint this into U.P. Armour Yellow & Harbor Mist Grey w/ Red stripe...All Tru-Color paint! When finished will give me a ABBBA consist all powered!

Very nice and great banners!!

Here I'll blog about how I'm coming up with rolling stock to put together a 15 - 20 car long 1:29 scale Union Pacific passenger train. To be pulled by various engines including a PA/B ABBA consist, USA Big Boy, Aristo E8's if I can find more at a "reasonable" price and quite possibly a FEF. Heck I even have a pair of MTH 1:32 UP Challengers that I could use. To be powered via track or battery power. All engines have MTH ProtoSound3 DCS decoders installed that have the usual lights, sounds & smoke. Start by saying I do have some USAT UP passenger cars already though nothing like a did have at one time but that's another story. Okay I'll start by needing a baggage car for either batteries and/ or mounting a MTH DCS TIU. Well typical as Charles Ro supply is out of stock on the UP car so I bought a NYC 2-tone grey. When Ro runs out of stock it takes a few years for them to make more...if ever. I dis-assembled car, stripped paint via soda blasting and primed with Harbor Freight self etching primer. That paint really sprays nice as nozzle is the easy press design with and adjustable fan. Here's how I handle these big bodies for painting. I cut cardboard that slides into the grooves in body where floor fits. Then I hot glue a wood "handle" onto bottom. Having a temporary "floor" in the car eliminates a lot of masking and the insides of car skirt are exposed for painting. Floor slid out. And I reinforced the top with a piece of plastic hot glued and with a screw run down into handle. Next is color paint coats but need to wait a few more days as paint manufacturer states 72 hours between coats.