Some Northstar thoughts

Just to show I'm taking this idea relatively seriously.

A Bombardier Bi-level coach is 25.9 meters in length. The longest T scale chassis, the KiHa is a scale 21 meters. A deficit of almost 5 meters or 10mm in length. A millimeter or two I could deal with but a whole centimeter is a different kettle of fish indeed. The KiHa chassis will have to be lengthened.

That will affect the radius of curve the vehicle will be able to negotiate I'm sure. As to if it will affect the pulling power or not I don't know.

The coaches themselves shouldn't be too difficult as they are all straight lines and angles. I think the best plan will be to make shells of clear styrene and cover that with a decal for the paint scheme.

I'll just have to have a go and find out.

A crazy idea

Just came to me.
How about Northstar Commuter Rail in T scale?
Four Bombardier Bi-level coaches with an MP36 loco.
You could power two or three coaches depending on their performance and have them push and pull a coach and a dummy loco.
Hmm...

Back in the saddle (more from the t elevator)

Well, I'm back!

I've spent the last few weeks preparing my HO scale layout for a train show as well as buying myself a new camera. But to be honest my model railroading heart was elsewhere.

Here.

I would have rather been T scaling. So I did manage to sneak a few minutes here and there over the past few weeks to get something done to the elevator and here it is.

Spraying is much better than brush painting don't you think?

Some weathering powders on the roof, some ladders on the front and it will be a very accepable structure for the new layout.

New layout?

What new layout...

Hussah!

Spring is sprung. The Sun is shining. New trains are available (when you can get them, they are in short supply) and new T scale bloggers have appeared.

Welcome Dan MacKellar and his T Time blog. Dan has been a member of Talking T gauge for a long time and has now started to blog about his T scale adventures.

Glad to have another T blogger around. It's been rather lonely of late.

As for me I'm a frustrated T scaler at the moment. As you know I've lots of projects on the go. What with T scale grain elevators and freight cars and other things. But with an exhibition looming on the horizon for my HO scale layout I've got to work on it instead.

I'd rather be T scaling...

Hmm I think there's a T shirt design there.

Boxing Cleverer (part 2 of the box car story)

It has to be said that I was very disappointed with the roof line of the first box cars. I don't knw how I let myself get away with it I really don't. Any way another couple of attempts at making new ends and working out the most effective of fitting the ends, sides and floors together. (Ends and sides sit ON the floor and the ends fit BETWEEN the sides) Another more reasonable representation of a boxcar emerged from the shops...

Better but still not perfect. I still have a ways to go with learning to apply tiny amounts of CA (superglue) to fit the ladders in place.

Also, this one might actually be a bit tall. Probably by the thickness of the floor (.5mm) Not much you might say. But in T scale that's over one foot and enough to knock the proportions out of whack.

But it looks much better than the last efforts and I have no qualms about using this one as a grounded car body in some kind of scene on a layout.

Boxing (not so) clever

So with the Gondola conquered to my liking I decided to turn my attention to a must have for any US railroad model. The Boxcar. My subject was a 40' model the drawing was found in a google book online. All the dimensions were there so it was an easy, if not somewhat tedious job to convert them to T scale and make a drawing using open office to help to see how to put everything together. The actual construction of the car isn't too difficult just have to be careful. The smallest piece of styrene cut for the mode was the ends which are about 6.5mm x 7.5mm so not tiny. If you've built in N scale you've likely handled smaller pieces of styrene. Here's the picture of the progress complete with some failures in the background. The car is 1 inch (25 mm) long

So there we go. The sides are made from 2.5mm v groove embossed styrene and the ends are .75mm metal siding embossed styrene, with some of the ribbing shaved away up in the eaves area. The ladder is from a ship models etching.

It looks OK. I'm very pleased with the effect created by the metal siding styrene for the ends. I couldn't hope for much better.

The thing that bugs me on this test model is the roof angle. Its too steep. It's difficult to cut a shallow angle when you're slicing through the ribbing of the embossing.

So its another good start. Boxcars can definitely be built in 1:450 scale. Just need to sort that roof out.

excitement

The T scale world is on fire now.
I have just received word that Hankyu 9000's are here in the US and for sale! I think I ordered mine from Japan though, so why haven't I heard anything from there?
On top of that turnouts will be here in April too.
Too much excitment.
Then TrainaidsA has secured some KiHa and Hankyu units in a kit form for scratchbuilders to play with. I'll take some of them then.
Way too much excitement.
Mr Harai of K.K. Eishindo was in the US recently as the guest of TrainaidsA and announced an intention to manufacture US outline loco's and rolling stock! Typical, just as I start making my own...
Way way too much excitement . I don't know how I sleep at night...