The Whiskey River Railway

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
The Whiskey River RR interchanges with the Little River Rail Road

Mr Tyler Dreisow, the brass hat, of the Whiskey River Rail Road has commenced interchange operations with the Little River Rail Road.

With this connection the good folks in Merrick Wisconsin can now trade with the isolated hills of Townsend Tennessee and the Little River Lumber Company mill. It seems that there is a big need for the hard wood lumber of the Smoky Mountains to provide timbers for the Dolomite and Lead mines up in Merrick. The good ole boys in Tennessee are only too happy to oblige.

Here we see a WRRR box car being switched to the lead outside the Little River Mill.

Mr Dreisow also sent a very nice rail pass allowing Doc Tom And Mr Townsend to take a trip up north and see the sights.

Many, many, many THANK YOUS Tyler. You are very kind!!!!

Doc Tom
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Dr. Tom,

I'm glad you like the boxcar and the pass. After all, it's the least I could do for you donating the #10 Heisler to the WRRy to haul those heavy loads of gravel and zinc out of the quarry and on to far away places. I see I forgot to sign the pass to make it legal... oops! Bill also recieved one minus my autograph; I'll make it a note to put out to all station masters that the first few passes may or may not have signatures on them.

The lettering on that boxcar took me about a total of 10 hours to get everything right and figuring out the best way to apply the paint. At first I tried making a stencil of the logo which I printed out on a old manila folder cut down to normal paper size (which is the same paper I made the rail passes from) and then cut out the stencil with a X-acto knife. The extended hexagon turned out, but the letters inside the herald were too fragile and ripped. That's when I attempted to hand paint the letters in. After much experimentation the best way to hand letter stuff is to use a paper towel and a toothpick. Use the paper towel as a paint palette and your brush is the toothpick and go slow for best results. Boy, did I find out how much I dislike lettering that boxcar was! After it was all lettered I shot the whole car with some Dullcote, stuck some self-stick wheel balance weights on the inside since it seemed extremely light for its size and then packed it up for Dr. Tom to receive. Dr. Tom actually owns the first completely painted WRRy piece of equipment!

Also the night that Dr. Tom received his new boxcar, Bill surprised me with something he found. It was a kit of a Mack Railbus, the same one that Jordan Miniatures makes. It seems to be a very detailed and interesting build and someday I'll have to jump into it. First thing's first, which is to decal some HO scale locomotives and rolling stock for a few other people and myself.

Tyler
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Great Back Story

Hi Tyler,

You really worked hard to paint the box car!!! 10 hours is a lot of creative time. Thank you so much for your dedication!!!

I hope to make it to Choo Choo club tomorrow. Hope to see you there.
Tom
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Dr. Tom,

Are there weight requirements for G scale stuff? I couldn't find any when I was building the car and I know that car is extremely light, that's why if you pop the roof off you'll see my not-yet-famous self-stick tire weights that I use in most of my cars to add weight.

Also since we were on the topic last week, here's a video the Tracks Ahead people did of the real WRRy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0abH_4EUhGU

I may or may not be able to make it tomorrow night, it all depends how I feel. Last Monday just prior to leaving I started to feel like garbage, and then getting the typical signs of the flu. I still have the sore throat but at least all my other stuff went away.

Tyler
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Hl Tyler,

I think there are weight recommendations for Large Scale but I am not familiar with them (yet). I have such broad curves, 10 foot radius ,20 foot diameter, which is very generous for Large Scale that I get no derailments except for twigs on the track or small rocks in the turnouts. So I have not really worried about car weight. I think the WRRY box car has plenty of heft and so far is doing well. I will modify it with "body mount" Kadee couplers which work really well in Large Scale as well as HO.

I LOVE the video of the real WRRY. That has got to be Large Scale live steam modeling at its best!!!! I would love to go visit and ride that train!!! Road trip, maybe???

I am thinking about a live steam Shay for the Little River RR in the future. They are really neat.

Sorry about your illness I have had similar symptoms this week. I hope you get better soon.

I cannot come to Choo Choo club this Monday because of an important Haiti meeting at the Church. Perhaps the next Monday.

I really enjoyed seeing the Hiawatha and was glad to see that the trackage did not derail those beautiful passenger cars. Hopefully we will have track cleaned enough to get some long runs in for that nice big train.

Looking forward to more of your posts.

Doc Tom
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Doc,

A road trip is entirely possible. It all depends when and if the Army throws a curve ball at me. Now if we were to do one, the real WRRR is having their second Railroad Days on the 14th of July and if it was like this last year they brought out everything steam powered and ran a triple header. There's a video or two on Youtube of the event and if you sign up on their Yahoo group you can catch all the scoop. About two hours away to the north is my stomping grounds which has the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay and my home model railroad club in Kaukauna. Also a little over a hour away from the amusement park is the Mid-Continent Railway Museum which has a lot of good old rolling stock that is fully restored. And if you really wanna get crazy with it and see your bread and butter type railroading, we could venture way up nort der eh to Laona to the Camp 5 Logging Train. There's a whole slew of possibilities to be seen.

I'm very glad I got to run my Hi and hopefully we'll have more track clean so we can run some more trains. We can't have just show girls, some freight action would be great too. I didn't make it to the club this evening, I was sitting in the urgent care trying to figure out what's wrong with me.

On another tangent, I'm going to order some spikes to try my hand at hand laying track. I have a simple track plan to use on a piece of recycled finished fiber board. Since it'll be a test track and a small switch yard and it won't be hooked up to the master plan I don't plan on laying ties. I plan on assembling the track on the back of the board then when it's mostly assembled I'll transplant it to the front. Bill, or any other handlayers of track, any thoughts?

Tyler
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Hi Tyler,

Rail Road Days sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe we could talk this up at the Choo Choo club???

Hope you feel better. A lot of viral crud going around these days.

I am sure Bill will be along soon to discuss hand laying track. He is an expert on this subject.

Doc Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Doc,


On another tangent, I'm going to order some spikes to try my hand at hand laying track. I have a simple track plan to use on a piece of recycled finished fiber board. Since it'll be a test track and a small switch yard and it won't be hooked up to the master plan I don't plan on laying ties. I plan on assembling the track on the back of the board then when it's mostly assembled I'll transplant it to the front. Bill, or any other handlayers of track, any thoughts?

Tyler


You will have to run this by me again as it makes no sense to me (It may, therefore be Brilliant)

Fiber board doesn't hold a spike well. I have sued it for an HOn3 test track. It worked for that purpose (no switches) but the ties were all that was holding the spikes.

I have handalied very successfully ( dual gauge with switches and fancy track work, on the kind of roadbed made from cork particles embedded in black rubber This works almost as well as homasote, but again some of the spike holding capability comes from the ties.


If you want some ties you can come visit, we can set up the table saws (10 inch, and 4 inch) and convert scrap lumber into ties, I probably have some 130 year old yellow poplar that could be cut up.

whenever you hand lay anything, don't scrimp on materials, as if you do it right, your labor time is going to be considerable, spend the extra needed to have a good base roadbed and ties, I have chunked some hand laid track, but have recycled a lot too. Even if it is for practice, put extra effort into it, you will learn more, and when you are ready to build a switch I will walk you through it, study my switchbuilding documentation in the Bill and Tom's excellent adventure thread beforehand.

Handlaying track can be much cheaper, a good quality commercial switch will cost serious $$$$, a hadlaid swich won't cost you much more than regular track would. Model train track with wooden ties looks 3-4 times better than plastic ties, even if they are skilfully painted, and the electrical path through a handlaid switch is hard to beat. Very importantly once you can buyld one, you can fix one, so as you get better at building them, you can re work your first efforts for better reliability. it can be very satisfying


Bill
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Bill,

The board is a smaller board that is about six inches by three feet and is finished on one side. I got it from when our church back home in Wisconsin was finished and grabbed that and some other wood from the dumpster. For a while I had a length of flex track nailed to it to use as a display track. Now I'm just looking for a place to run my trains since my wife told me that we don't have room to build modules or keep them in the house or storage unit. And with me possibly leaving sometime this year, the smaller the layout the better.

As for this weekend I don't have plans, and the wife says my schedule's open as well. Not only have I read your article but many others on handlaying track and currently the only thing holding me back from doing it is some of the tools.

Tyler
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
I just bought one of the real nice Micro mark track laying tool sets, but you can get by with just 7 a rail nipper , ( a dremil with a cut off wheel is an acceptable substitute, a tiny pair of pliers, a mill file, a swis file for clearing flangeways, a soldering iron, an NMRA gauge, and a truck with good rolling wheel sets.


Bill Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Hi Tyler,

Sounds like you are getting ready to make some tracks
You could hire this out of work track laying crew from the old C&S RR .They could do you a real bang up job of laying crooked logging RR track.

They could not get a job on the Little River RR. At HO scale these LP (Little People) just were not up to the Large Scale task.


Doc Tom







 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Well Bill, I thought I needed a lot more but I have most everything on that list except for the files. For now I'll have to get by with my trusty Dremel as my cutting device, Micro Mark wants quite a bit for the nice Xuron ones. Makes me wonder if Harbor Freight has a flush cutting nippers for cheap...

Also since I had to drop a buddy off at the airport in Nashville today I stopped at the TN Central hobby shop to pick up some paint to get crackin on my freight cars. While I was there I was talking to one of the guys there and he said they had a train show at the state fairgrounds this Saturday, so I may go, depending on what the boss of me says. Any other takers? Plus I could possibly find my files there, and the paint thinner I need for my boxcar red (since I forgot to pick that up while at the hobby shop)...
 
Z

Zathros

Thank you so much for posting the Whiskey Railroad Video. Talk about living a dream!! I thought I would embed it, in case you did not know, you can now used the "Advanced Tab" and put in the code from the "Share" code at YouTube and the Video will be able to be seen here. That was a blast to watch and ties in what you are doing much better for me. A wannabe Train Enthusiast. :)

[YOUTUBE]0abH_4EUhGU[/YOUTUBE]
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Sweet Zathros, I'll have to play with it and throw some other videos up on here. Thanks for sharing that!

[YOUTUBE]KNRbocWYA5M[/YOUTUBE]

I think I saw this video first from the Gorre & Daphetid Yahoo group, either way it's spectacular! A very well edited "short", all done in HO scale.

Tyler
 
Z

Zathros

Wow, that really hit me hard. There is so much symbolism in there. I can't imagine it was unintentional, it's too good. I had to download the Video. If you use Firefox, you can get a free Add-On called DownloadHelper. You just install in by selecting from Firefox's TOOLS/ADD-ONS and in will self install. Then go yo YouTube and you can download any Video and probably 98% of any video you watch on the internet.

That was superb. Absolutely Wonderful. I hope you post more. Many More! :)
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
A few new things

Since this last Monday I've taken up decalling for some of my black car fleet. This is actually my first attempt at it and I really think I'm off to a good start. So far I have three cars completely finished and road ready. A hopper that I finished is at the Clarksville club, another hopper will go to the club back home in Wisconsin and the gondola I have will go to Bill on the Dead Grass, Crooked Creek and Western. I have a hopper that I'll hold on to, as so far I messed up the numbers on it (it should have been 1405 on both sides but one side says 1045, which is the number on Bill's gondola).

One thing that I found out is that when applying decals, the warmer the water the better. I use just a tiny drop of dishwashing detergent in a small bowl and then pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds. The decals that Mr. Cedarleaf printed up for me slide off like a charm... it's some of the old Walthers ones I've had issues with and with the almost hot water they come off pretty well.

When I ever remember, I'll have to look around for my airbrush so I can start painting up some boxcars in Boxcar Red. Currently I have three and a half cars done with 40 something more to go. So far I can't complain though, I wanted to get a few cars done before I leave for home and I did.

Also just when I thought I was done buying steam power for the railroad I found this gem. She's a Mantua 4-4-2 and I picked her up along with another steamer that I'll sell on eBay and man was the price right. She was repainted from her C&NW garb to the MoPac. Just for shits and giggles I brought her with to the club on Monday and hooked up all of the cars sitting at Patterson to haul to the yard. She didn't do too bad with a 20ish car long train until it hit the hill by Possum Hollow, then it needed sand. I doubt if the WRRy crew will ever put that much strain on her again, but it is good to know the limits of your locos.

Tyler
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Tyler,


I will hunt trough my stuff , it is possible I man y haves a few surplus needle files, As I have my track work supplies, my work bench supplies,, my train club supplies, and I inherited some of my Mom's minature tools.


Also I have just gotten my box of Homa-Bed , that I ordered to start my RR's rebuild. I probably have enough to donate enough for you to use on the little test section you were talking about using. I will have to check my lumber supplies, I may have some plywood that you can use. You want to build on good materials, with the level of effort it takes to hand lay track, and the resulting good look, it is best to have that stuff on something that can be used and re used on future projects.

Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
For a mid sized Atlantic, that Mantua critter is a hoss!. when I do my next locomotive work I'll try to build some auxiliary electrical pick ups for it. It may well be worth replacing the Tender trucks, as it has old style Mantua tender trucks that are pretty ****y. I was impressed at what it could haul, especially as it, by design is a passenger locomotive, built to haul a small passenger train fast. It ran pretty well, the Mantua mechanisms tend to be pretty good, in spite of being 50 year old designs, when coupled with a good can motor, they can perform well, very well if modified for close to all wheel electrical pick up.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
looking good!

Tyler,

Your hoppers look great!!! I also like the look and the report on that cool Atlantic steamer.

Stan Cedarleaf maked nice custom decals as you found out. I use his stuff on my Little River RR also.

Doc Tom
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Well today was bittersweet, I decided that since my Bowser boiler was pretty far gone with it's zamac poisoning I had to do something with it. I cut off the domes and one cab side to be reused (the other cab side broke while holding the shell to cut off the first side) with my Dremel. I plan to repair the window and then have that as my master for casting new cab sides out of resin. The steam dome is fine, but my sand dome has a crack in it. I figure that since it isn't attached from the boiler anymore it shouldn't have to worry about stress from pressure if someone picked it up wrong or anything. I'm still thinking I should cast them both anyways, not only for integrity reasons but if I do decide to build another boiler from scratch, then that's one less thing I have to buy. Speaking of which, does anyone have a copy (either old or new) of Precision Scale's HO steam parts catalog?

In my first picture I show a bunch of tenders. I just scored the top tender off of eBay for a whopping .99! Apparently no one wants just a tender from a Bachmann 2-8-0, and I plan to reuse it behind my 4-6-2 that I just cut the boiler up on. The original tender (bottom right) has Penn Line cast into the back of it, a sign of the age that when my 4-6-2 kit was purchased. I'm not sure how Bowser made their last run of boilers, but hopefully they weren't zamac. Either way, that tender is in really good shape, there's no evidence of zamac poisoning. It did come well detailed and has brass tender trucks. The middle left is the tender that came with the locomotive that I gave to my daughter to play with and took the motor out of, I believe it's a Model Power or Life Like. No plans for that one yet, but like some of my other cars it's good to have spares in case I get creative. The last two I got off of eBay a couple years back. The Jersey Central, I believe, is a old New One Model tender that I plan to clean up and cast and use the castings for behind my moguls. The other one I'm not sure what to do with, I think it's a old Varney or Mantua tender. It's just a metal shell, as with most older tenders, and I might cast it and make a underframe for it to use behind something.

Also a few other questions for everyone; instead of buying model clear gloss to put down before decalling would regular clear gloss from the paint aisle work or is that too coarse? Has anyone attempted to cast freight cars or tenders like I plan to do? And most importantly, where did my airbrush go? I coulda swore I brought it from Wisconsin...

Tyler
 

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