So I got kind of inspired reading the recent threads about kitbashing interurbans and Cannonball steeplecabs, and kind of went on a frenzy. Besides, I'm utterly busy and have a huge project I should be working on, but there's nothing like huge projects and other priorities to get me into working on trains instead! So in the past 24 hours I got started on three little projects, and hopefully one or two of them will be done someday...
Here's the two-combines project--by combining the freight end of two Roundhouse combines and gluing them together (you can see the squadron putty I used to stick the two halves together), cutting windows and adding anticlimbers and some other details, I have a rough approximation of CCT #3, a freight motor that spent its last few years (1947-1953) as an improvised caboose (the CCT dieselized in 1947, but didn't have enough cabooses.) The trucks are just temporarily supported on some bolsters from the parts box, which is why they look a little high. I fabricated an anticlimber and roofwalk, but steps and grab irons will have to wait--plus I need to find end doors that will fit.
Here's that Cannonball steeplecab kit again--after building it it is obvious that the AMB Laser-Kit frame is very necessary, as the included plastic pseudo-frame has some serious deficiencies...and I'll need to find someplace in this teeny thing to put some weight. The air cylinders are from the Roundhouse combine kit above, and the compressors below the body are actually journal boxes from the same kit. The pantograph is just set in place for looks right now.
This is a critter I cobbled up out of the body of the 44-tonner whose motors are sitting under the steeplecab kit. Ideally this will eventually be a dual-mode critter, once I fabricate the underframe--it will be usable as a standard-gauge critter (after the engine it is modeled after, a 25-ton GE switcher used by Simsmetal Inc. in Sacramento) with a NWSL PDT underneath, or, with a swap of the base, a 30-inch narrow gauge critter for use on a micro layout I plan to build as part of the big layout (mostly theoretical--I found some 2' girder rail outside an old business called Sacramento Pipeworks, most likely used for hand carts, but ran with the idea of a miniature railway to haul pipe and raw materials in and out of the building from the loading dock area.)
The motive power for the 30" gauge version is a Bachmann six-wheel N scale switcher.
Here's the two-combines project--by combining the freight end of two Roundhouse combines and gluing them together (you can see the squadron putty I used to stick the two halves together), cutting windows and adding anticlimbers and some other details, I have a rough approximation of CCT #3, a freight motor that spent its last few years (1947-1953) as an improvised caboose (the CCT dieselized in 1947, but didn't have enough cabooses.) The trucks are just temporarily supported on some bolsters from the parts box, which is why they look a little high. I fabricated an anticlimber and roofwalk, but steps and grab irons will have to wait--plus I need to find end doors that will fit.
Here's that Cannonball steeplecab kit again--after building it it is obvious that the AMB Laser-Kit frame is very necessary, as the included plastic pseudo-frame has some serious deficiencies...and I'll need to find someplace in this teeny thing to put some weight. The air cylinders are from the Roundhouse combine kit above, and the compressors below the body are actually journal boxes from the same kit. The pantograph is just set in place for looks right now.
This is a critter I cobbled up out of the body of the 44-tonner whose motors are sitting under the steeplecab kit. Ideally this will eventually be a dual-mode critter, once I fabricate the underframe--it will be usable as a standard-gauge critter (after the engine it is modeled after, a 25-ton GE switcher used by Simsmetal Inc. in Sacramento) with a NWSL PDT underneath, or, with a swap of the base, a 30-inch narrow gauge critter for use on a micro layout I plan to build as part of the big layout (mostly theoretical--I found some 2' girder rail outside an old business called Sacramento Pipeworks, most likely used for hand carts, but ran with the idea of a miniature railway to haul pipe and raw materials in and out of the building from the loading dock area.)
The motive power for the 30" gauge version is a Bachmann six-wheel N scale switcher.
