ORIENT EXPRESS RIDES AGAIN
The American Orient Express will operate over BNSF tracks between New Orleans and Los Angeles, leaving the Jazz City on late April 26th right around midnight. It will operate via Beaumont, Silsbee, and Conroe, TX thence Somerville, Temple, Brownwood, Lubbock TX and finally Clovis and Albuquerque NM. Rough schedule shows it to operate over the BNSF East TX branches on April 27 with daylight opportunities between Silsbee and Temple. The train parks at Temple while the passengers make a bus trip to San Antonio. The train leaves Temple TX on April 28 about 2330 hours, runs overnight via the Lampassas and Slaton Subs, and then finds daylight again on April 29 between Lubbock and Belen and through Abo Canyon. Leaving Albuquerque late that night, it runs to Williams AZ and interchanges to the Grand Canyon Railway. After a day trip on the GC, it will leave Williams AZ late on May 1 and arrive LA about noon on May 2 (Pat Flynn & Amtrak Andy, Ft. Worth and Philadelphia, PA, submitted via e-mail by Jeff Ford).
I received a letter from the NMRA last week. The letter reads as follows (edited):
The Lone Star Region has asked the NMRA Administration Department to help improve member services at the regional level. Therefore, a single renewal form was developed that will allow you to pay dues for both LSR and National through one streamlined process and payment. There are a number of benefits to this process. First, you will have one membership card to carry for both NMRA and LSR. Second, your membership will run concurrent for both, eliminating the confusion of duplicate payments or staggered expirations. Finally, you have the flexibility of choosing your method of payment - cash, check, or credit card. We hope you find this innovative approach an easy and convenient way to maintain your membership in the NMRA and the Lone Star Region. Should you have any questions regarding this process, please contact Debi Bennett, Member Specialist, at (423) 892-2846.
Bob has two new Kato SD40-2 Snoot nosed diesels in the store. One is lettered for the BNSF and the other for the Santa Fe. These are not narrow gauge machines, but very nice anyway. Go see them.
On March 1, the bi-state Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad Commission awarded the Rio Grand Railway Preservation Corporation a 5-year contract to operate the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.
The RGRPC is a not-for-profit affiliate of the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec. "The Friends" is the nonprofit historic preservation auxiliary of the railroad.
The event marks the first time a nonprofit historic preservation group has stepped up to manage a historic operation of this size and complexity. (From Jeff Ford "Along the Line" The Semaphore, April-May 2000, p. 2).
I received a call from a very nice lady last week wanting to sell a large collection of Lionel trains. They were originally her son's, but have not been used in years. She says the collection is from 1950 and has been stored in a specially built box since then. There are streamline trains, freight cars and a few steam engines. There may be some track in the bottom of the crate. She says they are in excellent condition. I do not know anything about collecting Lionel trains, but this sounds like a collection that ought to be seen. She wants to sell the whole crate in its entirety. Please call me at 792-7244 or e-mail me at DWL1944@cs.com if you have any interest and I will put you in contact with the owner.
Payment of dues is long past due. If you have not payed, you're out of luck.
This is part one of a continuing series on the techniques of weathering wood models. The article will be continued in the next issue.
One of the most important parts of weathering wood is to distress the wood first. Distressing the wood duplicates the cracking, splitting, and roughening the wood suffers via the ravages of nature. One can also add knot holes.
Distressing can be done using wire brushes (either hand held or as drill accessories), file cards, scalpel blades, or pins. I use a combination of all these tools. There is really no "right" way to do this. On strip wood, I use a wire brush and brush the wood along its length. Then I use a number 11 blade and add splits and cracks. Finally, I use a pin in a plastic holder to add knot holes. I even break some boards part way through to represent cracked lumber on the prototype. It is impossible to screw up this part of the weathering procedure - so wail on the wood to your heart's content.
One of the most universal weathering solutions for wood (or other materials) is black shoe dye (not shoe polish) in alcohol. I make this up in one pint containers tall enough to stick a 12-inch piece of strip lumber into, flip it over, and stick in the other end. You can weather a whole handful of wood strips this way in about 30 seconds. When the wood dries, it will be left gray just like wood weathered under years of sunlight. The formula is as follows:
The solution can also be made up with brown shoe dye if desired.
Micro-Mark makes a special stain that resembles the creosote-treated timber look of bridges and ties.
A second method of "graying" wood can be achieved with Floquil's Driftwood stain. Make a cloth pad about 3 inches square. Place the pad over an open bottle of stain and shake it a couple of times, then wipe all sides of the strip wood. Don't add more stain until the pad no longer colors the wood thus adding randomness to the coloration.
This method of "graying" wood to make it look old was originally described by George Sellios of Fine Scale Miniatures. Take some of Floquil's Grimy Black paint and thin it considerably with Di-Sol. Don't have the stain too black so that it is actually paint. Try for a heavy black stain and don't worry if it seems too dark at the time. The Grime that will go over it will lighten it up considerably and give the wood a realistic weathered chalky look. Use a folded piece of cloth to apply the stain, not a brush. Do as many pieces as you can before going back for more stain, as this will assure each piece will not the same shade. Now mix up a bottle of Floquil's Grime thinned with Di-Sol. Begin wiping over the black pieces the same way doing as many as you can before going back for more color. George claims that this produces wood exactly the same color as real wood ripped from old aged prototype structures.
There are different ways to simulate peeling paint. The simplest is dry brushing over wood weathered as described above. For example, you are building a gondola which should be boxcar red - but you don't want that "just painted" look. Do this. Prior to assembly, distress and weather the wood as noted above. Build up the sides and ends. Dip a paint brush with stiff bristles into a bottle of boxcar red and wipe most of the paint off the brush. With the trace of paint remaining on the bristles, gently brush over the wood sides and ends of the gondola. The object is to partially cover the surface with irregular streaks, patches and bits of paint. Leave as much weathered wood as you want. The effect is of a gondola that was once boxcar red, but has lost much of its original paint and the wood left bare has weathered under the scourge of the sun. This technique is also called "under painting."
To be continued in the June issue