Dan’s Train Blog

I work hard at being a member of too many model groups. Probably as a means of making sure I never get anything done. One of my favorite groups that I don’t have time for is the Hyde Street Model Shipwrights. I love models of all kinds and I’ve found that model ship clubs, on average, are easier social groups than most model train groups. That’s just been my experience, your mileage may vary.

One of my favorite museums when I was growing up in San Francisco was the wonderful Art Deco SF Maritime museum near Fisherman’s Wharf, every room bursting with model ships and ship artifacts.

When I first joined the Hyde Street Model Shipwrights we met in the basement of that museum. However, for the last several years the museum building has been under renovation so we’ve set up a small shop in a cabin on the main deck of the old Northwestern Pacific ferry boat Eureka (National Park Service , Wikipedia). There are usually club members at the shop every Saturday.

What’s all this have to do with trains? Note that Eureka was owned by the railroad I model and started its life as the Ukiah, a combination passenger, wagon/automobile, and railroad car ferry. That’s no more than one degree of separation.

Last weekend Paul, a club member who is also a neighbor in Mill Valley, hosted the annual club picnic. Paul builds model ships on commission and has also published numerous articles on model ship building. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of Paul’s shop which he has made inside his one-car garage.

Paul divides his workspace into several tool-specific stations with several general-purpose stations where model ships take shape. In this way he keeps several projects in construction concurrently.

Above are two general stations, each with a ship model underway.

A 1:24 scale model nearing completion. This was almost four feet long overall.

A small 1:64 scale model that’s been a personal project of Paul’s for some time.

At this bench Paul makes all the little fittings for his model ships.

A half-model Paul is building on commission. This will be mounted on a wall in the owner’s home.

Interacting with Miniature Railroading posted a link to this great one-hour long video of a railroad in Eritrea.

Eritrea: Rebirth of a Railway and Steam Trains

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I’ve always loved NWP number 8 as shown in this 1915 view below.

I’d like to try to use this IHC 4-4-0 Old Time American as a starting point to model NWP 8.

These models have been around since the 1970’s and have tender drive. They’ve been sold under several names (IHC, Rivarossi, AHM, and Pocher). They are not really HO scale (3.5 mm = 1 foot) but rather are OO scale (4.0 mm = 1 foot, running on HO track). So why use them? I bought 3 on sale for around $30 each and I used to have one when I was a kid so I’m interested in seeing how good a model I can make based on this chassis.

This particular model has an updated pilot with a knuckle coupler (a dummy as shipped) and a straight, albeit not plain, stack.

I’ll start with a design sketch to get an idea what the model would look like. I took the photo of the stock engine above and placed it on a lighted tracing table.

Then I taped a sheet of paper on this and traced out the engine. The cab, headlight, and tender are embellished with the changes needed to bring the appearance closer to NWP 8.

Note that I copied the model, warts and all. This will be a drawing of the model based on an IHC chassis, not a drawing of a real engine.

As I sketched in changes I referred to my picture of NWP 8.

The proposed cab will be larger, metal, and pushed forward a bit. I also drew in an air compressor interrupting the walkway, a generator in front of the steam dome, and engine brakes between the drivers.

The most significant change I’m planning is to lower the forward frame. As a digital drawing it was trivial to cut and paste the frame about a scale foot lower. The final drawing shows that these changes will yield an attractive engine.

Small, nimble on the rails and with beautiful proportions, the classic 4-4-0 “American” has always been one of my favorite engine types. As I mentioned in my last post, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad was powered almost exclusively by small 4-4-0 and 4-6-0 engines. This is one of the great things about modeling the NWP on the limited size of a model railroad since small engines help create the illusion of greater layout size and mainline distance.

Exact RTR (ready-to-run) models of NWP engines are not available. Consistent with my overall modeling philosophy (plausible but free-lanced), I’m going to examine the engines of the NWP and build engines for my layout that are consistent with the spirit of the prototype. My goal is to build plausible and reasonable, while not exact, models. Understanding the prototype well enough to build things and make decisions consistent with the way the builders and mechanics of the NWP did things is what I enjoy.

The Americans on the NWP in the 1920s fell into two broad groups: old engines built in the 1870s and 1880s — some twelve engines and a “new” group of seven built between 1904 and 1914.

The Old Engines

By the 20s, the older 4-4-0s had been in service between 40 and 50 years and had been significantly updated and altered from their as-built appearance. As built the engines would have looked much like these shown below:

Grant 4-4-0 1873

Baldwin 4-4-0 1871

Both of these engines are standard “catalog” offerings and are therefore typical engines. Compared to the mechanical standards of the 1920s these engines are missing many pieces of equipment:

1920-29 Standard Equipment:

• Engine brakes
• Knuckle couplers
• Air pumps and associated hardware
• Electric lights, generators and associated equipment
• Oil burning modifications (in the NWP case)

While engines may have left the factory looking pretty similar, railroads would generally shop engines only when something broke or needed to be done to meet new requirements (compatible couplers, air brakes, etc.). Individual engines in their 50 year trek to their 1920 appearance would have been shopped and upgraded on unique schedules. In this way each of the old Americans on the NWP looked quite different from each other by the 20s.

NWP 8 Engine 8 was an 1881 Baldwin product with 63” drivers, 15×24 cylinders and weighed 71,000 lbs. By 1915 it looked like this:

Engine 8 has received minimal modification beyond the standard equipment listed above, a new metal cab, and a new pilot. This is probably not what the engine looked like by the 1920s but I love the proportions of this engine and will likely model it as seen above.

NWP 9 An 1883 Grant product, number 9 had 59” drivers, 16×24 cylinders and an 86,300 lb. engine weight. Number 9 was heavily modified in its lifetime and in the 1920s probably looked something like this 1935 view.

Engine 9 has an entirely new boiler and obviously mismatched pilot truck wheels.

Transition between the Old and New 4-4-0s

Boiler location: In the 20th century as scientific principals were increasingly applied to locomotive engineering, an emphasis grew on firebox design, boiler pressure and superheating. For the classic 4-4-0 (shown in cutaway below) the location of the firebox low between the engine frames severely limited the size of the grate and therefore the amount of boiler horsepower that could be generated.

The solution was to raise the boiler centerline so that the bottom of the firebox was completely above the engine side frames. As early as the 1888 view shown below this techniques came into use. However, while wider than before the firebox is still constrained to fit between the driving wheels.

One of the ultimate limitations on the 4-4-0 design is that increasing the firebox size further was never seen as practical. On more modern engines with different wheel arrangements the boiler was raised even higher so that the firebox and grate could be carried completely above the driving wheels and widened to the width of the engine. NWP 4-6-0 number 181 below shows this kind of configuration.

Extended firebox: Comparing the Baldwin 1871 with the PRR 1888 drawing also note the difference in how far the smoke box (the part of the boiler the smokestack is mounted on) extends forward. To hopefully enhance complete combustion, the “extended” smoke box became common (but not universal) on new and rebuilt engines.

Superheating: Superheaters were added to locomotives by changing the boiler design such that steam lines were fed back into widened fire-tubes in the boiler increasing the temperature of the steam and thereby increasing the amount of work the steam could do. This reduced fuel and water consumption for a given amount of power produced. On an old engine superheating is typically only signified by the change from slide valves to piston valves .

Variously updated 4-4-0s on the NWP in the 1920s

This is not a complete breakdown and I picked the following engines because I find them the most interesting.

NWP 10 was a twin sister engine to number 9 (Grant numbers 1665, 1664, respectively) but by 1920 appeared highly modified and updated.

Fully updated with all the modern (1920s) conveniences. Slide valves (superheated), new boiler, air and electrical equipment.

NWP 17 was a Rogers 1889 product with 63” drivers, 17×24 cylinders, and 87,300 lb. engine weight.

In this 1927 view the engine appears to still have its original boiler since the steam dome is old-style location directly over the firebox and the smoke box is not extended forward. The engine has air and electrical equipment.

NWP 20 was a Rogers 1884 product (older than 17 above) with 62” drivers, 18×24 cylinders and 93,800 lb. weight.

In this 1923 photo the fluted domes on number 20 might lead you to think that this is the original boiler. However, my best guess is that the boiler was added around 1917 and the old domes were apparently reused.

NWP 21 was a Baldwin 1904 product with 69” drivers, 18×24 cylinders, and 117,350 lb. weight.

What a difference a few years makes! Number 21 is much heavier than the older engines and in this 1936 photo looks quite modern with the exception of the slide valves.

NWP 22 was a 1908 American product with 69” drivers, 18×24 cylinders, and 128,500 lb. engine weight.

Fairly modern engines but still with slide valves in this 1931 view so presumably not superheated.

NWP 52 was one of the last batch of 4-4-0s purchased by the NWP in 1914. These had 63” drivers, 19×26 cylinders and a hefty 158,500 lb. engine weight.

These engines were more than twice the weight of old number 8. Note the modern piston valves and Walschaerts valve gear.

Southern Pacific 4-4-0s

For comparison and more modeling ideas I have some photos of 4-4-0s from the Southern Pacific since SP was one of the NWPs corporate parents and some mechanical influences are evident.

SP 1421 is shown in 1924. The thing I like is the headlight moved to the center of the smoke box front per SP practice.

SP 1358 is shown in 1923 and other than air and electrical is looking pretty old fashioned indeed. The relatively un-altered appearance of this engine is my justification for carrying forward NWP 8′s ultra-cute 1915 appearance forward to the 20′s.

Ok, I’m still not getting to my trains. I had this pre-painted 1:25 scale AMT 1962 Pontiac Catalina model that I had started and I needed to get it off my workbench. I had started it thinking “Prepainted, it will take no time to build.” Ugh.

The paint job provided was quite good but because all the parts were painted I had to use Crazyglue for all assembly. The model also has serious fit problems in the front end.

If you can’t make it perfect, what to do? Make it completely imperfect. I decided to weather the car as if it had severe flood damage and I came up with an extremely lazy way to do it. I dunked the whole car in diluted latex paint.

First I took a large plastic food storage container large enough to place the car inside.

Next I got my special “mud” latext paint and poured enough to cover the bottom about a quarter inch deep. This color is basically Olive Drab.

I filled up the container with water up to the level I wanted the car submerged and stirred up the diluted paint with a stick.

Each evening over the next week I’d scoop up some of the “muddy water” and baste the car, wetting it completely. At the end of the week I pulled the car out and let it dry.

This nice Ford road-rail truck caught while the driver was picking up his lunch in Point Richmond, California.

The track of the truck’s wheels always looks narrow on these road-railers since they need to match standard gauge tracks.

Previous road-rail truck posts:

More Hy Rail trucks

Neat BNSF HY Rail Truck

I try to go for a walk every day at lunch and I usually climb this big hill behind the office where I work. From the top of this hill I can look down on a mini-yard which is dedicated to loading and unloading auto racks with automobiles imported from Asia and other parts of the US.

This whole area of Point Richmond used to be Sante Fe trackage. BNSF now handles the moves in and out of this yard. I’m not sure if BNSF owns the yard or if it is owned by an import agency of some kind. However, the office buildings seem to have BNSF logos so this all may be owned by the railroad.

As I can see it, cars are unloaded from ships docked at piers about a half mile south of this yard (out of sight to the right in the photos) and held for a short time in a large secure parking lot. They are then driven to this yard and either loaded onto auto carrier cars or onto trucks.

In addition, some cars arrive by rail from other parts of the US to this yard and are unloaded and then loaded onto trucks for more local delivery. Lots of traffic in and out. The cars move by being driven on their own wheels on/off ships, on/off the rail cars, and on/off trucks. There is an office where the teams of drivers work from and a bunch of vans to return drivers from their short trips between the various areas of the yard.

Here’s a Google Earth satellite shot of the yard.

Link to a Google Earth KMZ file to this location

I made this sketch to show schematically how the yard is laid out.

Main rail entry is gauarded by a hefty bar gate, cyclone fence gate and a small watchtower. A yard full of new cars is pretty valuable!

There’s a RIP track (Repair In Place) along the east side of the yard (the far side in these photos) where you can often find auto carriers jacked up getting minor repairs. There are several small tool sheds and a rack of welding gas and supplies nearby to support this. There are also lots of spare wheelsets of various diameters nearby.

Note that these photos were all taken from over 2000 feet away so there are heat ripple distortions in all the close-ups taken with extreme telephoto.

Mobile ramps are used to load/unload the cars from the auto carriers.

Lots of trucks coming and going.

Switchers — usually this single beat-up GP35 (I’m wrong — I’m not a diesel guy and I learned that this is a GP9) still wearing Santa Fe colors comes in and shifts cars daily. There are some REALLY sharp curves in and out of this yard, something like 300 foot radius which is sharp for these huge cars. Anyway, there have been several occasions where this single switcher is not enough to pull out a long loaded string and the crew has had to either split the string and double the move or go borrow another unit to yank it out.

These moves foul all the streets nearby so I need to plan my exit from work or you can easily be stuck 20 minutes waiting for the switcher to finish its work.

Note all the little work trucks.

The graffiti work on the cars can get pretty intense.

Various office structures around the edge of the yard. I think this one is the main driver’s office with vans to carry workers to and from their driving assignments. Note the BNSF logo on the office.

Sketching is a really important part of model building and design. Some of my best ideas come to me while killing time in meetings or classes that are not keeping or needing my attention. Sad but true.

This is a boat I sketched for a modeling idea about a small river steamer. I have a 16” hull under construction and this is definitely my favorite superstructure outline yet. I’ll use 1:35 scale and take advantage of all the military miniatures details available.

This design is somewhat inspired by the MARIN.

A very long seminar was a good place to do some drawings of my waterfront town of Tiburbon. Here is a rough idea about the ferryboat loading trestle.

This drawing is hard to read but if you compare to the real location on the layout:

An early drawing of Crazy Horse Canyon bridge.

This bridge and canyon has been worrying me but this initial sketch let me establish how things would look. I made a more detailed drawing in this post and determined I would only need three full towers instead of the four shown above.

I changed the shape of the mountain significantly to be more like the planning model.

Sometimes I do a full-on high quality drawing like this one of an NWP picnic car based on a photo.

The final drawing ends up a composite of the pencil drawing and digital drawing since I continue the finer detailing on my computer using a Wacom stylus pad.

This is an idea of a typical building in Tiburbon. Since there is almost no dry land beyond the roadway the buildings will all be built over the water.