St. Louis RPM 2017

A Santa Fe GA-43 converted covered hopper from Sunshine mini-kit by Clark Cooper - a car sitting in my stash - inspiration!

Before my hiatus from attending most of the RPMs circa 2010-2015, I had been a (mostly) regular at the St. Louis RPM held each year in Collinsville, Illinois. At that time it was generally a vendor and modeler-centric event with one clinic running at any given moment, in the corner, behind a curtain. Models were clearly the focus of the event.

Tom Palmer brought a large group of cars from Texas... mostly resin

Fast forward to my first visit in several years during last summer's event in August, 2016. Things could not have been more different. Gone were the concrete floors with black mats and the clinics held behind a curtain. Also, the crowd had doubled in size.

Early TOFC and early covered hoppers from Ben Bartlett

For 2017, the decision was made to add a second track of clinics so there were two running simultaneously. The number of attendees grew, as well, to 550+. The model/vendor room is now the size of a modest exhibition hall. All this has combined to make the event the "RPM National". 

A variety of models from Rick Mink

The photos here are not intended to be the top models at the event nor are they included for any other reason than they caught my eye. The modeling was top-flight and the general sense of mutual admiration was palpable. There were a lot of talented people at the event and the models clearly illustrated that point. As abundant as the number of models was the generosity in sharing peoples' talents and skills. Everybody was happy to humbly share their skills and techniques through a seemingly infinite number of on the spot show-and-tell sessions. There was a lot to absorb.

Crazy realistic weathering by Don Schnurpfeil

Lastly, the organizers were first-rate at assembling a great group of clinicians, vendors, and attendees and keeping the trains running on time. They did an excellent job of welcoming everyone and providing information to keep even the first-time attendees up to speed.

Another great weathering job, this one by George Malcolm

I highly recommend putting this on your calendar. It is well worth the visit. The facility is ideal, the hotels circling the venue are convenient, and the plethora of nearby restaurants the cherry on the sundae. See you next year!

New technologies abound... a 3D printed SP C-40-3 kit from Bruce Barney

A selection of fine models by Gregor Moe

Three models by Mike Wise and Bill Giese... love the Quanah Route cars!

A little work straightening a casting

Attempt 1 - unsuccessful!

I have been slightly grounded of late after two surgeries to repair a torn retina, plus a mild heart attack this week for my ex-mother-in-law (who’s doing very well) and lengthy dental and orthodontic appointments for my son. Some of these things have just consumed time, but the retina “thing” has affected my ability to do some of my work and my ex’s mother does a lot of the heavy lifting of getting the kids where they need to be during the week. The eye situation is kind of tough when most of what you do centers around discerning details and either writing about them or recreating them in scale!

One thing I did was to pull out a Sunshine Models PRR F30A kit to scan the side to use as part of the process of creating decal artwork. I had to clean up the main car casting (literally a casting as the prototype used a cast steel underframe with integral stake pockets and other details!) In doing so, I noticed that the portions of the car between the ends and bolsters had a noticeable droop. I did what I usually do and put the casting on a piece of glass and put it into an oven that had been preheated to 250 degrees and turned off prior to putting the glass and casting into the oven. The casting softened, as they usually do. I put the “weights” shown in the photo on the casting until it cooled* (the graphic at the bottom of the page illustrates the relative structural strength of shapes and displays while deep side sills and center sills are great at provide support to the car body or loads.) All great!

Well, when the casting cooled, I noticed that the opposite of my goal had occurred. While the ends were now flat, the center of the casting had developed a noticeable droop, making the car look sway-backed. Normally, a flat car model would have solid center sills to straighten things or I could insert a piece of square steel or brass to get things straight. However, this car is an unusual prototype and the center sills are segmented, as opposed to being two single longitudinal pieces between the bolsters, and not as solid as the side sills, meaning that depending upon them to aid in straightening the car body was an uncertain proposition. 

I reheated the casting and while it was still “soft” I used my drill bit box and one of my “weights” to try to remove the sway-back curve. I tried this several times to no avail. The casting seemed to have memory of the swayback shape. 

Attempt 2 - unsuccessful!

I resorted to something that engendered greater risk, but given that the heating and flattening method was not working, was a risk worth taking and if it failed, I could always perform the heat and flatten method to return to the previous shape. I held the center of the casting under extremely hot tap water and after I knew that the casting had become slightly pliable, I applied force with both hands to bend the casting to straighten the center portion. I then changed the water to simple cold tap water and held the casting under until it hardened. The method finally yielded the results I was seeking…. or mostly. There is still a trace of a bow on one side, but it is hardly noticeable and I am hopeful that when the deck is glued in place it will provide enough stability to pull things even more into shape.

As always, your mileage may vary.

I will be doing a full writeup on this car, although where I will post it and how is TBD.

Happy Holidays

*no, the weights do not deform the casting. If you put weight on to a relatively structurally solid piece of a casting, it shouldn’t sink or deform from the weight. Now I’m sure if you heat the casting excessively and use a lot of weight, I would be proven wrong, but I try to get things soft enough and only use enough weight to apply the proper pressure. Also, see the graphic to understand a simple property of structural integrity.

Relative structural strength

Something simple - Espee Models F-70-6/7 flat car, Part One

The basic car with stake pockets

Every now and then, it can be nice to work on something that requires little effort or challenge, yet produces results that are on par with the other projects that are progressing in parallel. About a week ago, I ordered one of the Espee Models Southern Pacific F-70-6/7 flat car kits (ex-Red Caboose), and it arrived this past Monday. I didn't plan to do anything with it, but as we all do, I opened it up to take a peek. Well, it couldn't hurt to glue the weight into the underbody cavity. I set it aside to dry...

Tuesday night, I picked it up and before I knew what had happened, it was as you see it here... and it didn't take long to get there. However, I hit a bump in the road. I'm short one sprue of stake pockets, so my critical path to completion is blocked until I receive the sprue. However, all is not lost as I scanned the side where I already glued the stake pockets and am hard at work on decal artwork (which I will be happy to share as decals from Speedwitch once they're printed.)

The underbody

Back to the model, it's a finely rendered injection molded "flat" kit with separate sides, ends, underframe, and deck, plus details like brake parts, stake pockets, corners, etc. There are no instructions specific to this car, but there are downloadable instructions on the Espee Models' site for the TOFC variant of the F-70-7. I will chronicle my build here so that anyone interested can follow along, as I believe the photos I present here will nicely augment what is provided by Espee Models. However, I won't give a blow-by-blow, but will rather highlight things that I feel bear stressing or places where I deviate. What I show thus far is all "out-of-the-box" (or bag, as it is). I won't be adding brake piping to this model, but I will add the brake rods as they are the only part of the brake gear on the underframe that will actually be visible when the model is viewed from the side. I will also replace styrene details with metal ones where appropriate to improve durability and, in some cases, improve fidelity of detail.
That's all for now. More to follow...

B end - Note the corner braces. They are different on the right and left... well-engineered!

The view from the top with weight in place