Sn3 on a Budget

Conoco Tank Cars...... Well, Kind Of

November 20,2023

I'm not really sure where these cars originated from but I picked three of them up for next to nothing during the Paul Scoles estate sale. I think they were built using Athearn tank car parts along with a partially scratch built frame; the trucks are P-B-L. Interestingly enough, the cars were lettered for "Artic Oil". Artic Oil was a prominent shipper on the late Brian Ellerby's 1940's era Copper River & Yukon (Alaska).

At the time, I thought it was kind of strange to see them at Paul's estate sale. After all, Paul's layout was a turn of the century operation located in Northern California and Brian's 1940's era Copper River & Yukon was situated in Alaska. But here they are, along with Paul, on the double truss bridges that crossed Pelican Bay. For anyone that's interested, I have the two bridges pictured in the photo that I can't use.

Anyway, I decided to strip and re-letter the three stand ins for the CONOCO cars that were common on the RGS. Evidently, the car were used to ship gasoline. Micro Sol along with a fiberglass burnishing brush was used to remove the lettering. They looked pretty rough at this point.

The cars were then given a light coat of Tamiya Gloss Black. At this point they looked even worse and almost found their way into the trash can.

They were lettered with Thin Film Decals and given a coat of Tamiya flat clear. The weathering was done with Bragdon powdered pigments followed by second coat of Tamiya flat clear. Are they great models? Not a chance. But for a total investment of about $20 each they will do until I can come up with the thousand dollars or so it will take to replace them with those accurate brass models from P-B-L.

Note - I just learned that these and similar conversions may have been sold at one or more of the Narrow Gauge Conventions during the 1990's. I'm curious if anyone knows more.

RGS 7409

With the exception of the Narrow Gauge Convention or the Sn3 Symposium I don't ever recall finding any Sn3 equipment at a general model railroad swap meet... That was, until I attended a local swap meet with a N-Scale buddy sponsored by the Boeing Model Railroad Club. There, on a table mixed in with a bunch of odd ball HO and N scale equipment, was the RGS 7409 shown below neatly packed in a plastic box. There was also a D&RGW long reefer sitting right next to it. The asking price for the RGS 7409 was $5.00 and for the long reefer $4.00. The reefer needs a little work.

The Trout Lake House

I also bought a Raggs..To Riches kit I didn't even know existed; The Trout Lake House. The box says the kit is from a "Private Run". I'm curious about the kit too so if anyone knows any more about it, I would like to know sdepolo@outlook.com

The Track Gang - At Vance Junction

November 22, 2023

About 75% of the track is down and wired at Vance Junction. The gang would be further along but for the lack of code 70 rail joiners and #6 turnouts waiting for QuickStick Laser Ties.