Soeobo Pacific Model Railroad

Pictures show that The J’s centercabs wore a variety of schemes over the years. The as-built scheme was a solid orange body over black frame and trucks. Sometime in the mid-late 50’s they got the attractive green over orange paint. Towards the end of their service lives, the units reverted back to a solid orange carbody with silver trucks. I’m a big fan of the green and orange scheme, but I decided to remain true to my modeling era and use the as-built colors. I planned to use acrylic paints for the final colors and wasn’t sure how well they would adhere to the 3D printed material. So I first sprayed the shell with gray primer from a rattle can. I used light passes until I had completely opaque coverage. I didn’t try too hard to match the exact shade of EJ&E orange. I was not able to find color photos of the as-built scheme, and I figured fading and weathering would produce color variations anyway. I used a bottle of Polyscale GN orange that I had squirreled away for some forgotten...

The 3D printed centercab shell was designed to fit over a Stewart Alco C-628 or C-630 chassis. I found a second-hand C-628 that ran smoothly out of the box. The engine rides on Alco Trimount trucks, which needed to be swapped out for the Commonwealth trucks used under the Baldwin centercabs. Like the Commonwealth trucks, the Alco trucks have an offset axle spacing. However, the direction of the offset (short spacing towards the coupler side) is reversed compared to the centercab trucks (long spacing towards the coupler side). Following instructions on the James Model Railways website, I purchased his set of replacement gear towers and gears from Shapeways that included the correct axle offset. I also purchased the correct Commonwealth side frames directly from Bowser. The side frame kit also came with improved electrical pickups to draw power from all three axles in the truck instead of just two, as on the older Stewart model. Unfortunately, the 3D printed gear towers were simply too b...

Baldwin’s centercab transfer diesels were a childhood favorite of mine. I loved their impressive size and unusual carbody design. I was also fortunate enough to live close to the Illinois Railway Museum, location of the only preserved example, MN&S 21. Though the CB&Q did not own any of these big Baldwins, the Chicago area was home to EJ&E’s fleet of 27 units (over half of the total centercabs Baldwin produced). This gave me a plausible reason to include one on my roster. The prototype photos in this post come from a Baldwin promotional booklet found here . The EJ&E received one prototype unit in 1946, which output 2000hp from twin 608NA (normally aspirated) 8-cylinder engines. In 1948, the EJ&E went back to Baldwin for 25 production units. These were also rated at 2,000hp, but used twin 606SC (supercharged) 6-cylinder engines. The railroad also purchased one of Baldwin’s demonstrator units to round out its fleet of 27. My model represents one of the 25 production u...

Some of the most recognizable cars in Colorado and Southern freights during the last years of narrow gauge operation are the Conoco tank cars. They carried gasoline and other fuels to the towns along the Clear Creek and South Park lines. There were several variations of tank cars. The earliest ones are simply tanks strapped to wooden flat cars. Later variants had unique steel underframes.   I found an old Taurus Products kit at a train show that models the wooden underframe version. About the same time I began construction of the kit, San Juan Models came out with their excellent ready to run models of the steel underframe cars. I decided to have both versions on my narrow gauge roster. The kit is a true craftsman build. It includes a cast resin tank, cast metal and plastic details, and stripwood for assembling the underframe. There was a nice set of scale drawings that were very helpful in laying out the parts. I started by building the underframe out of the supplied stripwood, us...

This is a train I put together for my Dad’s birthday. He has a small train set to go around the Christmas tree. Really just a circle of track with a power pack. I thought he would enjoy a nicer steam engine with sound to show off. He’s not a “serious” model railroader, does not use DCC, and likes his trains to be as simple as possible. I wanted to get him a train that included some (literal) bells and whistles while also requiring no additional learning curve. The engine is a RTR Roundhouse model with a factory installed MRC sound decoder. It runs surprisingly smooth for a 20-year-old engine, and the colorful paint scheme is great for a holiday display.  The MRC sound system was key in deciding to go with this engine. The engines produced in the mid 2000’s came with a radio remote to control some sounds. Since my Dad doesn’t have a DCC system, the remote allows him to blow the whistle and ring the bell without buying a new controller. There aren’t as many sound options or prototypi...

The Burlington rostered 205 mikados in 4 classes, O-1 through O-4. All but the 8 USRA heavy mikes in the O-4 class were of the CB&Q’s own design. I had long wanted to model one of these quintessential Burlington engines, but wasn’t able to find one of the available brass models at a reasonable price. The answer was to make a reasonable model out of a readily available plastic engine. I remembered that Athearn Genesis made a USRA light 2-8-2 with a high headlight resembling the look of the Burlington’s mikes. A few detail changes would result in a “good enough” O-1A. I found an undecorated version at a train show to use as a starting point. The Genesis mikados have a unique design. The engine picks up power only from the drive wheels. A “tail” containing the DCC socket hangs off the rear of the cab and sits inside a cavity in the tender. There are no electrical connections to the tender at all. The DCC socket (and attached decoder) can slide in and out of the cavity when the engine ...

Living for several years in Colorado, I naturally caught the narrow gauge bug and began assembling a collection of Colorado and Southern equipment. The C&S was a subsidiary of the Burlington, so it dovetailed with my existing interests. Models of C&S passenger equipment are few and far between, limited mostly to brass imports. I found a few vintage E&B Valley kits, one C&S baggage and two Rio Grande coaches. The kits are not quite up to modern standards of detail, but they look good enough once painted. The finished models are approximates of C&S cars, while still capturing the feel of the prototypes. The coaches are flat kits with the car sides, ends, floor, and roof all cast as separate parts. The assembly sequence is relatively simple, but requires patience and careful aligning of the parts. E&B supplies plastic trucks (assembly required) with the kits, but I had a couple pairs of Blackstone trucks that I substituted.  I built the coaches mostly following...