What's New for January 2012 - January 18, 2012

First of all I want to wish you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year! I hope you had a great Christmas season and that you got plenty of coal and switches in your Christmas stocking. I never understood why that was considered a bad thing...

The holiday season was pretty hectic here packing and shipping boxes full of Bachmann stuff. We are continuing the “Bachmann Blowout Sale” and several of the items are sold out but we have more items we haven't put up on the web page. We are trying to keep the web page current so that you don't order things that are already sold out, but it is a moving target.

The Great Scale Train Show

We will be at Timonium selling more of the “Bachmann Blowout” stuff so we hope to see you there. You WILL like the prices. We will also have a lot, and I mean a lot, of stuff left over from the store that we have not put on the web page. Dates are February 4-5. 2012. We understand that Howard has contacted a Voodoo witch doctor, a Swami and an American Indian medicine man and has them all conjuring “No Snow” rituals. I hope it works.

For the Steel Mill Modeler

We have been building up our stock of steel mill related items. Several new products from ST&D and we have redesigned the Magarac Top Works kit. It now includes a full size template for the upper platform and the assembly jig. This of course, has caused a delay in shipping. Fortunately we have shipped all of the back orders.

I'm working in earnest on a steel mill modeling book. Plans are for 128 pages, mostly color that will concentrate on the hot end of the mill. Some of the subjects will cover : planning for adding a mill to you railroad; backdating the Walthers blast furnace; building a scale modern (1950's) furnace; ladle and bottle cars; building a Bessemer house; tips and tricks for lighting and animation; and construction tools and techniques. Any and all of this is subject to change.

One of the things I'm very pleased with is the number of bottle and ladle car drawings I've been able to accumulate, and these will be in the book. Some came from the manufacturers, some from other steel mill buffs and one in particular came from being in the right place at the right time.

Chuck Pravlik brought a set of Pugh Car blueprints to the 2011 Steel Mill Modelers Meet. Where he got them I have no idea, but they are a find. We tacked them up on the wall and photographed them with no more intent to have a set of photos that I could use for reference. The original blueprints were just that: white drawing on a blue background. They had been folded many times, the edges were looking a bit dog chewed but they were there.

When I got home I transferred the images into my computer and began to examine them. I had muddy drawings of all of the components of the car, but no complete general outline drawing. With much trepidation I set out to make a drawing that would be useful to the modeler. Here is an example of what I started with:

The above drawing shows the trucks, frame and bottle but there are no fins, a prominent feature on the prototype, and there is far more information on the drawing than is necessary for a modeler. The legend on the drawing shows that four cars of this design were built in March of 1949! The design was obsolescent by that time! The drawing also states that it is an 80 ton capacity whereas other sources refer to it as a 100 ton car. Curious.

So here is what I have so far. This is a composite of several drawings and it is far from complete but it shows promise. The entire process has been done in Photoshop and although tedious wasn't all that difficult.'

This is the Overland Models version of the car. The custom paint was done by R. Hunter. I still have a lot of work to do before I'm satisfied with the drawing, but it's coming along.

Oh, yes. The book will be titled "The ABC of Iron and Steel Modeling."

The 2012 Steel Mill Modeler's Meet

We are in the early stages of hotel selection for the 2012 meet. We will be in South New Jersey over Labor Day weekend August 31, Sept 1-2. Labor Day is officially Monday September the 3rd. Keep an eye on the web page for updates. We have all the ingredients for an exceptional meet not the least of which is several model railroads in the area with steel mills. This should make for a great Saturday layout tour.

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Can't Find It?

If you don't see it on our web site, just ask. We probably have it, and if we don't we can get it and sell it to you at a discount!

email: peachcreek@aol.com