Celebrating Scale the art of Trains 1:48 modeling MAGAZINE O u March/April 2009 Issue #43 US $6.95 • Can $8.95 Display until April 30, 2009 Celebrating the art of 1:48 modeling Issue #43 Scale Mar/Apr 2009 Vol. 8 - No.2 Editor-in-Chief/Publisher Joe Giannovario Trains MAGAZINE [email protected] O Features Art Director Jaini Giannovario [email protected] 4 Modeling Thurmond on the C&O A city with no streets? Yep, That’s Thurmmond, West Virginia. Greg Bergman has captured the feel of this unique town in O Scale. Managing Editor Mike Cougill 9 Building A GE 44-Tonner in Styrene [email protected] A unique joint project built by Charlie Purin and Tom Houle. 21 A Signal System for the ALCO Belt — Part 1 Advertising Manager If anyone should know how to signal a model railroad it ought to be a Jeb Kriigel [email protected] real railroad engineer. Gene Clements will show how he designed and installs a signal system on his O Scale layout. Customer Service 30 Quick Background Buildings Spike Beagle Need a lot of background buildings? Jerry Zaret has one solution. Complaints 36 Culverts and Drain Pipes L’il Bear Small but often overlooked details can add a lot to a scene. L. Lee Davis describes how he makes these items. CONTRIBUTORS TED BYRNE GENE CLEMENTS 39 A Makeover for the MTH 64’ Wood Coach CAREY HINch ROGER C. PARKER Ed Bommer can’t seem to leave well enough alone. Here he describes NEVILLE ROSSITER how he made these coaches even better looking. Subscription Rates: 6 issues 52 Logging Caboose: A Diversion Model US - Periodical Class Delivery US$35 US - First Class Delivery (1 year only) US$45 Looking for something different to do, William Davis scratchbuilt this Canada/Mexico US$55 nifty piece of rolling stock. Overseas US$80 Visa, MC, AMEX & Discover accepted. Call 610-363-7117 during 54 2009 O Scale Convention Layout Tours Eastern time business hours. Dealers contact Kalmbach Publishing, 800-558-1544 ext 818 or email [email protected] Advertisers call for info. www.oscalemag.com • ©2009 All Rights Reserved Printed in the U.S.A. Departments O Scale Trains Magazine, ISSN 1536-9528, USPS 24457, is published bi-monthly in January, March, May, July, Septem- ber and November by OST Magazine, PO Box 289, Exton PA 19341-0289. Subscription rates: US Periodical Mail, 15 The Art of Finescale – Mike Cougill $35 per year, US First Class Mail, $45 per year; Canada or Mexico, $55 per year; Overseas, $80 per year. Postage paid 17 The Modern Image – Gene Clements at West Chester, Pa., and additional mailing offices. POST- MASTER send address changes to O Scale Trains Magazine, PO Box 289, Exton PA 19341-0289. 18 Reader Feedback Contributors: O Scale Trains welcomes your feature articles, 26 Traction Action – Roger Parker photos, and drawings. Such material should be sent to the above address for possible publication. If we accept, you will be notified 47 Product News & Reviews immediately. For more information concerning article preparation guidelines, please send an SASE to the above address and 60 Buy-Sell-Trade Ads request our “Guide For Authors” or visit our website at: www. oscalemag.com. 60 Events Listing Cover: A C&O K-3 2-8-2 gets her tender filled at the C&O 61 Advertiser Index Thurmond, WV, coaling dock on Greg Bergman's O Scale layout featured in this issue. 62 Observations – Joe Giannovario Centerspread: A C&O K-3 2-8-2 running light crosses the bridge into Thurmond, WV, on Greg Bergman's O Scale layout. Mar/Apr ’09 - O Scale Trains • 3 Modeling Thurmond on the C&O Text & Layout by Greg Bergman Photos by Eric Waggoner Looking west shows the engine house, bunk house and the remains of the town of Thurmond. “The Chesapeake & Ohio’s main street – her only street C&O locomotives. The 40 x 30 foot layout was built over a – but she’s the greatest town on the river.” Eugene Lewis period of five years. The layout was built at a height of 41 Scott, October 1943. inches using ¾ inch plywood with 2x4 legs and supports. The Chesapeake and Ohio opened up the New River Occasionally I must walk on the layout and this is not a prob- coalfields and the town of Thurmond, West Virginia, was lem. The roadbed is Vinyl Bed and there are 36 switches on established in 1873. Thurmond was unique. For years it was the layout, consisting of 15 scratchbuilt; the others from Roco the only town in the world without a street; there was not a single road leading in or out of town. The main street was the C&O tracks running east and west. The population was never over 500. In 1910, Thurmond handled 4,283,681 tons of freight and the revenue from this amounted to $4,824,911. It also handled 76,541 passengers. By 1930 Thurmond had lost her attraction as a commercial center and business began to decline. The towns and cities back on the plateau, served by highways, became the business and commercial centers of the New River Coalfield. The little town of Thurmond was left with little more than its railroad station. I selected Thurmond because of the many railroad structures located This photo shows Thurmond National Bank on the left, the Goodwin-Kincaid building is center, and to the in a small space and because I like right is the Mankin-Cox building. 4 • O Scale Trains - Mar/Apr ’09 commissary The commissary is next to the water tanks. The bunkhouse is across the tracks in the foreground. Mar/Apr ’09 - O Scale Trains • 5 and Atlas. Tortoise switch machines are used on only two switches. The rest have handthrows. The tightest curves are 85 inch radius with the largest being 103 inches. The track is Micro Engineering’s with electri- cal connections every 15 feet. Several electrical blocks are used to add or remove track power. Until recently, I have used a Pacific Fast Mail system for power and sound. One locomo- tive has been equipped with DCC using NCE power cab with a Soundtraxx Tsunami sound decoder. Thurmond looking east All structures are scratchbuilt with the exception of the two water tanks. I take credit for the skewed bridge, enginehouse, signal bridge, coaling dock, freight station and com- missary. The other buildings were built by Reed Artim and Ken Anz. Selective compression was avoided in build- ing the layout which forced me to leave out two buildings. One was the Hotel Thurmond, located next to the Thurmond bank, and the Armour Meat House. Across from the hotel was the coaling dock, but since a coaling dock can- not be located on curved track, I was forced to place this further down the track. Sections of the layout have no scenery because they do not reflect what was around A C&O Allegheny (H-8) approaching the signal bridge. Thurmond and function as storage or staging areas. The hills are made of foam board cut and glued together. This works well to hold Looking east, an H-8 crossing the skewed bridge with the passenger and freight stations in the background. 6 • O Scale Trains - Mar/Apr ’09 A better view of passenger and freight station. the many trees. Ninety percent of the trees are made from installing DCC and Tsunami sound decoders, I turn to two goldenrod, a weed found in the Midwest. Foreground trees more friends, Gary Schrader and Stew Kleinschmidt. are made from armatures imported from China or scratch- The good thing about the layout is sharing it with friends. built from cuttings of a hydrangea bush. These took about 2 The best thing is seeing the excitement and joy in my grand- ½ hours each to construct. Rock formations were made from children’s eyes when they help me run my trains. rubber molds I borrowed from Miles Hale. The water and References: ground cover is from Woodland Scenics. Two Views of Thurmond: One Hundred Years of History by Seven of my locomotives are unpainted and not shown. Walter R. Witschey, Gatewood Co., 1978. Friends like Jerry Ballard are good enough to show me the Scale drawings of many of the structures at Thurmond are many errors on my locomotives which I attempt to correct. available for free at [http://www.wva-usa.com/newsite/www. When I cannot do the work, like regauging the wheels, wvrailroads.com/drawings/]. u Another view looking east. Mar/Apr ’09 - O Scale Trains • 7 SCALE ALUMINUM CARS COMING 2009/2010 GGD is producing these scale Aluminum Sets with accurate interiors, moulded windows, operating doors, highly detailed die cast trucks and underbody detail. Look for the following sets to order in 2 Rail or 3 Rail. - NYC 20th Century Limited - June 2009 - SP Daylight #98 - Late 2009 - SF Super Chief - Fall 2009 - PRR Congressional - Early 2010 Call your dealer or go to www.goldengatedepot.com to reserve your set. Only made to the reservations. No deposit required. GGD is owned by Scott Mann - President Sunset Models / 3rd Rail. 408-866-1727 www.goldengatedepot.com FAX: (408) 904-5849 8 • O Scale Trains - Mar/Apr ’09 Building a GE 44-Tonner in Styrene Charlie Purin and Tom Houle The ubiquitous GE 44-tonner is perfect for layouts small Society magazines that contained photos of their three 44- and large. This loco was used by most Class 1 roads and tonners. Tom and I also find the Internet to be an excellent many industries as well.