I just noticed I haven’t posted anything this month! Work has been all consuming, I guess.
The 44-tonner, No. 48, is still in pieces on the workbench. After test running the converted power trucks it was obvious the pickups were less than adequate. I’m fashioning new ones from phosphor-bronze wire. While I’m at it I’ll disassemble the trucks one more time and give them a thorough going over. It wouldn’t hurt to recheck the gauge on the converted wheelsets. I noticed one wheel was wobbling a bit. It will get a new insulated bushing. The trucks frames are painted with a coat of nasty black gloss I’d like to strip. It doesn’t make sense to leave any problems as performance depends on these trucks being first class.
A week or so ago my SONC 2018 convention car arrived. It’s an Atlas X-29 lettered for the Canandaigua Southern, the late John Armstrong’s famous O scale railroad. It’s a beauty. All I’ll do is convert the trucks to P48, replace the couplers and give it some light weathering. It’ll join the Delta Lines box car as my only novelty stock. No Olde Frothingslosh reefers on this railroad!
After dithering for some weeks I finally placed an order for a Smoky Mountain AAR 70 ton flat car kit. The critics are raving! Protocraft has the trucks and decals for these cars. I’d like to letter mine for an upper Midwest line, likely Pere Marquette or maybe NKP – they both had them. It will bring in a load of farm tractors now and then and maybe haul out rough lumber that’s heading westward. Biggest issue I see is getting it weighted up enough to operate with my relatively heavy fleet.
Also, just received a copy of the B&M Bulletin, Fall 1974 with a comprehensive article on Elmwood Jct. that was located not too far from Bennington, NH. It’s where the lines from Manchester to Keene and Peterborough to Contoocook crossed before the floods of 1937. After the floods, these branches were severed with no through routes. On my journeys along the Hillsboro branch I tried to pin down just where Elwood was and I did identify the location along Rte. 202. Alas, there’s nothing left. Oh, well.
So, I’m bearing down on the 44-tonner until it’s done. Then maybe on to the French river bridges and some more trackwork.
Dominion & New England Railway 