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Spent the day working on the new ‘cast steel’ trucks.  Almost got a pair of them ready for paint.  I used the regular CR300 casting resinjust to see if the idea holds up, they have actually turned out better than I had hoped!  Gonna stick ‘em under boxcar  306 and shuffle it around the yard a bit.

Tuesday May 11, 2004, 1000

So far I’m quiet pleased with the cast steel truck product.  Painted and placed under 306 and left it out in the yard to see if it deforms under heat.  They look good and track well thus far, just need to see if the CR300 is durable enough .  The Alumilite should be here on Friday.

Now that I have the truck problem pretty well licked, I am contemplating three new classes of steel hopper car.  The first will be a transition car sort of a steel version of the wooden ones, similar to an Ingoldsby patent and of course riding on the new cast stell trucks.  Simple square sides and enclosed ends.  Will probably not be a large class of cars.

The next class of cars will be more of an EBTish car, but uses the same frame and bolster as the flat bottom hoppers.  Will feature riveted construction.  This will possibly be the largest class, the third class will be the war class built during WWII with welded construction-no rivets- but otherwise identical to the riveted sided cars.  They will be numbered 50, 60, and 70 series respectively

Wednesday May 12, 2004, 1030

Ohhhhhh the joys of prototypical freelance modeling!!!  I’m figgering that a brace of Ingoldsby style cars would have been purchased in the mid 20’s then the West Virginia  &  Kentucky   would have figgered out that they could build cars cheaper starting with experiments in cutting down SG hoppers or new built cars from scaled down plans.  Perhaps a few could be built from salvaged components before a standardized design was settled on fo the 60 series, making the 50 series a truly eclectic group.

1420

I’ve decided that I want anything more to do with Wayne County, so I’m changing the name of the RR with to the Western Consolidated Narrow Gauge ,being that the WCNG was corated from a conglomeration of the  of NG tramways.  Merger of the Cedar Mountain Tramway, Big Sandy RR, & Cedar Mtn Lumber Co RRs.  Will be going back to the diamond logo as well.

I ordered a batch of shapes and tees & channel today so’s I can have them on hand when I design the new hoppers.  Alumilite should be here this weekend to do trucks  with .  How many Ingoldsby type cars do I want to do?

Saturday May 15, 2004, 0745

The Western Consolidated is officially reflagged, completed the final design on the the new diamond shaped logo that compliments the WV&K ownership of the line and heritage.  Still need to change a few things on the webpage though.

What to do today?  I think I’ll draw out the frame for the first batch of steel cars and mebbe cut out the plex for the frames.  Prolly will have to design a bolster casting for them and perhaps for the trucks as well.

1140

The Alumilite arrived yesterday, so I’ll have to take a test shot at another set of trucks.  Got some yard work to do and the front porch to clean up, then I really need to tidy up in TheShop a bit before launching another project.  I think I can turn out  another 40 series hopper if I don’t goof off too much