Model Railroading > Get out the Chainsaw

Back early this year when I was talking with Walthers about getting the correct colors on the St Maries River RR caboose, I also urged them to do another run of the HO 45' logging flatcars, especially the St Maries River RR flatcars that were never done before. I provided some photos and info. Glad to see they followed through on that desire. Walthers sure has a quick turnaround time compared to other manufactures. They are showing available first quarter of next year. Walthers is doing 4 numbers of the STMA cars, as well as cars for BN, NP, MILW, SP and Georgia Pacific.

https://www.walthers.com/catalog/product/view/id/493009

https://www.walthers.com/catalog/product/view/id/493007

https://www.walthers.com/catalog/product/view/id/493005

https://www.walthers.com/catalog/product/view/id/493011

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/24 13:05 by funnelfan.

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Interesting to hear about the new release. It makes some sense as they have the molds and most of the info, the original cars bring good money on EBay so apparently there's a market for them. They are not the most detailed car in the present hobby but they are a decent representation of the Milwaukee car. They track well when empty which is an issue with other log car designs. Although I would be concerned with what the new retail price will be.

For those really into this stuff the prototype was a specfic rebuild for the Milwaukee, other RR's had their own designs for the same purpose. Agree that it makes a decent modern generic log car if that's good enough.

Here's a recent discussion with some interesting info from a Milwaukee Road magazine:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5846231,5847332#msg-5847332

Those logs are going to be a weathering challenge. 

Has anybody tried modeling shredded tree bark by using, say, shredded tree bark?  Just a half baked idea on my part. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/24 06:22 by march_hare.

march_hare Wrote:
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> Those logs are going to be a weathering
> challenge. 
>
> Has anybody tried modeling shredded tree bark by
> using, say, shredded tree bark?  Just a half
> baked idea on my part. 


If you can find one of those wall or table mounted pencil sharpeners with the crank on them you can grind as much as you need.

I would prefer shreds more than dust or shavings. That prototype photo in the original post has long strips of bark and cambium hanging of each log, far longer than they are wide. My pencil sharpener ( yes, I'm so old I have one) doesn't produce that. 

Probably impossible to produce on a massive scale. So it's up to us to figure out how to do it. The Walthers logs are probably a good starting point, but I'm still spinning my brain how to do the shaggy stuff 

W're using sifted bark mulch on the decks of our logging flats.  The logs themselves are pruned out of the back yard, not plastic. Ours are built on a variety of older flat cars, with the steel weights replaced by lead. Every quarter ounce helps.

There's been a few log recipes shared on TO in the past, some extensive small branch collection and process stories, the trick is finding the straight ones. There's also the one about using used tea leaves ( from tea bags ) and / coffee grounds for the debris that accumulates on the log flat deck, they dry out into browns and black variations.

Good that these are being offered again.