East Penn 2011 - Part 3

This contest entry, a 1:24 scratchbuilt Illinois Terminal car was so well done, it deserved it's own post. The photos just don't even come close to doing it justice !

East Penn 2011 - Part 2

I lied - this will be a 3 part report, one of the contest entries was so spectacular it deserves it's own posting.

Some of the other exceptional work offered up today :

East Penn 2011 - Part 1

So, after a day that started with getting up at 5am, zipping off to O'Hare for a 7:30am flight to Philly and a day at the 2011 East Penn Traction Meet, I find myself sitting in a pretty crappy food court at Philadelphia International Airport, with my return flight to Chicago delayed 2 hours due to weather... You know, there's something even beer doesn' make better.

My report on East Penn is a mixed review. Well attended, many of the faces and names one would expect to see, but like the majority of the traction hobby as a whole, a rather pale version of what once was.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves, I unfortunately did not take notes to give proper credit, so, simply just enjoy. And the sharper viewers will note my coverage is limited to only the 1:48 and 1:24 modeling. Lots of HO scale, but just not my cup of tea,, sorry, no offense intended !!

This will be in two parts, first general module photos, and the second post, some of the model contest entries.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Fox River Line Car #4

Like most other electric lines, the Aurora Elgin & Fox River Electric had it's own maintenance of way equipment. Being a close cousin to the bigger Chicago Aurora & Elgin, they were able to leverage that relationship and lean on them for the bigger stuff, but they still needed some basic overhead and line maintenance they could manage on their own.

With that, they built line car #4. Not a whole lot is known about this car, it seems most probable it was built on the frame of a retired single truck city car. The photo below is one of only three pictures of the car I've ever seen, which is two more than most people have viewed. This one is in the Peffers book and gives enough visual information to start a model.

It's generally speaking a simple box with doors and windows.
Nothing overly fancy.
What you see here is one day of effort, all Evergreen styrene, and a Q-Car truck.

Upon reflection, I'm not happy with the roof, so I'll scrap that out and start over, but this project should get completed pretty quickly. One more piece of the AE&FRE roster puzzle !

Later, I'll build the simple single-truck flat car to tow behind it as well.