The SCRR

The Spring Creek Railroad
G Scale Model Railway
Conductor Jerry Barnes
Engineer Jerry Barnes

The Project Page

This page contains two projects

The Waterfall Project, The Trolly Project and
The Rotary Snow Plow Project

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The Waterfall Project

Jerry's old waterfall was leaking and the tunnel under it was collapsing, so it was time for a rebuild, which he didn't mind too much, since he could put in a new tunnel that would have two tracks going through it instead of one, like the old tunnel. This would give him an inner and outer loop to run two trains at the same time.

The waterfall developed a leak and over time it ruined the wooden tunnel that went under it. Jerry was pretty happy about this, since the one track tunnel was a big bottle neck to him being able to have two separate loops in his railroad.
The tunnel was made with pressure treated lumber for the sides
and aluminum signboard for the top and bottom.
The white areas are plastic brick molding he cut up for the shapes you see.

It was set in and leveled and covered with some pond rubber scraps.

The pond rubber was draped over a frame of 2x6's, then the flagstones were dry stacked on top of the rubber covered boards. This way, the only rocks actually in the water are the spillway rocks, all the rest set above the water,
reducing the leakage problem the old waterfall had.

Overall view of the finished waterfall.
The filter on top still needs to be screened by some plants/rocks.

A closer view

The Trolly Project

Jerry had been wanting a trolley but did not care for the ones that were offered by Bachman or Accucraft. In correspondence with Bob Thon-of Robert's Lines that made Jerry's Pioneer Zephyer, he discovered that Bob used to offer metal trolleys and he had a primered body left. He sent a picture of it and of the trolleys as he sold them.

The body is metal, you can see how colorful the trolleys were.

Jerry wanted to break up the windows some, so he added the brass strips.

The light was just a bulb screwed into the socket, so Jerry used some brass grommets to create a brass shell for it. He did the same for the back.

A cream and maroon paint scheme was selected. The trolley body did not come with a motor. Jerry molded/cast the side frames from an old Bachman Christmas Trolley that he had (piece of junk!).
He used a new USA motor block to drive the trolley with.

Trolleys had fancy wood interiors, since the trolley was assembled, with welded in seats, Jerry came up with the idea to print the interior on paper, laminate them and slide them in. He found some wood panel pictures on the internet and laid them into a tracing that he did of the windows and scanned in. He used the Color It art program on his Mac to get it sized properly.

Here you can see the interior installed by the seats. He used double stick carpet tape to adhere the laminated paper to the wall. Note the one metal
seat, he was trying out a plan to do the same with the seats to give
them the wood slat 'look'

The finished interior, thin plastic was glued in for the window glass.

The rear wall was also paneled. The round windows also had brass
grommets put in them to simulate brass window frames.

A top view of the finished interior. Lights were also put in to illuminate
the interior at night. The front and rear lights work also.

After some research on the internet, looking at trolley lettering Jerry
contacted Stan Cedarleaf and they worked out a design based on his research.
Stan made the decals, using gold for the lettering color. After putting them on, they were clear coated the next day to seal them up. The figures are
Bachman Trolleymen. Soon passengers will be added. Note the brass
frames around the rear windows.

The night shots show the lights inside and out. A 9.6 battery pack controlled
by a simple on/off switch is how it is powered. No remote control or track power, this is Jerry's favorite way of running, very simple!

The Rotary Snow Plow Project

Jerry wanted a rotary snow plow to blow snow off the Spring Creek layout. He did some research and when he found the picture of the big UP plow he knew he had to build it. UP made several of them in the Omaha shops.

This is the Cheyenne plow, it is kept in the Roundhouse in
Cheyenne and was last used in Kansas in 2007.

He also got some detailed pictures from a friend of the one in
the St Louis Transportation Museum.

Jerry started with an Aristo Craft B unit to base his rotary on. He added aluminum frame reinforcements to the plastic frame and it widened it a bit.
He had an old 12 volt drill that powers the vacuum cleaner blade.
A 4" white plastic pipe cap is the enclosure for the blade and
he built around it with plastic.

The side view shows the drill. The battery will sit in the back.

The lower part of the body is made from 1/8" styrene plastic,
it is bolted to the frame rails Jerry added.

The upper part, which is removable, to have access inside, was made
from 1/16" plastic and clear plastic for the cab areas.

A interior was made, using pictures he took inside the cab of the
rotary in Cheyenne. He printed off the dash controls and gauges
and glued them to the dash.

Metal foil duct tape was used for the shiny metal Jerry saw on the one in the Cheyenne roundhouse. It has an adhesive backing and you peel off the paper before sticking it on. He used a artist's pounce wheel to emboss rivet
patterns in the foil and a pen for panel lines.

This picture that he took in the roundhouse in Cheynne gives you an
idea of how shiny it is, hard to get a good picture of it.

The clear window areas were covered with foil also, after he embossed the window pattern on from photos he had scaled to fit. Later the glass areas
will be removed. Jerry made a figure for the center seat in the cab.

Grills were added to the upper sides, these were parts he took off the
Aristo B unit that he used. The fan on the back is also from the Aristo.
Inside around the fan was also covered with the foil. A grill will go
over the back, once he finds suitable material.

You can see the windows now, the black 'windows' are black vinyl.
That was done so you would not see the drill motor/battery inside.
He is now waiting for lettering to be cut from vinyl.
His wife Sylvia had a sign business and still has her plotter.

Jerry's wife Sylvia cut the vinyl lettering for the rotary

The real one does not have the numbers on the front but Jerry thought they would look good. The new blade looks nice with it's red/silver paint

The chute comes off for real snow blowing, since it tends to clog up

1937 Union Pacific 'the Forty-Niner'

In 1937 Union Pacific started up a new train ' the Forty-Niner' and
needed a locomotive to pull it. A Baldwin Pacific engine that had just been rebuilt in 1936, #2906 was chosen to have streamliner shrouding added to it to pull the train. The 30's saw quite a few railroads shroud some of their locomotives for the art deco fad of streamlining. The work on 2906 was done in the Omaha shops. It pulled the train from Omaha to Cheyenne, where the other streamlined locomotive #7002 Mikado would take the train through the mountains to San Francisco.

Jerry found this small plan in a book he had on UP Streamliners

UP 2906 at a stop in Cheyenne

Color pictures of 2906 are hard to find, here is one

A nice color picture of a model of it in O gauge (Jerry builds in G gauge)

He got a used Aristo Craft Pacific at Marty's. Some one had started modifying it and it was quite a mess of bad work, but he was going to
discard most of that anyway to make 2906

Here you can see the smokebox and boiler top hae been removed. The white parts are added, made from plastic plumbing parts. The curve is a elbow that was cut in half, the boiler is a plastic pipe cut in half.

The running boards have been added from white plastic and the boiler filled in with a strip.

Jerry modified the Pacific cab by cutting off the top to make a flat top cab and cutting the oval windows. The raised center portion is being added.

This top view shows the sections outlining the raised area.

Here you can see the raised portion is finished, with the smokestack and steam dome. The hole is cut out for the generator, which is yet to be made. The grill is made from aluminum printer plate that Jerry used a chisel on to creat the louvres, not quite like the real thing, but close enough.
The locomotive is upside down. You can see the triangles that were glued on to hold the side fairings.

The first fairing has been glued on, you can see on the other one the 1/8" plastic angle that was glued on to set the fairing on the walk in the right position

Jerry took some time to fit the cab window so it will come off with the
boiler, to get to the wiring inside, best to plan ahead! He'll probably
start on the embossed metal foil soon.

Jerry used the Nashua foil duct tape to emboss rivet/panel lines
on. It has an adhesive backing. Other brands are too thin and tear.
Getting it to mold around the front curves was a challenge.

The side fairings were cut out of 1/16" plastic and rivet bands
applied. It was discovered that the front truck would not traverse so
some changes were made to the front to accommodate that. With just
basic plans, some pictures and basing it on a Aristo Pacific changes
seem to keep popping up as he goes along.

#2906 had some streamlined marker lights. Jerry made his from
Evergreen square tubing and the ends of a ballpoint pen. Light bulb
is a LED. They mount on the upper part of the boiler.

The front view shows the front light detail. The handrail
stanchions are brass cotter pins. The red clips are holding on the
side fairings, they will be painted/striped before gluing on. The
boiler/cab is one unit that screws on. UP did not use diamond plate
floors but had metal with holes in it to drain. A pounce wheel on the
metal foil was used to simulate that. Curving the Evergreen
half-round plastic around the edges of the front took some
heating/molding.

2906 used a Vandy tender, but Jerry did not have one. To make the
USRA tender taller he used a board, after cutting off the top curved
pieces, which get glued back on.

The tender is now glued up. 1/8" plastic on the sides will give a
recess in the back corner for the ladders. Balsa 'planks' are on top.
The hatch was on the tender, Jerry cut it down to the proper size.
Riveted foil will be applied to the sides on the tender as on the
boiler. Getting close to paint!

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Some of Jerry's Favorite Web Sites

	Jerry's Jukebox
	Jerry's Paintings that he did of things he saw while serving his tour of duty in Vietnam
	Pictures that Jerry took during his tour of duty in Vietnam
	Jerry's Model Ships
	My Large Scale dot Com This site is probably the best G scale site there is
	Steam in the Garden Magazine Lots of good steam info and people who know steam
	Aristo Craft Trains This is a a good web site with forums and is split into steam, electric and a few other categories
Live Steam 1/29	A site that Don McKay started up devoted solely to the Aristo Craft Live Steam Mikad o
	Large Scale Tech Tips This site was started by George Schreyer years ago. Lots of good info there
	Colorado Model Structures Very reasonable priced buildings a building parts for your railroad.
	Union Pacific Railroads This web site has information on their two live steamers they still run and where they are going to on excursions. You can follow them on line.
	Vietnam Transportation Association Good web site if you are interested in transportation in the Vietnam war
	A web site devoted solely to the Gun Trucks used in Vietnam and now in Iraq. Many good pictures.
	Modeling Vietnam Gun Trucks This site will show you how Jerry has donehis Gun Truck Models.
	Heartland Military Museum Museum at Lexington, NE on I-80. Devoted to vehicles used by the military.
	Always Jukin' Magazine Site devoted to jukeboxes, many ads and stories
	Fast Hits Music If you are looking for that certain 45 for your jukebox, this is the place to go to
	Kitabee Books Lexington, NE At Kitabee Books, we sell new and used books, book accessories & magnetic poetry kits.
If you have any questions or comments please use this link to email Jerry at jerrybarnes@nospamthescrr.com Please remove the nospam from the address

	John's Old Car and Truck Pictures
	The Covered Bridges of New Brunswick Canada
	The Covered Bridges of Nova Scotia Canada
	The Old Railway Stations of Canada
	Visit Lonnie Hedgepeth's of Rocky Mount, North Carolina site. He has used the plans provided on my web page and is building a Covered Bridge for his Live Steam train.
	The building trades class at Darlington HS in Darlington, Wisconsin built this covered bridge for a local business man
	Julie and her father Gary built a model bridge using the plans on my Covered Bridge site for a school project
	A tribute to the Steam Locomotives of the CNR
	A tribute to the Steam Locomotives of the CPR
	Ed's Marble Etchings

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