Model Railroading on the Cheap

   I always get excited when seeing farm tractors moving on the railroad. This is probably due to my close association with them as a youth. As my friends and I were rail fanning the PRR Horse Shoe Curve last June, standing on the mainline overlook at Cassandra Pa., waiting for our pizza, an eastbound train came along with at least a dozen cars of these assorted John Deere tractors. My excitement jumped up another notch as we got a few pictures. Most of these cars had 3 tractors on them, some were shipping with dual drive wheels un-mounted, (tied to pallets) as that would make the tractor too wide for handling at unloading points or in the hold of an ocean going freighter. Other cars carried just 2 very large model tractors with no steering axel, so large that they were hinged in the middle.

   Because I already had several plastic 1/87 scale John Deere tractors of various models that were intended as Christmas tree ornaments I felt I could make a convincing enough for arm’s length viewing, representation of this modern day shipment, which is at least 60 years out of era. On my room sized layout freight cars over 50 feet long complicate the switching operations with my 1950s era steam drawn freight trains, so I used a 50 foot car instead of the 60 foot TTX cars shown in the photos of the prototype.

   As I got further into this venture I realized that the model tractor manufacturer took some liberties with scale. The older John Deere models A, B, 50 and 60 which I had used earlier on a 40 foot car were quite nicely scaled but the larger modern 4 wheel drive model with air-conditioned cab was a bit under sized. I feel that by using a 50-foot car instead of a 60-foot would help conceal the fact that these efforts were not true to scale. Maybe an undersized load will be less noticeable on an undersized car.

   A friend gave me an Athearn John Deere stake body highway truck with a load of rubber tractor tires. Afterward I made yellow wheel centers with the computer-drawing program, printed on glossy photo paper, mounted on pallets, made convincing looking extra dual wheels for the larger tractors.

   The two prototype photos taken at Cassandra provided my inspiration for this project. Note the photographer on the distant hillside. The model photo was taken on my Yardley and Hillton HO scale model railroad.

   These are modern tractors – some with four wheel drive and air-conditioned cabs. I envision the little brass nub on the cab rooftop (for the Christmas tree ornament attachment) represents a socket for really modern GPS (driverless?) farming of the open fields. Those remote controlled tractors might not need a seat or steering wheel!

   The car I used was a plastic Tyco 50 foot flat car with the removable molded “wood” deck. This car has the easy to open stake pockets that look really good. I used quality metal wheels and axels in the plastic frame trucks and body mounted Kadee couplers.

   I used a portion of modelers’ license with this project, but I had a lot of fun. I had trouble with my ink jet printing not drying on decal paper, so after 4 failed attempts, I gave up and printed the reporting marks on plain paper and glued them on the yellow car.

   This chapter includes photos of both real and modeled work. Here is a close up photo of my finished model of a modern day John Deere carload shipment with the extra dual wheels on pallets. It took several attempts to get those wheel centers the proper size to fit inside the rubber tires. Finally I printed these centers on glossy photo paper. Usually I work with older vintage vehicles more in keeping with steam locomotives and the 1950s.

Good photos of real life require lots of luck with timing, good weather, lighting, a personal guide and other events not in your control. I felt that the event I had just witnessed was worth documenting in a model scene. While my modeling efforts are meager my enjoyment of this top class occasion is so great that I want to share it and hope it will last for years.