Large Scale Central

Orange River Fruit citrus train

I had posted this engine in my album but not that I have all my cars done I thought I would post it in it’s entirety.

Made a Forney out of a LGB 2010 Stainz, has new boiler, steam dome, sand dome, smoke stack all made from PVC fittings and pipe. Front where the original smoke stack screwed in now has a 1/4" 1/4 x 20 bolt going up into the boiler and secured to the lead weight. The smoke stack is screwed to the boiler via electric lamp fitting which is 1/8"MPT x 1/4"MPT and holds the unit together very well, and you can pick up the engine by it ,nice handle. The cab is held on with 2/56 machine screws one each side and 2 from underneath, although strong I still use the stack for pick up. The rear trailing trucks are from a Kalamazoo/HLW (tender) using them allowed to keep the low profile they have electrical pickups and extra fishing weights to help hold them down to the track. The cab is a cut down 2010 along with roof but extra extension to cover back to the tender part. Water tender part is a cut down Kalamazoo/HLW and houses small speaker with simple chuff system. Made the front pilot from evergreen styrene. Couplers are both Kadee G scale. Bell rope is twisted 20 gauge wire strands, and sand dome dump rod is from piano wire. Painted the cab to look like wood (orange wood of course). Lettering is from a silhouette cameo. The smoke stack uses a 5vdc seuthe unit, headlight is lit with a LED both powered of a very small voltage reducer I got from gfhappyboy on EBay, it also powers 2 flickering LED’s in the rear of the firebox. Forney measures out at only 13 3/4" and works great on 4’ radius curves, and is not articulated. Next the train

antlersside view

ORF citrus train
Its my “grover” caboose. Just like cattle trains had a car, usually a converted long caboose, called a drover caboose for the drovers, AKA live stock handlers (cowboys) to stay in while transporting cattle, I made a car for my citrus pickers to ride in and out of the groves in and I called it a “grover” caboose. I started with a HLW short dump car, less the dump, and added a small shed that I made out of broken parts of a Bachmann box car. I added styrene strips add holes in the siding, even cut the strap rivet detail in a few places and repositioned for ware detail. Cut boards in the flooring and distressed them. Top is evergreen corrugated styrene sheet, ladders are from plastruct. Figures are just generic, cars are LGB side dump ore cars but in Florida not much ore so we made them citrus cars. Fruit in the cars is lava beads oranges are 2mm and the grapefruit are 4mm, I painted them with spray cans in the bottom of a milk jug. After they dried I would shake up the jug till they were all free and paint another color, in all I used orange, yellow and avocado green. Fun build and fun train ties in with UD’s Produce and going to make a orange packing plant in the future out of broken Piko Bill’s garage.returning from the grovescitrus carsgrover caboosecabooserear

That is terrific, Bill! Great details, clever use of unusual materials, and really well done weathering.

One of the best builds I have seen lately, and I second what Jim Rowson said.

Thanks very much for the kind words, Bill

That’s as good as it gets, Bill. Way to go.

Thanks much, Bill

If you ever come out this way, you need to bring a car full of pineapples!

No you got that backwards you bring the pineapples and I’ll bring the oranges, LOL