Modeling Modern Times

The reasons ranged from "I need a break from the '50s," to "I have so much modern stuff left over from reviews." But whatever the rationales, I have been doing what I never thought I'd do: spending time building up my collection of models for the 2008-to-present era.
The combination of hoping to work in the rail industry and avoiding current railfan culture made me hesitant to focus on modeling today's trains. I had a few, sure: my Amtrak Pennsylvanian, for one. But aside from that and a scattered few locomotives, I still saw modern trains as work machines, not as something to get excited over. I still hold this view, but I think it is narrow-minded of me to think that I cannot enjoy the creative challenge and fun of adding contemporary trains to my model collection. So, after a soon-to-be-published review left me with two more fantastic modern diesels, I dove into a few weeks as a Norfolk Southern modeler.

I'm always a cheapskate with trains, and will try to stretch what I have to give the most enjoyment and accuracy. So, first order of modern modeling business was to find and upgrade existing models. You can see above how I added 5-chime airhorns from JnJ Trains to my Kato SD70Ms, and also painted the railings and step edges. I tuned up my NS SD60 and CSX C40-8, putting four modern units on the roster already.

Next, I dug up an old Atlas SD9, which I had bought nearly 10 years ago from the hobby shop where I now work, Trains N' Lanes, in Easton, PA. It turns out Norfolk Southern still has this and other SD9s sitting around, and if they're not working right now, they were within the last few years. No. 52 was modified as a remote control locomotive, with rooftop beacons and antennae. I cobbled together some parts, including Deluxe Innovations' fine N-scale rotary beacon details, and brought my NS 52 up to date. I even went far enough to remove the footboards and add a remote control operator riding the handrails, complete with a crude little R/C locomotive belt control pack. I still need to rework the airhorn and add white stripes to the side of the frame based on more recent pictures I've found.

There are a few things I require when working on modern models. For one, all locomotives must have ditch lights (except NS no. 52, which doesn't have them in real life.) I talked about adding ditch lights to locomotives in the July MRN's N-Depth column, and the CSX C40-8 above is one engine to which I've added the walkway-mounted warning lights. The second rule I try to follow is that most freight cars must have the reflective "conspicuity stripes" on them, a telltale sign of modern times. I've been having a lot of success using Line O Tape's 1/32-inch pinstripe tape to add conspicuity stripes, like on the two Atlas freight cars above, and the PPLX coal hopper below.

One final adventure in modern modeling was to not only make the ditch lights light up, but to make them flash alternatingly when I blow the airhorn. All my modern locomotives have sound decoders in them, but since most of them are MRC decoders, they do not support special lighting effects. But I had seen a non-sound Atlas Dash 8-40CW with working ditch lights, and I wanted mine to do that.

I rounded up a spare TCS K3D3 decoder from a Kato NW2 locomotive. With a little sanding on both sides of the circuit board, I made it just narrow enough to fit in the Dash-8's dynamic brake housing (just behind the cab.) I filed out some metal from the chassis to let the electronic components on the MRC 1811 decoder sit down flatter, and that left just enough room to tape the K3D3 on top of it.

I wired the K3D3's electrical pickup tabs to the 1811's, and then wired the motor to the K3D3 as well, since TCS has better motor control than MRC. I finally wired the Dash-8's ditch light wires to the front and rear headlight terminals. I corrected one light with the polarity reversed and did some careful reprogramming of the TCS decoder. I recommend you read the TCS Additional Programming Guide extensively before trying this, and make sure you understand the sections on decoder lock, function remapping, and light effects. Once I got some bugs worked out, I had both sound AND ditch lights that flash! See and hear for yourself, it's pretty darn cool.

(Pardon the poor audio quality of the low-bandwidth Internet video. This seriously sounds a LOT better in person.)

So that's my adventure in modeling modern times. I'm glad I decided to get a few contemporary locomotives and mixed freight cars to go with what I already had, and my growing intermodal train fleet. I hope you found some interesting projects, ideas, or solutions here, and I'd love to hear how you go about modeling modernism. But whether it's representing the '50s or the double-zeroes, model railroading is one fun hobby.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor