It's a Christmas miracle!

20' cars have shipped, (Boxcars and Gons) and I truly appreciate everyone's patience with my absence. I had high hopes for this fall for my own modeling efforts and releases of Marsh Creek Products. The best laid plans they say...

I haven't worked on anything train related for months. I always go hot and cold on my passions, and I wanted to finish Buzzard's Cove this winter. That's still a possibility, but I don't know how probable that is. I suppose it depends on how much time money and energy I need to continue to spend on my 120 year old home. With most of the dangerous electrical issues sorted out, I have to start looking at renovations in bedrooms, as the kids are quickly outgrowing their respective spaces. It never ends. 

Currently sold out of the 20' boxcars, but another run is planned. When? Not sure. Want to release the outside frame boxcars along with the second run. 

​It's almost Christmas, and I hope yours is very Merry!

If you're  a subscriber to our email list, you'll have gotten notification in your inbox that the boxcar and gondola are back. I'm saying pre-order, because They won't ship for about 2 weeks. Goal is to start shipping 2 Saturdays from now. Next weekend I'll be out of town, and we still need to label boxes and add instruction sheets.  

If you look at the navigation bar on this website, you'll see the store is back.  

​You can order your kits HERE


Go Build Something Awesome! 

Just a quick update on the HOn30 Shay project. 

The production version is in my grubby paws.  I went with a wood burner, and it came out splendidly. I hope to get to work on finishing the model this week. Part of the beauty of these parts is that instead of spending months and years scratchbuilding something, The 3D printed conversions can be assembled in a week or two of evenings, getting you to the fun part of running it on your layout sooner. 

Go Build Something Awesome. 

Well, after a couple of nights work on the 1890s HOn30 Shay here we are.  

Being a prototype, I didn't go nuts with detailing, but even at this point, it's still a presentable model. Steps into the cab, grab irons for the bunker and cab, boiler handrails, steps and bumpers for the end beams, the list could go on and on. Not everyone wants to spend that much time super-detailing their models, but I will, eventually. I'll photograph this one with an actual camera when "done" but I wanted to figure out the issues that might come up while building to see what could be improved on in the design. 

The first issue I figured out was the driveshafts. 

The "for sale" model will have this: 

​

That's the best I can do for a static driveline. Without a functional universal joint, the driveshafts will be connected to the engine, but not the trucks. 

The model doesn't come with any of the sand lines, steam tubing, bell, whistle, or lights. Here is what I used:

• Steam pipe from steam dome: 3/64 brass rod from K&S metals
• Boiler steam pipes: .032 brass rod from K&S metals
• sand lines: .015 phosphor bronze wire (Tichy Train Group)
• boiler supports: .020 phosphor bronze wire (Tichy Train Group)
• Whistle: It's actually scratchbuilt. I wrapped Tamiya masking tape around a bit of .032" wire, then coated in CA glue to make it solid. Worked pretty well. 

The bell is a Marsh Creek bell (3D printed), and the headlight.... well, I broke the one that came on the model, so I replaced it with a brass part, I think it was from Toma.  I didn't break it handling, I dropped it 3 feet to the concrete so...

Short list of items to finish before it's available:

• Add detailing to the end beams
• Add holes for bumper bars (coupler lift bars I guess)
  
• Add holes for grab irons
• Add tabs for bunker and cab alignment
• Add "dimples" for spots to drill the boiler for handrail stanchions. (this will be optional, if you don't want to add those, you can just not drill them out, and fill the dimples in, and sand smooth)
• Model an optional Ash pan. I don't like the way the bump on the Tomytec Chassis looks. It has a small weight inside, but the whole thing can be cut off easily with a razor saw. In order to make up for that weight, a boiler ash pan could  be added, along with some weights in there.  This won't slow down release

I've got a trick to make grab irons that I'll include as well. I'll have to take photos of it to explain how it's used. 

So far, I have easily over 80 hours in this project, and I'm very pleased with how it's turning out. I hope you all like it as well, and start adding Marsh Creek Shays to your logging roster. 

Go Build Something Awesome. 


​

I've been getting a lot of questions on this project over on the facebook page. 

As soon as you say Shay, people come out of the woodwork, or more appropriately, the hicks come out of the woods.  To be clear, "Hick" is a term of endearment where I'm from. We weren't rednecks, we were hicks...from the sticks. 

In HOn30, you only have one serious option for a Shay locomotive, the Toma Model Works brass kit. It's a gorgeous little model, and I have one that I love. They're still in production, but they're expensive ( $350 US Dollars) for an unpainted brass kit. Every once in a blue moon, Toma has some that are RTR (Ready To Run) that will set you back almost a grand.  Most people don't have that kind of money for one locomotive.  You can find Joe Works Shays on Ebay infrequently, but they go for about 500 bucks for one in running shape, 300 for one that needs work. 

What can a person do?  You could scratchbuild one from parts, or convert an Atlas Shay into a small 10 ton contractor's locomotive, try to find an HOn3 model and re-gauge it to 30", or:

Just wait for Rich to get a wild hair up his ass and draw one in 3D.  

That's what I've been doing.  It's a bit of an obsession now. I'll admit it.  I'm burning hours drawing, redrawing, and drawing again things that only psychos like me really want, but here's the deal:

It's going to be for the Tomytec TM-04 chassis.  Yes, I know that they're currently hard to find.  If you're an HOn30 modeler, I know that I specifically said in a blog post a while back that you buy things when they're available. The TM-04 is the same chassis that the Marsh Creek Climax is based around, so if you're really in a pinch, you can recycle that.  When Plaza Japan had TM-04 available on Ebay, I bought like 4 of them, knowing that it's feast or famine in my insane world of HOn30.  Remember when nothing was available except second hand Chivers kits? I do. Remember when nothing was available but Railway Recollection resin kits? I do.  That's why I design these things, so that there are more options available. I tried to get this to work with a TM-19 (8 wheel drive) chassis, but because Shays have an offset boiler, the driveline for the mechanism would be impossible to hide. Everybody knows that there are two sides to the Shay, the "pretty" side with the engine and driveline, and the "ugly" side that is just plain. Having the mech driveshafts and gear towers showing on the "pretty side" is no bueno. TM-04 it is.  

But why not the Atlas Shay?  Keep your pants on. I'll do one of those too. Just not right now. I've got a donor on the bench. Be prepared though, I might try to have this one printed in Brass to get the weight up. The only reason the Atlas Shay works well is because it has a die cast body. That's probably 1/3 to 1/2 of the weight of the model. Without that weight, it's crap. Try pulling a train after removing the body. I've done it, and it's not pretty. 

Price: I don't know the final price. I do know that it will be the most expensive conversion to date. Not over 100 bucks I think, but there are a lot of printed parts.  Just for argument's sake, If I got paid what I get billed out at for my "real" job for the hours I have into this already, it's over $5000 dollars in design time. I get super happy when I get an email from Shapeways that one of you like my stuff enough to buy one, and I make enough money to buy a beer or two. 

Options: "My prototype is X boiler with Y stack" Yes. There will be options. Fancy 1890s domes, and modern 1910 domes, different stacks, a Tee boiler, and different cabs. 

Does the Shay....um...Shay?  No. The limitations of cost and 3D printing technology don't allow the engine and driveshaft to work as it should.  Maybe that's a deal breaker for some people. So go buy a Toma Shay, or convert an Atlas model. It really doesn't bother me. I wouldn't be designing a non functioning driveline and engine if I personally cared that much. I've got a Toma Shay, and I love it. I want something different, so I'm designing it, and offering it to everyone who wants something different too. I'm never going to get rich doing this, so I do what I want.  

The prototype prints have been ordered, and are currently being printed. If God is smiling on me, I might have them in my grubby little paws by this weekend, and if that happens, I'll be sharing the photos on Facebook, and here.  Keep in mind that as a prototype, not all of the details have been finalized. I am more concerned with the fit of the parts and compatibility with the donor chassis. 

Go Build Something Awesome. 

This fall is going to have a ton of new offerings from the Creek!

The Side Tank 0-6-0/ 0-6-2 will be released soon, along with a new 3D printed HOn30 Gilpin Ore Car!  We're also developing a Dunkirk locomotive, and a 13 Ton Shay. No, the shay won't have parts that spin round and round and go up and down, but it will be packed with detail that will rival a brass kit, for MUCH less money. Plans for the shay include multiple boiler options to better suit your individual needs.  Need a T boiler to model Mich-Cal logging? Sure. How about a fancy domed WT boiler to go along with our Gilpin cars? Yep. How about a later model with smooth domes that would have run on Empire City Railway? You got it guvna.  

Too busy to talk, gotta go draw more stuff. 

Go Build Something Awesome. 

Website went dark for a while...

It costs money to keep a website up. Sure, there are free websites, but free websites usually look like free websites unless you're  a coding genius. I'm not one of those. I like for things to look right, and without the skills to do it on my own, I have to pay to keep a good looking website up. I was paying extra to have an e commerce suite that literally was not making any money, because I didn't have any direct order items (freight car kits) in stock to offset the cost of the website. So...I cancelled that, and it unpublished the site. There are a lot of other things that happened in the meanwhile, if you follow the facebook page, you've probably already seen them, so I won't waste time talking about them here. I finally figured out what was keeping me from re-publishing the website to make it live again, and here we are. 

It's been stupid hot outside the last week, so instead of doing nothing, I decided to spend some time in front of the computer working on some projects that had been shelved, like the saddle tank conversion kit for the Bachmann 0-6-0, pictured above.  It's loosely based on Uintah 20 and 21, and will be the next conversion available through Shapeways. When?  Just like Dad used to say, it depends on the Whether. Whether I feel like busting my ass to get it done sooner or later, or whether I don't.  It's going to make for a good running and looking model when done, as the tanks will be hollow, allowing extra weight to be put over the drivers. 

The 20' kits are still a work in progress. You know how it gets, when you shelf something for a while, it takes some time to figure out where you left everything. They're coming. Cross my heart and hope to die, they are coming.  I'll promise that they'll be out before Blackstone releases whatever K-something or other locomotives people have been waiting years for.  K37? K27? KGB? I don't know, I'm not a Colorado guy. I'm an HOn30 guy.  

Life gets in the way of this hobby, but sooner or later, I'll be getting this stuff out. I know some of you have been waiting, and I truly appreciate the patience, but this gig doesn't keep the lights on. The job where I stare at drawings on a computer all day for (ironically) a company that powers the lights does. Do I love CAD that much, or am I just a glutton for punishment? You decide. 

At any rate, tomorrow is Independence day, so enjoy your beers, burgers, and fireworks, but do so responsibly. You need all your fingers to build Marsh Creek kits. 

Go Build Something Awesome. 
​

We're plugging along....

We're pleased to announce that The first of our sawmill machinery is available now in the Shapeways shop (see link below).  The detail afforded by 3D printing these is truly incredible as you can see in the photos. We'll be working on the Little Pine Mill, with the intent to have it at least partly ready for display at the Finescale Model Railroader Expo next month in Altoona, PA. 

To date, we have the Dolbeer Loader, a single circular saw (headsaw), a horizontal steam engine, a horizontal boiler, and also a log carriage. We will have more items soon. Hope to see you at the Expo, and be sure to watch our Shapeways shop to see the latest 3D prints! 

HO scale details and accessories

Go Build Something Awesome!