Random projects

I have been all over the place on projects lately. I've made layout progress, as well as freight car =, and automotive

I finished the first of 5 HD flat cars. This one is QTTX 130725. I photographed the prototype on the Skally in December of 2012. This is an N Scale Kit. The load I scratch built. 

BNSF 651553 is a FVM model I weathered and added a Hays Brothers coal load too. This car will represent the occasional bad order the BNSF kicks onto the Skally.

I finally got CN 5421 finished. This SD50F was a Kaslo kit I have had half done for too long. 

Duke's suburban was a resin kit I picked up. It will be seen around the layout railfanning. 

The SCXY Section truck is a heavily modified showcase miniatures truck I built, decaled, and painted.

I also finished Corp. Auto in Hinckley. I still need to get more cars for the lot, and plant some trees. But it is mostly there.

The only thing I haven't been keeping up on has been this blog! I need to be more diligent about that. See you in 2019!

Summer Progress and Planning

As I make my way through the summer heat here in Vegas, I have been plinking away at different projects. I have a few more articles off to N Scale Railroading, they should be in the next few issues. I've been working on some freight cars for a friend (pics are coming soon), I've added few small details to the layout, and I'm planning for a year away.

As many of you know, the NMRA convention was this last weekend in Kansas City. I didn't make that show, but I am planning on being at next years show in Salt Lake City. The plan is to bring the entire Skally Line up to join in the MASSIVE FreemoN layout. I think the layout is already scheduled to be about 110 feet by 110 feet. To make the full scale ops work better, I am planning a few additional modules. I have already started prep work and I will pick up lumber next week.

The first module planned is Pine City. I will have the Depot, the Snake River Bridge, and a small MOW siding.

The next module is the South Siding Switch in Hinckley. This will extend the BNSF side of my interchange modules. I would like to get the BNSF siding up to 10 or 12 feet long for the show so it will be a good spot for meets.

The weather is cooling off already and I would like to take advantage of that for module construction. 

June Update

Wow, time is accelerating. I had some nice time to make progress on some projects over the last couple of weeks. I was able to finish up a few things I've been working on. I finished ILSX SW1500 #942. It is currently in testing on the Skally. It was a full detail, repaint, and weathering. I had to modify an SP unit by filling 2/3 of the lights and filling in extra windows.

The next thing to finish off was the second of my Jordan Spreaders. I decided to make this one a MILW unit. I didn't rust it as bad as the prototype I based it off of, but it gets the point across.

I'm also making progress on my Schnabel project. The car is done, the load is mostly done, I just need to get it weathered and bolted to the car.

Here are some of the projects hanging out together. I have a few cars to finish for a friend and then I will turn my attention back to the layout.

I'm still here!

Ok, that was a long gap in updating the blog. It wasn't that I wasn't making progress, it was that it was tough to stop and make a post about it.
Here are some highlights:
I've had a couple of ops sessions. Things have been working well, I've been tuning turnouts for better performance.

I've been working on misc. projects. Here is one Jordan Spreader I just built. I have one more to knock out. 

Details. I made this trailer from a Showcase Miniatures kit. You can also see one of the ILS SW1500s I've been working on (924). ILSX 942 is on the workbench now.

I made progress on several scenes on the layout. Tiller and Zinpro have progressed the most. I will get back to them later this summer.