Model railroading and Spring don't go together

As we approach the month of May here in Virginia, it seems winter is still holding on by a thread.  I've spent several evening baseball practices this month watching my boys, freezing from the wind.  Looks as if we will finally be past that this week as Thursday is calling for temps near 90.  The good thing is that I just cut grass for the first time last weekend!  So, that gets me to model railroading.  For most of us, it takes a back seat this time of year.  We have so many things to do around the house after winter, there is hardly any free time.  Throw in three kids 12 and under, and you time is very limited.  I have not accomplished a whole lot, but mainly have gotten started on a few things.  I finally have figured out my favorite part of the hobby, building locomotives.  It seems that I am always in the middle of one of those projects.  You will see, I am actually in the middle of several.  Plus I have a few in the my storage drawers that are about 80% done!  Plus with a train show just about every month, that gets me shopping and thinking of future loco projects. Anyways, on with my pictures:

Should have seen my work desk before I cleaned it.  Just got the big stuff off.

My RS3M "Dewitt Geep" project.  Not happy with the color or the hand railings.  I will paint this Conrail blue and patch it for VMID

This a Proto 2000 chop nose Geep I got from a good friend.  The hard work is done, just have to check the drive (Proto crack gear issues) and decide on a paint job.  

An Intermountain GP10 painted in the MidSouth scheme.  I will patch this for the VMID.  Already has Lok sound installed and in VMID colors

Bad habit: For me, piling up stuff on unfinished scenery is a norm.  As you can see, not much time in the office tends to add more piling up.  I need to get the scenery done on the lower level!

The new year is off to a good start!

Being off the last 2 weeks you would think I would have time for lots of model railroading right?  Not so much.  Been busy on the homestead with shopping, cooking and the holidays.  Modeling time has taken a back seat and really I haven't been feeling the MR vibe.  I've done a few things, but nothing major. The last two days have been productive and I'm probably realizing I have to go to work on Monday!  I also have been rolling out of the bed at 8:00 or later too so that doesn't help much.  So in the last two days, I've installed a Tortoise on the lower level on the Mine Run Branch, removed a Lok sound decoder from a loco and installed a Tsunami, and for some reason started to install a valiance over the layout.  I've wanted to do this for a while now and just got started yesterday.  It will greatly improve the look of the layout room, like the floor has.  It's a two person job for a bit but my wife is gone shopping so the main 7 foot section will have to wait until this afternoon.

First section is done.  The blue bags are for debris from drilling holes.  It will hopefully give the layout a more professional look.  Do I do anything professional?

The next section is the longest part.  It will hide the light fixture and the all the wiring.

Last section to be installed.  Not idea what to do for the yard since it has no shelving above it.

GP39-2 #274 is back in service.  This is one of my newest engines that for some reason I put Lok Sound in.  Lok Sound sounds great but but adding a capacitor like a (Keep Alive) is not possible.  Even tried to add it but still the sound was in and out.  I believe Lok Sound has their own KA, but I believe it's in the $50 range.

An update... new loco and new paint scheme

Well, I have not done a lot on the layout this month but attending the Timonium, MD train show on Saturday did give me some much needed motivation.  I've been working on a GP39-2 for a while now and decided I wanted to do a different paint scheme.  The loco is what I call a dip job because it is all green.  I did add white hand railings and grabs.  I did not put the chevrons on the front/rear and instead used the VM logos. I also used FEC numbers on the cabs.  I was going to do a BN large number on the long hood but with the VM logo and that large number, it was too much going on.   I'm happy with the way it looks and the sound is incredible.  I did finally hookup a TCS "Keep Alive" decoder to the Lok sound decoder.  It keeps running even on my dirty track.  Did a quick video of it in Battlefield Yard:

That's all for now but I'm shooting to post every week now.  I have not posting since early in the month because really I have not done much modeling at all.  It's definitely time to get busy!