Weathered Cars for a client

Completed some cars for a client this week and here are the results:

Awesome load in this BN gon.

Ex-SRN now COER 5293

NOKL 816388 

CSIX 210001

NECR 4154

Gotta love for the 2 bay hoppers

My favorite car of the bunch.

BNSF 401711

FXE 873898

It's been a while!

I will confess, I have been not been doing a lot of modeling lately and putting stuff on this blog has been almost non-existent.  I have done a few things here and there.  I've helped out at a local train show last weekend and got a batch of custom cars done for a client.  I also traveled down to a hobby shop down in North Carolina (almost 3 hrs) to get some of their half off sale since they are going out of business at the end of the year.  The Hobby Barn in Wilson, NC is probably the biggest in the southeast but they have no internet presence.  The owner is retiring and they were always worth a yearly trip to.  They also discounted a decent percent to make their prices very reasonable.  I was a little saddened to hear they are closing the doors at the end of this month.  My son and I took the trip last Friday and spent some major cash.

The Antique Barn is a large train shop with some RC cars.

The half off sale attracts people from all over.

Here are a few pics of the custom cars I weathered up for a client in Texas:

250th Post! Video on my batch weathering method

My 250th post on July 4th.  Pretty cool.   Here's a video on how I weather several cars at one time.
Happy 241st birthday America!  Hope everyone has a great and safe 4th of July!

Getting back in the saddle with modeling

This past week has been a blessing in disguise.  We had around 2 feet of snow last weekend which gave me even more time to rest up before going back to work this past Friday.  I also spent lots of time in the layout room catching up on things and starting new projects.  I still have to take it easy and of course I didn't have to shovel all that damn snow.  My wife and my oldest son took care of that.  My neighbor even plowed out our driveway.  With all that going on, I retreated to the the train room and got back into my comfort zone.

Here are some of the things I started last week:

Valiances:  These have been done since Christmas and just about complete.

This area is done.

Middle area

Got some weathering done for a good friend of mine.

Really liked the look of this hopper.  Made me get 2 more of the 5161's out.

Here's another project coming up.  My layout is broken down into blocks controlled by the Atlas switches in green on the right.  Plan on adding toggles on the switch layout and opening up that area on the lower level.  

New boxcar for the VMID.  It's a Ex CP paper boxcar made by Sylvan scale.  The resin kit was completely built and only needed paint!  Looks good in VMID green.

Another forgotten project.  Don't know why I stopped, Oh wait, yellow still.  From there she's all down hill.  Yes, the gray paint is way light by I will darken it up with weathering.  Kato shell.

Face lift for the layout room and some weathering too!

Well not a whole lot has been happening on the Midland lately.  The last 2 months have been quite busy but I hope to change that real soon.  I've mainly been finishing some custom work for a good friend in Texas and then it's face lift time.  Since yesterday afternoon, I have been putting in laminate flooring in the layout room.  I started yesterday with removal of the carpet and the padding.  I actually got to a few rows after a long dinner break.  I continued to work today when I got home from school. I hope to be done with the floor itself tomorrow if I work very diligently.   I will still have to do the trim and that will require a trip to the Home Depot.

Carpet removed.  This was a tiring job.  The padding was not so bad.  The legs were a fun part not to mention banging your head on the layout.

First few rows down.  This was my stopping part yesterday.

What I got accomplished today.

Only about 4 foot left for tomorrow.

My oldest son Cameron has helped me some the last two days.  We worked out a $5 an hour pay rate and he's been a great help and no complaints.  

Here's a good friend car I weathered up.  Thought it turned out very well.  The rust spots are decals from Weathering Solutions.  Always love the look of the cylindrical hoppers.

Here's one of my hoppers.  Tagged it up and added some rust decals.

The other side.

TBT: July 8th 2015

Well it's Thursday again so time for some older stuff.  These two are from back in 2005 and 2006.

Original VMID power.  These are two of the first green & gray locomotives I painted.  These are both GP40's.  The 299 still occasionally shows up on the layout.  The 290 was sold years ago.  Great looking lashup.  The layout is nothing like it is today.

Looking back at some of my extreme weathering, this one sticks out as being pretty good.  The hand drawn grafitti I think is simple but effective.

Settling back into summer modeling

Last week was the first week off for me as a teacher this summer.  I really did not get a break as I had a track camp for little kids most of the week, a summer school workday Friday and a train show Saturday.  Quite busy.  This week started off with a project for a client of mine I have done cars for the last few years.  I'm about half way done with his cars.  I have found some time to work on my layout a little and added a new signal to BY and weathered a old freight car.  I got my lumber and materials for the end of the lower level and I have waited to do after the freight car batch.  That is my top priority now.

I sold a lot of my On30 items at the train show Saturday and picked up a few items of need.  I did find a guy selling signals and I knew I need a few more.  I had to replace the 3 over 3 at BY because I accidentally shorted out a few included all important red.  So that needed replacement.  On a whim I bought a B&O cpl that I was thinking I would put on the Orange line.  But why not BY?  it looks good.  I hooked all my signals to toggle switches to be changed by the dispatcher.  That's usually me.  Makes it a little more operational.  This one I hooked up to 2 toggles so that I could use all the position lights.

In with the new, out with the old.  I moved the signal back a bit for switch possibilities.

Medium Approach

Stop

Approach

Approach medium

 I'm not a signal expert but the above signals are from a web search of B&O cpl signal meanings.
Signal aspects of the B&O Railroad

Tried a different method of weathering today.  Almost done but needs to be darkened a bit.  A boxcar you do not see everyday!

Lower level track laying and a custom car delivery

In my last post, I said I would have a post up by Sunday/Monday.  Well it's Thursday night and the post is finally here.  I had a sinus infection on Sunday and actually missed work on Monday.  So nothing got accomplished those two days.  Did get another snow day on Wednesday and got a little done that I had wanted to get done earlier on in the week.  The mainline is finished through the area I started on.  The mainline comes out from the helix and through the wall to the lower level.  It comes through a set of turnouts and continues to hidden trackage that leads west.

In this view, we are looking east towards the "hole in the wall".  The mainline is the trackage in the picture.  The roadbed on the right will lead to the branch line.

In this view, we see the hole to helix and the branch line trackage the bulkhead is on.  I will put a curved turnout where the foam starts for the runaround track for the branch line.

The mainline west.  There will be another turnout added for a runaround track for the branch line.   Tortoise switches were already installed for the On30 track.  I used the same basic layout I had so I did not have to move the Tortoises.

Norm Wolf did a custom MOW tie hopper for me.  He delivered it to me on Wednesday.  It's an Athearn blue box Ex SCL hopper.  Norm did a sensational job on it.

He even added a scrap tie load to the interior.

It will look right at home with my other MOW cars like the side dump car is coupled to.

Snow days equal layout workdays

We had our first two snow days of the year.  Not for much but 2 back to back storms that really did not amount to any snow.  I used the time away from work to get some time in the layout room.  I finally got away from locomotive building (even though I have 2 of them ready for decals)and focused on the layout itself.  I decided I want to focus on the team track on the Midland.  This the last spur on the layout that has not received any attention.  Well it got some this week.  Take a look at what it started like:

This scene was dying for some attention!

 

Was not to happy with these grass mats up front in scenery but they look good in the back.

Used the mats on the other side also.  You can see the seam that I will put some larger bushes on.

Wanted to use a loading ramp but which type?

Looks like a field of grass.  The perfect buffer for the Patriot Industries, a chemical company it's beside.

Decided to use this configuration on the ramp.  This gives me the option of unloading boxcars or unloading say a covered hopper just to the left of the Railbox.

Added the ballast to cover the edge of the mats and the mix for the gravel loading area.

Notice how the gravel lot is slightly darker than the ballast.  Weathered up the ramp also.  Patriot is on the layout now in the background.

A few details brings the scene to life.

VMID #281's conductor talks back the loco to a couple.

The lot is still drying but weeds and and a few more details will complete the scene.