GP38 in the Paint Shop

I got a good start on the painting of that new GP38 this week.  I've actually been a bit conflicted about even putting a nice looking paint job on the engine in the first place. That's because, as noted in the sidebar of the blog, part of the original concept for the JSSX is that the railway is supposed to be a bit challenged when it comes to available cash for capital expenditures. I guess the company must have had a good year.  (Yeah, that's it...we'll go with that.)

The locomotive is being painted into my JSSX "corporate colours" of Reefer Grey, Lehigh Valley Cornell Red, and Black. It's not anywhere near to being finished up, but here's a look at the progress so far.

Here, we see that the cab is painted, the main shell is primered, and the frame is painted, although mostly still masked with tape.

Cab, body, and frame painted, but not assembled yet. Flat Black is used for the walkways and pilots.

The nose is done in the Reefer Grey.

The company CEO (me) thought that maybe having the back end painted in grey, like the nose, might give kind of a sharp look to the engine. It will help to distinguish it just a little bit from the 813.  Maybe it shows that the railroad's paint scheme has evolved just a little bit over time when the two are viewed together.

I intend to try to get the detail parts painted up during the coming week.

Meanwhile, out there in the 1:1 scale world, this ordinary plastics pellet hopper was sitting across from the station here in Sarnia a couple of weeks ago.  It would blend in among the sea of covered hoppers we usually have here, but what I noticed was the reporting mark number.

Sorry 'bout the lens flare at the right-hand side...I was shooting into the sun, which (remarkably) happened to be out that day.

Thanks for looking in.  Enjoy the Super Bowl.  I'm kind of rooting for the Bengals and Joe Burrow as they represent the AFC, but I think the Rams will win the Championship. The way Stafford suffered in Detroit for so long, he does kind of deserve it.