CSXT Gondola

Brian Smith sent me a few pictures that he took recently.  He had particularly noticed the "MW" mark on the side of the gondola and thought maybe I would like to do the same on a model.

A bit closer look

While Brian liked the "MW", what caught my about this gondola was the doubled reflective stripes, as well as the L-shaped combination of two stripes at the end. And looking closely, there's a single stripe at the right hand end of the gondola that is located lower than the others.

I thought I'd do something similar to one of my gondolas here, but without the Maintenance of Way marking.  I chose JSSX 1410 for the subject.

Here's my gondola JSSX 1410 with the reflective stripes as they were.

Now, I know that it's a small change to the gondola in this next picture, and really, who else would even notice such a thing?  But I'll know it's there.

Just a simple matter of moving Smokebox Graphics reflective stripes and adding a couple on on each side.  Took five minutes for me to do this.  The hardest part was deciding which gondola to choose.  I picked one belonging to my shortline (that way nobody can say it's not prototypical).

And a look at the other side of the gondola

Brian also went to the trouble to take a few more photos that day, so I'll show them here as well.  I've adjusted each photo to be just a bit brighter.

A nice look at the gondola's "A" end.  Track buried in the dirt

Coupled next to the CSX gondola was this RailGon

This one bears the old Chesapeake & Ohio "CO" reporting marks

And there's this picture with a tank car parked on a siding.  Notice the condition of the rails..

Thanks very much for the photos Brian !

Yikes !

I honestly don't even know what to say about this, so I'll just let the video and story speak for itself.  Yes, the link is legitimate, as I've tested it.  You'll have to scroll down just a bit to see the video, photo, and story.  And I'm sorry for all the advertising, but it's the internet and not much can be done about that.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11648477/Raccoon-stuck-railway-testicle-rescued-railway-workers-using-warm-water-shovel.html?ito=facebook_share_fbia-bottom&fbclid=IwAR2fNv5ZxKgsw5744UOUlOa5j5AkSCyqZhW3dkTdJbPag26m3_hVJZ0a_Xc 

Gotta feel sorry for the little guy. Feel free to leave comments. The best one I saw was "That's Nuts ! "

In other news, I went to the Woodstock train Show last Sunday.  First show I've attended since October of 2019. I got to chat for a few minutes with George Dutka of the White River Division blog, who was running a table at the show.  I also met Nick Masney from Imagine That Laser Art. Another acquaintance from some years ago that was there was excellent modeler Steve Juranic. Modeler Gary Crowther from London, Ontario was there, as was Barry Wright who is an old friend from the (defunct) Sarnia Model Railway Club.

There was a guy selling a Proto 2000 SD60. in the CSX grey and blue paint scheme.  I wish now that I'd bought it.  Would have made a real nice leaser engine. However, I did pick up 3 kits, including this LBF boxcar that George was selling.

And this warehouse kit from should fit in nicely on the layout

I've often thought about trying this kit out, and it was there for a good price, so...

Those two above are in addition to this one that I already had here.

So, all in all, I've got lots to do.  I already had plans/ideas for the Magic Pan kit and it will likely be first up of the 3. 

One Thing Leads to Another

 Well, I decided that I'd ought to get busy on this covered hopper that Brian sent for me to weather for him, and then one thing led to another...

I had also read a comment somewhere else about people not weathering vehicles on their layouts, and I thought that yes, although I've done a couple of them, the comment does also apply to me. 

This day cab tractor was close by, so I grabbed it and set about weathering it at the same time as the covered hopper.

The holes in the roof are where air horns are supposed to be, but I don't have them so I don't quite know what I'm going to do about that.

Faded the blue Colormark panels and added some rust to the hopper.  Good thing it never rains on the layout or the inside of the cab would get wet.

The covered hopper isn't actually quite finished yet, as I still have to do the wheels and trucks, but here's a few pictures anyway.

Some fading, rusting, and a bit of graffiti.

Below is pretty much the same view as above, but with the car out on the street trackage

Yep, gotta paint those shiny wheels.

 And as for that day cab, I also gave a couple of trailers a quick weathering as well.

Mostly what I did here was Tamiya brown and Tamiya black panel line on just about everything on the cab and wheels.  Can't really see it, but I also used those same two products on the landing gear of the trailers as well.

Some grimy black airbrushed onto the trailer where exhaust soot traditionally builds up.

I've also got just a few more vehicles to weather, but before I do those I think I'll just ponder over these ones for a bit and see what I like and what I might try to do differently next time.

CLP Boxcar on the JSSX

It's a pretty rare circumstance that sees a boxcar spotted at the trans-load spur in front of the old REA building, but that's just what happened this week...

GP38 number 813 has just dropped this old patched boxcar and is about to pull away

This very well patched boxcar is former Port Huron and Detroit. The model is an Athearn FMC boxcar that I got from Luc several years ago.  I'm sorry I don't remember who it was that did the patching and weathering on it.

Clarendon and Pittsford 3310 is one of only a couple of freight cars on the layout that were not weathered by me.  I only wish I could do weathering and patching as well as this.

And just for interest's sake...

This is what the CLP boxcar would have looked like in original paint.  I took this one from my storage cupboard for this photo.