A Short Train (Part 2)

Here's a question... Do you all know that if you click on the pictures in the blog(s), the pictures will enlarge to full size so you can get a much better look at them. The written text doesn't appear though. Small thumbnails of the pictures will appear at the bottom of your screen so you can just sort of cursor along through those and see the images enlarged if you'd like.  But I hope you'd still want to read the text too.

Picking up sort of where I left off with last week's post, here's some more of that short JSSX train continuing on it's way.  Looks like it's heading to the South Industrial job.

The first of the two boxcars passing under Gratiot Ave.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that I needed to give one of the layout's switch ground throws a touch-up with some Rust Texture to cover over the shine of it's black plastic. I did just that to the one in the picture, and I think also to 22 others that are spread around the layout.

And the 2nd car of the train as it rolls beneath the overpass as well. 

We have to look closely between the two buildings, but there's 815 passing behind ACME Welding and the closed down Jimbo's BBQ.  ACME Welding was scratch-built by me, inspired by the real business on Bridges Street in London, Ont.

Made it onto the roadway on South Industrial Blvd., and there's a RailBox that'll be picked up

In this street level view, looks like maybe the 815 had to wait for the transport driver to get clear of the switch in the road before the railroad could begin it's runaround and lift of the RBOX.

With it's boxcars dropped on the street for a few minutes, 815 is now onto the spur to pick up the RBOX.

And that'll be all for now.  More next time.  Have a good week.

A Short Train

It gets a little challenging sometimes to come up with different views or things to post on the blog.  The layout really isn't all that big, and viewing angles get a bit limited. Anyway, I thought we'd try to follow a short (2 cars) train part way around the JSSX.

Here's JSSX 815, a GP38 of course, setting out from the shortline's yard with a couple of high-cube boxcars in tow.  The track at the right-hand corner of the photo is the interchange from the GTW yard (it's only 3 tracks wide) to the JSSX yard (also 3 tracks).

That track drops just 1/4" from the GTW down to the JSSX yard over a distance of maybe 16" or so.  In other words, it drops from the the thickness of cork roadbed under the GTW to the table top level of the JSSX yard. When I made this, I just let a piece of flex track fall naturally from the cork to see where it landed, and then put that switch we see on the right at that spot.

Moving along, here comes 815 around the far side of the 180 curve after leaving the yard.  

That Schneider trailer on the left is the one I showed here a few weeks back after I had bought it the train show in Woodstock.  The trailer is weathered now, but maybe I went a bit too heavy with the exhaust soot at the corners.

A view taken from beneath the roadway overpass.  I think I'll start referring to that as the Route 25 overpass, because why not, and plus I haven't thought of anything else to call it.

And just after coming out from under the Route 25 overpass

Passing by some heavy equipment riding on a lowboy trailer.

And changing from 1:87 to 1:1 scale, here's an aerial view I ran across of Delray Tower in Detroit from 2023

I found the image on Facebook this week, shows CSX train Y194 on it's way to Zug Island according to photographer Craig Hensley.

That'll be it for now.  Enjoy your week.

This and That for May

Friday already.  I've spent precious little time around the layout this past week or so, so I'll just post up a bit of an assortment of views here. Some might have been posted before. Sorry if they're redundant.

Good ol' workhorse 815 in it's grey colour pulling a pair of similarly coloured tank cars around the first curve on the JSSX

This TBOX was in the process of being lifted when I noticed this view.  I've since put a bit of of Rust Texture paint on the switch machine.  It can wear off after a while and then the black plastic looks too shiny so periodically those things need a touch-up.

Ex-DT&I SD40 moving auto-parts cars around on the GTW.  Those two DT&I boxcars aren't here any more as I've sold them to another modeler.

There's the GTW parts train again, albeit on a different day.  And a pair of beaten up SOO boxcars at Tri-State Paper.

SD40 leaser engine on South Industrial Blvd.  Two years in a row I looked at this Kato engine when it was for sale at the Woodstock Train Show, before I finally bought it the 3rd year when I saw it.  I did the weathering and patching, and had someone else put the LED's and ditch lights on it for me.

Light weathering on this covered hopper  done for another modeler. I put a dab of flat chrome paint on the tip of the coupler's trip pins to try to help simulate it being an air line connection glad hand.  Sometimes I add a really light touch of brown to help it appear a bit weather-worn.

That's going to have to do for now.  Have a good week everybody.

LRS 7550 cu ft. Boxcar

One of the sort of goals I have here is for the layout is to get everything on the layout to blend in together, and to not let anything really stand out on it's own too much.  This Aurora Miniatures 60 foot high-cube Greenbriar boxcar that I've had for over a year now has finally had it's turn getting some weathering. A really nice model, I've just thought it to be more bright and shiny than I think it should be.

Laurenburg & Southern 141060, leased from GATX,  in it's as-new condition.  I'm not going to call it a sore thumb, but the bright blue of this boxcar stands out on the layout too much for my liking.

Spotted in a different location also illustrating how the car kind of jumps out of a scene

An overall fade of the boxcar's blue paint done with a spray of thinned Concrete Gray as the first step to dull down the brightness of the blue.  I then put a coat of clear gloss along the bottom portion of the car in advance of applying graffiti decals.

A little bit of rust staining is running down from the door stops, and then a very light spray of Grimy Black along with a good coat of Tamiya Clear Flat really takes down that shine that the boxcar had.

Spotted at Door 5 of Tri-State Paper, along with the CN combination door paper car at Door 4.

I like this particular low angle view, which was shot from beneath my Gratiot Ave. overpass.  The support pillars frame the boxcar nicely.  Also, notice that the modern higher reporting marks placement seems to have kept the taggers from painting over them.

Have a good week everybody.

Train Show Finds

I did go to the Woodstock Train Show last week.  I had considered getting myself a table at the show, but in the end just went as a customer.  $5 to get in the door, so I thought that was still quite reasonable.

I visited briefly with a couple of the vendors that I'm a bit acquainted with, and picked up 3 items for myself, so here's photos of those...

First up, I have this 53 foot Schneider trailer:This should look good backed up to a loading door, being pulled along one of the roadway overpasses, or maybe I'll just have it parked in a lot somewhere.

Here's an ExactRail 60 foot high-cube boxcar I found at the show

I really didn't need this (well, the truth is, that I didn't "need" any of these), but it should make for a good future weathering project.  I don't quite know what it is about this shade of blue, but I've had good success fading and weathering it before.

And this Athearn RTR SD 45 Tunnel Motor was at a price that I didn't want to turn down (so I didn't).

Could this become a leaser sometime on the layout here in the future?

I'll close out with this view that Brian Smith sent me from his new layout he's working on

Looks like it's going to be a pretty busy area for Brian.

Thanks for looking in.