Scrap Yard Part 2

Progress on the extension of the scrap yard.  It's not totally done yet, but getting there.  Here's a few looks at the progress in the area so far:

Here, that pile of scrap metal is set loosely in place and a thin layer of really fine sifted dirt has begun to be spread on the ground.  Where the lighter coloured dirt begins (kind of over near the right-hand corner of the picture) is where the spur track extension begins. I had soldered power leads to the bottom of the rail joiners, so there should be no problems if or when an engine happens to need to run down that far.

The rest of the area has been covered with the sifted dirt, and then I sprinkled the metal "busheling" pieces along the ground and between the rails as well to give the spur a real messy look.  The track ties are pretty well buried in dirt.  Lots of diluted white glue was used all along here to keep all those little bits in place.

More of a close-up view of the area.

A look from the far end shows four gondolas and a GP40 fitting nicely within the scrap yard.  Still work to do on the outside of the fenceline and that roadway.

Now sometimes the engine will actually be able to run deeper into the spur to pick up or to drop off gondolas than before.  I like the look of that.

Same location as above, but this lower angle looks a bit more prototypical.

I'll be trying to get a bit more accomplished on the area in and around the scrap yard soon.

In other news, it was a bit of a whim, but I bought myself a one year subscription to Railroad Model Craftsman this week.  $79 USD worked out to $108 CDN after the currency exchange.  My subscription is scheduled to start with the June issue, which went to press this past Monday, and they expect will be mailed out to me in 2 - 3 weeks, so I'm looking forward to receiving that in the mail.

Have a good week.

Beginning My Scrap Yard Upgrade

Started in on a bit of an improvement at the Ferrous Processing scrap metal yard on the layout recently.  I could spot in at most three gondolas alongside the scrap piles, but two gondolas spotted always seemed to look better.  Along the main line on the left side in this picture we can also see most of my collection of gondolas.  I've been wanting to be able to get another of those gondolas, maybe two, spotted into the scrap yard.  That would be between two and five at a time in there so I've started in on expansion.  This first picture shows the scrap metals recycler as it has been up 'til now.

And so I've just begun a project to expand, or actually extend this industry and the spur that runs inside of it.

The perimeter of the scrap yard is now lengthened by about 6 inches, but the rail spur inside will be about 19 inches longer.  That works out to somewhere around 135 feet or so of added length to the spur, which means that if I want to, I'll able to very nicely spot in two more gondolas than I could until now.

Here's some pictures to show what's happened so far:My first step was to re-set the fencing so that I'd know just how much area I really had to work with.  Following that, the longer spur track is in place as well.  To re-position the fence, I tore up a bit of that roadway which really didn't lead to anywhere before anyway.

A piece of 2 inch pink foam insulation is rough trimmed to the approximate shape to make a new pile of scrap metal.

Here's that same pink foam after I've painted it with brown craft paint and set in place at the scrap yard.  A pair of gondolas are set in place just to get a rough idea of how things are shaping up.

Took the carved foam back over to the bench, and have started adding metal busheling that I have been given by Brian Smith to create the scrap pile.  White glue (and plenty of it) will hold the bits of metal to the painted foam.

With more to come, that's as far along as I've gotten with this project so far.

Changing gears now, here's a single look at a covered plastics pellet hopper that was I saw when down at the Sarnia train station earlier this week.

NCLX 4219 caught my eye because of the light rust streaking and a couple of painted patches.  But no graffiti is visible...at least on this side of the freight car.

That's it for now. Have a nice week.

A Quick Visit to South Industrial Blvd on the JSSX.

This is not an easy angle to take a picture from, as I have to reach out with the camera and can't really see the image in the viewfinder.  So it becomes kind of a "point and hope" shot.  Gotta like the look of the train running in the street in this area though.Not really a great image, as it looks like the train is rolling downhill (which it's not).  And also we can see above the blue backdrop board, and the buildings look like they are leaning over a bit.  So, I'm going to try to do a bit of basic editing just using the simple tools that comes with the Microsoft program that came with my computer.

Here is the same picture after I've "cropped" the top portion a little bit, and "rotated" it a bit to get rid of the leaning  of the buildings.

I guess this image is a little better.  At least the buildings look more vertical.

Here's a couple other views I took of the same train

From the trailing end.  Nice how the telephone poles get in the way of the picture almost like in real life.  That engine needs some weathering to help it "fit in" with everything else.

An FBOX with a bit of graffiti and some stickers or something peeling off.  I like the look of this one.

Another FBOX that's cleaner, but just as faded.

And a way-too-clean-for-my-liking TBOX bringing up the tail end of this short train.

That's all I've got for now.  I really should make some time to work on some models.

JSSX 126 is Done. Finally.

Well, here it is...finally.  My beaten up SD7 is done and lettered for my JSSX shortline.  This engine is of course weathered to look rough, but it runs really well, although it has stumbled a bit on a couple of Atlas switches.

Another trouble with it is that the clips that hold the couplers (Kadee #158's) in place are so tight that the couplers wouldn't swing side to side.  I found some old clips from an Athearn blue box GP38 and tried them, and they're a lot better, although they don't really fit perfectly either.  If anyone has had similar trouble to this and you know a proper solution, I'd really like to hear it.

Oh, and JSSX management (me) has numbered the engine 126 for my late little brother Larry's birthday. Just something I had wanted to do for a long time.

I won't get into a whole review of how things progressed with this project, but here's a picture of what things looked like as it was undecorated coming out of the box.The undecorated shell, chassis, and a bagful of parts.  I tried to count how many detail parts I put on the finished engine, and I think it was 65 separate parts.  But that's plus handrails, window glass, couplers, and decals.  And paint of course.  Seemed like it took forever to get this finished up.

So here's 126 sitting just outside of the JSSX maintenance building.  I removed the white stripes that I had originally applied along the sill and showed last week.  I've replaced them with the ones that we see here, which are just a bit more narrow than that first try.  I feel that these look a little better.

Side view among some of the stuff at my short line's terminal.

126 coming round the bend with a couple of tank cars in tow.

A view of the short end of 126 starting to earn it's keep moving those tank cars.

During a run-around before heading back to the terminal

So, that's about it for now.

Thanks for looking in, and have a good week out there.

Two or Three Things

I received a couple of packages this past week.  First, some modern type graffiti decals were in the mailbox from Circus City Decals.  I'd never used any from that supplier before.  They're look to be pretty nice decals.  I won't be using the skull part of the "ICH" decal, just 'cuz it's kind of a personal policy of mine (long story).  I'll just trim that part off.

The decal at the bottom of the picture here is made to cover pretty much the whole side of a covered hopper. But I do have to figure out which model of covered hopper it might fit best.

I also received these two new RBOX cars that I bought from another modeler through a Facebook group.Two Intermountain RBOX cars.  These two cars have maybe the goofiest couplers I've seen on a model.  All metal, they don't open, or couple.  Or at least I couldn't get them to do that.  Maybe that's why the seller wanted to sell them.  Regardless, some great weathering possibilities here for future projects.

Oh well, if you haven't gotten used to changing out couplers, then you probably haven't been in the hobby for very long.

The SD7 has steadily moved a little closer to being a "finished project.  As a reminder, here's how it looked when I started on it:

And as it sits today, painted and mostly weathered.  So far I've added over 40 of the detail parts that came with the Proto 2000 kit.  And still just a few more to go, including pilots, number boards, and reporting mark decals.

The white stripes look rather overpowering right now, but they will quiet down when I get them sprayed with some grime.  I didn't want to use yellow stripes because the other JSSX engines have white ones and I thought I'd like to keep that consistent.  The green tape on the windows is to keep clear gloss from getting on the "glass" when I spray that in preparation for some  decaling on that grey patch just below the cab windows.

That's all this time.  Happy Easter !

New GP40 arrived

Right off the top here, I'll admit to feeling kind of stupid for previously referring to my SD7 locomotive project as an SD9.  Not that I know how to tell the difference from one to the other by looking at the prototype, but SD7 is stamped pretty clearly on the Proto box.

Anyway, that assembly and weathering process continues...

In other news, despite promising myself that I don't need any more engines, I received a "new" (that is new to me) GP40 this week.  I bought this one used from our friend Brian Smith.

So here's a few looks at my new CN 9303:Clean and shiny

Running on the layout for the first time.  It arrived set up really nicely for running at slow speeds, it's going to be terrific for switching.  One thing I would like to change though is to shut the sound off kind of permanently, 'cuz I really don't like the noise.  I always think that the engines with "sound" are just too tinny sounding for my liking.  The need more of a bass sound.

CN 9303 really is too clean looking though.  I suppose I'll change that soon enough.

Also, I was really happy to see George Dutka when he stopped by for a nice visit as he was passing through Sarnia recently.  George is an awesome modeler and he brought me a gift of a couple of RMC magazines that he has had articles in this year.  In the March 2026 issue, George has a real nice article on weathering roofs, and he very kindly mentioned me in the story.  

Thanks so much George.  Always so good to see you.

Have a great week out there everybody !

Some RBOX's on the Layout

Work continues (still slowly) on my SD9. Maybe more on that one next time.  In the meantime, here are a few looks at some RBOX's that have been out and about on the layout.

RBOX 31224 sitting off-spot just outside of the paper recycler.

RBOX 31856 has some sealant on the roof seams.

RBOX 31916 in a nice view of the roof

RBOX 37073.  (actually, I just sold this one)

And a couple of 60 foot ABOX cars as well...

ABOX 51114 at Tri-State Paper.

ABOX 51091 sitting on South Industrial Blvd. some time ago.

Have a good week everyone.  Spring is finally here.  Yay.

A Little SD7 Progress

Work continues on my ex-SP ex-Willamette & Pacific SD7 that the JSSX acquired.  Being an undecorated kit locomotive, I'm finding it a bit tricky doing the painting and installing the parts, but as I chip away at it progress is made.  Here's the inspiration photo of the prototype.

I know my model will not turn out exactly like the prototype (Richard Gibson photo), but hopefully it will at the least be an interesting and plausible, well-worn addition to the JSSX fleet.

Here's a few photos of my progress:

I've painted the area including the grilles in white, similar to what the W&P did. I know it looks quite stark here, but the eventual weathering will take care of that.

I tried putting the wide white stripe below the dynamic brake where the Willamette & Pacific lettering is located, but thought it looked horrible, so the JSSX has painted over the stripe with black. Maybe a shade of grey different from the body colour would be better.

As for the parts, on the roof so far I've installed 6 fans, 2 horns, the cooling piping assembly, and 13 eyebolts.

I've got the SP "wings" on the nose.  I used Microscale decals for those.  I carefully cut them out, lightly sprayed them with the grey paint that I used on the shell, and then sprayed with the same SP Scarlet that I used on the nose, and yet the colour doesn't quite match the nose.  I'll still need to paint the trucks and fuel tank in grey.

That's about it so far on the SD9.  I did some switching on the layout this week, so I thought I'd show this one picture from that.

Moscow, Camden & San Augustine boxcar spotted at the rail dock.  I don't know what they make or do in this place, but it gets kind of tricky to get the boxcar in there with a run around in the street followed by a switch back that involves pulling cars out from the neighboring industry.

Happy March Break everybody !

 

This and That

 Just going to show a few looks from around the layout

Sure appears that this one-time Gulf station has probably seen better days. I kind of kitbashed the kit by boarding up the windows, left a couple of them open, and added the graffiti scribbles.  For the roof, I cut a piece of cardstock to fit and took that piece outside to burn the hole at the back edge of it. I forget the name of the kit manufacturer, but I believe they've gone out of business.

A glimpse inside Door #2 at Tri-State Paper reveals bales of recycle paper ready to ship out.  I searched online for photos of paper bales, and printed a few out. They're pasted onto some pieces of styrene and I set them into place by the dock door before I put the roof on the building.

Here comes JSSX 815 on it's way to do some switching over on the South Industrial spur

A couple of FBOX's spotted on the South Industrial.

That undecorated SD9 that I started working on a couple of weeks ago is progressing slowly.  We can see here that I've got it painted, the 6 rooftop fans are installed, and a few of the other parts are painted and ready to install as well. I've also made up that short length of chain link fence that will go on the layout.

That'll be all for now.  Happy Daylight Savings Time everybody.