Walthers Mainline KCS SD60

One of my all-time favorite locos is the conventional cab EMD SD50s-60s. I really like their extended hood length, it seems to fill the overall profile out better than SD40s and 45s. Fairly late in life I've come to like the Kansas City Southern. So I ordered a Walthers Mainline KCS SD60. (All photos mine.)

Ths fits a KCS roster from the 1980s and 90s that I'd already assembled:

I just wish these locos had ditch lights.

But at least my ScaleTrains ET44 has them, and ground lights as well:

I haven't gotten too many prototype photos of KCS power, esepcially in the gray scheme, but here's an SD70MAC I caught from the Amtrak sleeper window in Jackson, MS:

Units in the Southern Belle scheme make it out to California now and then:

Micro Trains Weathered Railbox Cars

Micro Trains introduced a model of the FMC Plate B Railbox in 1981. These turned out to be accurate for only two years; in 1983, TTX sold all the Plate B Railboxes to member railroads, which first patched them with new reporting marks but left the Railbox paint and lettering in place, but eventually repainted many. This site discusses the railroads that purchased the Plate B cars, as well as the prototypes for many other N scale boxcars.

According to the site,

SOUTHERN PACIFIC- Espee acquired ACF, Berwick and FMC plate B boxcars from Railbox in 1983.

The FMC cars were in Railbox series 18806-19219. Below is my photo of Micro Trains SP 19009:

This would represent a car that had been running for some years after 1983, possibly in the 1990s. Its number is correct for the FMC cars that went to SP. According to the site,

CSX . . . inherited FMC plate B cars from Seaboard System and Chesapeake & Ohio. The Seaboard System cars were numbered 141523-141766; while the C&O cars were numbered 503260-503308.

CSX then renumbered the Seaboard Syatem cars into CSXT 141523-141766. The link doesn't mention the ex C&O cars, or other CSXT series. This site says CSXT 141948 is an ex-C&O car. Below is my photo of Micro Trains CSXT 141948:

The patching and re-renumbering would have taken place about 1988 or later. The amount of weathering on this model would make it later than the ex-SP car above, and in fact, this model has yellow conspicuity stripes on the lower side that were mandated in 2010.

These models can be found on eBay and elsewhere in the $25-$30 range, which makes them a bargain for models of this accuracy.

Micro Trains N Weathered 60 Foot Boxcars

One of my favorite pieces of N rolling stock in the Micro Trains 60 foot boxcar, especially the weathered version. I decided to see if I could find prototype versions of these cars, and surprisingly, I discovered I could. In fact, I think the factory weathered versions of these cars are currently good bargains, considering weathered models can go at a premium. Hewre is my photo of Conrail 216718:

There is a 2005 photo by Joe Rogers of the same prototype car at rrpicturearchives.net, but it won't let me copy or link to it. However, here is a photo of a car from the same BE60A class by Grant Lowry at the Conrail Photo Archive.

Here is my photo of Penn Central 278708

Again, there's a Ken Roble photo of the same prototype cwr at rrpicturearchives.net, but it won't let me copy or link to it. The Conrail Cyclopedia says the prototype cars were built by Berwick for Penn Central as class X77 in series PC 278045-278174 and used for auto parts. Here is an Angelo Toresani photo of PC 278128:

Checking the models against the prototype photos at rrpicturearchives.net, the prototype lettering, weathering patterns, and even graffiti are very close.

More Scenery

I was able to make more scenery progress on \the small N layuout. I used Woodland Scenics Ready Rock and their 1" white foam cut into small blocks to build up the side of a blasted area inside the curve.

I don't have any particular prototype in mind, but there are formations like this on the CSX Berkshire Sub, on the former Clinchfield, and in various parts of the western US. Because there aren't enough suitable shapes available in the faceted Ready Rocks package I used, I'll switch to a package of shelf type Ready Rocxks I have on hand to finish the other side of the curve. I don't think the difference between metamorphic and sedimentary types will be too visible, they'll form separate scenes visible from different sides of the layout.

I'm holding thingd together with Elmer's glue. I'll use ground foam soked in Elmer's to fill in gaps in the rock face and add other vegetation. When the rock face is finished around the curve, I'll fill the new surface in with a sheet ot 1" foam.

Progress On The Small N Layout

Things haven't moved as fast as I had hoped, but I finished tracklaying and basic electrical wiring, and everything's been debugged and is working properly. At the same time, although I didn't originally plan to run passenger trains on it, I began to think about running short passenger trains, with a small shelter and plaform on one part of the layout. This led me to study short Amtrak trains, inclulding the Boston sections of the Lake Shore, Trains 448-449. Here is an example I set up to test how that train would fit on the layout:

As you can see, I've even added some scenery to one corner. As far as small shelters are concerned, I've found a few in my area (both photos mine). Here is Goleta, north of Santa Barbara on the Surfliner route:

Here are smaller shelters on the Glendale platform:

An eBay seller called Model Railway Gadgets offers a somewhat similar shelter in both N and HO scale (photo from eBay site).

It's based on the Mertolink shelter in El Monte, CA.

Very Short Amtrak Train

I was researching short Amtrak trains -- some of the midwest service trains, the Heartland Flyer, and the Borealis qualify, as well as the Portland-Seattle sections of the Empire Builder, and the Boston section of the Lake Shore -- when I ran into this video of a not-quite 448, the Boston section of the Lake Shore, leaving Rensselaer.

The narrator doesn't explain what's happening very well, and I had to poke around to try to get some idea of what's going on here. We know that 448-449, the Boston Sections of the Lake Shore, were discontinued in July due to a sinkhole east of Rensselaer on Amtrak's Post Road Branch, which connects Albsny-Rensselaer with the CSX Berkshire Sub at Schodack to continue to Boston. The trains have been replaced by buses. I've read that in the past, Amtrak has detoured over trhe CSX Castleton Cutoff, but not this time. However, it looks like something needs to run between Rensselaer and Boston to ferry eauipment for the Downeaster, Vermonter, Springfield trains, etc, even if passengers aren't carried on 448-449.

I read via Wikipedia that CSX also uses the Amtrak Post Road Branch via trackage rights. I asked Chrome AI mode about this, and it replied,

CSX has rerouted its freight trains traveling between Albany and the east via its Hudson Subdivision and Berkshire Subdivision. The freight would travel south from Albany to Castleton-on-Hudson on the Hudson Subdivision and then reverse direction to continue east on the Berkshire Subdivision.

So my surmise is this is an Amtrak extra movement that replaces 448-449 to ferry equipment back and forth to Boston for the Downeaster and other New England trains, but so far, I haven't been able to confirm this. But if it is, it must be following a similar route to the CSX freight detour. Normally 448-449 seem to run with as many as four diesel units, plus cabbages on occasion, to perform this function. Whatever it is, it's a prototype for a very short Amtrak train.

Small N Layout

For the past several weeks, I've been working on a small N layout. I rescued a strange piece of what seems to be mahogany plywood from my late dad's garage some years ago, and I always thought it could be used for a small N layout. Eventually I got a couple of Kato N Unitrack sets to play around with, and I started to lay out ideas, but nothing quite jelled. Here is what I was trying to do in 2016:

The dimensions are something like 47" x 27". I set it aside in vertical storage for almost ten years until a better inspiration hit. At this stage, I'm doing final electrical and mechanical testing of the basic oval. Currently there are two Kato Unitrack 20-032 Micro Trains uncoupling magnets installed at either end of the siding track. I'm trying to install them so that contemporary freight cars in the 50-70 feet range can be uncoupled mechanically on a straight section long enough to keep the couplers aligned.

The outside radius curves are 315 mm, which is the equivalent of 24-25" in HO, so I can run contemporary six-axle diesels with the long freight cars. But this will severely limit the number, length, and purpose of the spurs, and I'm still working out exactly where more 20-032 uncoupler magnets and other track sections will go.

Given my age and stage, I've declared myself retired from going underneath any more baseboards. As a result, terminal strips and switch machine decoders are mounted on top of the layout, along the edges as needed. As it happens, there are strange rabbets along the bottom edges of the plywood as it came to me, and they can be used to run all wiring underneath. I'll find a way to mask the terminal strips and so forth with scenery but keep them accessible.

I weathered the single-track, wood-tie Unitrack to conceal the shiny Unitrack look. I've left the double-track concrete-tie sections alone for now.