Recent Projects

Here are some recent projects. First, an Atlas yellowbox L&N RS-3 from the early 1980s that I found on eBay and installed a decoder:

I got this to run with a Bachmann Sound Value L&N RS-3. It turns out that both locos run well together on DCC without speed matching:

118, the Atlas loco, is in the late 1950s all-black. 108 is in the as-delivered scheme. It's interesting to compare the models. The Bachmann has finer handrails and aluminum window frames and, of course, sound. The paint on the Bachmann is more opaque, so even with locos at comparable price points, there's been a lot of progress over 35 years. I would still say, though, that Atlas yellowbox locos are among the better bargains you can find on eBay. Penn Central fans can note that there were extensive transfer operations with L&N power in the Cincinnati area, and L&N is a generally neglected prototype.

Here is a Boston & Maine "local caboose" that I'm nearly finished with:

I kitbashed it by cutting the center out of an old Roco-AHM wide vision caboose and splicing the ends together. I painted the sides with Tru Color B&M blue and added the black stripe from Micro Scale black trim decal film. The lettering is an old Herald King set, not really accurate, but I was at least able to use it up. I still need to shim the trucks to get the car level and the couplers at the right height.

Here is an Accurail special-run boxcar painted for similar (but not exact) cars on the Sacramento Northern. My wife got it for me on our October trip to the Western Railway Museum, which operates on a 5.5 mile segment of the original Sacramento Northern main line:

One thing I've noticed from watching DVDs with archival railfan footage from the 1950s and 60s is how many boxcars of the period either had the paint weathered off their roofs and showed bare metal, had their roofs painted silver, or had the roofs left bare metal from the start. I've tried various ways of representing this, but my favorite recently is Testors Metalizer Steel, which thins with acetone and is easy to airbrush. Here's a WP boxcar I recently did this way:

This has an A Line track cleaning pad installed.