Reopening Projects

Train stores in the Los Angeles area have reopened for in-store shopping, and I'm even starting to think about a railfan excursion up to Tehachapi or Cajon -- Tehachapi carries the biggest risk, since it takes a lot more gas with the possibility that there won't be many trains. Cajon is more reliable but also a little same old-same old. Maybe after July 4.

But thinking about railfanning again got me back to what I actually see when I go train watching, which around here at least means practically everything is tagged.

This reminded me that I have some contemporary "Epoch VI" cars in the queue that needed work. For instance, I'd picked up an Athearn Golden West Service boxcar that had been faded and patched for SP, but it had neither tags nor post-2010 conspicuity stripes.

My local train store had Blair Line graffiti decals in stock, so this was an easy choice for getting back to normal visits there. I also had Smokebox Graphics conspicuity stripes on hand.

Athearn did a good job matching the faded blue on these cars, plus the darker patch for the SP number, but the prototypes are graffiti magnets and pretty much all actually look like this:

The Blair Line tags are well chosen to look like what you see when you go out railfanning. Typically there's at least one on either side of the car doors. Then, usually later, the railroads added the reflective yellow conspicuity stripes:

Well, that's better. It should probably also get an overall coat of road grime.

Going through old stuff, I found a Walthers Proto car I'd forgotten about and gave it the same treatment:

I found a very similar car at Sandcut near Tehachapi several years ago and generally followed it:

LW is the Louisville and Wadleigh, a Georgia short line whose reporting marks GE Rail Services uses for some of its lease fleet.

Yesterday I ran into another car in the collection that hasn't had the proper work done:

This is an Atlas car lettered for Modesto & Empire Traction. MET cars are very common on Tehachapi carrying Gallo wine to the East Coast. Atlas here has added post-2010 conspicuity stripes, but there aren't any tags! This is very hard to imagine, so this car will have to go through the shop in coming days.