A Couple Of New Items

My camera didn't die after all. Since it uses a rechargeable battery, it was up in the air as to whether the problem was the battery or the camera itself, but with the battery no longer holding a charge, it could be either. But then it occurred to me out of the blue that the last couple of times I used the camera, the battery died really quickly, so I decided to order a new battery and see how that worked out before I went ahead with a whole new (actually used) camera body. Turned out to be just the battery.

This was great news, and instead of spending the money for the used camera body, I got a Walthers Mainline GP9 in SP Kodachrome.

I don't know if it's the new battery or something about my last visit to the eye doctor, but the camera now seems to be taking much better pictures on its auto settings. Or maybe it just likes the Kodachrome paint job.

Kodachroome is by far my least favorite SP paint scheme, but I've lived my entire adult life in Los Angeles, and for some of those years had no choice but to railfan the Kodachrome. And after that time until the end of SP, there were likely to be Kodachrome units in consists.

By this time, pretty much no two GP9s were quite alike in terms of their lights and upgrade features. As a result, even though the model doesn't have SP lights, I can live with it. The same applies to the sound options, where ESU doesn't provide a Nathan P3 horn. These are good basic locos that are far better than the Proto 2000 version on which they are based but still at a comparable price.

I also got a Walthers Railgon in the Seaboard System patch lettering. This will need a lot of weathering.

Here are some prototype examples from recent years.

Paper Buildings On The Franklin & South Manchester

I've never visited George Sellios's Franklin & South Manchester layout. (I almost did when I had a work assignment in Connecticut 25 years ago and did get to visit the late Earl Smallshaw's layout. He asked me if I wanted to visit the F&SM; although there wasn't an open house scheduled, he said he could get me in if I wanted to. Unfortunately, my schedule didn't allow it.) However, I seek out every photo of the F&SM I can find on the web.

One thing I've been noticing is how much in recent years he's been using paper building flats. In some cases he turns them into 3-D structures, and he often kitbashes them from other paper flats or mingles them with his own handiwork. I've noticed that a lot came from the forner King Mill line, and there are a few cut out from Walthers backgrounds. Others I can't identify. The background buildings below seem to come from several sources, but I don't think I can identify them.

The apiary building below is either kitbashed from a building flat I can't idntify or possibly made from a UK paper kit.

The background buildinigs below are mostly cut out and kitbashed from former King Mill flats.

The scene below has a King Mill flat adjoining a 3-D building by George.

The background here is a whole series of kitbashed King Mill flats.

One thing he often does is cut out advertising signs from other sources and paste them onto the flats. He also adds 3-D detail parts like vents, chimneys, fire escapes, and window fans to give them a fuller 3-D effect. I find this sort of thing inspiring.

Still Working On The JMRI Roster

Updating the JMRI roster has been a lot more work than I expected. On top of that, my camera died, so while I wait for the new one to arrive, I've been searching various folders for existing photos. Here's one I like that I didn't know I had:

It's an Atlas Classic RS-3 with a Custom Finishes winterization hatch and a Details West rerailer. As long as we're on CP, here's a Walthers Proto GP9 that was one of the last things I shot before my camera died.

And here's an Athearn RTR CP caboose. It's only vaguely like the prototype, but I like the paint.

And here are a couple of items I never really thought about, Canadian prototype boxcars made by the German company Herpa:

As far as I can tell, these were available only very briefly and Canadian prototypes only. Herpa is still around, but it makes mostly vehicle models. I'm glad I found these when I did!