Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Three Amigos!

No I'm not talking about Martin Short, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase, this is much better. SCXY 1363 is finally ready for service on the Skally Line. It joined its partners SCXY 1352 and ILSX 1345 in Rush City.
 SCXY 1363 started life as an Atlas GP9, I chopped the short hood and front battery boxes, replaced the cab, added a MbE winter hatch, firecracker antenna and bell. BLMA parts up the wazoo.While it's not complete yet, it is pretty close. I used GMM stanchions and louvers and .010" wire for the handrails. I also added a custom styrene electrical cabinet. The decals were custom made. Both plows are Atlas. I'm not done completely yet, I still need to add the All Weather Window on the engineers side, but I couldn't keep it out of service for that...

Monday, March 25, 2013

Tiller Sand Plan

Having been a little busy with work lately I decided to get refocused on building some more layout. I belong the the David Barrow "Domino" train of thought and the new section will be no different. Like Rush City, Tiller/Zinpro will be a two module set, 12'-6" in length. Tiller however will have a 6" offset in the benchwork to allow more room for the trackwork and the massive sand processing towers.

I tried to get the plan as close to prototype as space would allow. Tiller Sand has a three track load out and Zinpro has a single track for receiving Acid tank cars. I will be using 2 bay covered hoppers at Tiller as that will give the illusion of more cars and it will differentiate the hoppers for that facility from the Thralls and Trinity's I use everywhere else.
 I think the structures themselves will make for a fun scratchbuild.