Rush City Redo Part 7

I wish I had some super great photograph to share this week, but I don't. Most of the progress has been under the benchwork. The track wiring is done, and the frogs have all been wired to the Tortoises. I had one mysterious dead spot that I quickly ran another feeder to. Thankfully I used my multimeter to check everything as I progressed. I had accidentally gotten a couple of my feeders backwards and the testing let me realize the error before they were attached to the bus wires. I put in the first two stationary decoders and have two more to install. Main line ballast is done on the south half and I'm hoping to have the north half ballasted this week.

As an afternoon update, I ran MNNR 1978 from one end of the Rush City main to the other, no shorts, only dirty track to overcome. I have some work ahead of me but the end is in sight. I also got the third stationary decoder in place for the Tortoises. I just need to pick up one more DS52 so I can get power to every turnout. Once I have all the decoders installed I will program them all.

ILSX 1349

Another chopped nose Geep has made it's way over to the Skally Line. ILSX GP9 1349 (ex-AMTX GP10 768) had been lashed up to ILSX GP10 1418. The two will be used in switching duties at the Rush City Yard.

 

 

ILSX  1349 is an Atlas GP9 I had to do some major reworking to. Most notably are the Farr air filters I made from styrene and the chopped nose. I also had to shave some doors and louvers to match the prototype. I used BLMA louvers, cut levers, mu cables, airline and grab irons. I shortened the front battery boxes and used Gold Medal Models parts wire to replace the handrails. The plow is an Atlas piece and the airhorn is a modified Kato 3 chime. The frame skirting has also bee modified to match the prototype. The wipers and lift rings are Trainworx pieces. The paint was Santa Fe Silver and Engine Black. The decals were all Microscale. The Firecracker antenna is a Miniatures by Eric part.

As for my personal challenge I am still four engines away from my goal and I won't have time to finish them before the end of the month. I did finish 10 and I'm pretty happy about that. On the bench right now are the high nose GP30, a chopped nose SD9 (ILSX 1399) and the two SCXY Geeps. There is still a CN RDC I'm working on as well as a pair of BN F45s I need to paint up. So many projects...

Rush City Redo Part 6

The track was painted, frogs wired and all the tortoises are installed. Ground cover has started, my friend HK came over last weekend and we got some serious progress made. A little bit of shaping on the south half of the set, followed by paint and ground cover. Some ballast found its way to the track. I use Smith and Sons on the Main, Woodland Scenics on the sidings and Z scale Highball ballast for Class 5 areas. The roads have started, I use .020" syrene sheet with some Rustoleum black. Once I have them glued in place they will get weathered up with a spray of diluted L&N grey. Once I fill in the bare spots tree planting will begin. I also need to get a pair of NJ crossing gates as both of the roads will have working gates at some point.

Looking North

Service Road to the South Switch

Looking South

Rush City Redo Part 5

Progress has been made. All the track is now laid through Rush City. I started to fill in the ties tonight. If I can get that done tomorrow I'll try to get the track spray painted later this week. I've already started installing Tortoise machines under the benchwork, 4 down, 4 to go.

This is the view from the South end towards Horizon Mill. The Federated Co-op siding is just out of frame at the bottom of the shot.

 This is the view from the North end looking at the other side of the Mill. From this angle it is hard to see the siding for the Federated Co-op (12 feet away). Cutting down a pair of Atlas #10 turnouts to make the crossover was a little unnerving, but it's done now. For those that are wondering I went with a track spacing of 1.125" between the main and the siding (to the left in this shot).

One goes up, one comes down

Moving forward on engine projects I've decided to work on a couple of nose jobs.
The first engine is a Southern High Hood GP30 that is being built for use on Ken B.'s Clinchfield Blue Ridge Division. This nose lift should fit be able to handle the CRR-SOU interchange in Marion pretty well when it's finished. The second is ILSX 1349, an ex-Amtrak GP9 that saw some time on the TC&W RR this year. ILSX chopped the early in 2011. I'm building the unit to have a matching chopped nose, door and louver configuration as well as those cool air filter boxes.

SCXY 50001

 Happy 2012! The first Skally Line Hopper in a full SCXY repaint is in the shop right now. SCXY 50001 will the the series leader on the Skally. SCXY 50002 will be right behind it. I used an Atlas 4750 hopper, upgrading the roof with Traincat etched walkways. I used undercoat gray for the paint and the decals are a mix of Microscale sets. Later I will put some BLMA trucks and some other details on. There will be additional SCXY hopper schemes coming later this year...

CN 2131

For my last post of 2011 I wanted to show you CN 2131. This C40-8 was forced over to the Skally when track work on the CN caused some over sized delays. This ex-CNW unit chugged hard as she moved onto the line in Carlton. Normally we would have added one of our own units to the train to make sure they had a proper HP to tonnage ratio, but we wanted to see how the old CN unit would do. With not a horsepower to spare she made it off the line in St. Paul under her own power.This unit was an Atlas. They come with a nice amount of separately applied details, so I upgraded the Sinclair Antenna to a Miniatures by Eric piece, I added BLMA grab irons and replaced the oversized Atlas cab shades with BLMA units. One mirror is BLMA and the other is Trainworx. The cut levers, bell and speed recorder are Atlas pieces. The paint is Steam Power Black and SP Scarlett. The decals were Microscale. The rear numberboards were the narrowest I have ever done.With only 5 engines to go in my personal challenge I feel a little like Forrest Gump after running back and forth across the country. "I'm tired, I think I'll go home now." Getting these engines done has been satisfying, but tiring. Before I attack the final 5 I'm going to take a break and work on some rolling stock and layout projects. On that note, good luck in all your endeavors and may 2012 be a great year for you all!