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...