The Grass Was Always Greener

Well, maybe not the grass, but in 1992, when the BN ran the Hinckly Sub and the Amber Sub-Division the engines certainly were greener. Looking back at some retro photos I realized there were some pretty good lash-ups through Hinckley back in the bay. One set that seemed to get assigned to the coal pool was a nice trio of SD40-2s in different paint schemes, all green... This day BN 7151 was on the point, showing off that awesome white face scheme!

 BN SD40-2 7821 followed second in the classic BN scheme.

Once all three units were in view we could see the third unit was one of the 2 LNG units BN tried out on it's coal drags. The experiment was over by this time and the fuel tenders were gathering dust.

On another trip BN 7890 made it's way out front.

I remember the day, it was over 90 degrees out, I can see the engineer had the rear door open to get a little airflow in the cab. This was well before AC was standard from the factory.

As they roll away I see the classic line of the BN 7821 again. I can still almost hear them rolling by, all pushing a quick notch 6 through the swamps.

The BN 7821 and BN 7151 are a couple samples from my friend HK's collection of finely detailed and painted BN and DMIR engines. The 7890 has headed from the Skally shops to join its brethren in HK's fleet.

A Little More Structure

As the winter wears on I find it difficult to make a lot of progress. The projects are stacking up fast. I am working on getting Rush City more complete for the WGH show late in March. I have made progress on the Jasper Masonic Lodge. I got some N Scale glass block windows from Depots by John. I have to say I am very impressed. Most of the windows in the Lodge are frosted glass block, I replicated this my hitting them with some Testors Dullcote. The large fromt windows will not recieve this treatment as they are clear glass block. Soon I will be working on the foundation, fire escape and the roof.

As I was getting close to a roof for the Jasper Lodge, I figured I only wanted to do one shingle order, so I had better figure out all the shingles I would need for my next two buildings as well. In an evening I made cardboard mock ups of the Federated Co-op in Rush City. While the siding that serves it is more for SCXY storage, I figured it make come back to life as a rail served fertilizer dealer. I did compress them slightly as I don't need the buildings overpowering the scene. Construction has started on both buildings. Here is the South building:

 Here is the North building for the Federated Co-op:

Here's a shot I took of the real place. Not to complicated, but it will take me some time...