Freight Car Projects

I had one project that has been on the back burner too long and one I am hoping to get a start on soon.

The one I stalled on was my Wisconsin Central Mega Log Hauler. I got mentally geared up and added a couple hundred pieces of styrene to it. 

It has been time consuming, but rewarding to see it happen.

The other project is in a holding pattern. I've got all the parts here or on order. It will be a big one. Here you can see the 36 axles that will fit under WECX 800, the largest railcar in the world. The N Scale version will be 17" long, plus I'm going to build a load for it that will make it over 24" long.

I'm also going to build a support flatcar and an escort caboose for the monster Schnabel Car. Here is the start of that car.

I may be thinning my fleet down again soon, I always seem to have more cars than I need and I want to make room for higher quality pieces as they become available.

So much to share!

I know it has been a while since my last post (2 months, sorry about that). I've been getting an amazing amount of things done. I will break this into three posts, the first one will be layout progress. The second will be freight car projects and the third will be my latest magazine article.

I added another grade crossing, this one is 420th St. I wanted to add this crossing for the unique NP style crossbuck posts. I painted them myself and I added the switch stand for the sand plant.

 Here it was in the rough stages.

 I added more trees and a switch stand in Hinckley at MP 74.

Yesterday and today in Rush City I ran trains. Sometimes it can be therapeutic to have an ops session.

I was having some camera fun and shot this picture of Ivy Farms Trucking. I have a new special edition Prairie Shadows/TrainWorx James Bond Edition Kenworth coming that should look right at home here.

 I added the 415th St crossing to Zinpro and Titan last month.

 As well as signage and trees at Titan Lansing.

Zinpro progressed rapidly from foam core mock up to styrene structure. I still have a lot of work to do, but it looks better than an empty scene.

I also built the loadout shed for Zinpro. This really changed the look of the scene too.

So most of the progress has been scenicing. It is nice to be getting the layout to a more finished state. I hope to get back into tree making soon, that always helps.