A Long Overdue Progress Update

So much going on... I’ve finally been making some progress after a little hiatus. I added a dozen new 2 Bay Intermountain covered hoppers. The couplers are all body mounted, so all I had to do was weather them and they were ready for unit train service.

 I finished up my 1956 RPM project cars.

 I made some progress on my UB project cars.

 I’ve started 3D printing on my new Anycubic Photon.

 I finished a Clinchfield MOW boom car.

I hope I can keep this pace up for a couple more weeks. It feels good to be getting things done!

Vehicles

I'm still working on populating my roads. I've added another couple of Semis. One was a Showcase Miniatures Kit, the other was a TrainWorx semi with a Showcase Miniatures trailer. You'll get to see the new load later.

Winter Progress

Progress is always good. I've been working on a series of HD flat cars, and wile doing that I decided to finish off some other fun projects. 

The first was a Reefer Kit I got at the Chicagoland RPM. This was a great event filled with like minded modelers. I'm planning on using this car in some vintage Skally Line photo shoots. I just need to build a corresponding NP W-3 and caboose.

I also wanted to build a BNSF Scale Test Car. This was a 3D print I had to detail out and build a frame for.

With the scale test car done, I decided I needed to finish the scale at Ardent Mill in Rush City. I poured concrete in the North ends of Track 4 (right track in the photo), 5 (center), and 6 (left side and home of the Mills scale). It felt good to finally finish that up. I do need to add the concrete pad for the car puller on track 4, as well as detail the interior of the building. I have plenty of time to get that done.

Lots of Writing Work

I'm on a bit of a writing streak. I've had a few big articles hit the pages of N Scale Railroading magazine.

You may have seen my Schnabel car on the cover of the Nov/Dec issue of NSR. This monster build was my third cover, but it was only Part 1 of the Schnabel build.

The Jan/Feb issue brought Part 2 of the build, as well as an article I did on building a little scenic truck. This was the first time I've had two articles printed in the same issue, and it brings me to 18 articles printed so far. I have more articles in queue and will have more done as soon as I get a little more layout progress done. I'll post some updates as soon as I get the work done.