A Little Buffer Zone

The Skally Line brings HCl to one of its customers. These tank cars are hazmat and need to be handled carefully, which involves using a "buffer car" to separate the cars from the engine. Today out on the Skally I found SCXY 1363 making a run south to Zinpro with a single tank car to drop off. The buffer car of choice was one of the new BNSF "Heritage Hoppers", this one with the BN logo.

The BNSF Trinity hopper is an Intermountain hopper I stripped, repainted and decaled using a couple different Micro Scale decal sets. I have an undecorated Trinity hopper on it's way. I plan on making that into one of the BNSF NP Heritage hoppers (If anyone knows what their road #'s are that would be a huge help, thanks!).

The tank car was an undecorated body I picked up off ebay. I used a Gold Medal Modals detailing set for all the etched metal parts you see attached to the car. I replaced the brake cylinder with one from a Red Caboose covered hopper. Then I painted the car Polly Scale Reefer white and decaled with a few different sets from MS again.

I needed several of these cars to fill out the amount I need to switch out Zinpro in North Branch. To get the Athearn version of this car was costing more than $30 a car. I was able to build this one for about $10. The detail level is better and I can say I made it myself. I have 3 more of these I need to finish painting and decaling, but I wanted to get one done to see how it would look.

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.

Non-typical Schemes

To start with, Happy New Year! I hope 2013 brings everyone a little more happiness!

In this first post of the year I thought I would give an update on a couple of projects. Last months not-so-mystery engine BN 7890 has rolled out of the shop. This was one of two Liquid Natural Gas engines BN experimented with. All it needs now are couplers, a front windshield wiper (ran out unexpectedly) and a decoder install. This was a fun project and I hope the new owner likes it.

 The matching LNG tender will be coming too, I still have a little more work to do on that...

An engine I'm very happy with is my latest BNSF unit, BNSF GP38-2 #2050. This is the only Smurf on the BNSF roster that started life as a Clinchfield unit (CRR GP38 2007). I'll be using this engine at the SCXY-BNSF Hinckley interchange with one of my GP39Es until I build some GP28Ms. I still need to add the yellow MU cables, one mirror, front wipers and airhoses. This one will also be getting a sound decoder as I will be going that route with more of the engines. Sound adds so much.

 This engine started as an Atlas CSX GP38, I extended the dynamic brakes and shortened the airbox. I'm a couple details short of done, but I thought it was close enough to show off.

New Project

While I'm on the road I thought I would share a pic of one of my current projects. I'm pretty excited about this one. I won't unveil what it is going to be quite yet (though a few of you will be able to figure it out). I'm modifying a Mid-Production Kato SD40-2. The big step was flaring the radiator fans. Once I get home next, I will detail the shell out. Once I get the appropriate cab, I will be into paint. I can't wait. There will be a specific freight car to go with this engine. I may even do the CN version after I finish this set...

I have the shell drilled out for the BLMA fans now, but I need to order enough parts for 10 or so engines right before I hit the Holiday blitz!