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.

3 Month Update

I've been horrible about keeping the blog up to date this summer. I'm happy to announce I have another article coming out in the upcoming issue of NSR. It is a full build up on my AC44C4M. 10 pages of fun!

It has been warm working on the layout, but I have been progressing just the same. Mostly scenery work. I was heavy into the making of trees, but now I have transitioned into roads. It feels good to be getting all this asphalt down.

To recap:
More trees in Hinckley. I have now planted two full boxes of Scenic Express Super Trees (250-ish trees). I think 4-5 more boxes will get me to a good place. MP 74 looks good, I need to fill in all the way to MP 75.

At the Horizon Mill, I added the fall protection system above the flour cars (yellow structure) and a radio tower behind the HQ.

I started experimenting with the Woodland Scenics Smooth-It Road system. I started with W 1st St in Rush City.

 From there I went to CRR 133 in Hinckley. The Pan Pastel weathering really brought it home.

Next I added the blacktop to 415th St in North Branch. I mocked up Zinpro in Foam Core before I started the project. Since taking this photo I have weathered the blacktop, contoured the terrain between Zinpro and the road and I added the crossbucks at the grade crossing.

I mocked up the Titan office in Foam Core, but then I got excited, so I built the styrene verion. I still need to paint it, but I have since added the grass to the right of the building and one of the AC units outside. I hope to install the Titan-Lansing sign tonight.

I think that gets everyone caught up with the bulk of the work. Hopefully my next update will come sooner!

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.

Tiller Part V

Sand is moving! Even though I don't have the building built, the industry is up and running. As part of a FreemoN weekend I got to test run the new portion of the line. Here is the overview shot: A trio of ILSX SD9s had just finished dropping of a cut of 2 bay sand hoppers.

Here you can see 17 2 bay hoppers on the loadout tracks. The third track will hold the loads headed out. The long lead into the industry allows decent cuts of cars to be swtiched around without fouling the main line. You can also see the UP5 panel and a keyed DPDT switch for operating the turnouts. I love this method and will be converting Rush City to match.

Zinpro also received the first loads of HCl. I will be building more of these tank cars to keep the business well stocked.

The track all performed very well, the turnouts were flawless (I will power the frogs soon for even better handling). All in all it feels very good to have made it this far. Now that I know it runs well, I will start on painting the track in preparation for ground cover and ballasting.

Tiller Part IV

Progress! I wanted to get all the track laid this weekend (my weekends are usually Monday-Tuesday) and I succeeded! There is just shy of a scale mile of track on the module set. I had 90" laid earlier in the process, and today I laid the rest, I started by epoxying all the Fast Tracks PCB ties at the module ends and where the tracks cross the centerpoint. Then I glue everything down and soldered the rails to the PCB ties. I think I have 12 different sets of feeders for track power, wiring will be one of my next steps...
Here is the overall view...

Here is the siding for Zinpro (Chinook Spur):

Here are the tracks for Tiller Corp.:

Here is the switching lead for Tiller:

Tiller Progress

I've managed to fit in a little time to start on benchwork for Tiller Corp. and Zinpro in North Branch. The main portions are constructed. I need to do a little fine tuning. The black line you see is the main line. Next week I'll lay out the trackage in both industries and start laying down cork.

The pink half will be all Tiller, which will spill over onto the yellow side, which will contain about a foot of the Tiller site as well as Zinpro. The 6" offset will allow me to use these in FreemoN layouts, but also gives me more room for trackage and the large buildings for both industries. I'm guessing scratchbuilding those buildings will take me all summer.

Here is another angle...