Saturday, February 5, 2011
SD40-2 Chop Job
Just the diesel tank, I new I wouldn't be totally happy with MILW 158 till I cut the tank down to Milwaukee Road standards. If only the newer Atlas SD9s were that easy. 
Friday, February 4, 2011
The Lifeline of the Skally LIne
The BNSF Hinckley Local is the link to the outside world for the SCXY. The Hinckley Local originates from Northtown Yard (NTW) and switches industries north off of the Hinckley Sub, starting with Anheuser-Busch in Coon Rapids and finishing with the SCXY interchange in Hinckley, MN.
The local is usually pulled by BNSF GP28Ms 1527 and 1525. On occasion you will see ILSX engines in tow headed for service work at the ILS shop in Bethel.
The major car types you will see on the SCXY are hoppers. There are three major cargoes you will see: general hopper (AAR type LO) loads of durum wheat for the Horizon Mill in Rush City, PressurAide hoppers for moving milled Durum flour and hopper loads of fertilizer to Peterson's Mill in North Branch. 
You will also see tank cars on the line, since the new unloading stands were built last summer Zinpro in North Branch has been receiving Hydrochloric Acid by rail. They use this for making high quality animal feeds. You will also see the occasional tank car of LP for Lakes Gas who has two facilities on the line, one in Hinckley and one in North Branch. While I'm sure that Zinpro is a welcome customer on the line the HCl cars require a little extra work in that you cannot couple the engine to the cars, the crews use a buffer car when handling these loads, per FRA rules.
The local is usually pulled by BNSF GP28Ms 1527 and 1525. On occasion you will see ILSX engines in tow headed for service work at the ILS shop in Bethel.
The major car types you will see on the SCXY are hoppers. There are three major cargoes you will see: general hopper (AAR type LO) loads of durum wheat for the Horizon Mill in Rush City, PressurAide hoppers for moving milled Durum flour and hopper loads of fertilizer to Peterson's Mill in North Branch. 
You will also see tank cars on the line, since the new unloading stands were built last summer Zinpro in North Branch has been receiving Hydrochloric Acid by rail. They use this for making high quality animal feeds. You will also see the occasional tank car of LP for Lakes Gas who has two facilities on the line, one in Hinckley and one in North Branch. While I'm sure that Zinpro is a welcome customer on the line the HCl cars require a little extra work in that you cannot couple the engine to the cars, the crews use a buffer car when handling these loads, per FRA rules.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
SCXY Gondola
I've also decided to make a move on rolling stock. I had a W&S gondola that I wasn't happy with in my collection and the day I decided what to do with it was the day I noticed a gondola added to the SCXY rolling stock roster. I added BLMA grab irons, a mineral red paint job, Fox Valley 33" metal wheels and various Microscale decals. And for the rivet counters I know I'm off a couple of panels. The weathering was done with ground taconite pellets (really, it was).
Here is a Matt Petersen photo for reference.
Here is a Matt Petersen photo for reference.
MILW 158
I decided to take a break from my SCXY/ILSX locomotives to focus on a quick project. I wanted to practice my two tone painting so I decided to do a Milwaukee Road SD40-2. I loaded it up with detail parts from BLMA and Altas. It has the MRC-1806 sound decoder in it and it runs great. My favorite details were the cheapest. I removed the drop steps and added .015 wire to replace the walkway chains for a more MILW look and I added an Atlas bell behind the cab. I could still shorten the fuel tank and add an all weather window to the engineers side, but I'm not happy with the commercially available options. The decals were Microscale.
Here is a 1981 C.W. Lahickey photo for reference.
Here is a 1981 C.W. Lahickey photo for reference.
Monday, December 27, 2010
ILSX 203
Now this may look familiar to some of you, but this is the debut of my latest labor of love. ILSX 203 started life as an Intermountain DRGW SD40T-2. I stripped it, added BLMA fans, wipers, cab shades, air hoses, mu hoses, mirror, grab irons, an Atlas bell and MU cable. I built my own electrical cabinet from styrene and painted the unit in Conrail blue. The decals are from Solidesign. The Sinclair antenna is Intermountain and the Leslie 3 chime is Kato. I'm still waiting on IM to send me my missing window and silver truck frames so I can finish this one off. It will also be getting a Digitrax DN163I0 decoder.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
1374 Progress
As I wait for an email back from the decal guy, I made some progress on some other small things. Some things worked, some need to be re-worked. I added J&J etched metal ladders on the rear of the unit. That was good.
The tool box side of the weights (by the fuel tank) I like how this side turned out. I might remove a little metal from the frame later.
The rack side of the fuel tank, I need to do more material removal here and add the posts for hanging parts from. Hopefully next week I have a little time to work on it.
Hopefully by the end of Thanksgiving weekend I'll have some progress on two of my other project engines to show you (SCXY GP9 1363 and ILSX SD40T-2 203).
The tool box side of the weights (by the fuel tank) I like how this side turned out. I might remove a little metal from the frame later.
The rack side of the fuel tank, I need to do more material removal here and add the posts for hanging parts from. Hopefully next week I have a little time to work on it.
Hopefully by the end of Thanksgiving weekend I'll have some progress on two of my other project engines to show you (SCXY GP9 1363 and ILSX SD40T-2 203).
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