I got a little work done this week. First up is an Athearn PS 5344 kit, I know they are a foot too wide, but Exactrail seems to not want to do any more PS 5344 kits any more. Car was painted with Scalecoat II Reefer Orange, Silver and Black Paints then lettered with Highball Graphics decals. Cars were in general service on the D&H. Next, a Walther's 89' Intermodal Flat Car kit, car was painted with Scalecoat II Hunter Green and lettered with a couple of sets of Herald King Decals. The DT&I picked up several hundred flat cars for their Rail Blazer service from Detroit to Cincinnati, All these cars came from previous owners so all the car data was left in place and the old railroad's identification was painted out and DTIXXXXX number was painted on. These cars came from the Texas Mexican railroad of which the DT&I got 12 cars. A pair of Athearn DT&I GP40-2's with an auto parts train heading for Delta, OH to interchange with the N&W for the Ford FAST to the west coast. Thanks for looking, Rick Jesionowski
Katy! Espee! @dti406, I enjoy your work. However, it took me a moment to digest the remark about the rolling stock being a foot too wide. The reason: I, for some reason, have held this company in a somewhat high esteem. Given that they are a less expensive brand, this may be unrealistic on my part. Still, I was surprised. All this given that I do not model in HO. I did years ago and Athearn was my go-to brand.
North Island Refinery I forgot to paint when assembling 10+ years ago. Man, the White paint really makes it Pop, me likes. Note to self. Next time think about painting it, BEFORE you assemble it Now I have to put all those little pieces in the front of it back on. I don't know how many times I have knocked this thing over? Up close not so good, but from normal viewing range and room lighting, it's awesome, to me
With the sudden drop in temperatures from last weekend. Time for a coal drag with Lehigh & New England 2-8-0 Consolidation (Bachmann). I am hoping to soon have enough the layout cleared off so that I can run some run-by videos. Problem with working on the layout is the work can stop the fun training running.
I dropped my esteem for Athearn quite a while ago, with the internet and more sites available for research we have found the old Blue Box kits left a lot to be desired. For example the old 40' boxcar was only good for two railroads the IC and DSSA. Then Irv used that end which had gone out of existence by the late 40's on all of his more modern cars which required a 4-4 or R-3-4 end to be protoptypically correct. The gon was made to fit the underframe of the flat and to fit in the standard box Irv used at the time and is 2-1/2' short. But to be fair his hopper car kits were correct for a lot of railroads. By the way here is a shot of the Athearn 5344 Boxcar car on the left and the Exactrail version on the right. The experts think who ever did the dies measured the width over the door guides as the width of the main car body. Rick Jesionowski
Spent ten minutes here and fifteen minutes there to get some more scenery done in preparation for bridge re-installation. More going on today...
After painting and gluing pieces back on to the refinery. I tell you pictures really show detail I can't see with my eye's. Looks great to me sitting in it's mock up area where it will go eventually. Completely tore my layout bases down to tidy up wiring and add connectors from A to B for ACC switches/turn outs and DCC track drops. Me thinks it will work?