As always, not much work from me. College makes finding time for big projects difficult, but I can still do some small things for the time being.
First up I took delivery of som new HO engines for my growing Oriental Fleet. Japanese HO is a guilty pleasure of mine, and these new arrivals are not dampening it at all. Both are relatively modern Tenshodo engines, and are probably two of the more expensive models in my fleet. Thankfully, these ones arrived in working condition with all of their parts intact, so I did not have to rip them apart as soon as I got them (as I normally do with brass models):
I did, however, get some work done for my N scale CSX fleet, though. I had been given a custom-painted Bachmann Dash-8 Shell a while ago from an aquaintence of mine. It had been custom painted and modified to fit a Kato C30-7/U30C mechanism. Wanting to actually use it, I went through my parts inventory and scrounged together enough part to make it work. The mechanism is an early non-DCC mechanism from a U30C, which I do not mind hardwiring a decoder into at some point (using only what I had on hand, it stays DC for now). The trucks where turned around to make the wheelbase more correct and give the new fuel tank better clearance. I used the original trucks from the U30. The fuel tank is from a Kato Dash-9 that I have sitting around and actually clips onto the U30C fuel tank area. Not the correct tank, but closer than anything else I had. With the trucks in backwards, though, the contact strips no longer reached the tabs on the trucks, so I swapped them for some from the Dash-9, which gives them adequate contact. Trucks and fuel tank need to be painted blue to be more-correct. Not a super detailed model, but it was a fun and quick project:
The grey one is obviously the Bachmann, which is shown with a stock Atlas just to show what it looks like next to other units (as well as so that I could compare truck spacing and fuel tanks). Also, I could not not forget about the jewel case. Complete with an insert that lists all of the modifications I did so that I do not forget:
