Weekend Update - 5/2/2010

[John]

Its time a gain ..

[James Costello]

It's a long weekend in Brisbane and our annual model train show is taking place.
 
I managed to catch the maiden voyage of the EMD SD70M demonstrators 7000, 7001 and 7002 on their trip to the Espee's corporate headquarters. There, the last few final details such as the nose handrails, safety paint to the handrails and steps and a beacon will be installed prior to road testing (some minor weathering etc might also occur  ). Unfortunately these details were able to occur before the show, but I was pleased to be able to get this long running project completed enough to enable them to get some run time up on a small intermodal freight. No doubt the company photographer will take some better photos back at headquarters once these details are added before they hit the road again.





Thanks to the guys at Three Piece Creek for the chance to run a train! More photos from the show to come later in the weekend. I'm very glad to see this project nearing completion. ;D

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

Laid cork down for the door layout. Nothing to show, I'm grounded using sisters iPod touch. ;D

[Puddington]

Littl' Puddy came home this week............

1313 days, 5 minutes from the initial posting on Scalerailsonline.com until the postman brought her back to my doorstep......

We sent a Puddington Valley Division 50' double door box car around the world....literally around the world.....

From Ontario, Canada, through numerous states until it was returned to the west coast of Canada and then sent to New Zealand.... then to Australia, Malasia, to Europe...Finland, germany, France and the United Kingdom... back to the eastern saboard of the United States, al the way to Washington state and then.....home.

Over 80 railways; not all of them even N scale (you'll have to read the thread to figure that one out !)

Each person that got "littl' puddy" was asked to write a bit of the story that is found in the SRO thread. They were asked to photograph her on their pike(s) and they could make one alteration/addition to the car that didn't obscure her origins.... and did they ever do that....

Here's Littl' Puddy when she left.....



and here she is as she returned.............



Even the shipping box (it made it around the world too) has been covered with stickers from her journey.....

I invite you to check out the "Littl' Puddy" thread at SRO at this link....

http://www.scalerailsonline.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=840

It has the entire story; pictures and commentary. You can also see the map and high lites of the journey at this link:

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=46.25852~2.389245&style=r&lvl=5&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&cid=3C9A3DE13EAE41C7!102&encType=1

It was quite a journey....and she made it home.

[John]

That's a great story Pud .. glad to see your boxcar made it home. It was great having it here ..

On Friday night, I invited a few folks over to run a few trains in circles prior to the CR Spring BBQ. I didn't get a chance to make it up there because of pollen allergies, but I had a good time watching this motley crew turn the M&O into the UP after the SP merger



(L to R) Sizemore, Dr. Major Dave Volmer, John, Philip H, Ed K, Seusscaboose, WM3798, davefoxx, Bob Bufkin, Choochin3, Rock40GP)





Ed and Lee screwing up the yard .. thank goodness they had adult supervision by a real conductor ..

[up1950s]

 

 



 

 

[diezmon]

no train stuff this weekend.  I did get my new soft top installed though  ;D ;D

[up1950s]

Do you carry the doors with you ?

[Puddington]

Does the "binford" trailer come with an n scale "tool time girl" ?

[up1950s]

I could only wish .

[bbussey]

I finally was able to get some modeling finished, and contribute to the "Weekend Update" ...

Canadian National auto rack:



Conrail #55 dome lounge:

[GaryHinshaw]

Handsome looking lashup James!  I hope we'll see a whole gallery of photos soon.  

Great looking CN rack Bryan, what did you use for the handrail stanchions?  

...watching this motley crew turn the M&O into the UP after the SP merger

I believe the term is takeover...  Looks like the M&O crew left things pretty much intact though.

No modeling for me, but I did manage a bit of train watching while driving to Pittsburgh to pick up my son from College: a few hours on Sand Patch Friday night and a few more around Cresson/Gallitzin Saturday morning.  Happily, both lines were quite busy. The highlight was watching a 100-well stack train negotiate "The Slide" into the New Portage Tunnel at Gallitzin.  Hadn't seen that stretch before, but from a distance it looks like the tracks just fall into a hole in the Earth.  Very cool.

-gfh

[up1950s]

Love that autorack .

[eric220]

Very nice work on that superdome.

I haven't been doing enough modeling recently.  I really need to get another CMR kit or something...  Here's a couple from the archives.

My superdome, the Thomas Alexander Scott emerges from the car shops.


A GG-1 pulls a cut of boxcars through south Altoona.


BF-16 Sharknoses pull a freight into the yard.

[diezmon]

Do you carry the doors with you ?

nope, those stay in the garage.