GP35s

I have been very busy with working on some rolling stock and some locomotives for the railroad. Thanks to Kevin for the guidance and words of encouragement.

Painting has been completed, and clear coat is applied. I used Tamiya clear coat thinned to a 30% paint to 70% thinner ratio. It went on great. I prefer it better than a rattle can. After clear coating, I began to apply the decals.

 

Decals were provided by Kevin, and the number boards were done with Microscale Decals numbers from a lettering/numbers set. I was thinking about using the EMD numbers set from Microscale, but that would not match the photos Kevin provided. Decals were applied via the Microscale Micro Set and Micro Sol process.

 

After applying decals, I painted the white on the handrails and clear coated the engines again to seal the decals prior to assembly. 620 still needs some truck details, and some other small details. 611 needs to have some touch up paint jobs for the details on the pilots and couplers. I also need to add some airlines and some other small details.

 

Both units will need to have DCC decoders installed. I am also looking at having ditch lights put in as well, but that will be down the road. I also want to weather these units as well. I am still on the fence about safety striping as per the era I am modeling is the late 90s. That may change though due to the lack of vehicles for that era.

 

 

 

I put the Geeps aside and started to work on some rolling stock. I picked up a few undecorated ACF covered hoppers on eBay a year or so ago. I took some time to paint them and worked on some decals. The numbers and letter are from a Microscale set and the WN logo is from the decals Kevin sent to me. I still need to add a few more details, weathering and data decals.

Motive Power!

I wanted to start some work on some locomotives for the railroad. After talking with Kevin, he mailed me some decals for the locomotives when I was finished painting them. My first set of locomotives I would be painting were Kato GP35s. I picked the up off eBay for a decent price. Kevin provided me with the specs for the engines and I printed off some reference photos from Kevin's website, as well as some photos he sent me.

The paint scheme is Burlington Northern Green and Union Pacific Harbor Mist Gray. Painting the locomotives was fun due to the new airbrush I purchased. I am using a Passhe H Series airbrush. Its simple to use, and for a beginner like me, its a great thing to have.

I coated the locomotive body with the BN green, and I taped it once it dried for the application of the UP Gray. Prior to the UP Gray, I added Detail Associates lift rings and a Cal-Scale curved grab iron to the rear. The base of the shell was painted UP Gray with the pilots painted flat black. Once everything is completed, I will paint a clear coat on in preparation for decal application. I also plan on adding a few more detail parts to the front of the locomotive such as MU hoes and the coupler bars. The grab irons are the stock Kato, as well as the handrails.

I also had some figures sitting around. The Kato locomotives do not come with crew members so I added some of my own. Its a mix of custom figures and some Preiser figures. The custom figures are from Melissa at MeDO Miniatures and the Preiser figures are from the crane operators set. I had another set of Preiser figures I plan on customizing for my conductors.

WELCOME

Welcome to my blog site dedicated to my model railroad. Over the past few years I have been trying to get a model railroad up and running but due to size limitations I have had to either move or relocate them.

Last winter I was able to finish repainting the finished portion of my basement and put new flooring in. With that, I had the idea to move my layout to that side of the basement. After a few configurations that would prove beneficial, I decided to install the layout on a 16 foot wall section of my basement. I thought about making a larger "L" shaped layout, but I wanted to have a  simple switching layout that would cut down on track installation, and focus more on modeling and running trains.

After having the basics installed, I then decided to begin researching what I wanted to era and scheme to model. I narrowed down my choice to the modern era. After some though, and some more research into which railroad to model, I decided to do a freelance/proto-free lance model railroad. I didn't want to focus on any Class 1 railroads because it seems like everyone does those, and I wanted to be different. I continued my search and decided on making a short-line railroad and base the scheme off of the Great Lakes Central Railroad. I picked up an undecorated Atlas GP40 and decided to repaint it. Well work got in the way, however it didn't stop me from doing more research. One night it clicked. I thought about a crazy idea and it was something I wasn't sure how it would be taken.

My idea was to model a branch line of a fellow model railroader's existing free lanced layout. I always admired this modeler, and his layout. The layout I am referencing is Kevin Klettke's Washington Northern Port Andrews Tide Flats District. (www.wnrr.net). I reached out to Kevin with the idea of modeling a branch line from his railroad. I received an email back from him saying that he would be honored and that no one has ever approached him before about do this.

Kevin provided me with information about different areas that would come off of the mainline of the Washington Northern. After giving some consideration, I narraowed it down to two locations Humptulips and Aberdeen. After doing some more research on the locations, coupled with the model kits I have, I settled on Aberdeen.

In the coming weeks I will be posting my progress on this layout as well as the progress on painting motive power, rolling stock and construction of the industries. I also plan on posting videos to YouTube as well.

Stay tuned!