A LONG awaited update

As I look back, I see it has been a LONG time since I updated this blog. A job change, work on the new house and life has gotten in the way of model railroading. I am happy to say that now work is going to be more normal with set days off and this should help with getting the model railroading a little more frequent.

Plans include the following:

1) Finish laying track: The design has changed a bit and this will be a "U" shaped layout with a connection in the middle for continuous running. (There just something about the trains running around). Track is down on about 35% of the layout. Hoping to get some more track down after the Thanksgiving holiday.

2) SW10 Rebuild: Working on gathering parts and pieces to do a SW10 rebuild for my railroad. Picked up a shell but the concern I have is the NW2 locomotive that will be the donor for this. There is a large amount of weight material that will need to be drilled/milled for a decoder it fit. This project is a little bit lower on the list.

3) SD-50 Project: I recently purchased an Athearn SD-50. It's the CSX Y3 scheme. I plan on patching it up for the railroad. The inspiration I had was Reading Blue Mountain and Northern's recent purchase of CSX SD-50s. I plan on doing a post about it once it arrives.

4) Wiring: Once the track work is down, I'm hoping I can get the feeder wires and bus lines installed. My goal is to have trains running by Christmas (hopefully before)

5) Industry building: I have a few kits that came in that I have been working on. Will have a post about those in the near future. Some of them are just built stock, but I have one, Blue Star Cement, that I added a kitbashed/scratch unloading shed and modified the kit a bit to accommodate the shed.

6) Locomotive finishing: I have 2 SD 40-2s that need to be finished being decaled. I also have a GP7 that needs a repaint, and I have another SD40-2 that is in the stages of being details and hopefully that will be ready for paint. The is also a GP40-2 that needs to be painted, and Two GP-40s that are patch jobs but will be repainted to WN colors.

Lots of projects which present lots of material for posts....

Stay tuned for more!