Fall Colors 

Fall is here, what does fall mean to you. For me it brings back memories of sipping hot apple cider and eating warm pumpkin pie it also brings back memories of rail fanning in Rigby yard. So in honor of fall memories I have finished another loco in Maine Central colors. Check out the link here MEC 402 for a full write up and pictures. On a recent trip back to Maine I went down to the old yard for some rail fanning to find the current owners had totally changed the landscape they tore down the roundhouse and engine shops it saddened me to see these once great and beautiful buildings have gone. Ahh yes the wonders of model railroading where days of past can live on forever!

Lazy Hazy days of Summer

With Summer winding down and my work slowing down I have began to pick things up where I left off five or so months ago. I have finished the mill area track plan and have completed all track testing. Follow the links below

I added some small details to the sawmill scene the mill now has inhabitants. I added workers and some more vehicles to add realism.

Another project that I have finished is MEC 450 a hybrid GP7/9 engine. I found an old Athern blue box kit I had bought at a swap meet years back the price tag was still on it apparently I only paid 5.00 dollars for it. The tags on the box list it as DYM for dummy, so with a little ingenuity and a lot of spare parts I rebuilt the model. I started with the original shell of a gp-7 undecorated and modified a gp-9 chassis to fit the gp-7 shell then I searched my bottomless Athern spare parts bin and found the correct trucks that would fit the chassis. After that I made some custom hand rails and sanctions for the loco and finally I shot the whole thing out in MEC Harvest Gold and Pine green paint from Trucolor paints. I also upgraded the motor with a after market one to get real smooth operation out of the loco.

Follow the update  link for more Photos and details.

New for 2013

 New for 2013 I have finalized the upper track plan and have began laying track. Also I have started to layout the town scene. I have a lot of work ahead of me, lots of plastering and foam work ahead. The center piece of the upper route is the new trestle leading into a small industrial district I plan to model. This area will have a creamery and other industry to be determined, in this section, as space is limited. Work has progressed in the yard also I have finished some ballasting and fixed some issues with turnouts. follow this link for more pics and info.

Bangor And Aroostook wood chip cars

check out the latest cars from the shop.

Fresh Paint

Check out the latest project a ex-MMA Atlas engine repainted in B&M blue
Cooler Weather and Fresh paint

Follow the link above to see more photos.

Driving the first spike

 Just in-case if some are wondering what the layout looks like here is some photos and drawings of how I did the planing.

My first layout plan was to use the whole basement of my new house but after discussing the plan with some fellow modelers they said, although quite elaborate it would take a lot of time to complete. I planned to use one of  Ian Rice's plans from his book Mid-sized and Manageable Track Plans "Portland Maine to the Notch". After studying the plan and doing more research I decided to down size the layout greatly. Some major contributing factors were future family plans and expansion of our home as our basement is at present unfinished.

So I went to plan B an old Model Railroader Magazine article that featured Crawford Notch but again I deemed this layout too big for the space I wanted to use. Also I didn't feel that this plan had what I wanted in the new layout. So on to plan C I searched the many plan books and magazine articles I have and came up with a free lanced plan loosely based in the southern foot hills of New Hampshire.

The plan I came up with has a single track mainline in a bent dog bone configuration with 22" radius on the main and 18" radius on the branch lines. I choose to focus on branch line and small town operations with an interchange with one or two other roads. The turnouts are #4 and all the track is either snap track or flex track from Atlas. The maximum grade is 4%. The table construction is 2x4 legs and 1/4 inch plywood top with  2" foam board as a scenery base.

Boston And Maine Units

 While cleaning out a box left over from the move from Maine I found these gems.