EDIT: Dang, getting old is tough. I just realized I posted this last week. Oh well, guess I need to find another photo for this week. Back in 1994, I bashed two Con Cor E7 shells onto some Kato E8s to come up with locomotives for the Texas Special.
Good morning from sunny and warm Northeast Ohio, after a few days of spotting rain we are supposedly getting a break today, but lake effect rain may come in from time to time. Got some work done this week! While looking for something else I came accross a pair of Stewart G39's that I had not finished, changed out the couplers and wheelsets, added loads and I now have 38 G39's for my ore train. Tichy, Panel Side Hopper with Grain Extension, painted with green tinted Scalecoat II Silver Paint, Extension with Floquil Reading Green paint, decal came with the kit, this is the 11th car of this type I have completed. The prototypes are ex-Wabash coal hoppers which were bought by the Andersons to haul grain from Maumee, OH to the Port of Toledo. IMRC 57' R70 Mechanical Reefer Kit, Painted with Scalecoat II White, Daylight Orange and Black Paints then lettered with Herald King Decals. PFE and others bought 1,000's of these cars to haul produce around the country. Picture of the plastics plant in place on the club layout, waiting for the scenery gurus to ballast and scenic this area. Oriental Baldwin PRR BP-20's with the Broadway Limited on the Strongsville club layout. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
Another little scene from my layout - 44 tonner #1 rounding the curve picking up a load of scrap metal from the scrap yard: To the left is Amy's Pond, a murky little body of water that's a sweet relaxation spot for the workers in the local industries. Some say the water has restorative powers. The water samples say something else...
This shot from 1977 or 78 shows a trial fitting of structures, etc. on an early incarnation of the Huron Central. Note that all power was steam by Mantua/Tyco. It's all still in existence, BTW. This layout was never completed. It was a shelf plan from Model Railroader. Note that the Tyco "Chattanooga" in the foreground had been converted to an oil burner, hence the oil tank on an all steam railroad. The plastic orange juice container just visible behind the tank was a stand in and possible basis for a future concrete coaling tower. Scenery, per another article, was kitty litter with white glue as an adhesive on a newspaper base where needed. Had the layout progressed that far, ground cover would have eventually been applied over it. It featured switchback operation with no provision for runarounds at the ends of the switchback. The further I got with the layout, the more that idea rankled me until I decided I couldn't live with that type of operation.