HO Gondolas

Hi Folks. Happy New Year!! Although it was a holiday week, I managed to get some quality modeling time in. I assembled 2 Proto 2000 Canadian National Gondola kits that I acquired off of Ebay last year. I remember that I purchased a couple of these when they first came out in the late 1990's - early 2000's. I sold these off several years ago when I made the switch to On30. The price for these kits on Ebay is now typically more than what they were at my local hobby shop back then, but when compare to the price for latest ready assembled kits by some of the leading manufacturers, they are still a bargain. As well, you get the joy of assembling them, which is what I enjoy - there is enjoyment and reward in taking your time and carefully assembling a good freight car kit. I find these kits although now the better part of 20 years old, still hold up well as far as level of detail and the lettering quality etc to the latest and greatest. I made a couple of additions to these ones - added Kadee #148's, added Rapido 33 inch smooth back wheels to the existing trucks, as well as added a laser cut wood floor deck (kit #322) by American Model Builders, which will receive a India ink/alcohol stain to give it an aged look.  Also as part of this build, I assembled 2 pipe load laser cut kits (kit #209) by American Model Builders

 http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm

I have several more (in different road names/paint schemes) to assemble. Will post pictures of those ones when I have them done. Have a great 2020 and check back often and leave a comment. Till next time.

Pipe Loads being switched by CN 0-8-0  # 8415

Pipe Load

Pipe Load with Bracing and Blocking

New Update (Finally)

Hi folks - well as I mentioned back in August, I am now officially retired and have been doing long put off house chores as well as a bit of travelling ( first time being able to travel for more than a week or 10 days because of work commitments and I must say it was great!!). I have also been able to have more time for Model railroad related activates. I realize that it has been a couple of years since my  last post about MR activities and as such, the On30 layout ( phase 1) is basically complete - pretty much all I have been doing on that is adding a bit of details. I will add a couple of photos of the layout to this post. The last couple of years , I have found myself also taking an interest in acquiring and building HO scale freight car kits ( yes kits :), as well as educating myself on DCC programming using JMRI decoder pro - which as I have learned is the only way to program a locomotive in an efficient manner. My plan for this blog is to bring it up to date, and also describe my activates in both On30 and HO scale, so check back often and leave a comment or 2 . Till next time....

#7 Whitcomb loco idles at the far end of the yard

2 brewery workers enjoying a break

2 flatcars temporarily in the brewery siding

Welding job taking place outside the yard shed

Truck that was picking up freight at loading dock is having engine problems

Machine shop worker