Hodgepodge weekend Worked on a little bit of everything this weekend. I started on Friday assembling the shed for the silos that will go with the stone yard at Grantsville. The metal siding was previously painted a tan color common on metal buildings for decades. Saturday was split between running a couple trains and building scenery. The KY&N doesn’t roster a large contingent of ALCO products, but this pair found there way to the southern end of the railroad handling a coal train. Finally, this morning was spent mostly on decals for a pulpwood flat and decoders in a pair of N&W geeps. GP9 #713 is now running, but GP18 #958 suffered a short and will need a new decoder. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I managed to put N&W C425 #1009 back together in an afternoon. This and one other had been in pieces since at least 2018, not sure why I waited so long. Anyhow, it is now paired with the 713 and will do great handling N&W run-through trains. 1009 will probably get renumbered at some point, the N&W low nose C425’s were #1000-1007… 1008 and up had high noses. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Weathering and ties More wood ties inserted by hand for the switches at Spencer. It’s a slow process, but it looks nice when it’s done. I also weathered the main tracks between Spencer and Elkview with Rustoleum Camo Brown. Finally a derailment caused by Kadee wheels led to breaking a knuckle 12 cars deep on a southbound freight near Millstone Junction. Time to swap out the Kadee wheels on some cars and put Kadee couplers on last few cars running with plastic couplers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I only saw a handful of Alco's on N&W during the 1977-80 time frame but can confirm 1013 was high nosed. That unit was parked by itself, IIRC, in the N&W yards at Kenova, WV some time during fall 1977-spring 1978. I also saw RS-11 377 and three more 11's that were sandwiched between a pair of GP-9's. I've mentioned on another site or two how I wished I'd had a good tape recorder and/or camera in those days--when the engineer opened the throttle, those 11's put out a turbo chorus I've never forgotten. Best of success to you and this project! BTW there was at least one low-nose Alco Century leading a westbound freight somewhere near Bluefield, WV in December 1976. Never got a good look at the number, but it was in the all-black "NW" scheme. And, FWIW, one of the C630's was working the Portsmouth, Ohio yard in winter 1980. It was coupled to one of the former F-M "Train Masters" cut down to slug size.
Yard crew assembled the train, car inspector looked everything over, but pull a knuckle and it’s the train crew who has to pee in a cup and get 15 days unpaid vacation. LOL Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Temporary scenery applied around the Tower at the south end of Spencer. Except for the track, none of this is permanent. I have my eye on a couple of craftsman kits to be the permanent tower structure, although the new Walthers brick PRR tower catches my eye, too. With the KY&N being majority owned by National Standard Steel, brick and steel structures outnumber wood structures along the right of way. The foam base was painted burnt umber and a few golden rods were jabbed in the foam just to visualize how this scene might develop. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Just go with it… I wasn’t completely happy with the weathering, but I decided to keep working on the cement silos for Little Kanawha Valley Stone facilities at Grantsville. After adding all of the appurtenances, I thought it turned out pretty good. Pending a little bit of weathering on the shaft and piping, this is pretty much complete. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Subtle rust applied Sunday night. I have a bottle of “concrete” colored paint I may add a little in some places for a general environmental grime effect before sealing it with matte. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have to confess a soft spot for B&O "wagontop" boxcars! Glad you found and operate some of these. There were a few still around by the early 70's and I remember how different they looked compared to the more or less standard boxcars of the time.
Arranging the Mill Trying to decide on an arrangement of structures for the farm service buildings at Walton. I have a Blair Line feed store I would like to use somewhere on the layout, but suffered some damage during out last move in 2019. So I spent time assembling the elevator and arranging buildings to find a good fit here. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The bottom photo feels better from my viewpoint. Busy enough, with plenty of space consumed. Not too cluttered.
