Good morning from cloudy, mild and wet Northeast Ohio! Here are this week's completed projects. First an Atlas 5077CF FMC Boxcar kit, painted with Floquil MEC Harvest Yellow and Scalecoat II Silver and Matte Black paints then lettered with Highball Graphics decals. First thing I did was replace the Accubreak couplers with Kadee Whisker couplers after modifying the coupler box. This car participated in the IPD 1970's boxcar boom as old 40' cars neared retirement and railroads were unable to finance the purchase of new cars. Next, a highly modified Con-Cor (Ex-AHM) covered hopper car, I removed the heavy cast on ladders and grabs and replaced them with ladders left over from IMRC PS1 boxcar kits and wire grabs where appropriate. Also replaced the running board with a Plano replacement designed for this car. Car was in various services on the Rock Island including grain, potash, soda ash etc. Last weekend I took my Athearn DT&I GP40-2's and a raft of my cars used in the Campbell Soup business out of Napoleon, OH and ran them on the Strongsville Club Layout. You can see some of my more recent builds in the first few cars behind the engines. Have a great weekend! Rick Jesionowski
That's a hoot! I'm turning 60 tomorrow (already?), so I'll keep a smile on my face with the Smurftastic Hopper in my mind. The Garfield cartoon in the background is cool too!
Love the motivation. I am determined to have some new material to share. Here an SP caboose crosses Piru Creek while some two wheeled train fans get stoned.
For a moment after I saw the first photo, I thought it was the 1:1 train... the play on light and shadow fooled me for a bit. I like it when that happens.
Happy 60th Mike! I've been trying to decipher your handle for the longest time and can't figure it out. Can you explain? I'm not good at this kind of thing.
Thanks! My birthday cake is starting to be a fire hazard... My handle includes, as Russell mentioned, my ham radio callsign, which I have since 1992. VE2 is the prefix for the province of Québec, Canada.
Texas gets lumped in with Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oklahoma as W5. And we don't even share a border with Mississippi. But back to model railroad photos:
Uh, Russell, y'all may think Texas is the center of the known universe, but you may have a rude awakening ven comes da ravolushun.
