78 Miles to Yosemite

Author: jkdummler

NP Boxcar – 6

Posted on by jkdummler
Finished!

It took a while, but the NP Boxcar from Rails Unlimited is finished, and as a bonus, another 36′ boxcar of a different style, lettered for the P&LE is also done, just in time for RPM Chicagoland this week.

The last steps for both cars involved what is for me, a light weathering. Because the effects that add age to a freight car carry depending on where the car is, what the material is that the car is made of, and a number of other environmental factors, I use a variety of products and media to weather with. This year I decided to weather everything we either a pencil, which I covered previously in part 5, the airbrush, paint, or some kind of solution or weathering agent. I’ve done pastels and powders before, and while they produce some nice effects, I find that for me, they cause more issues than they solve. I have to wear lots of protective equipment when using them, so I decided to veer in a different direction for these cars, and I’m quite happy with eh results.

A couple of my new tools and tricks include these two fantastic products. A Lead Weathering Set from AK and a bottle of Quick Age Scenery Solution from Monroe Models. The leads were fantastic for adding wear on metal parts, with some of the chipping color applied to grabs and ladders, door hardware, and anywhere it looked like something might be routinely rubbed or scuffed by a hand or foot. The Quick Age solution gave me a few different effects depending on where I applied it. When applied on the underside of the cars and allowed to pool, it gave me a fantastic grit and grime effect. When applied to the roof panels…..

The underside of the P&LE car shows the weathering effects of the Quick Age and some additional rust after the solutions have dried.

Ever had one of those “WOAH, WHAT HAPPENED THERE?” moments in your modeling? I applied the Quick Age before going to bed one night, and arrived downstairs the next morning to find that the roof panels of both cars looked like they were turning silver. Not exactly what I was aiming for, but I then read the bottle. Being a solution suspended in isopropyl alcohol, the chemical reaction between the Quick Age and the dull coat was what was silvering. I had read before that to fix this, you spray dull coat again, which I did to the P&LE car, and like magic, the silvering vanished. On the NP car, however, I decided to play with it a little and see if I could create an effect there by adding more Quick Age so the roof would look like the paint was starting to fail. I like the way it turned out in the end, and the contrast between the two roof appearances on the cars is appealing.

The NP car as it appeared after the first Quick Age application. I eventually did this process three times to get the final effect, knowing that I could restore the car color by using an overspray of dull coat if I chose.

Final assembly included adding the Protocraft couplers that were weathered carefully with two other rust solutions from Monroe Models, the air hoses from Hi-Tech details, and the couplers (Protocraft for the NP car and Rich Yoder Models for the PL&LE).

I’m excited to tell you that the roster shots for these cars were taken on the layout module. That was one of my goals for the year, and to spite the fact that the track isn’t yet finished being weathered and the California Golden Grass is not in, the module made for a fantastic spot to take those. They’re taken at eye-height (at least the side views are) which means that is what someone operating the layout will see, and the cars are really up there, in your face, easy to read, and a nice height for using the uncoupling tool.

The last photo there is a test shot. The station is an O scale paper printout of the YV station at Merced, CA. The two cars are “parked” at the YV freight house, allowing me to display that another part of my design plan, getting two cars at the freight house, is possible as additional layout sections are prepared for construction in 2020.

I’m very pleased with how these cars turned out. They’ll be on display at RPM Chicagoland, October 24-26, 2019.

The next projects are starting to line up, so there will be more to see.

-Jeremy

NP Boxcar – 5

Posted on by jkdummler

Inching closer to finished with the NP boxcar build, I sat down last weekend with some new (to me) products from a couple of different weathering product producers, and some old standby products as well to get a start on not only the NP car but also a P&LE 36′ car I’ve been working on at the same time.

The pencils applied wet make sort of puddles where you want the grit and grime.
After brushing with water tome things around and blend, and then using a cotton swab to remove excess material and further blend, the outcome is pleasingly dirty.

First up, I wanted to try some weathering pencils by AK. These are a dry / wet product that can be used to add all sorts of effects. I have three sets that I ordered after seeing a video on YouTube about them, and I wanted to see how they work. While the dry application is really similar to applying Prisma artists pencils, these AK products blend in a little better from my experience when a soft brush is used after applying them dry. Where they really were fantastic, though, was when applied wet. The process is essentially to dip the pencil in water and then apply it to the area you want the color to go. You can add streaks or pools or lines as you see from my photos here. Once the color is applied, you let it sit a minute or two, then come back with a wet brush and move it around. That is followed by a cotton swab used to remove the color, which then leaves just the amount you’re looking for. It takes a little practice, the being water based, they clean off if you make a mistake. Additionally, using more than one color in an area and blending with a brush and with the swab will produce a really nice effect.

Using the same techniques used on the roof, the sides of the cars and some other details received streaking of dust and dirt.

I used the pencils mostly for dirt and dust, but with some of the darker shades of red and brown I changed a couple of boards one the car sides to look like the paint was starting to fail, and around the door hardwire I added rust and grime. I’ll come back with some other products and enhance this look shortly, but the base effect was fantastic. I’ll be using these much more often.

Following the pencils, I airbrushed some dirt and grime lightly onto the under sides and along the sills of the cars using some Ammo “Kursk Soil”. The general grime on these parts stands out nicely. I’ll come back again and add some additional rust and a few other grit colors to finish out the look.

Finally, I turned to the trucks for these two cars. I decided to try using some Mig “Oil Brushers” for the wheels. These were great. The paint is in the container, and so is an applicator. It didn’t take me long to use some rust, and some “Starship Bay Grunge” on the wheel faces to get the base look.

These are just the first layers. I still have a few things to do to enhance things and build up some grime in places, but that will come this weekend. The plan is that by the 19th/20th I’ll be doing final assembly on these cars.

-Jeremy

Merced – Track Plan and Arts & Crafts

Posted on by jkdummler

Part of my RPM Chicagoland presentation this year is showing off the track plan for Merced.  Part of getting ready to show the plan, talk to people about it, and demonstrate my design ideas has been to get a 1:1 drawing made the plan.  

Standing at the West end of the layout plan looking to the East. In the middle of the plan is the mainline. To the left, a track to serve the Ice House. On the right, the track leads to the Yosemite Valley freight house and station.

Those of you who have read my track planning posts before know I greatly prefer to plan in full size.  It’s visually easier for me to stand next to a set of turnout templates and visualize what I want the plan to look like.  One of the biggest challenges in changing scale, or in planning a layout in general, is knowing the scale of structures to layout, and making all of that approximate the visual appearance of photographs, especially when prototype modeling.

This is a mosaic of the track plan, stitched together as best I could at the moment. It features the sidings described in the top photo in the West on the left hand side. To the middle of the plan we see a yard track at the top and the YV house track along the bottom. To the East end, I’ve included a lead that will go toward the currently un-modeled roundhouse.
Drawings by Jack Burgess, which are available on yosemitevalleyrr.com from his shop, have been scaled to O scale, printed, and are now glued to foam core board. I’ll cut these out and place them on the track plan to give much more “real” view of my ideas. The feeling of size will be evident once these are sitting on the plan drawing and it’s a little more 3D.

As part of my own visual planning, and to illustrate the layout to others, I have printed drawings (or pmts of them) for structures from Merced, and a couple of pieces of YV equipment, YV26 and YV15 locomotive and caboose, to help with demonstrating locations and sizes.  I glued the drawings to sheets of foam board that will be cut out and have stands attached to allow the drawings to stand on the track plan.

One of the challenges with this plan is that it’s BIG.  It’s big enough that I have been having a challenge photographing the whole thing to share here.  When I get to the RPM, my hope is that as I post this plan on the walls to give presentations, or unroll it to share with others, I can get some better photos.  

There’s lots to do, but the visual assistance provided by these drawings for planning is immensely helpful.  I can show others what scenes will look like, and get some idea of the vision I have in my head is and see if it is coming together in 3D as I build.

-Jeremy

Layout Fascia – Last of the Garage Work for 2019

Posted on by jkdummler

As Fall settles over Northern Illinois, it’s time for me to button up layout work that needs to happen in the garage and move the layout section inside for the winter and for work that I want to do “at the bench” so to speak. 

A couple of weeks ago I started test-painting some ties, but decided that it would be easier to paint the ties if I had the track lower and in better light than I typically get in the garage.  That left one task and that was painting the fascia.

When I applied the mud to the layout, I slopped some over the edge and down the fascia.  I wasn’t thinking at the time about protecting that area, and I should have.  Going forward when I am adding mud, I’ll tape off and cover any fascia materials.  This time around, though, I broke out the orbital sander and a couple of minutes later had smoother sides to work with.  The mud wasn’t really an issue, I knew I could and it down.  The biggest problem there was covering the now sanded area with paint as all the materials there are ‘thirsty’ and as it turned out required several applications of the final paint color to cover.

It doesn’t take long to paint the fascia on this layout section.  It’s only 6’ long and 4” tall.  That said, I took my time applying the “forrest black” paint.  I picked this color with my wife’s assistance.  It’s intended to not be completely black (like the layout legs) but also not to draw the eye.  I used a standard soft bristled paint brush and listened to some music while painting.  

It took about 4 coats to absorb and cover everything.  I kept finding spots especially around the screws and washers that were getting missed, and finally resorted to closing the garage door to darken the room, getting a powerful flashlight and a small brush, and lighting just the area I wanted to check for missed spots.  That worked really well and finally the paint was on.

I like the overall effect.  Standing right next to the layout, your eye is drawn to the lighter browns on top and not to the darker fascia or below.  I don’t intend to add skirting of any kind to the layout, so this is closing in on the final look.  

I’m going to let the paint cure completely.  It’s been very rainy here so a couple of days at least to make sure the surface is hard and set.  Then I’ll remove the legs and bring the section inside where I’ll be able to paint the ties and get the ground cover on.  

It’s amazing how “complete” things look when the fascia is painted.

Stay tuned, tie painting and weathering is coming along.

-Jeremy

NP Boxcar – 4

Posted on by jkdummler

Normally at this time of year for the last few years I’ve had upwards of 20 HO scale freight cars in various stages of completion headed through the weathering process as I get them ready for RPM Chicagoland at the end of October.  This year, with the change to P:48 in scale, and other tasks that have required time and energy, I have 2 cars going through the weathering process getting ready for that event.  It’s quite a change.  However, I’m throughly enjoying the work this time around as the cars start to look better and better with each step in the process.

The Rails Unlimited NP  36’ boxcar has made it into weathering at this point.  I have to admit I have been reluctant to start processes this year, with small numbers of projects.  I am used to setting up and spending hours doing one task.  With the smaller number of cars, I’m not having that issue, and when I finally goad myself into doing something, I’m really pleased with the outcome.

Decals on! There were not many decals necessary for this car. Just what you see on each side and then the reporting marks and car number on each end.

A couple of days after painting the car, I sat down with the set of Protocraft decals and began lettering.  There really isn’t much to the early NP scheme that these cars wore for a long time.  I had a chuckle over the fact that the “NORTHERN PACIFIC” decal on the left hand side of the door is all one piece to get a good arc for the lettering, and it’s big enough that my usual dealing water pot wasn’t big enough to hold the whole thing and I had to get a bigger bowl.  When wetting the decals I use bottled water.  Our tap water is extremely hard here, and I find that if I use that I get mineral fogging.  Once wet, I pulled the decal out of the water and let it soak while I applied Micro Set to the car side.  A few seconds later, the decals slid into place, a small piece of paper towel wicked away the excess water and solution, and then I applied Micro Sol to soften the decals and make them conform to the car side.  My preferred way to do this that seems to give me good results is to use a micro brush to pass this solution along the edges of the decal.  The capillary action of the liquid sucks it under the lettering and draws the lettering down onto the car.  I usually apply two to three passes of Micro Sol over the course of a day, letting each dry on it’s own.  It takes me about 24 hours to get all four sides of a car lettered this way, but I like the result so I keep going back to this process.

With Dull Coat on, the car looks the way I was hoping at this stage. Ready for weathering.

Again, I let the car set for another day or so, and then applied Dull Coat over everything.  The models really start to come to life when the first coat of dull coat goes on.  I decided that I want to get this car looking like it’s in use, but not as rough as I’ve done cars before.  I have some new tools and techniques to try this year, and those will come up next as the car goes through weathering.

The car will start the process through the weathering and final assembly shop with a mix of artists acrylics made into a light wash.

More soon!

-Jeremy

NP Boxcar – 3

Posted on by jkdummler

I finally had time to sit down and work on the NP boxcar project over the weekend.  Now that Fall is creeping in (the trees here are turning and the weather is cooler, plus the kids are in school) I’m going to make an effort to get back to my 15 minutes a day, and “Workshop Wednesday Evening” plan from the past.  Lots of that kind of thing gets lost in the warmer weather.

I had struggled with the brake gear for this car.  Not that I don’t know how to assemble a KC brake system, but some of the connections and which parts to use were, well, new to me in O scale.  Most notably the connection from the brake to the train line.  I had to figure that out.  I also ran into some broken plastic brake levers and was stalled while waiting for replacements.

With all that now sorted, I sat down and assembled the brake levers.  The clevis came from the same Grandt Line parts that the brake cylinder did.  I then added those to some brass levers from Foothill Model Works, and drilled #79 holes to insert the .020 wire for the levers.  The longest part of the process was waiting for the glue to dry during the assembly phase.  On the B end, I used chain from Narrow Gauge Modeling Company to link to the brake.  While I was at it, I popped off the Scale City brake wheel and added a brass part I had also sourced from Foothill Model Works.  The new wheel is scale sized and looks much better.

Once everything dried, I set off for the paint shop (read “outside the house”).  The first task was to lay down Tamiya primer.  I use a gray primer to even everything out and to make sure I don’t have anywhere that I’ve left a huge mess of CA or things that need to be addressed before paint goes on.  Once I had inspected that, I laid on a coat of Scalecoat II Boxcar Red #3.  This gives me a nice glossy finish that I find works fantastically with decals, is rock-hard when dry (about 48-72 hours later) and I like this color.  It’s a nice medium red/brown.  Weathering always changes the color of a car, so I tend to aim for close.

It’s now been 24 hours since I finished painting.  The car is dry enough to handle, but I’ll give it another day to fully cure before I get on with decals.  Having gotten this far, I can see the end of this particular project coming soon.  The car will be ready for display at the RPM Chicagoland event at the end of October.

-Jeremy

A Brief Track Update

Posted on by jkdummler
Two out of three days of the Labor Day weekend were spent at the Illinois Railway Museum working as volunteers on various trains.

Some progress has been made again on the layout.  Over the recent Labor Day holiday I spent some time marking out locations for joint bars on the layout.  Using my scale rule, marked with tape, and a sharpie marker, I located the joints 39 scale feet apart.  Then with some CA and laser cut joint bars from Precision Scale Company, I added the bars to both sides of each rail at the appropriate points.  

I marked my scale ruler using tape to make spotting the 39′ mark easier.
The laser cut joint bars from Precision Scale Company were installed using CA adhesive.

The next day, I painted the track using some Rustolium camouflage brown.  The resulting color is quite close to the dark brown rust on the rails that I’ve been studying out at the Illinois Railway Museum.

The painted track. Once all the ties are weathered and some additional color is added to the metal portions of the rail, I’ll use a Bright Boy and clean off the tops of the rail.

With all of that now dry, the next step will be painting the ties to simulate untreated redwood ties.  The palate will likely be mostly grays.  Then I’ll add some additional rust highlights to the rail, and we’ll move on to painting the fascia and laying down ground cover.

I should have an update on the NP boxcar project in the next few days.  It’s close to heading for the paint shop.

-Jeremy

Playing In The Mud

Posted on by jkdummler

The weather and schedule cooperated this weekend for me to make a little progress on my P48 YV module.  This is a test run that will eventually be part of the larger plan.

The goal this weekend was to make ‘mud’.  The process has been in several articles over the last few years in some of the modeling publications.  The essence of the idea is that you’re making paper machete by using celluclay and latex paint.  Some people add vermiculite to the mix.  I wanted to try out adding a powdered concrete coloring agent.  The idea there being that the powder provides another dry colored material that is color-fast.

3 of the 4 components to my version of “mud”. The only one not pictured is just water.

I got ready to start and then discovered that my paint had frozen over the winter and turned to a solid rock in the can.  A trip to Hole Depot solves that this morning, and then I got to work.

This is not a clean project.  I highly recommend wearing gloves like I did.  However, the end result, with seams in sub roadbed filled and some minimal cleanup to do with a dental pick along the track before I tackle detailing that this week, is pleasing.  No mor sea of pink foam!

I’ll now let this dry for a few days before I clean up a couple of spots, paint the fascia, and detail the track.  I’m aiming to have static grass on before it gets cold here.  The module has a spot inside the house in the near future. 

More to come. The mud is almost dry, and it’ll be time to move to the next step before the coming long weekend.

-Jeremy

Going Fishing

Posted on by jkdummler

I’ve been doing research on some interesting notes from Yosemite Valley Railroad history to include in my presentation at the RPM Chicagoland event in October.  One piece that I recently ran into was some information on a “Fish Car” having been on the YV in July or 1921.  I wanted to know more about that car, the what, where, why of it all, so I started digging.  

The general use of Fish Cars cars was to haul fish eggs or fry from locations where the fish were farmed to other locations where the fish where then used to populate rivers and lakes.  The fry and eggs were shipped in modified milk cans and those cans were placed in “fish racks” inside purpose built or modified rail cars were typically lined in galvanized metal so that ice could be packed around the cans to increase the likelihood that the stock would survive the trip.

The notes on the YV hosting a fish car included a car number of SP 6263.  I needed to find out some information about that car, then, in order to understand what the SP might be doing with fish.

My research developed a description of the fish racks in SP 6235, a likely sister-car to 6263 (which might have been 6236 as 6263 was a horse car).  SP 6235 still exists at the Niles Canyon Railway, owned by the Pacific Locomotive Association.  Doug Debs provided some information on the fish racks included in that car:

“One end of SP 6235 is equipped with a “fish rack”: The floor at one end is covered with a watertight wall-to-wall sheet metal pan about 2″ deep.  The pan drains to the track. Removable heavy-duty wooden duck boards were inside the pan. The fish rack allowed wooden boxes of iced fish, iced early-season asparagus, and other high-value perishable freight to be transported by express car, and prevented these shipments from getting other items wet.”

It’s also interesting to note that these Harriman-era 60′ baggage cars, 6235 and likely 6236, were both built for the Central Pacific.

It’s likely that the car on the YV would have been very similar to 6235, and the fish racks might have been the same as the above description.  

With all that sorted out, then, and knowing some about the cars, I wanted to find out some information about the shipments and what they were doing.  A little digging produced a few documents of interest.

First, this document, which is a 1917 journal of the California State Assembly.

https://books.google.com/books?id=Kpw-AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA20-PA77&lpg=RA20-PA77&dq=southern+pacific+railroad+fish+car&source=bl&ots=CxFVYKd-iL&sig=ACfU3U0Sn16EP0A0g0AIQxQN2iCySv07Qw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjIy6zy8e7jAhUB7qwKHb9mDNU4ChDoATADegQIBBAB#v=onepage&q=southern%20pacific%20railroad%20fish%20car&f=false

Starting pn page 74, this document discusses hatcheries being built in Southern California, and on page 77 and 78 it discusses that the fish will be transported by rail, specifically calling out several railroads on page 78 for thanks for free transport of the crews and state-owned distribution cars.  The Yosemite Valley Railroad is specifically mentioned on page 78.

Next, this document, from 1922, and is from the California Fish & Game:

https://books.google.com/books/about/California_Fish_and_Game.html?id=VSEM7LlsqWcC

Starting on page 114, this document discusses establishing a hatchery to restock and provide fish for rivers and lakes that were “depleted”.  My conversation with Jack included that this is likely a bit of propaganda, as many of the types of fish being shipped and put into the rivers around Yosemite National Park were not native to the area.  That aside, page 121 describes fish cars, and discusses the construction of the first fish car owned by the state, at the SP Sacramento shops.  Eventually, CA did have 2 of these cars.  Photos of them are in the CSRM collection.

Photos of the California Fish & Game Commission 01 car ca be found here:

https://calisphere.org/item/cd4489e90dd004b163e0e8205b87588a/

https://calisphere.org/item/bd10b7160ac0615b17495b5254afd791/

To bring all this together, I found this document:

http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt5k4004bd&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text

Searching this document for “Yosemite”, the first hatchery that appears is cited as being built at Wawona in 1895.  While near the National Park, this is still a haul for any shipping of fish on the YV.  The note indicates this location was established by the Yosemite Raymond Stage Line, which puts it not out of the realm of possibility that this hatchery, which shut down in 1928, was being stocked via some other means other than railroad shipment on the YV.

The next entry, though, is what I think is likely the hatchery that the noted fish car is supplying.  The Yosemite Experimental Hatchery and then the Yosemite Hatchery, which operated from 1918-1956 at Happy Isles.  The first fry were raised in 1918, but the permanent site was not secured until 1926 and put into use in 1927.  

My feeling is that the 1921 shipments may have been to Yosemite Experimental Hatchery or someone in that vicinity.

It’s likely that Fish Cars were not in every train, or moved every day, on the YV by any stretch. However, building a model of a Southern Pacific baggage car equipped with fish racks, and maybe even California Fish & Game Commission 01 would be fun and would add some interest into operations occasionally.

Fascinating what one finds when you start looking at interesting loads and cars!

-Jeremy

Getting Organized

Posted on by jkdummler

Goals are good things to have.  I find that list-making and goal setting spurs me on to accomplish tasks in a realistic timeframe, and I feel that accomplishment which then spurs me onward toward the next item on the list, toward the next goal.

I’m now looking at the projects I have started, or would like to start, and thinking about how to order them properly.  In the days when I used to build HO models, I’d build 5 or 6 models all at once.  That’s likely not to happen anymore.  The fact is, the larger equipment is simply space-hungry.  

I have set for myself a goal that I think is reasonable when it comes to kits and cars.  I’m planning to work on one freight car at a time.  Shocking to think about, when many of us have started kits and set them aside and started others.  Seriously, though, one kit car at a time.  I believe it is possible to build one car in 4-6 weeks at the rate I work.  Not super fast, but yet too, enjoyable.  

Here is the list of kit cars that I am planning to build, and the order in which I plan to build them.  Please note, there are more cars in the stash than are listed here.  I only picked the next 12 because that is roughly a year’s worth of work.  Once this list is completed, I’ll prioritize the next set of 12 to build.

  1. PL&E 36’ boxcar
  2. NP 36’ fish belly boxcar
  3. UTLX Van Dyke 6500 gal tank car
  4. PRR X29 Boxcar
  5. SP B-50-15 boxcar
  6. UTLX Van Dyke 6500 gal tank car
  7. PFE R-30-12 reefer
  8. PFE R-40-2 reefer
  9. ATSF Bx-2 boxcar
  10. SP B-50-12 boxcar
  11. MKT 1925 single sheathed boxcar
  12. SP ex-EPSW USRA composite gondola

I initially started cars 1, 2, and 3 from the list.  That has proven to be OK, but I am looking forward to wrapping them up and getting the number of in-progress cars down to 1 at a time.  That isn’t to say that if I get to a spot with a project where I’m waiting on supplies of data or photos that there won’t be a chance that a 2nd project is moving forward.

If I’m building just one kit at a time, or one car at a time, it’s likely that I’m going to need other projects to occupy modeling time and interest while things dry or while I wait for parts.  To that end, I’ve also organized some non-car projects.  A number of structures are going to be needed for the layout and getting those built will fall into the project list.  I plan to only work on one structure at a time, which will make the structures available as a second ongoing project group.  Based on my plans for the layout, I need to build:

  1. Merced Ice & Cold Storage
  2. YV water tank at Merced
  3. YV oil tank at Merced
  4. YPCCo packing house at Merced
  5. Yosemite Lumber box factory at Merced Falls
  6. Yosemite Lumber dry shed at Merced Falls
  7. YV steel water tank at Merced Falls
  8. YV station at Merced Falls

There is also a huge need on this railroad for motive power and home-road cars.  None of the YV cabooses, rock cars, box cars, flat cars, stock cars, MOW cars, passenger cars, or log cars are commercially available at the moment, and few have ever been in O scale. My guess right now is that I’m going to need/want 2 locomotives, 2 cabooses, 6 rock cars, 2 flat cars, 1 stock car, 1 box car, an unknown number of MOW cars, 2 passenger cars, and 6 log cars.  That’s 20-ish cars and 2 locomotives that need to be scratch built.  This group, then comprises the third project group that will be available. 

I have selected the two locomotives that I want to build.  Yosemite Valley 4-4-0 American #23 and Yosemite Valley 2-6-0 Mogul #25 are my targets.  Should a third locomotive ever become a want, I would target YV27 or YV29.  Two locomotives, though, should keep this railroad busy at least for right now with plans for only two towns in the offing.  The rest of the equipment is fairly straight forward.  YV observation car 330 is definitely in the plans as one of the passenger cars.  

Along with these three groups, there will be layout work to complete.  That gives me four more or less separate spheres of projects to tackle.  Group 1: Kit Cars.  Group 2:  Structures.  Group 3: Scratch Builds.  Group 4:  Layout.  They can all run concurrently, but the key is going to be one item from each group at a time.

This is what I’m thinking will work for me right now.  We’ll see how it all comes together.  I used to do this kind of planning in January as a goals for the year kind of look ahead.  It may be coming on to August, but this year the scale change and getting that all under control and plans made for moving forward means I and doing this and you are seeing it here at the end of July.

I’m ready to hit the workbench this week and finish-up the NP boxcar build so it can go to paint.  The plan is to finish that by the end of August.  Books are coming in the mail on how to scratch build locomotives.  I’m excited about that.  We’ll be looking at Merced Ice & Cold Storage shortly as well, and some big plans for layout construction are also on the horizon.

Lots to do, now that I’m organized, it’s time to get it going.

-Jeremy