Fun but a foob. I've lost track of all of the changes and modifications that I made to this old McKean covered hopper. Every time I looked at prototype photos of these cars, I found something else that needed to be corrected. And it still isn't right. I'll let the rivet counters find all the flaws. But it was a learning experience, and I had a chance to do some things that I haven't done in the past. I sectioned and lengthened a Plano Models etched metal roof walk. I'm continually amazed at these kits- great instructions, everything goes together well, and they are relatively easy t ..read more

Allen McClelland passed away peacefully this past Friday. Like countless others in the hobby, he had a profound effect on me. Many have commented since his passing that their railroad wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Allen, and the same is true for me. He gave me two very special gifts for which I will be eternally grateful. The first gift was a keen interest in proto-freelancing. When I got back in the hobby in 1978, the V&O Story had just appeared in the model railroad press. I poured over every issue and decided right then and there that I would develop a proto-freelanced railroad. At th ..read more

It's been a while since I've posted on the blog here. There have been periodic updates posted on the CWE Facebook page, which is much easier to manage, and the blog has suffered as a result. But I thought I might put up a few posts about the progress on the coaling tower at Nelsonville. I had been stuck on this project for a long time, and I finally found a way to get the whole thing back on track (pun intended). But first, a little history. I built the coaling tower at North Pierce back around 2003- 2004. I replaced all of the Walthers steel pieces with Tichy parts and spent a good deal of ti ..read more

One of my favorite parts of the hobby has always been building freight cars. Back in the day, I would modify Athearn Blue Box kits, Robins Rails cars, and others to make reasonable representation of prototypes that weren't available commercially. And one of my all-time favorite authors is Bob Rivard. I have long been a big fan of his work and especially his freight car projects. I've collected all of his freight car articles I could find and have recently started building some cars based upon his work. A case in point is SCPX 3527. Bob wrote an article in the December 2021 issue of Railroad Mo ..read more

 Time for a test fit. The ties and rail have been removed, the ballast has been scraped up, and holes have been drilled for the wires for the lights. It appears that everything will fit as intended. Now back to installing the 3,468 rafter ends along the roof overhang. And the clerestory still needs to be weathered. As can be seen in the photo below, the structure will dramatically change the overall appearance of the engine terminal at Nelsonville.   I'm anxious to see how it will look with the lights on inside. Stay tuned ..read more

Progress continues on the engine house at Nelsonville and in fact, the project is nearing completion. I'm waiting on the lights to arrive from Evans Designs and they should be here tomorrow. I'll install them along with the roof trusses and then work on the roof itself. Some pieces of trim need to be added to the corners of the structure, but most of the major construction is done. The photos below show the clerestory resting temporarily on two of the roof trusses. With any luck, the structure will be mounted on the railroad in the near future ..read more

 Since the first time I saw a picture of the single stall engine house on the C&O at Martin, KY, I've wanted to build a model of it. In fact, the engine terminal at Nelsonville was planned around a single stall structure. Over the years, I've collected a significant number of photos of the building. I found plans for the structure in the November 1986 issue of Mainline Modeler in the CD collection of C&O MM articles that was produced by the C&O Historical Society a number of years ago. But what was odd was that the drawings by Julian Cavalier only showed the end of the bu ..read more

 As part of my "Finishing Stuff" campaign that I started back in March of last year, I recently painted a 3-bay covered hopper car, two woodchip cars, and a 2-bay covered hopper to be used in sand service. These cars had languished in the paint shop for 2-3 years, victims of lost interest and inspiration for other projects. But it was finally time to get these finished.  The 2-bay covered hopper is the last of the five cars that will traverse the railroad between supply sources and the engine terminals at North Pierce and Nelsonville. As I was decaling the car, I remembered back to t ..read more

 In the late 1940's, the Marketing Department of the Chesapeake, Wheeling & Erie was charged with developing a new advertising campaign for the railroad. Given the road's main line connection between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic seaboard, it seemed important to emphasis this route when dealing with both existing and potential customers. As a result, the "Central Belt" moniker was born. This further developed into the slogan "The Central Belt- Linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Seaboard." The first evidence of this change on rolling stock occurred in early 1950 when the origi ..read more

 While looking through my Facebook feeds this morning, I came across a photo on the Freight Car Enthusiast page that really caught my eye. It's a picture of a 40' Penn Central boxcar painted in Bicentennial colors. While that's not unusual in and of itself, it's the fact that the car is assigned to wreck train service that makes it so unique. The photo was posted by Eric Werner and is from his original slide collection. The caption for the photo said it was taken in Cleveland in 1976. If you look closely at the lettering under the road number, you'll see that it says "Coll ..read more