Made a couple of signs for the metal recycler on the GTW.  I have a couple of gondolas that I  lettered ZVBX, which is railroad speak for the Ferrous Processing and Trading Corporation.  I searched online for photos of that company name, and came up with this example of the company logo. The company has locations in Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario, which fits right in with my upper midwest setting for my layout. I saved the logo image as a file, and then opened it in my Corel Paint Shop program in order to size it to the 8 mm height that I thought would be suitable. The program t ..read more

Decided to (finally) install a set of Walther's Utility System poles on the layout.  This is a set of four single cross-arm "utility poles" that come pre-wired in the package. There's only four poles in the set, and I wish it was five.  The instructions sheet suggests spacing the poles 11 inches apart.  I spaced them 15 inches apart because I wanted them to run the length of my South Industrial Boulevard peninsula street trackage. Here we can see the line of poles and wires in place.  The set was quite easy to set up, and didn't take me much time at all. I felt like th ..read more

Quite a while ago, I picked up a package of Walthers concrete barriers, also often called Jersey barriers, from the Otter Valley Railway store.  Molded in grey plastic, these should make kind of a nice detail to add to the layout.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to find a use for 24 of these, but that's how many are included in the Walthers package. 6 parts on each of 4 sprues.  Walthers Part # 949-4175 I'm not sure if I'll be putting all 24 out on the layout, but I've weathered 12 of them to begin with. I first sprayed 6 of the barriers with AK Interactive's chipping fluid, and ..read more

I picked up this new-in-box (Walthers') National Steel Car plastics pellet hopper from Craig on one of the facebook groups last weekend.  With this new purchase in mind, I took a ride down to the Sarnia station and freight yard to see if I could find some inspiration for future weathering on this freight car. I'm very pleased that my new pellet hopper arrived in brand new condition.  No broken or missing parts at all, although it did come with plastic wheels. My last remaining set of metal wheels quickly and easily replaced the plastic wheels, and I set the pellet hopper out on th ..read more

I liked this closeup photo below and thought I should share it.  The locomotive is a GP40X. The high hood at the cab end makes for a nice change on the layout.  It was Sean Steele that said something to me several years ago about I should get one. Some might remember that I got this one a year or two ago, discovered it to be mechanically damaged, and went through some trouble finding the exact trouble, sourcing parts, and carrying out repairs.  Now, it's one of the smoothest running engines that I have. JSSX 7000 hooked onto a former ABOX boxcar, now owned and repainted by CN ..read more

I was a day late last week updating the top of the blog with a new photo for March. Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, the photo for March features my JSSX 5068, a personal favourite of mine, as it hauls a short train beneath the Gratiot Avenue overpass. My friend Chuck sent along this photo of that he stumbled onto while on facebook It is a nice looking boxcar, belonging to Jersey Shore Steel. It's not trains, but here's a photo that I took on March 1st, 2024 down at the local government dock anyway.  Lake freighter Algoma Guardian has been berthed here at the government dock for maintenance ov ..read more

I thought we'd have a look at some ABOX freight cars that seem to show up on the railroad here from time to time.  These 50 foot boxcars are easily distinguished from RBOX cars by their featured double doors: one sliding door and one plug-style. We'll start off with ExactRail models of the FMC-built 5277 cu.ft. boxcars This model has less grime build-up below the door track areas.  The rusty scratches are burnt sienna artist oil paint.  A little wear can be seen on the red and blue arrows graphic. (ExactRail) ABOX 51108 Some older notices at the door and tack board, this one ..read more

A look at JSSX 50 foot flatcar 11150.  This one started out as Athearn's blue-box SP model, which I painted and lettered for my shortline, and then of course weathered as well. I'm thinking of putting a short pair of rails on the deck of the flatcar and now that the hot metal car is finished up, using that as a load load for it. The hot metal car was a different little project for me. Overall it went pretty well, but I'm not so sure I like the look of the trip pin from the coupler.  Looking closely you'll see short lengths of safety chain dangling from the ends of this model. I bru ..read more

A look down South Industrial Blvd as a day cab hauls a 53 foot trailer A couple of TBOX's will have to get picked up by the JSSX And sure enough, the next day the high-hood GP40 happens along Here's another look with the 7000 on the street, with the crewman getting ready to step down I notice all the equipment is black in this view.  I had been trying to sell the two NW cars a while ago, but had no takers.  That's fine.  They look good here. Former CNW GP38, now a leaser engine just entering the street trackage One of my favourite models in one of my favourite location ..read more

The GTW line here can be a fairly busy area, but on this visit there really was not a whole lot going on as far as I could tell.  Just a couple of boxcars seen along here today.  The building is the Tri-State Paper plant recycling plant. A look at Tri-State Paper on a rather quiet day as far as rail shipments are concerned.  Looks like an AOK high cube boxcar sitting down there at Door #1.   Bales of recycled paper are stacked up and slightly visible through the open doors. In this look, we can also see the rail entrance gate to a scrap metals recycler The gondola a ..read more