• Manifest Destiny Part 2

• Confession of an airbrush wimp

• Athearn-Atlas GP shell swap project (HO) how to

• Manifest destiny: expansion planning!

• Refueling station

One year ago I undertook a big expansion project detailed here:  https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/38428    Now IRR management has negotiated another expansion area adjacent to the current yard. In other words, the desk and futon found a new home in another room. This frees up almost the entire 24’ wall which is currently used only by a 90 deg corner turn module and a narrow 5 track yard. So it’s expansion track planning time again!

I enjoy stripping cars and locos down to bare plastic and repainting/decalling them. For the last few years I’ve been using spray cans to include Rustoleum, Krylon, and various hobby brands. Results have been sometimes very good but usually inconsistent and I knew deep down it was time to move to an airbrush. Plus the weathering possibilities are very intriguing. I even picked up a Badger Patriot 105 and a little spray booth last year but have been intimidated by the whole thing....

I found myself with a Athearn GP38-2 in CSX colors and an Atlas Trainman GP38-2 in CNW colors, both DC.  My layout is DCC running CSX and my freelance road. The Atlas Trainman GP’s are superb quiet runners available at a very reasonable cost; I have a few with Digitrax no sound DCC decoders added. After adding a Digitrax decoder to the Athearn it proved to be an unacceptably noisy grinder. Despite cleaning up the old grease on the gears and re lubing everything it’s still a grinder.

My current 24’ long shelf layout is a lot of fun but I’ve been feeling the itch to expand. With a little furniture rearrangement in the layout room I’ve opened up another L-shaped space available to expand from the back of the stub yard.

Been working on a refueling station for the engine house. It’s a modified Con-Cor (Piko) Cambria Fuel Rack. Nice little kit with lots of detail, piping, tanks and associated parts. Still determining which of those parts will be used here. 

Going into 2018 I didn’t have a list of specific goals, just generally expanding the layout down to the end of the room, but looking back at the year there’s been pretty good progress on the layout:

Pulled out my Harbor Freight air eraser (model #69277) to start weathering a few cars. Cool tool EXCEPT the tip clogs on average about every 5-10 seconds so I spend more time removing it and blowing it out than erasing.  Despite that it puts a nice effect on lettering. I’ve been using HF air eraser compound with decent results. Would like to try baking soda too.

Finally broke through the apathy barrier that stood between the existing layout and eastward expansion.  

Been working on a couple of rolling stock projects lately trying to improve my weathering skills.  Pics in following post