I saw what would probably be a one of a kind lashup pass by this weekend. The lead unit was a BNSF in the normal scheme, followed by a BNSF unit in the GN lookalike, followed by a BN green with white nose (6 axle not a 4 axle unit) then a regular and pretty boring intermodal but then when the end came, a BNSF warbonnet engine with wait for it... an amtrak Cascades engine. 

I also saw later in the day another BN unit with the wide white stripe along the side. 

As soon as Op Session #5 was done, it was time to work on Mortonville, the station immediately south of Coatesville.  Originally I had planned to make that area Chadds Ford and include the PRR interchange there, but the only way to configure it would have resulted in a train having to foul Coatesville to work Chadds Ford and that didn't seem a good plan, so I changed the location to Mortonville, the first station south of Coatesville so intruding on Coatesville would at least be logical.

The gritty dark days of railroading in the 1970's have a special appeal for me, and the Rock Island is the epitome of the era. It was a major player in Peoria, Illinois, and the one railroad I was always drawn to visit in my hometown as a teen with a camera. That fascination has never left, and serves as my inspiration for my model railroad.

Follow along over the next few weeks as construction of Oakridge progresses on the Union Pacific Cascade Subdivison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpaC8J6NT6M&feature=youtu.be

I seem to have become a dumping ground for coworkers who are downsizing their lives and moving, either out of state or to smaller homes. Today a coworker dumped 5 boxes of HO gauge stuff in my lap. 5 older power supply packs - still in decent shape, so I can make use of them, if only for non-variable power for accessories. A bunch of old Tyco and Bachmann freight cars (not sure what to do with these, honestly). Two old Tyco (?) C6xx locomotives (one broken, one working). A trio of older Bachmann (cheapy cheap) GPs. Some nickel-silver switches and track. 2 Bachmann EZ-Track switches.

This car was scratchbuild with :

• 3D printing parts (roof, floor, doors, details)

• laser cutting parts (flanks and ends)

• Evergreen / ATLAS parts

I use for design a CAD software.

As I have mentioned, I have been working on a software project to complete my Open University degree. This project was named 470Router - 470 after the code for the OU course - TM470 - and Router as it was intended to be used to create freight car routings for my model railroad. Well, I finished the degree (got a 2.2 and was awarded a B.Sc. Hons) and went off to do other things (mostly building some plastic scale model cars - Gentle Scale Modelling).