I was asked recently if I would consider making a 12 Axle, heavy duty flat car as a kit to offer.  I thought, Why not?  It’s unique and it would present a great design challenge.  After a bit of research, I decided on the Kasgro 325 ton 12 Axle flatcar shown here as my prototype.  There’s plenty of photos available on line, plus it’s red!  Who can resist a bright red car?

Thoughts about when you do most of your modeling?

My layout lives in the uncooled third floor of my home, so it can be brutally hot during high summer.  However, I do have A/C in other areas, where I can work on structures or rolling stock.  So I tend to work on the layout itself during the cooler months, and structure and rolling stock projects during the warmer ones.

Nick

Another long day of work on the layout:

The first train into Muir Meadow.  Got the static grass meadow, creek, and trees planted.  Another coat of water tomorrow.

This thread will follow the construction of the Harrisburg - Industrial Area on our layout...

Jas...

I'm getting a little more time as summer wanes now to again do some hobby stuff.  I am constructing an addition onto the City Fruit Exchange building.  I used DPM modular components for the odd, non- rectangular addition.  Instead of trying my luck with measuring and cutting on the styrene as there is only one right angle, I first made a card-stock template. 

The layout I currently have under construction is a free lanced plan of a fictitious portion of the N&W Pocahontas District. Being a coal hauler located in the Appalachian mountains, you would expect my layout to have a lot of grades, but such is not the case.

What it looks like today 3-9-2020In late 2014 Tony Koester asked if he could use the first photo in his “Train of thought” column in “Model Railroader” The photo ran in the February 2015 issue.  The second photo is of the area today. In the fairness of full disclosure the first photo was taken in August of 2014.

Here is another result from a collaboration with virtual reality artist Anthemios.