Hello again

After sharing both the route map and paint schemes of the Roanoke, Blue Ridge and Western (RBR&W) on my MRH blog, I've decided to go a step further. Attached to this post is a Microsoft Excel document containing the current locomotive roster of the RBR&W for my early 1970s era. There are no road numbers listed as I have yet to develop an appropriate numbering scheme to reflect old and new numbering practices on the RBR&W.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

This blog is about detailing and putting in service an ex-Rock Island Union Pacific GP38-2 for the late-90s era.

From Conway yard to new castle pa and back to Conway yard,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BFb1E9qnNv8

My favorite IAIS locomotives aren't, well...IAIS locomotives.  I've always liked second-generation EMD SDs, so when LLPX SD38-2s 2802, 2805, 2807, and 2809 were leased, and later purchased, by the IAIS, they became naturals as future modeling subjects.  

With my IAIS locomotive roster projects winding down, one of the last remaining road units to build was SD38-2 2809.  It joins sisters 2802 and 2805, so I thought I'd include photos of all three in the post below for comparison.

I changed the title to better reflect my rambling fiction + history below (fictory?)

Things got off to a bit of a slow start this year. My school hosts a “Mini Maker Fair” in October and my room is used for clinics and exhibits so I couldn’t bring the four existing sections down from storage until that was over.

This is my first module.  The first tentative steps beyond just collecting.  

This module is a mainline through a tunnel over a small bridge beside a stream in the mountains. Inspired by Pelle Soeborg.  Hopefully it will look like a piece of the Canadian Rockies.

These are how it was looking a few week ago after I'd completed the first ground cover layers.

More news on my cleaner, simpler website, including a story about an RDC used as a school bus on the prototype, plus a story about "who's who on the Hitop". I like to add stories believe it or not to enhance the operation of my layout, to make it feel more prototypical, to bring back memories of past railroading days, or just to make it feel more "down home" to me. Please be sure to check out the site for these and more coming, and hope everyone enjoys......:)

Again, the website is here: http://hitopbranchmodelrr.com/