In this posting, I hope to document my conversion of a Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 into an Illinois Central 2-8-2.

This a great layout and a true craftsman.  He has planned every detail and going to be one great layout when finished. I am sorry I ran out of battery right when he was going to tell how he was going to glue LEDs to wood.

I will try and return next November and get a follow up report.  . 

When I was 14 or 15, I met my friends, or shall I say mentors, Bob and Peter Winterton who both model the CPR North of Lake Superior in Ontario. Their history lessons, modeling expertise and general knowledge inspired me to model the junction of branch lines of the CPR and CNR in Manitouwadge, ON, Canada North East of Thunder Bay, ON about 32 km's North of the Trans Canada Highway North of Superior. Both of which raced to be the first to service the Noranda Geco and Willroy Mines North of Manitouwadge.

Like I mentioned in my first entry, I had a design for a 25’x25’ double decked layout, featuring not only the entire TS run from Stockton to Turlock (excluding the Manteca Branch) but SP as well.  It was a cool “mushroom design” and I’m still convinced that it would work – given the space of course.  However, this is the space I ended up with:

The Steamboat METALINE navigates the nearly impassable rapids at Box Canyon near Ione Washington. This photo was captured circa the 1890s. Soon, the railroad would arrive, making such a dangerous journey unnecessary.

Although I am creating a freelanced railroad and I am thoroughly enjoying the freedom and the lack of constraints that freelancing offers, I wanted to evoke that sense of historic authenticity usually reserved the prototype modelers.

Well summer is coming to an end, nights are dark by 8pm and it is time to get those 85 ton steeple cabs completed. The pantographs are now in after 5 months of waiting. I have put more details on and got one coat of paint on. As you can see, the mechanics have their work cut out for them trying to figure out a pedestal configuration for the pantograph.

Have you ever had something that turned out wrong, and then it ended up being more right than you could have imagined?  I had that experience yesterday.  Since the early days of planning my double-decked Tidewater Southern, I had assumed that I would build the Foster Farms Feed Mill that sits just west of Turlock, and in fact, I set about doing just that on this layout.  It's a really cool facility:

Way back in the 1990s Model Railroader published a DIY circuit for a reefer sound generator with a 555 timer, a pseudo transducer, plus a myriad of parts. It was powered by a simple 9 volt battery. As crude as this thing was. It sounded more like a clicker, you get 2 or more of these things together then it started sounding more like a refrigeration unit. It was kind of a cool effect and back then onboard sound in any sort of capacity was pretty unique.