Like the old saying goes. After trying to run some of the new rolling stock I came to the conclusion that the street inside the rails was too thick. Its right up against the inside of the rails causing the cars to constantly derail. So 2 choices. Tear up whats there and replace it with .05 or .10 styrene or carefully remove the inner portion and cut it narrower so it sits down against the molded in spikes. That was less expensive and easier to do. So this morning was spent reworking that.

Several years ago there was a manufacturer called Scale Trees. They still have a website at

www.scaletree.com/

But they went into hibernation back in 2004. According to the press release they hoped to come back someday.

But nothing so far.

They had some great tree armatures. They appeared to be made with wire so they were flexible. And they coated the wire with some substance that was flexible and did a great job of looking like bark. But I have never found anything like what they used.

One box delivered. 16 freight cars for the fleet. Two nice 8-car bundles from one seller on E-Bay. $88. That comes out to $5.50 per car including shipping. I am very pleased with that. All had knuckle couplers. But all wheels will have to be replaced. All cars wil have to be weighted heavy. And of course weathered.

Well this morning spent some time on the underframe assembly.

First installed the Fishbellys in place. You can't put these on the wrong sides as one has two slots to fit in and the other has one. When you do this, you need to make sure the detail is facing out so they're not backwards.

Then put together the Body Bolster halves.