I picked up the Chevy and Dodge 3D printed N scale trucks from Shapeways. I'm impressed at the detail attainable with 3D printing. The trucks came in clear styrene. I gave them a coat of primer then coats of Mr. Color for the red and Mig Ammo Rubber & Tires Acrylic for the tires and rubber. Tamiya clear red and clear yellow for the lights. I ran .25mm fiber optics for the front and rear lights. This size proves a little small for the front lights, but great for the taillights. Somehow one of the rear view mirrors got busted off in shipping or by me. The way it goes.

Since I was a kid camping and hiking in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California I would always survey the terrain as we drove and hiked.  Each curve and grade an enticing challenge for steel wheels on steel rails.  I'd imagined a route a railroad might have used to open up the vast interior of the high Sierra.  Without a map, it's hard to imagine just how much open space there really is up there:  Alpine meadows that are miles long and miles wide, saddles, valleys, canyons and of course snow-capped peaks.

For those of you who have noticed the "Adding Rust Piles to your Layout" entry, I have another tip which happens to be my personal favorite because it is absolutely free and offers the most bang for your anti-buck.

The largest bridge on my portion of the IAIS is the ballast deck girder bridge over the West Branch of the East Nishnabotna River, just west of Hancock, Iowa.  I've finally been making some progress on the model in recent days and thought I'd start an entry to chronicle its construction.