Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

Tichy 0.010"-diameter wire has been ordered - hope to flatten a few pieces to provide the profile I'm seeking for the rain gutters.

Until all of this material arrives for the locomotive, I thought I'd work on the patch out paint and road numbers.  I thought about adding (and then patching out) a "Bee Line" logo on the long hood, and then did a little research.  Turns out the Reading bought their C630's in two batches.  The first 7 locos were painted without the "Bee Line" logo, and (most importantly) were not shipped with Hi Ad trucks.  The second 5 had the Bee Line logo and the Hi Ad trucks.  My Stewart Hobbies C630 does not have Hi Ad trucks, just the standard C-C truck arrangement, so it's more appropriate to model mine as the earlier batch - which is probably why Stewart didn't represent this one with the Bee Line Logo.  I'm betting that Bowser probably has Hi Ad trucks as an option these days on their website, but I didn't think to look for them last night.

So, simple patchouts of the diamonds (front, rear and cab sides) and the large road number on the back of the long hoods as well as replacement of the numbers on the number boards are all that's going to be required.  It turns out (and Charlie probably already figured this out) that Conrail 6757 was once Reading 5304, and since (thanks to Charlie) I have photos from both sides of the locomotive in beautiful grime, it's fate - the road number for this locomotive is going to be 6757.

To get ready to paint the black patches, I first got out my blue painter's tape and masked off the areas of the locomotive I'll patch (I'll brush on the black paint and won't even attempt to achieve neat or complete coverage).  As a matter of fact, if I can get just a hint of the Reading logos leaking through, I think that'll be a plus.  Many of the CR patchouts looked like minimal efforts by the painting crews - probably sent out with a roller and some black paint on miserable days in the yards.