after being mostly done with farm house I moved on to start finishing the john Johnson house in Oregon . got the plans off the library of congress site . this house has a look that appealed to me .

   

though I had to make some concessions   on the front I think I captured the essence of the place,

   

the close up .

   

now to finish the side porch and shingle the place.

I just started using self adhering shingles and have found if the roof has a chimney or other protrusions its far easier to test fit the object into hole in roof and remove before applying shingles . just run strips over hole and cut out shingles after application making it much easier to keep lines straight , after shingles are trimmed out of hole then cement  object into hole.

Not funny Mother Nature---well, this is Canada eh?

   

WPMA-29 sets out cars for McFroe's at Chestnut Neck.

Bruce

   

ok guys your most likely getting tired of my opinion questions, but have one more. as you know in revamping the Revell farm house I added a sleeping porch . the question is would you put down a valley strip or just go with overlapping the rows shingles to cover the  valley and eliminate the tin valley ?

need opinion as to what would look better on chopping block on back porch of farmhouse. The small single bit axe or the large double bit axe? I know the photo isn't very good.
   

Let's see if we can beat last week

   

Right now, I've got all my roadbed down on my new layout and I'm ready to lay some track. I've got enough manual and remote turnouts that I need with a few extra of both kinds if needed later on. I know which type I'm going to use, but I'm wondering what type do you use on your layouts. Manual is more realistic, remote electromagnetic is a lot more convenient if you run trains often and do a lot of switching.

I don't think we've run a poll since changing to the new software, so this is a good test to see how it does. The question is, what type of turnouts do you use?

This one was bashed late last year and will be the main switcher locomotive at our Donohue paper mill. It tries to replicate this ex-CP MLW S2 as it looked in the mid-2000s. This particular locomotive was acquired second-hand from Merrilees who shopped with a lower cab roof to fit tight clearance at the mill circa 1986. In the early 2000s, the engine had to be rebuilt after a serious incident (I believe a piston went through the headblock... sorry my understanding of motors is minimal at best!). When it returned from the shop, the hood Alco-style fan was replaced with an EMD GP one, giving it even more character.

It was a fun built and I weathering a black engine was quite a challenge. Since this unit was always extremely well maintained, I had to exercise a lot of restrain. In fact, the locomotive isn't painted black but rather a brownish grimy black so details can pop. Color pencils were also used to highlight panel lines, door handles and grilles. Once again, subtlety was primordial.


While the locomotive is completed, I'll need to take apart the truck sideframes and clean electrical contacts. Even if I was careful, it seems paint ended up there and kind of ruined the electrical pickup. Except for that, this Atlas locomotive is an excellent runner and equipped with a factory installed Loksound decoder.

For the anecdote, when I purchased this locomotive, it came painted in CP paint scheme and sported exactly the same roadnumber than the real locomotive when acquired by Merrilees. It was a pure coincidence!















Matt