UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - Printable Version

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RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - cn nutbar - 07-25-2020

Hi Deano---that's an interesting photo---those locomotives are a common feature in my hometown at the CP Kinnear Yard.Here's some information on the CP purchase of the ICE/DME RR.

The Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad (IC&E) (reporting mark ICE) was a Class II railroad operating in the north central United States. It has been controlled by the Canadian Pacific Railway and operated as a part of its system since October 30, 2008. Formerly, the IC&E was jointly owned with the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad by Cedar American Rail Holdings (CARH), making the combined system the largest class II railroad in the United States. Created by the purchase of I&M Rail Link, IC&E commenced operations on July 30, 2002. The 1,400-mile (2,300 km) line, based in Davenport, Iowa, serves the states of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin

Not long ago DME/ICE locomotives were used on CP trains in Hamilton until they were all sold for scrap.

   

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - UP SD40-2 - 07-31-2020

Thanks for the info and pic ED! Applause Applause

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Well, I got a chance to work on the layout today, done with all the inlaw visits for awhile.  Icon_e_biggrin  
 
I ended up running two trains and thinking on my next project, that didnt last long, the mixed freight train I was running had two cars the couplers broke on, like 5 mins apart, so I left my Tunnel motor grain train going while I put new Kadie couplers on the two cars on the mixed freight train. My problem is when I buy freight cars I never change the couplers out right away, my Dad always did, right off the bat, but me...naw, I never change them out until one of them breaks, then I change them. 

After that I noticed the dust was getting a bit thick on a couple cars/engines, so I went around and dusted them off, put a few more shrubs in a couple spots and that was about it, nothing special, but it was nice and relaxing Icon_e_smile  .

I have five Tunnel motors, I ran three of them today....  
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Till Next time...

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - doctorwayne - 08-01-2020

I've always liked the look of those tunnel motors, Deano, but they're a little too modern for my late '30s layout, even though I do have a tunnel...

   

Wayne

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - Tyson Rayles - 08-02-2020

Great looking locos Deano !

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - ezdays - 08-02-2020

Just overall great scenes, fine layout Deano, neat engines too.... Applause Applause

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - UP SD40-2 - 08-16-2020

Havent had the time to do many projects, but that will change this week as we are furlowed this week, that will give me a chance to get a project or two on the layout done Icon_e_biggrin Applause .

DID get a chance to run trains for about an hour a night three nights this past week though, mostly ran my 4 engine WSOR fleet. I have kinda been on a WSOR kick the last two weeks, WSOR doesnt mean much to most, hard for peopole to get excited about them as they are a regional road, but I go to Janesville a lot so I really love WSOR Icon_e_biggrin .
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Friday night I lashed up 3 of 4 of my Dash 9's....
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Thats about it for now, oh yes, also planning on going to the hobby shop this week! Icon_e_biggrin
Till next time..

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - tompm - 08-16-2020

Those Wisconsin Southern units are really sweet looking.

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - UP SD40-2 - 08-16-2020

Thanks so much Tom! Icon_e_biggrin

I was pretty lucky at the time the WSOR SD40-2's and GP38's came out, I had the extra cash to buy them at that time Icon_e_biggrin  . Those engines havent been out again for a very long time, now you can just get the GP9's , thats IF YOU CAN FIND THEM. Every GREAT now and then you might find an SD40-2 or GP38 if your REALLY, REALLY, REALLY LUCKY on Ebay. 

I dont have the WSOR GP9, about the time I got into WSOR pretty big they had already sold off the GP'9s, and were in the process of dumping the last of their SD20's, going totally with just SD40-2's and GP38's....well, and two MP15's  Misngth .  Man I really wish they would have made the SD20's in WSOR paint scheme, I was railfanning WSOR a lot when they had them and have quite a few pics of them, very cool looking. Yes, I could make one, but ahh, just not up to all the work in it at this time Icon_redface .

Here's just two(of many) WSOR SD20 pics I took oh....cripes, before 2011, it was before I got married...
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RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - UP SD40-2 - 08-17-2020

So, today I went down stairs planning on doing one of my scratch build projects, but thought I would get a train running first, looked over my engines and thought hmm, time to lash up some UP SD40-2's, counting my UP patched CNW, I have 5 of them. 

As I assembled the engines I kept looking at the patched CNW, its one of my fav...oh, who am I kidding, I love ALL of my SD40-2's Icon_e_biggrin , anyways, the patched engine needed two new railings and the old plastic couplers replaced with Kadee #5's, so BOOM, thats what I ended up doing, getting my patched CNW back into shape. I have a box with replacement parts in it, kind of a "junk box" of assorted parts I guess you would say. I replaced the very front railing and the front left railing, they were UP's Harbor mist gray, I didnt even change the color to green, the way I see it was the shop replaced the bad railings and didnt paint them as the patched engine is going in for paint in the near future anyways, kinda gave the engine some character, I thought anyways. I did end up repainting all the white areas on ALL the hand rails and couple cut bar, I think they would have done that much.

I replaced the couplers and put her in the #2 spot just to make sure everything worked ok, ran her for awhile, she ran great! Icon_e_biggrin 
Posted are a few pics of todays run, tried to get pics of a not so much seen area on the layout...
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Not sure, as who really knows what I'll end up doing Misngth , but I am thinking I am going to get my second SP SD40-2T engine back in shape tomorrow. That engine needs a sunshade put on it, needs the couples replaced, and I think 3 railings, we'll see what happens.

Till next time...

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - tompm - 08-17-2020

Looks like a very productive day. The patched job unit came out great. I like the mix of stuff. Reminds me of the days when CSX was converting all their Chessie and Seaboard stuff. Never knew what kind of Frankenstein was going to show up.

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - doctorwayne - 08-18-2020

I agree with Tom...while it's nice to have things in good condition and as close to perfect as we can make them, it's also more realistic to sometimes show repairs which look like repairs.  That could be as simple as re-painting a repaired grabiron or a portion of a replacement handrail in a colour not matching the original.

Most of my rolling stock has had its moulded-on grabirons replaced with metal ones, but because they continually cycle on- and off-layout, returning to their respective boxes, then back to a staging yard, the paint often chips or wears-off some of those grabirons.

On the real railroads, if a car from off-line arrives at another road's yard, with a broken or missing grabiron (grabirons, cut-levers, and ladders, plus a lot of other stuff, are known as "safety appliances"), the receiving railroad is required to repair that item before it can be delivered to the consignee or before it can be returned to the owning railroad.  It's not uncommon for that replaced or repaired part to be painted with whatever colour happens to be available in the repair shop.

At the end of each month, each railroad sends out the bills to the other roads for which they have made repairs - the costs are fixed for all roads, so everbody's cars are kept in good repair, at the same cost as if the owner road had done the work.

Every so often, as I'm shuffling my cars between box and layout, I'll take those needing a little repair into my workshop, fixing or replacing anything needed, then slapping on some paint, whether or not it matches the cars' original colour.  This lends a little "history" to each car, showing that it's been somewhere other than only on its home-road.

Wayne

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - Tyson Rayles - 08-19-2020

Looking good!

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - UP SD40-2 - 08-22-2020

Thanks guys! Icon_e_biggrin 
Yes, I think not painting the railings really helped add to some realism  Goldth .

Well, I didnt get as much done this week on the layout as I wanted, but I ended up doing a couple other projects so that didnt help the layout any. 

I did get my SD40-2T fixed up though, it needed new couplers, and the front & rear railings replaced. I ended up having a spare front railing so that worked out great, the rear railing...not so much. I didnt have another railing to replace the rear, but the mid area of the rear railing was fine, it was both of the side parts of the rear rail that was broken, so I ended up taking some fine wire and making the side rails on the rear railing myself. The left side really worked out great, it looks pretty darn good, the right side...well, I might go back and redo that at some time Icon_redface , but I left it for now. I put that engine in the #2 spot and ran it when I was finished to make sure there was no coupler problems after I had replaced them. EDIT: this side you see has the "bad" rear railing I had made, the other side looks great.
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I was taking pics of the train I had going with the fixed engine in it, the engine on point was an SD45-2T, took a pic of it running through an area I dont post much of, thought WOW, that pic looks good, then after I uploaded the pic to Imgur I realized...THE FRONT PLOW IS BUSTED OFF! OMG, didnt even notice it while I was running it, sure as heck, in the display case where I keep that engine, there it sat...cripes, well, here's the pic since I uploaded it anyways...
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So after I fixed the plow on that engine, I decided I was going to work on the area just outside the tunnel, near Owen, I put scrubs and bushes down around there, and decided since I was doing Wisconsin and I didn't have any farm fields on the layout, I would put a cow pasture by the old farm house just outside the tunnel, the farm its self would be "implied". I seen at the hobby store that they had some nice fencing and some Dairy cows that would work perfect in that area, at least I would have cows on the layout...being it is Wisconsin. 
SO, I drove to Rockford friday to the hobby shop...SADLY, THEY WERE CLOSED! CRIPES, the street the hobby shop was on was being reblack topped friday, so the store closed for the day, cripes, wish I would have known, wasted trip.
Here's a couple pics of the area, just waiting for the fencing and dairy cows...
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I had three Dash 9's still hooked up from earlier in the week, decided to run them for a bit, took a couple pics of the small town of Owen, I dont post many shots of that, like all the layout, the town of Owen needs a lot of work still done to it, far from finished, but heres a couple shots of part of it...
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Well, that where I am at now, till next time...

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - cn nutbar - 08-23-2020

Deano---I always enjoy pictures of your great layout especially your roster of motive power.I had to smile when you mentioned the missing snow plow in one of your photos---it made me think of all the times I've posted a picture and then notice something wrong,most often wheels off the tracks---looking forward to next week's additions.

RE: UP SD40-2's NEW Layout - UP SD40-2 - 08-30-2020

PART 1....

Well, I'm late with my weekly...update/blog/posting...? But here it is Icon_e_biggrin , was kinda a busy week on the layout, did some work, nothing really special really, but did a few things none the less. I ran trains quite a bit too, was nice. ANYWAYS, this will be a 2-3 post update.

First up, went to the hobby shop, bought the fence and about a dozen cows, YEAH! NOW, that I have some Holstein cows, it looks like Wisconsin Goldth . I worked on this area a bit, though I still am going to put more brush and a rusted truck in this area with tall weeds growing around it, and weeds growing through broken windows, anyways, heres where I am at with the right rear corner of the layout...
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As I mentioned in my last post, the farm its self is just "implied", as I dont have room for a farm in that area.

I have been trying to post some shots of areas that I havent taken many pics of, heres a shot of the fixed SD45-2T with the front plow back on it, going past the rocky side of this mountain...
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The same train headed towards an area I call "the pines", I take a lot of pics in this area thats just before the pines, its a nice long stretch of hills, woods and a creek, there are a lot of places like that here in Wisconsin. A lot of people model towns/cities, thats great, it gives a lot of chances for switching, but there is also a lot of railroading that is out in the middle of nowhere, and thats what I wanted a good chunk of my layout to represent, I just didnt want to make it real industrial
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Now we come to the right front area of my layout, not many pics taken here, its not done by any means, but its close in a good part of it. As we come into the pines, the first building we come to is the West End Dinner, this is along a spur, but has no rail service, the spur leads to another industry. This Dinner kind of reminds me of the "Subway Subs" in S. Beloit, it leads to the old Milwaukee Road yard(now CP) and the UP has trackage rights on it, a lot of times the engines will stop right behind subway and the engineer will go and eat at Subway. Sometimes I park a UP MP15 behing this little Dinner to represent that.
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Across the field from the Dinner is Vetter Sash & Door Co.
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Vetter Sash and Door Co. gives me a good chance to not only switch it for cars in the yard, but is also a tie in with GERN, as they use products GERN offers like additives for paint and varnish, making the doors and sashes last up to 3% longer then your normal doors, giving this company an edge in the door and sash industry.... Misngth .

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TO BE CONTINUED...