GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Getting things back on track, I did get some new freight cars that came up. I have a pair of Eel River Models "Beer" boxcars, one ATSF, the other Burlington Northern. These are 62' boxcars built specifically to haul wine and alcohol from western producers to distributors. These are a little difficult to come by, but they were a couple bucks, less trucks. They aren't completely assembled either, but they have all the other parts.

I had to pick these up, since I see them almost every day over on the Hainesport Industrial Railroad, and on the Conrail Shared Assets trains to it. In fact, the distributor those cars go to, Gallo Wine, is literally small enough to be practical for a layout, which is really interesting. Talking about 4x8 layouts, the Hainesport Industrial RR would be fantastic as a small layout.

In any event, it is also convenient, that as in the above discussion, many of these boxcars are still rolling around in their predecessor paint. Until fairly recently, it wouldn't be unusual to see a Burlington Northern "beer car", and I have photos of both ATSF and BN cars in Hainesport prior to the formation of the HIRR. Lately, most of the beer cars are now in BNSF paint.



The red ATSF cars are examples of this class. there is a green BN car in the consist, but of a different variety. This is 2005, but the models were "BLT 3-75", so as JWB had point out, you can get away with it just a little bit!







A few years later, a similar group. Again, the BN car is of another class, but the ATSF one is the same as model. I might be able to make the BN car better match this prototype, if I play with it. In the last photo, you can see the brakeman on the back of the ATSF car.







Here are some other cars I finished lately. The only one not pictured is the pillsbury hopper of doom. That thing i can tell is going to be a headache, a shame after all the time i took to put it together! its a tough kit...







In the passenger department, my Silverliner IV train is almost ready. The one dummy just needs its steps installed. Two of them need pantographs, but I have some to spare. In the background, you can see my new Arrow I kits, I'm getting ready to paint them. The first one out will be #517.

Also the inside track catenary is damaged. I might replace the wire span entirely, not because its broken, but with better materials. In the meantime, i'll probably buff the rust off the steel wire, and re-solder it.





Also my first set of Arrow IIs are also almost ready. The main problem has been lighting. The nature of the kits would make it difficult to assemble the model full and then install the lights later, so I have a bunch of these GE cars (Silverliner IV, Arrow II, III) parked around without steps.

The Arrow IIs were all run in married pairs, with cars sharing different appliances between each other, such as pantographs, batteries, MG sets, and compressors. Since they didn't have as much equipment, and only featured a cab on one end. The trade off was if one car went down, it would take both out of service.



B-car #555



A-car #554