GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

GEC, I love the engine in your first pic. The catenary sure looks like a lot of work, but it was time well spent, great job .

Yeah, that E44 is one of my favorites, I just need to do a little more work on it to get it spick and span!


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Well, a couple days ago i had pictures of where i left off, and so here are NEW pictures of whats going on right now! I just took them today, and so they should cover anything i've mentioned recently that has any progress worth photographing (some locomotives i've upgraded with a decoder and headlights, like my E60MA, but outwardly its the same).

Lets take a look at the the line up of new locomotives i have recieved since the beginning of december...

From left to right is a PRR J1 2-10-4, CSX AC6000CW, and a Trackmobile. All came with decoders and sound, except for the trackmobile (for obvious reasons).

I recall challenging trucklover to a horsepower race. I hope my side rods instill fear in the heart of those SD90s! (nah i'm just joking!)



More on these units in a minute, for now I want to show some of the actual layout progress. Its one thing to build locomotives all the time, but its good to get some other work done to!

Here is an old picture of what used to be in the back right corner of my layout just over two years ago. It may get cut off, but you can view the whole image at this link- <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7818/newpictures112606013crozn2.jpg">http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7818 ... crozn2.jpg</a><!-- m -->

OLD



A lot of that oil stuff not only didn't look good by itself out there, but also crowded the area. There was no space in American Hardware Supply for trucks to get in, and so i removed the truck loading dock as well, and the guard shack that was there. I had left the tank in place until this summer, when i finally decided to replace it. After lots of searching, i found what i think its the perfect scene for this corner of the layout-

NEW



It just about fills in the space, and it doesn't look to over crowed or stuffed in place. A chainlink fence or some bushes should be good enough to keep people off the tracks.

I did quite a bit of digging to find this woodland scenics set of basketball players, and i finally found it buried under some stuff in my favorite Hobby shop (Sattlers in Haddonfield, NJ for the win!).

Looks like the defense is going to half to work harder next time!





Only the green siding, the roof, frong porch, and the chimney are actually painted. The rest of the Atlas kit i sprayed with flat clear paint, or put a wash of grimy black onit. That seams to have done the trick. the sidewalk and driveway are Rix products, and the rest is all woodland scenics stuff (except for the BMW, which i don't know where it came from. Apparently these folks live on the right side of the tracks though!)

I'm thinking about adding more dirt ground foam around the basement doors and side doors, ase well as the corners between the sidewal to the house and the driveway. I imagine these would be worn down by foot traffic.



The AC6000CW is a BLI Blue-line product that i have recieved for my birthday. It has prooven to be a good runner, and it only needs a few decoder tweaks to run more prototypically. The only real complaints i have is that the sound doesn't always soung so great (but its still very good), and the horn sometimes goes into its "doppler mode" way to easily unless you space out the blowing of the horn. It also has a white LED for lights, which don't flatter the model ( i might pick up some incandescant-style LEDs to replace them with).



I also got a free trackmobile (except for the decoder) with that AC6000CW, so that really made my day. As long as the wheels are clean, and the track is good, this thing will do an excellent job switching my industrial park. Its just about replaced my 44 tonner (but don't worry, its not retired yet), since its smaller, and can still handle the care loads going in and out of the industrial park. Best of all, it makes more sense than having a switcher like a 44 tonner sitting around all the time, and its a little more modern (maybe to modern for my time period, but who cares?). The trackmobile can park itself by the plastic pellet transfer silos and be out of the way rather than always parked right next to a public parking lot.



#4850 starts out its day at work



It positions itself over the rails



And it sets itself down, ready to get to work hauling cars and setting them up for the Conrail local.



It turns itself around, and rolls back to pick up a Pan-AM boxcar (this is my newest boxcar and also one of my favorites.





4850 pulls the boxcar up into the track lead.







4850 shifts the boxcar onto a spur by the loading track momentarily.



Last but definitely not Least, my Pennsylvania Railroad J1 2-10-4. This is my second HO steam locomotive, and i'm very pleased with it. It is so big that it was hard to get any good pictures of it. I'm told that on straight and level track it could pull nearly 200 freight cars, making it one of the most powerful HO locomotives, and one of the few capable of pulling a prototype train by itself.



For reference, look at the size of this HO conductor compared to this thing. It is a monster, the biggest non articulated PRR steam locomotive.



The tender with coal load, train-phone antenna, and "Dog house".



Here is an N5C i picked up. It might not be in PRR paint, but it is PRR in heritage. The portholes are a dead give away (they also match the portholes on the dog house.



Short of my challenger, #6170 is the longest engine i own, and has the longest rigid wheel base as well. It barely squeezes into the 22" curves.



Also, this is NS 5287. I've had it for a while, but i'm not sure if it ever showed up in a photo, so here it is!



But don't worry, with all the CSX and Norfolk Southern, i'm not modeling the Conrail split just yet. The big blue still lives on the rails of my layout!



More pictures of some of my unfinished projects later.