Three Months Later, an Update!

It has been over three months since my last blogpost...wow.

Life has been busy, and in case you (my readers), didn't know, I am now an employee for CN Rail, as of the end of March.

Between a new career, training in Winnipeg for a total of seven weeks, and moving from Lunenburg to the Halifax area, it has all been fairly hectic.  However, I still find time here and there to do what I enjoy as a model railroader.  So here's whats been happening or hasn't been happening in the model department :-)

The UMG module will be taking a break for a little while as wiring and soldering the module itself is the next stage.  My plans is to use that module as a diorama of sorts to take photos of my models on as they are completed, and also to use at local model railroad shows as time off allows me to attend.

I have purchased a few pieces of rolling stock and also an older SD40 Athearn blue box locomotive, which should be arriving in the mail any day now!

My personal modules will wait until my wife and I move into a house sometime in the future where I can plan something more permanent for my layout.  I have had multiple modellers suggest that I focus on weathering and detailing rolling stock and motive power until I have the space for a layout, and I have decided to do just that.

Back in late February, I spent an evening with local modeller Ryan Handrahan and with his careful guiding, I was able to successfully weather my first piece of rolling stock, a CNA Railbox boxcar.  I have included a photo below to show the lightly weathered results.  In fact this week, I will be back at Ryan's for a second take on weathering with pan pastels and oil paints!

First boxcar, weathered.

Well there you have it, the next post will be a brief synopsis of two operating sessions I was apart of during my stay in Winnipeg.  As always, thank you for taking the time to view my blog, and I hope to have lots more material for you all in the near future!

- Caleb

UMG Module: Part One

Its been just shy of two months since my last blog post...its time for a new one!

I have not given up my plans of building a layout, rather where I am unsure of exactly what I want to model, I figured I'd do the next best thing and get to work on a module for the UMG, (a local group made up of members from the maritime provinces and Quebec).

I was unsure of what to build and floated various ideas around in my head before finally coming up with what I wanted to model.  There is no rules which state that a member HAS to model an area 100% prototypically, as freelancing is allowed.  However, I wanted the challenge to model prototypically and decided upon the Suburban Propane facility located in Milford, New Hampshire which is no longer serviced by rail.

I have included a photo below of the general area which I will be modelling.  Clearly, the red/maroon line shows where the current tracks lie.

For those that don't know, this is classified as the Hillsboro Branch, currently owned by Pan Am Railways to Wilton, NH, and state owned from Wilton to Bennington.  The Milford-Bennington shortline runs on this trackage from the quarry in South Lyndeborough to Granite State Concrete, located approximately a mile to the right, or railway east of the above photo.  The Milford-Bennington Railway runs from late spring to early fall making two to three rounds trips each day.  Pan Am has only one customer this far up the line, Hendrix Wire, which receives plastic pellet hoppers once a week.  It should also be noted that track speed at best on the branch is 5-10 MPH, with some locations that have restrictions of 3 MPH.

Suburban Propane last received cars in 2006, and did not receive them all that long before then.  So here this spur sits empty now, having not seen any traffic since 2006...a whopping eleven years, but in the future,  they may receive cars again, no one knows for sure...

With the history of Suburban Propane, and a short snippet of the Hillsboro Branch, I will now include an early photo of what the module looked like having just received cork.

Since this photo was taken, there have been quite a few additions...which will be mentioned in another blog post, stay tuned!

Caleb

Taking Inventory

Happy new year!  Hope everyone had a good Christmas, or whichever holiday you celebrate.  After no posts in the past month and a bit, I'm back!  Life has been busy with preparations for Christmas and the holiday season, and I have decided that I will begin the new year with a post of a spreadsheet, showing what I own by way of rolling stock and motive power.

If you're into stats, then this post is most definitely for you!  You may notice that my reporting marks are in alphabetical order so I can find my cars and locomotives easily...and I'm a tad OCD, CDO, (the OCD way of spelling OCD ;)) One thing I noticed as I was taking inventory of my entire fleet is that I have way less rolling stock than I thought...I guess that means that I can buy more? :)  The following charts are sorted by Rolling Stock, (above) and Motive Power, (below).

I won't say anymore, and let the inventory do the rest of the talking, enjoy!

Reporting Marks:	Road Number:	Type:	Manufacturer:
B&O	480000	Boxcar	Unknown
BN	625571	Centre Beam	Walthers
C&O	3178	Wide Vision Caboose	Athearn BB
CCBX	400151	23, 500 Gallon Tanker	Atlas
CGTX	22320	Tanker	Unknown
CN	322660	Coal Hopper	Unknown
CN	377275	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Intermountain
CN	377324	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Intermountain
CN	370018	56’ Center-Flow Hopper	Bachmann
CN	78934	30’ Wood Caboose	Walthers
CN	873603	Woodchip Hopper	Walthers
CN	873640	Woodchip Hopper w/ Load	Walthers
CNA	553756	Combination Door Box	Athearn RTR
CNWX	109487	55’ ACF Center-Flow Hopper	Athearn BB
CP	330939	52’ Mill Gondola w/ Load	Athearn RTR
CPWX	604301	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Bachmann
CPWX	606691	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Intermountain
DTTX	56000	48’ Well	Athearn
DTTX	56147	48' Well	Athearn
DTTX	56174	48’ Well	Athearn
DTTX	655299	53’ Well Car	Walthers
GATX	71731	19 000 Gallon Tanker	Intermountain
GN	171021	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Atlas
IC	533046	Gunderson 50’ Hi-Cube Box	Walthers
ICG	700706	Thrall 89’ Tri-Level Autorack	Walthers
MEC	6627	40’ Box	Athearn BB
MILW	92115	52’ Mill Gondola	Athearn RTR
MLLX	97277	64’  Pellet Covered Hopper	Walthers
MOBX	14277	23 500 Gallon Tanker	Atlas
NAPA	8008	40' Box	Model Power
NIRX	16523	Mechanical Reefer	Golden Spike
NS	456724	Gunderson 50’ Hi-Cube Box	Walthers
RAIX	6489	23 000 Gallon Tanker	Walthers
RG	1500	36’ Wide Vision Caboose	Bachmann
SP	226379	Double Door Box	Unknown
T&NO	41531	Gondola	Unknown
USLX	3015	Double Door Box	Atlas
USLX	50241	56' Thrall All-Door Box	Walthers
UTLX	125036	13 000 Gallon Acid Tanker	Athearn RTR
WC	24071	50’ Box	Athearn
WC	38000	Logging Rack	Walthers
WH	9011	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Intermountain
Undecorated	Undecorated	40’ Gondola	Unknown
Undecorated	Undecorated	40' Gondola	Unknown
Undecorated	Undecorated	48’ Mill Gondola	Unknown
Undecorated	Undecorated	Extended Woodchip	Unknown
Undecorated	Undecorated	Ore	Tichy
Undecorated	Undecorated	Flat w/Rail	Unknown

Reporting Marks:	Road Number:	Type:	Manufacturer:
CN	D-250	RDC	Proto 1000
CN	2514	C44-9W	Athearn BB
CN	5610	SD70i	Athearn Genesis
CN	7707	SW1500	Athearn BB
CN	9719	GP60M	Athearn RTR
NS	6775	SD60M	Proto 2000
SF	307	F-9	Bachmann
Undecorated	Undecorated	SD40	Athearn
Undecorated	Undecorated	GP9	MRC
UP	6344	SD60M	Proto 2000
VIA	6444	F40PH	Walthers

- Caleb

First Time Kit Construction

Having done some previous boxcar kits before, but never seriously, I decided it was time to do a real kit project, and do it the "right way".  I bought this kit a few years ago at Maritime Hobbies & Crafts for a mere $10.00, and figured it was time to stop moving the box around with all the parts in it without assembling it.

Well to be blunt, I understood why the price was listed at what it was.  As I began to piece the tank halves together...well I got quite frustrated but was determined to get through it.  The halves were slightly warped, enough so that it took more than just CA to cement the two together.  After multiple attempts, my wonderful wife suggested I use elastics, as she must've sensed I was getting close to taking a hammer to the darned thing, and it worked well!

My wife's brilliant idea of using elastics to hold the tanker halves together.

The rest of the assembly was not too difficult, and the two photos below show the almost car on my module.  All that is missing in these photos is the stirrups...

The tanker assembled minus the stirrups.

The CN SD70i coupled up to the RAIX tanker, again, complete minus the stirrups.

I saved the stirrups for last, as mentioned above, and I know why.  What an absolute royal pain in the butt.  Needless to say, the car has three of the four stirrups on now.  I say three and not four, because yesterday as I took one last peek at it before storing it away...one of the stirrups snapped off.  Before it goes into service, she needs a heavy dose of weathering along the top, and the final stirrup added.

Overall I enjoyed this kit, and like always, learned lots!

On another side note, this is my second post within the past seven days, possibly a positive sign of things to come!

- Caleb

A Visit to AA Hobbies in Warwick, RI

This post began as a draft back in mid-summer, and is just coming alive now.  So here goes...

As previously stated in other posts, I got married on June 10, 2016.  As most know, a honeymoon follows shortly thereafter, and my wife and I decided to not stray too far from her home state of New Hampshire, and enjoyed a lovely week across various parts of Rhode Island.  The honeymoon concluded somewhere back around Providence/Warwick area, which ironically is the area where we started our new lives together.  I was doing a late night junk food run the second night, and didn't realize it until after the fact, but I had driven right by AA Hobbies, located in Warwick.

Jumping ahead to the following Friday, as my wife and I had to stop by the hotel to pick up some stuff we absentmindedly forgot, I decided to check for hobby shops in the area, (since it was the end of our honeymoon).  It was then that I came across AA Hobbies.  Upon arriving, I realized just how familiar my surroundings were, and couldn't believe I'd driven right past it TWICE...albeit in the dark.

Nonetheless, I ended up taking a 30-45 minute look around inside.  With permission of course, I took some photos to show their massive inventory!                                                                                        

               

Athearn galore..

As can be seen, they have quite the selection!  And then I got the tour of the basement...the "overflow stock"...

Huge quantities for such a small, but thriving business!

If you ever get the opportunity to go, my fellow modellers, it is quite the place!  These photos truly do not do the store justice.  One thing is for sure, I will most definitely be visiting again, as it is only a short two hour drive from where my wife is from in southern New Hampshire.  Oh yes, the service is beyond friendly, and best of all, they really only carry HO scale :)

- Caleb