April-May-June Update

Well no doubt I am slightly (3 months) behind on update posts. While life around these parts has been no doubt busy there have been plenty of model railroading, just lacking the time to write about it. This post will however catch you up with all the happenings around the MCIS St. Clair Sub since March. 

MCIS 7052.... Is this a new add to the roster? Read on to find out. 

CASS RIVER SCENE UPDATE
When we left off in March I was chin deep (upper level @ 66" off floor) into creating this scene. This specific setup featured a through truss bridge over the Cass River with deciduous vegetation flanking the banks along the right of way. 

After a few more weeks of work the scene is now 95% complete, the last bit to complete is ballasting the bridge approach. 

On previous layouts I have used Magic Water to create my water features but after seeing alot of good reviews on the Woodland Scenics Deep Pour Water system, I wanted to give it an honest try. Specifically the Cass River from the google street view is pretty murky so the pre-tinted murky water was on point. I ended up using two kits together to get the depth and coverage required. Using the product was as easy as the instructions provide, there are a good videos on the web showing step by step. 

As a base layer I did end up using Quikrete general purpose paver mix screened to get the rock I wanted in the middle of the river with a light blend of Missouri river pebbles provided by a good friend to provide alittle more color along the banks and in shallower water. Of course good scenic cement soaking is key in making this all possible. 

Quick Money Saving Tip: If you have a Hobby Lobby close by, you can get alot of model railroading products there, and even better use their online 40% one item coupon to help bring down the cost of items like the Deep Pour Water, tools, or Just Plug lighting. 

Paver and rock base in place, ready for scenic cement

 Water Pour 24 hours later - great results! 

Google Street View - Cass River 

With the water hard as a rock, it was time to begin adding in foilage on each side of the river. From the photo above, its pretty thick so I really wanted to layer the trees to draw the operator into the scene. 

 West bank of river at UPPE / LACE DTC block boundary

Zooming out a little more from the same shot above

 Canoers gliding town the Cass towards Caro, Michigan

 What is a Michigan river bank without a weeping willow

View west from DTC block boundary looking at the main (left) and east leg of wye (right) 

With Cass River scene just about done, I will be turning my attention towards Upper Huron. This scene encompasses the Michigan Sugar plant, Upper Huron branch wye, and the Town of Upper Huron. From the photos below basic terrain with paint and dirt base layer are in place. The next step before continuing to develop this scene is installation of backdrop. With Sceniking out of business I needed to find another vendor who created scenes to fit Mid-Michigan. After searching I came across Backdrop Junction and in short order working with Dave Burgess a backdrop will be on its way. The mockup looked great, cannot wait to get the finished product installed. 

We will return to Upper Huron later this summer to see how the scene development process is coming along. 

 Bare dirt.... Did I start modeling west Texas?

MAC RAIL UPDATE

If getting work done on Cass River wasn't enough, I decided to jump head first on quite a few backshop projects. Lets take a scroll through each of the projects completed and underway.

Contract Projects

The MAC Rail Sales rep has been busy as April saw the completion of three Soundtraxx Soundcars and a UP EMD SD50 with Tsunami sound and ditchlights under for a contract customer. 

Some say the soundcar is too much, done right it does add another level of immersion.

Paint Shop 

In addition to completing contract work, MAC Rail also opened up a paint shop for Michigan Interstate Railroad. Birthdays are always great when you get a portable spray booth. For the amount and scope of work I do, this is perfect with my Paasche H.

Michigan Interstate recently purchase two SD70ACe's from CSX. As part of opening the new paint booth, one of the units MCIS 7052 received a fresh paint job by the MAC Rail.

Motor was primed with Tamiya Fine White Primer and painted with Scalecoat II Reefer Yellow and Conrail Blue. 

Decals:

• Rail Graphics (MCIS logo, numbers, and lettering)
• Microscale (SD70ACe data)
• Highball Graphics (American Flag, Operation Lifesaver, Smart Start)
• Shellscale (Numberboards and rear numbers)
• Smokebox Graphics (Side Sill yellow reflective tape)

 Reefer yellow ends complete

 Conrail Blue applied

 Conductors side markings done (7051 as reference)

 Motor equipped with Tsunami2, Currentkeeper, and two fuel tank speakers

Completed motor in active service - nice work MAC Rail

EMD SD60M / SD70ACe Overhaul Project

With MCIS 7052 in service complete with new Tsunami2 sound/control system, MCIS management decided it was time to continue with the momentum and update the other EMD SD70ACe's (7050, 7051, 7053) for fleet commonality and efficency. While under way the two unit fleet of SD60M's which had been on MAC Rail property since last year awaiting updated electronics also received Econami sound/control. Project is on track to bring the three ACe's online by July 01 in time for the late summer demand coming into the 2018 sugar beet campaign. 

Lined up in Building 3A.

MICHIGAN INTERSTATE FLEET UPDATE

This year marked our 10 year wedding anniversary.  Building on a tradition that we started the year we got married, the CFO purchased this fantastic undecorated Proto 2000 Heritage 2-10-2 with QSI sound from the consignment cabinet at DMT. What an amazing present to commemorate and whole lot of fun to operate. Using gold dry transfers, I was able to do a convincing job marking it up for Michigan Interstate #2018. Maybe a call to Matt Welke at Circus City Decals is in order to setup a gold letter package for the excursion fleet. Don't think doing a ton of dry transfer work is for me. 

This engine will be kept along side MCIS #2008 at their Mount Pleasant base and used for passenger excursions throughout the year

Lastly MCIS 4051 (EMD SD40-2) has made an appearance on the Bay City Division. Since purchased used from the MR&T, this motor was assigned up on the North Division working between Sault Ste. Marie, St. Ignace, and Detour. Using floquil acrylics and makeup applicators from a Model Railroader Cody Grivno weathering article sometime ago I was able to give it a touch of the elements.

Pretty lengthy post, but there you have it three months like that. The summer looks to be pretty busy with the installs, ops session preparation, and of course a few other cool adds to the mix. I plan to get a monthly post out around mid month and expect to stay that course the rest of the year. Thanks for stopping by. 

GM 

March Update

Well I cant say this for alot of other places in the country, but here in Texas spring is in full bloom. Alot of folks just wrapped up spring break vacation or will taking it here the next few weeks leading into Easter so lets take a look at happenings around the "Clair". 

M-BACN-12 rolling through East Wye Switch Upper Huron (EWS UPPE)

CASS RIVER SCENE
My February post touched on the ground work that was going into creating the Cass River scene on my upper level. Over the past few week I have been making terrific progress with not only scenery but the actual through truss bridge that spans the river. Lets look closer at the work completed and whats up next to finish the scene. 

- Dirt
The previous post showed the contour work and base layer of latex paint to kill the blue / pink foam tone. Next comes a layer of true Michigan dirt that I bake and sift to get the right consistency. Having family in Michigan the odd request comes around once a year.... "Yea so can you send me a box of dirt".... They always deliver. I first put down full strength white glue with a paint brush and then using a spoon add the dirt. Giving it 10 to 15 minutes I then come back with a vacuum to remove the excess leaving a nice dirt layer. 

 Getting ready to bake the dirt in a aluminum pan - 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Dirt layer in place, needing to come back with the vacuum

- Greenage
After adding the dirt comes a mixture of foams, flocks, and rocks to give the area life. I use some photo for reference but remembering things in nature, just attempt to go with what looks right. Following the tried and true method, wet with isopropyl alcohol and then soak in scenic cement. I have tried a homemade blend of cement, I love Woodland Scenics preblended stuff the best. Can get it a Hobby Lobby with a 40% coupon for around $6. 

On the river and banks will be a sand mixture mixed with small river rock to blend in.  

Layering the scenery really does bring this area to life

- Next Steps

With primary scenery in place and secured I will now be completing the riverbed scene with rocks and sand. Once dry and cured the process to pour Magic Water will take place and finish getting the river complete. I expect to do this at the end of March, so I will be sure to show step by step how that process works and the great results it produces. Prior to pouring the water, the bridge and ballast work will be completed. Wrapping up this area will be alot of Scenic Express Super Trees.... alot..... 


UPPER HURON SCENE
Since I have all of the materials out it only makes sense to keep with the momentum and scenic another adjacent scene to the Cass River which is the Upper Huron scene. 

About the scene: Upper Huron is not a fictional tower on the railroad but also a neat operation element as well. Upper Huron or UH as its know is the location of a operation wye that allows trains to traverse from either direction on the St. Clair Sub onto the Port Belle Sub. The Port Belle Sub is represented by staging however this line hosts the switch to enter the Michigan Sugar plant and sees a daily local turn during the session and occasionally a unit rock train from a quarry. The actual scene depicted hosts a grade crossing leading into town modeled by a Sceniking backdrop, the sugar beet plant, and a modern water tower in the middle of the wye. Anyone familiar with Michigan knows about all of the unique water towers, UH will be no different. 

 Out of flat blue foam, comes terrain shape via pink foam and sculptamold

 View east looking at the sugar beet plant, and east wye switch. You can see where the scenery currently stops. 

Water tower right in the middle of the wye will have character of its own. AEI reader site as well in Upper Huron. 

Still alot of work to do in this area but wow just getting some terrain shape, paint, and dirt down really helps make the area more appealing. 

RAILCAR FLEET ADDITION - GUNDERSON 5188

Earlier this month Michigan Interstate received the first of a larger covered hopper being added to the agriculture fleet. The 5188 cubic hopper is slightly larger than our most modern being the Trinity 5161 cubic and the two will be mixed in together to provide our customers newer high capacity cars to get their grains to market. In preparation for this add the fleet did cascade seeing the venerable ACF 4600 cubic cars retire and find new life on the Delmarva Central out east. 

Fleet Plan (Effective March 2018)

4600 cubic - retired from fleet

4650 cubic - owned by Mich. Ag. Commodities for single or quad-block  

4700 cubic - sugar beet pulp, sugar beet pellet, agricultural single

4750 cubic - agricultural single, agricultural quad-block

5161 cubic - agricultural single, quad-block, and unit

5188 cubic - agricultural unit 

A quad block on their way to their first loading at M.A.C.

Of course in the process of purchasing the cars, MCIS decided to go with the Scaletrains Operator version since lets be honest the details are good enough and I am rough on the equipment. In short order I had the variety pack of FRA 224 reflectors from Smoke Box Graphics and our mechanical forces proceeded to get them compliant.... Not sure how they got from Sahagun, Mexico to Michigan without reflectors.... 

Great job by Scaletrains and Smokebox Graphics for great new innovative products, they hit these right on the mark! 

Looking pretty sharp - MCIS 5827

CASS RIVER BRIDGE 

Following Tom Patterson's step by step from MRH I used gouache paints to weather my through truss bridge. I dont want to take anything away from the article so recommend if you are interested in doing this, take a look at the November 2011 issue and go from there. All of the paints can be purchased at a craft store and one thing I did discuss with Tom is using distilled water over Microsol is just as good and even better. I ended up doing the first overall wash with Microsol, but the random sponge work was done using water. Enjoy the photos.

Base wash of burnt umber-onyx black gouache paint applied

After a few days - proceeded with the random burnt umber and burnt sienna wash

Bridge complete and dry - wow the washes really made it pop

Closeup of the girder and rivet plates - Michigan elements have taken its toll

Simple technique - amazing results.

OREGON JOINT LINE - MARCH DOUBLEHEADER

Wrapping up this post, we are going to have to get slightly smaller... like n scale small and head on over to Dean Ferris' Oregon Joint Line. Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a double header operations session. For the morning session I was the dispatcher and had a good time pushing around fifteen trains across the railroad in preparation for the afternoon shift. Following a lunch break by the pool I crossed over and went into management as the Assistant Superintendent. This role is to help the layout owner (Superintendent) with getting operators orientated and running. Lets be honest from the management side the railroads operating on the OJL are not making any money with idle trains. If you can tell there was some management adversity built into this session all to have a little fun. Right off the bat I was handed a wire describing the need to run a rotary plow extra account snowfall at Snowline! 

I blew up the photo real big so you can see, there is definitely some friction between the unions and management. Believe the operator may have added more letters to my last name then I thought were there. None the less the railroad cannot operate effectively if the summit grade of the line at Snowline is blocked. Myself and engineer M. Thidemann didn't know what we would find until we got up on the summit and "Oh $#!% thats alot of quicker picker upper snow". After a few runs at it we cleared the siding and ran down to Kinzua to turn the extra on the wye and go back at it from the other direction. Upon returning to the summit at Snowline we found the mainline now blocked due to shifted drifts and snow with almost a paper like consistency.

 Making a run at the drift in the siding at Snowline.. Took us three runs to clear

In the end it was about keeping them moving like we see here with a meet at Fossil. 

Having a morning and afternoon session where everyone from both sessions could get together and have lunch was a great idea. So many times having a session limits you to a certain amount of folks not allowing any networking outside of the session, but in this case folks were able to talk shop, eat, and either wrap up or start their operating day on the OJL. Great job to Dean for planning this and having me help with both sessions. 

That in a nutshell is my March update, still have another two weeks left of the month and plan to keep making good progress on the Cass River and Upper Huron scenes so stayed tuned and safe travels to all out on spring break. 

GM 

November 2017 / December 2017 / January 2018 Update

Well what can I say, it has been sometime (November) since my last Update post. I owe it to you the reader to provide more consistent updates, but as model railroading is a hobby I can tell you family, life, and work has been busy.

Bay Yard has looked lust like this since my November 2017 ops session ended.

So to catch everyone up, we are going to spend this post catching up on happenings around the MCIS St. Clair Sub for Nov, Dec, and Jan. We will get back on track in two weeks with my February Update post and hope to stay on task through the year.

NOVEMBER 2017 

On the back end of October essentially in November the CFO and I travelled to Denver for a friends wedding. No trip to the Mile High City is complete without a stop by Caboose Hobbies at their new location in Westminster. In my opinion I actually like the new store better and they did not miss a beat on selection when reopening. If you are in Denver, take sometime to check out the shop.

 Yours truly out front @ Caboose

 Amazing selection, great layout, I will return. 

I picked up a Bowser 100 ton hopper in DRGW paint, this car will be re lettered and numbered to commemorate our friends getting married. Just a fun way to add story to the car.

 Two BNSF Executive SD70mac's assigned on the Longmont Local. 

Early November saw arrival of Scale Trains equipment that I had preordered some time ago.

Thrall 4427 cubic carbon black hopper (River Counter)

Trinity 31,000 gallon crude tank car (Operator)

I decided to pick up one of each to put through its paces on the operation. An ops session later and they operating superb on the "Clair", maybe there could be more Scaletrains equipment to come? One item I do like is the inexpensive decal package you can purchase to spruce up the crude tank car operator models, in my opinion it is just enough. 

Mid November I hosted my only ops session for 2017..... dismal but glad I still got one in. My "Regular" crew filled the job board with solid 3.5 hour session moving twelve trains with around 160 car movements. Not bad for a 11x13 double deck layout. Here are photos from the session.

 Operating or congregating.... you decide

 M-BAPH-16 led by MCIS 4008 (GP40-2) and engineer M.T. taking the main at Gerhard, Michigan heading east. 

 M-MCBA-15 led by MCIS 6051 (GP60) rolls across the Saginaw River into Bay Yard Restricted Limits.

 Yardmaster CMP assisting with DP link up. 

 M-PHBA-16 rounding the curve through Grays Lake, Michigan.

M-CNBA-15 knocking down the West Siding Switch signals at Upper Huron.

DECEMBER 2017

Shopping, Christmas activities, and family time were the priority this month. During this time I did not get a lot of work done on the layouts but made up for it with what Santa and the family got me for Christmas. I am beyond blessed to have family that support me and my hobby.

New Atlas equipment adding to the layout roster, just a sampling of new additions. 

JANUARY 2018

A new year and time to refocus on the layout and blog.

Started out the year making some railcar fleet changes. Staying current day has its pros and cons such as acquiring and retiring equipment.

- 4600 Cu. covered hopper fleet (Retired)

These cars had come to MCIS through the years post Conrail either as new or second hand acquisition serving our agricultural customers moving various grains. As covered hoppers grew in cubic size and changed, so the usage of the 4600. No longer needed in agricultural service the cars were assigned to rock salt service. When the business changed so again did this fleet. Rock salt service is tough on railcars so now in the 2010s, older worn out cars were scrapped while the younger cars were rebuilt for 50 year service. Growing agricultural demands in unit train service stressed the active fleet of ag. hoppers prompting MCIS to place the 4600 into single carload service for agricultural customers. This service was only temporary as the Equipment team placed an order for forty brand new 5188 Cubic hoppers from Gunderson. These new cars are expected to be in service late Q1 2018 working alongside with 5161 cubic hoppers in unit and large block carload service. Adding a newer car to the fleet causes a cascading effect, in this case moving 4750 cubic cars to single service and displacing the last of the 4600s.

Block of four 4600 cubic cars on their way to DELC loaded with grains for chicken feed.

The cars have now found good homes on other freelanced model railroads living on as MCIS equipment in earlier eras.

- 3600 Cubic covered hopper fleet (Retired)

A similar story to the 4600s where these cars had been acquired for rock salt service. In the end these cars were rebuilt at 40 yes but still aged out based on the 50 year rule. The cars have been traded to a local friend who in an early 2000s era layout will use them in rock salt service.

The last two 3600 cubic hoppers awaiting pickup to begin journey to new owner.

Getting back to modeling skill roots, I found a Bowser 100 ton hopper kit for $5 and thought it would be a good project to sharpen my skills. After a little paint, decals, and weathering we have CWE 125690 which will be in coke service between Follansbee, WV. (Mountain State Carbon) and Upper Huron, MI. (Michigan Sugar).

Final product turned out pretty nice - trucks need to be slightly darker. 

Wrapping up January's, I found myself back in Denver for daytrip. I had a few extra hours before my evening flight and took advantage of stopping by to see John Parkers BNSF Fall River Division. The layout is amazing and I could spend an entire post discussing it and maybe one day we will do a post covering an end to end tour of a train, but today I am just going to show some great photos of the visit. If you want to check out more of this layout John has a Facebook page (BNSF Fall River Div.) and website open for anyone to view: http://www.bnsfrr.net/

 Boise Cascade lumber mill at Winston

 The mainline heading west from Overlook passes over itself in a large loop as it descends into Kimber

 BNSF Staging Yard (Represents Tacoma / Lincoln)

 Highway crossing at East Horton adjacent to Kappa Grain

 Hobos..

 Yours truly at Fall River Yard

 Fall River Switchers and the DPU of an empty PSC coal train. I love this yard scene.

Fall River Yard

Enjoy the photos and stayed tuned for February's Update which should be back on track.

GM