Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Michigan Interstate Railroad. We hope you have a safe and fun time with family and friends.

Q-GRPH-27 ties down at Bay Yard for the 8 hour no call window during the Thanksgiving. Later this evening a new crew will take the train to Port Huron.

Mid November Update

Weather down here in Texas today is cold, rainy, and overcast which makes for the perfect time to provide my Mid November Update. The last few weeks have been alot of fun around the house and on the "Clair".



MCIS SD70ACe 7050 leads the M-BAPH-10 out of Bay Yard towards Port Huron.



Fort Worth Train Show - Will Rogers Coliseum 

 


Tug and I prior to going into the show.



Grandpa and Tug checking out train photos and other memorabilia.

 

A CN / Grand Trunk Western consist in Texas.... Those new Intermountain SD40-2s look and run fantastic!

  Last weekend was the annual Fort Worth Train show at the Will Roger Coliseum (Amon Carter Event Center). This show hosts a ton of local modular layouts (A hit with my son) and dealers selling consigned and new products. I was very impressed with both the Forest Hill and Fort Worth train shows this year in Tarrant County. The same vendor that I had picked up five cars from at the Forest Hill Train Show was in attendance so I had the opportunity to pick up another nine cars needed for customers served on the railroad. 

Picked Up: 

2 Atlas Pressuraide Hoppers - Customer: Huron Mills 

2 Walthers Plastic Hoppers - Customer: ThermoPak Industries 

2 Athearn 20,900 RTC tank cars - Bridge traffic 

2 Atlas 3560 Hoppers - Customer: AmCan Salt 

1 Intermountain Cylindrical Hopper - Customer: Michigan Agricultural Commodities

Y-BA04-08 bringing the new online cars back to Bay Yard from Lake State Railway Interchange.



Layout Update

Along with the train show I have been working diligently to complete the basic scenery on the east end of Bay Yard. The most recent addition to the scene was SuperTrees trees. For this area I decided to use the 60 second tree method with spray paint and hair spray versus matte medium. One of these tree batches I will try out the glue method using scenic cement but with my time limited every shortcut helps balance time working on the railroad.

Enjoy the pictures - hope Santa Claus will bring me Siliflor grass tufts to help finish the scene transitioning into the helix.

East Yard lead into Bay Yard - the Smith & Sons ballast blends turned out really nice.

Coming out of the helix - just beyond the curve is the east switch to Bay Yard and Chessie Junction.

Looking east from the yard lead - the whole in the backdrop represnets the lower level continous run / Lake State Railway Interchange.




MCIS SD70ACe rumbling through the newly added foilage.

 

L to R - East yard lead, Main 1, Main 2, Industry track into Lakes Forest Products

Engineers view through the newly forested section east of Bay Yard between the M-15 overpass and helix entrance. This is also the beginning of the continous grade out of the Saginaw River Valley up to Upper Huron, so as you can imagine the prime movers would be singing.   


Everyone stay safe going into the holidays and stay tuned for my next update around Thanksgiving.

GM

Early November Update

Over the past week the east end of Bay Yard has begun to take on its own identity with basic scenery installed.

The wet/wet process continues to be a great straight forward method, as long as you have your materials ready to go. Working in two foot sections progress can be scene right away!

             

















                                     Overview of work area

Ballast

The ballast being used is Smith & Sons #50 limestone in light and dark shades. This material is real rock and great to work with, even though this is technically n scale ballast I like the finer grain.

Lakes Forest Products

This is the first customer in place ready for full scenery. Centerbeams and double door boxcars will frequent the facility so solid pavement for unloading was needed. This particular scene I used Busch's flexible pavement adhesive roll. After templating with paper I cut the sheet, removed the backing, and pressed it into place..... If only gift wrapping was this easy....

I need just a bit more of the material to complete the pavement between the mainline and siding. 

Stay tuned for another update this weekend!

GM

Late October Update

With scenery once you make the jump its hard to stop... For all those out there who are timid, grab a scenery guide out there and just hop in. Practice makes perfect!

The area I am currently working on uses Pelle Soeberg's wet/wet method and the results have been awesome!

Here are a few photos of progress made this week. To compare before and after check out my earlier October updates. The only thing missing scenery basic wise is grass tufts, static grass areas, and SuperTrees. Maybe trip to hobby local shop this weekend?

  Wednesday Evening Progress

   

  Thursday Evening Progress

Hope to have another post sometime Sunday or Monday

GM.

Cement Hopper Fleet Attrition

One disadvantage of modeling current era 2013-2014 is equipment eventually reaches its retirement age or as traffic bases or trends change so does the equipment mix of the railroad. 

2960/70 Cu. - 2 Bay Cement Hopper Fleet

This fleet is comprised of second hand cars built in the late 70s and 80s acquired for a new cement plant, but after being in cement service for some time were beginning to show their age. Based on industry attrition of railroad owned cement cars to private or lease fleets it was decided by management to retire the fleet through sale and scraping by the end of 2014. Roughly 60% or 30 cars went to the scraper while 40% or 20 of the cars were in good condition for sale to other roads. A few captive 2000 cubic hoppers rounded out the entire fleet at 55 cars.

MCIS Cement Hopper Fleet

Size: 50 (2960/70 cubic)

           5 (2000 cubic) 

Customer: LDM Materials (fictional)

While I model 2013-14, Shannon Crabtree and his Virginia Midland represent the 90s. If you follow his posts you saw the addition of a sand facility on the Virginia Central line and needed more sand cars. The two railroads worked together and in short order 6 of the good condition hoppers and parts were on their way to Virginia. Upon arrival they will time warp to the 90s but still have a unique history from the previous railroad owner - the fun of proto-freelancing.

Cars lined up at Bay Yard awaiting pickup by the Q-PHGR-27 for interchange to the CSX at Wyoming Yard in Grand Rapids.

This segment of cars 7 total came out of storage on the Port Belle Branch last week and were mechanically inspected and in the case of the 2000 cubic cars given waivers for one time interchange movement. The one car on the flat is a parts source car to help keep the fleet rolling on its new home.

Any idea who the previous owner of this car was......?

With the cement fleet no longer on the MCIS roster, LDM Materials has struck a deal to lease 3281 cubic hoppers from Trinity Industries. (Coming soon from American Limited Models).

Hope everyone enjoyed a little MCIS history and prototypical fleet planning. Have a safe Halloween!

GM

Mid October Update 2

Let there be ballast!

Started out this evening working the curve with Smith & Sons #50 limestone gray ballast. 

Have a little more shaping to go before going wet on wet to put down ground cover.

GM

Mid October Update

This past week I have made alot of progress toward getting scenery installed on the east side of Bay Yard. Track in this area has been painted so onto scenery we go.

Here is a quick overview of the layers that compose the scene.

- 1st layer pink extruded foam

- 2nd layer sculptamold painted lt. brown

- 3rd layer sifted Michigan dirt

- 4th layer scenic materials (coming soon)

                                                                View east towards the helix.

                                View west from highway bridge. 

The spur to the right with the boxcar is Lakes Forest Products. Customer receives inbound lumber and building materials.

The dirt comes directly from my grandparents property in the lower peninsula 80 miles or so north from where I model so it's pretty accurate. The material was sifted twice to get the size I needed.

                                           Early progress with background covered in dirt.

                                                West towards Bay City / Bay Yard.

                                            (L to R) Main #2, Main #1, East Yd Lead

Along with this work on the lower level, I have been installing backdrops on the upper level. Currently mocking the Bush corn kits against the Sceniking Corn Belt series backdrop kit.

Additionally installed the backdrop for the town of Buhler, Michigan which is at the entrance to east staging. 

So far I like the visual depth and effect but it will need more work. Opinions anyone on the initial concept? I know lighting is not very good, that will be changing soon.

GM