38 Special

Inspired to talk more about the fleet, I thought it would be fitting to start with my largest model (by numbers).

EMD GP38-2

   Mackinaw Bridge Transfer Co. (MCBT)

   3801 - 3809 (9 units)

   Modeled: none

   Assigned to "Upper" sister road

   (More on this carrier in another post)

   Michigan Interstate Railroad Co. (MCIS)

   3810 - 3835 (26 units)

   Modeled: 3810, 16, 23, 28, 29, 33

My model railroad of the MCIS began with 3 Athearn blue box engines 10, 16, and 23. These represented many first milestones for me in the hobby back over a decade ago.

  - Proto-freelance focus

  - DCC conversion (Atlas at the time)

  - Custom Rail Graphics decals

  - Custom paint scheme

Since these firsts I have seen my locomotive fleet grow to over 20+, converted to Digitrax, and changed from Floquil to Scalecoat for the paint scheme. These engines first had the clip on decoder but I soon realized that a complete A-Line power kit, better lighting, and hard wired decoder were necessary. Keeping with my modern era the engines received yellow reflective decals and will soon be equipped with RV style A/C's. With SD70ACe, 45-2, 40-2 and GP40-2 models holding down the road pool, the 38-2s find themselves in the general pool assisting wherever power is needed on the railroad. During 90 day inspections of the higher horsepower engines it's not uncommon to see a trio or quartet leading a manifest or through freight. (Last post had a prime example of a trio subbing in).

MCIS 3828 was another Athearn blue box I discovered a year ago and had fully rebuilt but with a Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder. 

MCIS 3829 and 3833 are Proto 2000 engines. Currently 3829 is enroute to Fogelsinger paint shop to trade in its former Santa Fe warbonnet scheme for MCIS colors.

Side profile at Bay Yard showing 5 of 6 modeled units.

Friday Followings #2

Well I am a day late for my Friday post, but I have an extra post to make up for the lateness. Please be sure check out "38 Special" which gives an in depth look at the MCIS GP38-2 fleet.

Ops Photos:

East end of Bay Yard, MCIS 3823 (GP38-2) is lead on a trio of sisters 3816 and 3810 for the M-BAPH-15

A few tracks over MCIS 3828 (GP38-2) and 3833 awaiting their evening crew for the L-BAPB-15 "Belle Turn"

       Side shot of M-BAPH-15 consist.

Sugar Beet Plant - Planning

One of the focal industries on "The Clair" is a sugar beet production plant at Upper Huron. This industry will be a heavy kitbash of Walthers buildings from 6 different kits. To ensure I measure twice cut once I patterned each main piece from the kits on foam board this allows me to figure out the best fit.

The entire industry will be built on mdf board and then installed.

Traffic

Inbound: coal 

Outbound: sugar, beet pulp, molasses

The L-BAUH "Sugar Turn" will focus on serving this customer and then returning to Bay Yard.

Friday Followings #1

In an effort to post weekly, Fridays posts will consist of operations photos from around the layout.

T-BABW-07 "Transfer MCIS Bay Yard - HESR Wenona Yard" led by MCIS 4008 (GP40-2) heads east over the Saginaw River swing bridge and will soon turn north on HESR rails for a quick run up to Wenona Yard to make its interchange. In a couple of hours the train will return with trailing MCIS 3816 (GP38-2) on point.

MCIS 4571 (SD45-2R) sits on "DSF 2" awaiting its next assignment at Bay Yard. The facility hosts a covered fuel, sand, and inspection pad. 

Station Diagrams

Just like the prototype it is important that operators on my layout be properly orientated to online industries and track layout.

To help this I have begun creating Station Diagrams that each operator will have in their layout packet but will also be mounted on the fascia.

Here is a draft of the Bay Yard Diagram. Never realized how complex the trackage was until I sat down and put it into words for the operators.

Diagram for Grays Lake which hosts a local based switcher due to the online traffic base.

Encouragement to build

So my son was attempting to encourage the construction "kitbash" my sugar beet plant, guess its time to start.

To help plan I have created foam board pieces of each piece so I will know exactly how to build the structure. More updates to follow.

Late 2013 Motive Power Deliveries

The back half of the 2013 year came complete with delivery of 4 modern locomotives to the MCIS roster.

New Builds
EMD SD70ACe (MTH Proto 3.0 Sound / DCC) numbers 7050 and 7051 (7052 / 7053 on order)
  These are the first two of a four unit order that is bringing 4300hp and distributed power capability to the fleet. Units are assigned to the linehaul pool and set up to run as a 8600hp pair in either a 2-0 or 1-1 configuration. With these 2 units online, 4 GP38-2s have been re-assigned into the local service pool.

MTH has done a fantastic job with the details, body / frame, lighting, and sound effects. Looking forward to the next 2 units arriving late 2014.
Detailed, painted, and decaling by Fred Fogelsinger of Bay City, Michigan

  MCIS 7050 and 7051 at Bay Yard after arriving off M-GRBA-31  
                                                                               "Manifest Grand Rapids (Kent Yard)- Bay City (Bay Yard) of 12/31 departure"


Rebuilds
Two EMD SD35s that had departed back early in 2013 for 710 ECO rebuilds at the Virginia Midland Shops also returned.

EMD SD22ECOs (Atlas SD35 core) numbers 2290 and 2291.
 These units are based at Bay Yard assigned to the general service pool and have wound up on various locals to Port Belle, Upper Huron, and Mount Pleasant. Operating as a 4300hp pair the have been upgraded with the most modern controls (AESS, roof mounted A/C for those muggy Michigan summers, 710-V8 primemover, and micro-processor).

On the model detail / sound side - Shannon added a GP60 stack, RV A/C, anti-climber, ditch lights, sinclair anteanae, M.U. hoses, snowplow, all-weather windows, horn behind exhaust, plated over the small middle rear fan,and Soundtraxx Tsunami EMD 710 to each engine.

Detailed, painted, decaled, and weathered by Shannon Crabtree. The following link will take you to his blog post about the units arriving and departing from their rebuild.
http://virginiamidlandrr.blogspot.com/2013/03/outside-rebuilds-for-virginia-midland.html
http://virginiamidlandrr.blogspot.com/2013/07/new-operating-session-partner.html

  MCIS 2290 and 2291 at Bay Yard awaiting on duty crew for L-BAGL-01
                                                                "Local - Bay Yard to Grays Lake Turn or also called The Bagel Job of 1/01 departure"

As you can see from this and other posts I work with two great modellers who I both recommend for detail, paint, decal, weathering work. Any questions on there contact info please leave me a comment.