New Special Run Cars from Prairie Shadows

4750 Rib-sided Covered Hoppers

http://www.prairieshadows.com/

Hi Everyone. My friend, Jeff Arnold at Prairie Shadows has just received his newest special run Intermountain 4750 Rib sided Cover Hoppers lettered for RVPR and CEFX in six car numbers each. They look great!! He will have them on his website soon.. Check out his other special runs also. Everyone have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Some photos of .......

Some pictures of BNSF trains in Staging Yard

Backdrop and Fascia! What color for the fascia

Pictures coming out of stageing

Unpainted backdrop and fascia

1 1/2 percent grade climbing out of staging

What is your thoughts on the color of fascia?? Dark green or black. My first thought is black, but dark green would look good to!!

CP Christmas Train

CP Holiday Train

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train as it crosses Manitoba on Saturday December 3rd and Sunday the 4th.

Photos by Paul Sincerney

Progress? What progress!!

What happening on the BNSF. Not much!, have been in the layout room one time in the last month. Time and money have caught up with me. The plan is to redo some of the track coming out of staging this weekend and to cut the profile on the first part of the facia.

ROCKTOBER

Here are my most recent locomotive purchases. Love the IAIS Rock Island retro paint. I will have some photo's of recent progress on the layout soon...

JSL

Fun day of Railfanning!! Hello October.

Railfanning on October 1st, 2011.

 At the Portage CP Depot -

 3 GMD SD 60F units waiting for a crew in Rivers Manitoba

 Rivers Manitoba

 Mural in Rivers

Sunset at Portage Manitoba

60 Trinity Hopper BNSF and Layout Update

Good news for me! I am able to buy 60 BNSF Intermountain Trinty Hoppers for a great price. This is the same friend that I was able to aquire the 64 BNSF Kato Bethgon Coalporters from.

Finally made some more progress on the layout. I was able to lay the cork on the finished spline and start superelevation process using the technique learned form CSX Dixieline (Jamie's) website. Hope to post some pictures this weekend.

JSL

CN Pointe St. Charles Van

For those in the know, Prairie Shadows Model Railway Company is producing in conjuction with Rapido Trains a classic CN van. If you are interested contact Jeff Arnold at Prairie Shadows. It is an easy pre-order on his site with 12 different road numbers. I have seen the pre production samples and they look very nice. I am 100% confident that the final product will be awesome!! He also has some special runs in N scale by IRC. I also know that he is always looking for suggestions for new special runs to produce.


http://www.prairieshadows.com/

JSL

A few pictures!



BNSF

Just a few pictures from a quick drive down the Wisconsin side of the Mississipi River last week. Crappy pictures and a cloudy day.

Spline Roadbed and Backdrops!!

Here a few pictures of the start of the backdrop and the spline roadbed coming out of the staging yard level. After the first few splines I had to go back and do some physical adjustments to where it connects to the plywood. Good thing HD has spring clamps 22 for 9.99. 

JSL

Spine roadbed started!

The spline roadbed construction has started on the BNSF. Its taking awhile to get to this point but it looks like all design elements will fit. I now hopefully will post a final track plan in the coming month. Of to Minneapolis for a week. I hope the railfanning goes better this time. Pictures when I return of the start of the spline...

JSL

Win N Trak 25 Year Anniversary Pin

Here is the artwork for the Win N Trak 25 Year Pin. Thanks to Bob Mitchell for his excellent design. The club is located in Winnipeg MB and our modular layout is located at Elmwood Hobby Works on Henderson Hwy.

JSL

The Milwaukee Road Hiawatha visits the BNSF!

Thanks to my friend Jeff Arnold at Prairie Shadows Model Railway Company, I am the proud owner of a 1935 Hiawatha!! Thanks again Jeff. If you are looking for a great company to deal with and with fair prices, talk to Jeff. If you are into CN or like cabs, check out his new CN cab being produced for his company by Rapido. Here a couple of shots taken tonight.

JSL

Trip to Minnesota

I can't wait, heading back home - Frazee MN and Twin Cities area for the first ten days of July for some RandR from a long school year. My plans include some railfanning along the Staples Sub - northern transcon. Some northtown action and hitting the hobby shops along the way. Should be fun.

Not much to report!

Not alot happening on the model railroad in the last week or so. I did manage to get some foam floor tiles installed on the floor, sure softens the concrete floor... Hope to have a real update by the end of the week.

JSL

Locomotive Roster

Locomotives


Manufacturer Model Road Number

Burlington Northern
Atlas MP 15DC BN #1003 (DCC) DN163A3 (Installed)

Atlas GP 15-1 BN #1385

Atlas SD 24 BN #6244

Athearn F 45 BN #6628 (DCC – Sound) Tsunami (Factory)

Kato GP 50 BN #3107

Intermountain F 7 BN #724

BNSF
Kato SD70MAC BNSF #8802

Kato SD70MAC BNSF #9838

Kato SD70MAC BNSF #9959

Kato AC4400 BNSF #5608

Kato AC4400 BNSF #5615

Kato AC4400 BNSF #5624

Kato SD70ACE BNSF #9378

Kato SD70ACE BNSF #9385

Fox Valley ES44AC BNSF (Heritage 2) #5738 (DCC) DZ125IN (Installed)

Fox Valley ES44DC BNSF (Swoosh) (Christmas) #7236 DZ125IN

Fox Valley ES44DC BNSF (Swoosh) (Christmas) #7256 DZ125IN

Fox Valley ES44DC BNSF (Swoosh) #7632 DZ125IN

Fox Valley ES44DC BNSF (Swoosh) #7768 DZ125IN

CNW/UP
Kato AC4400CW CNW #8819 DN163K1C

Kato AC4400CW CNW #8835 DN163K1C

Atlas SD 9 GN #582 (DCC) DN163A0 (Installed)

Milwaukee Road
Atlas GP 38-2 Milwaukee Road #358

Atlas GP 38-2 Milwaukee Road #360 

Atlas GP 38-2 Milwaukee Road #365

Atlas SD 7 Milwaukee Road #509

Atlas SD 7 Milwaukee Road #510

Kato NW2 Milwaukee Road #668

Atlas SD 60 Oakway #9058

SOO Line
Atlas SD 60 SOO #6050

Atlas SD 60 SOO #6057

Pictures of the Staging yard.

Update: Staging Yard is finished

The staging yard is completed, I hope to have pictures up by the end of the weekend. I have been able to run 40 to 50 car trains through it without any major problems with derailments. All section of tracks have drops, next order of bussiness is to start to run the main buss line.

JSL

Staging Track and Photos of BNSF Loco's

The staging yard is taking shape. I have discovered that Atlas Code 55 is easier to work with than Code 80. I have had little problems with soldering feeders and joiners. Now I am just wainting on another order of flex, turnouts and rerailers to finish the staging yard. The coal trains are both 32 cars - the staging yard should be able to handle trains of about 3 - 4 locos and 60 - 70 cars.

JSL

More benchwork for the BNSF

Hi Everyone! The peninsula staging yard is taking shape. The 5 staging tracks will be between 22 to 26 feet long. The turnouts and cork have been ordered. Hope to have another update next week. Sorry for the poor quality pictures from my blackberry, need to use the good camera next time.

JSL

Benchwork started on BNSF

Here is the start of the benchwork of the new BNSF. The benchwork is the start of the staging yard, 1st deck, 2nd deck and the valance brackets. Thanks to CSX Dixieline (Jamie) for the bracket ideas.

JSL

Changing ERA

Hi everyone. The layout room is ready for benchwook. The birch plywood has been ripped. I have decided to start modeling the modern BNSF railroad instead of the BN / BNSF transition period. I am keeping all of my older BN engines and rolling stock to use on the club layout. I wish I had some pictures to show... I hope to soon.