More scrap has arrived off an eBay vendor, which imo is pretty realistic and reasonable in price as well. A small amount went into the scrapyard but more went into the recently finished Sullivan Scrap gondola:

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve been on the railroad as I’ve been on vacation. My first day back with the crew of Charlie, Jimmy, Fred, and Dan as we’re going to work all the industries on first trick today except for McGraw fuel and oil and Monsanto. After we fire up 8806 we first […]

The last signage I needed for the layout is in and installed, this done by my local FedEx office. Sullivan scrap is named for a dear friend and former co-worker who passed away in 2020:

So, another day on the railroad as we start out in the early morning getting ready to work the inbound cars the local has brought out from Riverside yard. Today’s crew is Fred as engineer, myself as brakeman, Jimmy as conductor, and Dan as flagman. First thing of course is firing up our usual locomotive […]

Well, the local has arrived with our next inbound cars to work, so we’ll be getting at it next. Looks like we have an L&N boxcar for Armitage Furniture plus two scrap gons for Sullivan scrap and an EL reefer for Stephen’s Grocery distributors:

The best finds of all are these original Walther’s DC locomotives. These were left to me by a dear friend I worked with at the original Caboose Hobbies who passed away in December 2020. There are two of the same type locomotives with different road numbers of course, purchased by my friend way back when, […]

This new addition is now finished and in service on the layout. This is an Accurail kit of a 50′ plug door boxcar, lightly weathered using pigments and washes. ACI plates and lube stencils were added along with new wheels and couplers:

With just some detail parts and one billboard sign to be added, the layout I believe is pretty well finished! I hope to eventually add one more caboose, either an N8 or a transfer caboose plus one or two beat up dented gondolas that two manufacturers are coming out with next year I believe. Here […]

Well, I finally got around to installing the rest of the power lines to poles on the layout as shown below, using the great product by EZ-Line. Now I just have to be careful uncoupling cars….!!

New signs by Scale Signs have arrived and are now installed:

Well, we’re back to work the next day, another fortune first trick shift. Today it’s the crew of myself, Jimmy, Dan, and Charlie as engineer. We’ve got our work cut out for us today, as we’re finishing up yesterday’s work plus switching Monsanto. First, after breakfast at the diner across the tracks, we fire up […]

Next up and on order for the layout, this 50′ plug door boxcar kit by Accurail:

Well, we’re back at work this time on first trick again working a few cars out of Riverside yard. Our crew today is Fred as engineer, myself as brakeman, Jimmy the conductor, and Dan as flagman. After firing up 8806 we’re going to pull off the tank car of fuel oil and spot it in […]

Another day at work on the Penn Central as dawn breaks over Cincinnati…..

Added to the layout the past several days are these detail items: multiple pipes added to the set of tanks shown below at Monsanto Chemical, another derail and derail sign added on the siding to Sullivan scrap, and coming soon from Scale Signs, the signs shown below, which one will go by the siding into […]

The local out of Riverside yard has shown up with our next inbound cars, which looks like a gondola for Sullivan scrap, tank cars for Monsanto, and a wood chip boxcar for Armitage Furniture. Stay tuned as we work these soon. In the meantime, we’re working on spotting tank cars at Monsanto from the holding […]

I’ve added a new video, my first actually of action on the layout! You’ll find it here on the home page under my podcast video. Hope you enjoy it but excuse the big arm in the video….:)

More details added to the layout yesterday, including this set of poles with transformers inside McGraw fuel and oil, a section of fence at the edge of McGraw, and an extra billboard over at Sullivan scrap which I’m going to use the sign below to advertise the scrapyard. Still on the list of details coming, […]

Here I am back to work on the railroad after my test was up, this time on first trick. With thermos in hand our crew heads over to 8806 to start our day. Today’s crew is Charlie, myself, and Jimmy, plus Dan as we fire up 8806. Today we’re pulling empties from Armitage Furniture, Stephen’s […]

One final detail I added to the layout this evening was the addition to the guy wire for the pole line. You see these everywhere where there are what I call guy wires or support wires for a pole line of wires, I assume as a warning to pedestrians or whoever might get tangled up […]