Just a short piece today showing another layer of rust texture and powder on the roof of my ex-SBV box car. This guy now has four layers of weathering mediums on the roof alone! Photo below:

Here is the latest project that is now finished. More rust texture was applied to the roof plus the underside was done with again what I call “texture weathering ” that simulates I think built up dirt and grime. Finally, reflective stripes by Smokebox Graphics were applied. Photos of the finished car below:

Next car for my local friend and client is this hopper patched for SSW. I started on this one by matching the paint a bit lighter then fading the car. This is still a work in progress, so I’ll have more photos when finished. But for now, here’s what I did to the rest of […]

I’m posting this morning another project finished for a local modeler/client. This is one of three HO scale cars to weather in between working on more HOn3 cars. This car was picked up at a recent operating session. This Railbox car is a “primed for grime” series car and looked as such below out of […]

Here I have part 2 of the current layout:

Well, actually not Johnny but myself in my first video on my two module layout. These are in three parts, so here’s part one and away we go!

Another project car for my fleet is now finished. This is a Walther’s Mainline series car purchased at the last train show here in my area. I wanted to weather this but this time only lightly, enough to show some road dirt and some use but not overly done. I think I succeeded! The car […]

This project posted earlier is now complete as well with photo below:

The B&O gondola I posted about last time is now finished, and another B&O gondola was reworked as well and is now finished to join the fleet. Here is the first gondola below: Next up I took the B&O Railgon gondola and added a lot more rust and weathering to it using several mediums to […]

Next project about 2/3rd of the way finished. This is a Tangent 52’6” 70 ton gondola lettered for B&O. I’ll have patched areas where the lettering will go, plus lube stencils and ACI plates. The car was faded first with an acrylic, then rust acrylic sprayed inside the gon, underside was painted with a grimy […]

Today I’m showing photos of the layout as it currently looks. Not wired up yet, but hopefully soon!

In an effort to make this one of the most realistic small layouts out there I’ll soon be ordering these guys from this company. The details are I think excellent! https://ymw-modelu.com/products/9031-modern-era-crew-bundle-pre-hi-vis/

My current project is this Athearn ready to roll series car, lettered for South Branch Valley RR in West Virginia. I’m trying to replicate the prototype photo shown below along with the current progress on this model. So far this car has two layers of weathering on the car sides with three layers on the […]

Another car has joined the roster, this one purchased on eBay as I thought the weathering looked great and wanted to check out what process and material the owner used. This car is an Athearn Genesis series car. I’m going to paint and weather the underside and paint the wheels and this one will be […]

Coming soon from an outfit at http://www.Coastmans.com is a bag of realistic rusted scrap, that I’ll use for my scrapyard. Apparently this is actual scrap from the gentleman who runs the shop’s 3D printer. When it arrives Monday the 13th I’ll be changing up the scrapyard a bit to accommodate this more realistic scrap pile. […]

To use with the B&O caboose, I recently purchased this Walther’s Proto B&O SW switcher on eBay, which is supposed to be already programmed with DCC and sound. As the layout isn’t wired yet, I’ve yet to test this guy, but hopefully it’s fine. I’ve lightly weathered this one , but a bit hard to […]

The following cars I picked up at the train show recently, most of these from my main go to shop, Spring Creek Model Trains from Deshler, Nebraska. This is a great shop ran by great people with great prices and inventory! You’ll find them also at train shows all over the country. These cars will […]

While at the recent train show I visited the booth of The Colorado Model Railroad Museum, located in Greeley, Colorado. This museum is a must see if you’re ever in Colorado! Inside among other things railroad is a 5,000+ square foot model railroad plus the last wood side caboose used in Colorado. I myself have […]

Speaking of the recent Rocky Mountain Train Show here in Denver, I was fortunate enough to pick up a few nicely weathered cars from several dealers. These are shown below. The ex-St Lawrence Railroad boxcar is I think a nicely done car patched for ICG, while the gondolas came with nicely done scrap loads:

Being tied up with a full time job hasn’t given me much time to post lately, but I have been able to complete little projects on the layout modules. I’ve worked on several things recently to hopefully enhance the prototype look of the layout. These small projects include the addition of “industrial dirt” by Arizona […]