Witchcraft

and sorcery! the smokebox is on with a less than legal connection which prevents the transition from being as smooth as i'd like. I have a way to get both a legal connection and smoother transition, that'll have to wait 'til I get back from Redmond.

CN Class O-18-ab WIP

Really, really rough, WIP of how I'd use the boiler posted yesterday. Works for either CN #7470 (under overhaul at Conway Scenic Railway, companion to Patrick Strawbridge's MEC 573) or GT #7475. (Both of which I plan to have decaled parts to swap out as appropriate.) Tender recycled from an old CV 0-8-0 design, so it has incorrect dimensions/proportions but the same basic shape. Not sure if I'm going to power the mains or a single truck in the tender.

Cheese Slope Humpback Boiler

I think I can pull this off...

CN 7805 Post-1954

So, I came to the conclusion Friday that I would turn the clock forward six years on my modelling era to 1955. This in turn introduces some really interesting CN steam to the CV and GT-NE and lets me model my CN Passenger equipment with this really striking 3-color scheme. Michael's son Alex beat me to it, modelling a Heavyweight coach in this scheme. Bonus from converting my Baggage-RPO and Café car to this scheme, is that I'd free up enough Olive Green for another 2-3 CN passenger cars...enough for the off-season Train No. 16-17 Portland to Montreal on the GT-NE perhaps? Power on the Ambassador in 1955 varied from the CV's short-lived ALCO RS-3s, the occasional 4-8-2, more commonly some CN 4-6-2s and there's even a mention of a mighty CN 4-8-4.

Nothing

"The Central Vermont is the railroad that started nowhere, ended nowhere, and missed every major city in between." In studying the railroads of northern New England and eastern Canada, there's a host of images of trains passing through vast expanses of nothing. At our most recent (and first) NELTC club meeting, we mentioned that nature, rather than city, served as the backdrop for most of our prototypes and we thought this could be a signature feature of the club to differentiate us from more urban dominated LUGs and LTCs. So here's my little piece of nothing I think I'll set about working on over the next few months. It will give us some blank space between scenes, distance between towns on an operating layout, and hopefully give me a prototypical backdrop to photograph my trains. Gents, let me know what you think.

Will this work?

Aside from needing supports and bracing, will this work to power a steam locomotive? I need precisely this gear ratio for something cool I have up my sleeve. I just don't know how I feel about using 8t gear at all, and especially so close to an XL Motor, especially given how high torque I tend to run things.

Grand Trunk

I can't find the O scale CDS lettering sets for CV locomotives in 1948. Talking to the folks at Ozark Miniatures, they won't be doing any printing for at least 6-months. While searching for more boxcar sets, I cam across 2 sets of GT 1948 steam locomotives in stock at a Colorado hobby store. Not realizing each had enough to do 2 locomotives, I'm now in possession of enough dry transfers to do 4 GT locomotives.