Surveying a new space

It’s been a busy month as my wife, Cheryl, and I relocated from the mid-Hudson Valley region of New York to the far west Texas city of El Paso. We arrived July 3rd with a couple of cars, a couple of dogs and some belongings. There was no time to visit El Paso to house hunt before our move, so we rented our new home on the recommendation of Cheryl’s UTEP co-worker. We have settled right in and spent time coordinating legal papers and exploring our new city and region. It was odd for those first couple of weeks as the moving van did not arrive until July 16. This offered plenty of time to decide where furniture would be placed and what rooms would be earmarked for other uses, such as the hobby room. Here’s how the hobby room looked shortly after we arrived.

Empty hobby room.

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Another guest post!

CB&Q GS gondola

Through the course of our hobby years we meet a variety of people who inspire and encourage our own efforts. I met Jim Kubanick a number of years ago when he moved to Morgantown, WV. He became a member of the model railroad club where I was a member at that time. We share an affinity for the common and uncommon freight car, and the history of freight cars. Jim has built a number of fine models and he has shared tips and data as I progress in building the many kits in my stash. As I am still getting settled after the move to Texas, Jim will guest on this post and share some of his models and notes. Jim works in HO scale and concentrates his efforts on the early-to-mid 1950s.

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Harold’s Pennsylvania Railroad box cars

I am in the process of moving to Texas, so I have a guest blog post!

Collaboration and communication with other modelers who have similar interests can spur progress on a number of projects. My friend Harold Oakhill is modeling the Ulster & Delaware Railroad in the heady days of the early 1920s. We regularly discuss developing an era-specific freight car fleet. Of the many details, paint and lettering are frequent topics. Harold recently wrapped up a few HO scale Westerfield Pennsylvania Railroad XL box cars, which were the backbone of the huge PRR box car fleet in the early 1920s. Please follow along as Harold discusses his concerns and methods in the finishing steps for these models.

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Departure time, again

Moving again

Our time has come to a close here in the mid-Hudson Valley region. My wife and I have said goodbyes to friends and made our rounds to our favorite places. I’ve spent many hours over the last four weeks packing up the household and hobby goods in preparation for our move to El Paso, Texas. It will take at least a month to settle in and survey the hobby possibilities of the new home. I have a few ideas but cannot push forward without being on site. I have some blog posts to release here over the course of the next month, so new content will be posted to keep this from falling dormant. Here’s one last look at the New York hobby room before all the modular drawer units are wrapped up with plastic wrap.

still to pack

While packing I was surprised to find a large number of freight cars that are built, detailed, weathered and ready for use. There were also a couple dozen built freight car kits that need to be painted, lettered and weathered. I had forgotten about many of these cars and am happy that a layout ready fleet will be on hand in the new home. These cars will serve as ready inspiration to get wheels rolling along the rails in the next year.

I welcome your comments and questions. Please leave a comment below. All comments are reviewed and approved before they appear here.

More Hopper Madness!

Six B&O USRA hoppers

I started assembling and upgrading a six-pack of Accurail USRA hoppers a couple of months ago. These are destined for a club layout in Morgantown, WV so the extra detail has been kept to a minimum. I downloaded a PDF file of an old pamphlet from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Historical Society that features detail and images of hopper rebuilding in Keyser, WV. This came in handy when building these models. The prototype hopper cars seemed to receive new AB brake systems in a late 1940s rebuild, but many kept a vertical staff handbrake and wheel. It’s this detail addition that I will focus upon.　 Continue reading “More Hopper Madness!”