Had the honor and privilege of once again being a part of this years September Open House at the Northern Virginia Model Railroad Club in Vienna, Virginia. This year I brought down my BLI Santa Fe 4000 class 2-8-2 Mikado along with some weathered and era appropriate freight cars for the consist. Bringing up the rear was my latest rendition of Santa Fe's combine baggage-coach-caboose #2632. This model started out as a stock AHM/Rivarossi heavyweight combine baggage-coach that I picked up off of eBay. The previous owner did an impressive job opened up the four windows towards the baggage door so it was only natural that I took this model to the next level. After stripping off the original paint, I primed, then repainted the main body with Tru-Color Oxid-Brown. The roof and undercarriage was done in auto-primer black. I removed the stock Rivarossi six-wheel passenger trucks and replaced them with Walthers aftermarket trucks that I disassembled to paint the frames Oxid-Brown as per Santa Fe practices. I modified the bolsters with a neat little 3D printed widget that I acquired from ShapeWays. All of the cast on grab-irons were removed and replaced with custom formed wire grab-irons that I painted white. The interior was painted a pale green before I installed seating and passengers. The windows were blocked in using styrene stock from Plastruct and Evergreen products. To simulate window screen, I used some insect meshing that's used for camping tents. The vestibule doors were removed and a KV Products end-gate was installed. The end of train disc was punched out of some clear transparency film that was then painted red. The marker lamps are Cal Scale lost wax castings with MV-Lensed installed. After decaling the model with old Champion stock, MicroScale and K4 decals, I sealed the entire model with Future Floor Finish before applying weathering. As you can see, everything turned out beautifully. I received numerous compliments from the club members and guest alike. But, alas. During a lap around the layout, as it was making it's final climb to the upper level, my beauty derailed and plummeted 609 scale feet (that's seven real world feet for all you folks out there in Loma Linda) shattering into a dozen pieces on the clubhouse floor. I am grateful that I was able to show off this unique piece of rolling-stock during the September Open House before it was destroyed. I'm already working on constructing another model similar to the destroyed one for the big Fall Model Railroad Show up in Hingham, Massachusetts next October. A great big thank you goes out to Club President Sandy and the crew for allowing me to participate in this years event. Also a great big thank you goes out to my dear friend and shipmate, Ross Kudlick, who sponsors me as his guest each time I visit beautiful and historic Vienna, Virginia! So, sit back now, crank up the volume, please click "Like", and enjoy! But most of all, remember that Model Railroading is Fun!
13 сен 2023
