A short video of my recently completed DCRR passenger cars I took during my February 22nd visit to Thom Radice's Layout.

Power went out last night for a little over 3 hours so went to bed early. Woke up about 1:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. So, here is the latest rendition of the track plan. Something quiet to do so as not to wake anyone.

Took some time this morning to touch up the hand rails and install the window glazing on these 2 new additions to the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Rail Road. Next, on to cut the grass.

I began working on these cars back in the early 1990s. Back then it was a modeling step up for me from just repainting and lettering ready-to-run equipment. I had shaved off the cast on body grab irons and replaced them with grab bars I bent from brass wire. I also removed the Tyco/Mantua trucks and replaced them with MDC/Roundhouse old time passenger trucks. I also installed AHM instamatic knuckle couplers. I had removed the roof detail, then sanded the roofs and covered the roofs with 600 grit sandpaper. I was never happy with the look of the roofs so removed the paper. This car project was then supplanted by  family, work, and graduate school. The cars were put in a box and forgotten until as few weeks ago when I began the hunt to find them again. After a very diligent and thorough search I found the box with the 2 cars. I replaced the truss rods with nylon monofilament left over from a couple of BTS car kits. Bill over at BTS always supplies more than I need in his kits. I also used Tichy Train turnbuckles on the truss rods. I replaced the Mantua brake wheels with Kemtron brake wheels on 0.020 brass wire. I used parts I modified from Tichy brake wheels for the ratchet mechanisms. Then I installed grab bars for the combine's freight doors and added n/b/w castings from Grandt Line and Tichy Train. The roof vents are from old Grandt Line passenger car roof details sets. The smoke stacks were scratch built. I replaced the the AHM couplers with Grandt Line On3 link and pin style couplers. The new wheels are Reboxx 1.020 double insulated sets. The car bodies, under carriages and trucks were primed with Tamiya primer. The undercarriages and trucks were then sprayed with Tamiya matt black. The car bodies were sprayed with Model Masters dark brown for the sides and Tamiya gunship gray for the roofs. The roof details and grab irons were painted with Poly Scale Engine Black. For the car numbers, I used decals from Microscale USMRR freight and passenger car sets. The road heralds are from old Champ P&WV decal sets. I was going to use Champ bronze gold alphabet sets for the decals but it was so much easier just to use the P&WV sets rather than apply each letter individually. The end window glazing is glass microscope side covers. The sides are glazed with Evergreen Styrene clear glazing. I used Canopy glue to attach all the glazing.

Happy Mother's Day. I let Donna sleep in today. She has been a great help in the reroofing of the shed this past week. I would still be running up and down the ladder if it wasn't for her. So far it has been a quiet morning working on the track plan. I have added a double ended siding in each of the hidden reversing loops as well as imported all of the structures from this half of the original track plan. I intend to make numbered keys for the structures in each of the three towns (La Gare/Joppatowne, Avella, and Newport/Delaware Point) as I did on the original track plan. I am still not sure whether to name the town La Gare or Joppatowne. I will have to eliminate one and at this point I am leaning to eliminate Joppatowne. I would then name the road leading off into the background the Joppatowne Road. I am still VERY much undecided as to what to name the port on the Delaware River. The inner siding in the hidden section of the upper reversing loop is for Pooterville and the mine there. Just click on the image to get a larger view of the track plan.

Fun aside, the water looks pale blue on my lap top computer screen (and is in fact the color selected from the AnyRails program) but violet on my desk top computer screen. I wonder how this has affected all the images I have captured for all of these years.

This morning I went out and bought groceries for the rest month and then finished the ridge cap on my 1:1 shed out back. That shed roof project is now complete. This afternoon I took a shower and then have been involved in tweaking the plan a little more. Any track you see in a green area in the following plan is hidden track. Of course, the blue areas are water. AnyRail software allows me to add trees and the like but I have not done that yet. Trees are very useful in breaking apart scenes and hiding where track goes into hills and roads disappear into the backdrop.

So, a few more tweaks to the track plan. I have imported a few of the structures from the original plan as well as made some changes to the Delaware River scene.

I have once again revised the track plan. I was unhappy with 2 things. First, the ability to switch the warehouses in the riverfront scene. As I was working on that, I realized that, though prototypically correct for City Point, VA, during the War, the turntable was not as appreciable nor maintainable where it was located. So..., here are the latest revisions. I am hoping the warehouses are more workable even though I am not happing about losing the dock space. On the other hand, this configuration now allows me to add some livestock pens for all of my stock cars.

Feedback and suggestions appreciated.