I have been working on lining the three tunnels on the layout with cut stone and brick. Still finishing up the last of the 3 tunnels. I have also been working on a few structures for the layout. I took these images in early April.

The large stone house is the Wilks' Family Home resin kit by Sylvan Scale Models. I built the small back porch to replace the kit's concrete steps because my layout is set in 1864 and not the 20th century. The small stone spring house started as a cast plaster dynamite storage shed by the P&S Building Structure Company. When I saw it at the Timonium Train Show it looked just like the spring houses dotting the farms and countryside in northern Delaware and on the road from Delaware to Strasburg, PA.

The front elevation of the Wilks' home. The kit's front stairs have subsequently been replaced by some steps from my scratch building supplies. The original steps were evidently rotted (broke apart as a result of a short fall and some of the pieces could not be found to reconstruct them) and needed replaced. I still have to cut and install window glazing.

A Wills Company OO scale cattle creep (aka a culvert). There was a divot in the 2' thick Styrofoam here and I decided to transform this deformity into an interesting scenic detail. You cannot tell from this image, but I lined the culvert with brick. The culvert is just sitting loosely in place. Still have to work it in with Sculptamold and scenery.

A small resin house. I believe this was a Rusty Rails casting. I bought the casting at a train show. It was not in its original packaging and was missing the front pillars. I made front pillars from some Evergreen styrene rod.

 

 Very tardy, but here are 3 images of the small building on pilings that I built for the Delaware Central port scene. This small building was completed to this point several months ago but I can't find the images on my computer, so I just retook some with my cell phone. 

Oops! I just saw that I forgot to install the window glazing.

A new shed

I have been constructing the largest structure for Crow Car & Foundry. While I was waiting for the glue to dry on it, I began modifying a 50-cent shed I got at a train show a long time ago. After I broke the glue joints and removed the roof, I noted that the shed was manufactured by Quick Plastic. Here are 4 images of the shed ready to go to the paint shop and then have window glazing installed.

The pilings are Evergreen Styrene 6"x6" strip, the original toy-like doors were pried off and replaced by a door from my scrap box of odd doors. The stairs are from my drawer of odd stairs and the shed annex is from my collection of small, odd buildings. I am not sure who originally made the chimney. It came from my drawer of chimneys that I have collected over the years. The original roof was sanded flat and cut so as to allow for a roof shingle overhang. I then overlayed it with Dyna Models shake shingle roofing material using Walther's Goo as the adhesive. The roof cap boards are Evergreen Styrene 1"x10". The "metal" flashing where the chimney protrudes from the side of the structure was cut to size from an Evergreen 0.01 x 0.188 strip. Finally, the door handle with lock is from an Overland Models #9171 pack. I may add guy lines to help support the chimney as well as joints in chimney sections.

Ventilated Box Cars and a Stock Car

 It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy working on the railroad, however, and Donna, Socke & I took a vacation to Upton ME. Socke is the newest addition to the family. He is a 4 +/-year old German Shepard mix we adopted from the Brandywine Valley SPCA.

I digress, here are a couple of images of the latest rolling stock I have completed for the Delaware Central RR. They include Illinois Central Box Car kits from Alkem Scale Models (no longer in production), a reworked Alkem Scale Models ventilated bax car I inherited from Al Mueller's estate, and a reworked BTS covered stock car I inherited from the late Rhett Tyler.

The ventilated box cars are painted my favorite shade of slate blue, Model Masters Intermediate Blue (no longer available) with craft paint khaki tan roofs and Poly Scale Grimy Black hardware. The trucks are from Panamint Models with Reboxx wheels. The couplers are from San Juan Models. Car #490 on the far left of the images is the conversion from Al's car while cars 486 and 487 are the Alkem kits I built. In the drone view image, you can see that the brake staff on the car Al built is on a different side than the 2 ventilated box cars I built. I made the same mistake that Al made on one of my cars while building my 2 kits but chose an alternative construction remedy so that my 2 cars reflect the ICRR prototype.  

The covered stock car features scratch-built doors that Rhett built, and the trucks and wheels are the original ones Rhett installed on this car. I did remove the 2 brake wheels Rhett had installed on this car. One was TOO modern and extremely oversized and the other was too much of a variation from the original BTS kit for my liking as well as it did not measure up to Rhett's typical level of craftsmanship. I replaced these brake wheels with a BTS brake wheel and Tichy Train rachet mechanism to more closely match the 3 other BTS covered stock cars that I had previously built. I also removed the 2 end ladders Rhett had installed and used pieces of Northeastern Scale Lumber that I cut to replicate the end construction on the original BTS kit. The conversion is car number 135 in the images and the original cars I built from BTS kits are on the far right.

I had the pleasure of operating on my friend, Thom Radice's, W&A layout on Sunday. Be sure to visit his blog for more photos & video (https://western-and-atlantic-rr.blogspot.com/).  Here is a short video of my Conawago running light on his layout.

 A few days ago, I finished installing all of the turnout throw rods and wiring the rails and turnouts to the wire bus under the layout. Here is a short video of one of the test runs.

 Not all od the track is wired as yet as I am still waiting for the 22 awg male spade connectors to arrive (I ran out). However, trains are up and running on the Delaware Central Rail Road.