Calm before the storm

DODX 41000  cars weather to a pinkish red with the white primer showing. 

Brian and crew are making great strides on scenery,
but will he have any track down by the NMRA convention?

I've been working on client projects for Alkem Scale Models this week and doing some admin work for the Middle Atlantic Railroad Prototype Meet.

Next week we head to Florida. We'll be back for a few weeks before heading to Salt Lake City for the National NMRA convention. I'll be helping Brian  Brendel with his layout, and giving a talk at the convention. The updated plan for Brian's layout is below.

Lance Mindheim giving some modeling tips to
John Steitz and Scott Wahl at MARPM 2018

The MARPM is about 100 days out. We have a great meet planned. The list of clinicians we have signed up is second to none.  If you don't believe me, check it out here.  If you have never been to a Railroad Prototype Meet you might want to consider this one. We have a bunch of great model railroad activities planned. Plus, the hotel that is hosting the meet is adjacent to BWI airport and the AMTRAK and MARC train station. From the hotel, one could easily travel to down town Baltimore or Washington DC using railroads.

I've started making a new run for my DODX 41000 series flat car kit. This model was been a good seller for us. This will be the tenth (or maybe this is the 11th, I can't remember) run we have made.

We have O scale chain link fence on hand. We are working on the instruction sheets and gathering the parts so we can offer them for sale.

John Soch Liealoha stopped by tonight. He was in town on business. He observed some of my client model work. Then he graciously offered to draw an Army Escort Wagon in O scale using some plans I provided to him. I had been working on these as laser cut models, but John is certain they will look better as 3-D printed models. I hope so.

Finally, I ordered an Athearn HO scale SD40T-2.  There were two reasons, first it is my favorite diesel. I think it will be fun to detail and weather it. Second, I want to test it out, especially the new low profile truck that allows for see-through radiator screens on the rear.

In my mind's deep recesses, I have an idea that I might go back to modelling the DRGW, but in HO vice N scale.  I've even been toying with a track plan. More on that later.

These days, when a manufacturer offers a model you might want, you need to act as you never know when it might be unavailable. So I am getting one of these locos as a hedge in case I decide to build a DRGW project of some sort. If I like this loco, I may actually buy a few more to stock pile.  Scaletrains has a similar model, but theirs uses LokSound and costs a bit more. I prefer Soundtrax, so I went with Athearn.