Base Coat

After giving the top of the module a coating of Sculptamold I decided to do some basic track weathering. I used artist oils and Gouache to paint and weather the rail. Once everything had dried I painted the top of the module with some brown paint from the 'oops' section at Home Depot. With the paint still wet I spread dirt over the top of the module and also some Highball N scale ballast for the parking lot area. I then worked more dirt and ballast spraying the dry spot with water and covering it with a 50:50 mix of water and Matte Medium. I have some more photos in the Projects in Progress page that show some more details of the work.

Gearing up for scenery

I have gone back over and completed some troubleshooting on the trackwork and everything is working to the standard I expect.  I decided to start working on the scenery on the 4' section, but before I got to far along I wanted to finish the track work. I spent a couple hours placing ties in the gaps left over from laying the track and filling in the tie ends on ties that were cut for feeders. Once that was all completed I spray painted the track and ties Camouflage Brown. With the paint dry my next step will be to figure out the final location of the structures and then cover the rest of the ground in Sculptamold. Once the Sculptamold is dry I can start adding dirt and begin building up my layers of scenery. As with all prototype projects I find it best to work from pictures. I spent sometime printing out photos of the area so I have a feel for what I am trying to achieve.

Inventory and Project Planner

I have been working on an inventory of all my model railroad items. I have started with my rolling stock, but will eventually also include other items such as structures and vehicles. This all steamed from a near disaster that occurred at my house during the month of July. I was fortunate that there was not major loss of personnel items and no model train items. It did get me thinking that I would be up a creek if I did have a major incident as I really did not have a good list of what I had. I also did not just want to make a list of stuff I would forget to update, I wanted to create something that would also help me plan my projects for the future.

To read the full explanation of what I have done you can check out my post of Model Railroad Hobbyist. CLICK HERE

Here is a screen grab of what I have been working on.

2015 Goals...

Well I was going to do this update at the half way point of the year in June, but it seems to have gotten away from me. I also wish I had a little more of an update as to what was going on with my plans, but it seems that I again have wondered off the past and gone another direction.

Goals in Review:
1) Complete the Railroad Line Forum's Challenge/ Laserart Company House #1
        To date I have assembled and started detailing this structure. I have not really been motivated by
        this building for whatever reason. I really need to just get it done so I can at least show that I
        have completed one of my goals. 

2) and 3) Everything regarding the "Train Shed" is on hold. We also recently had a small disaster in
        our house with a broken water line, so my plans for any renovation to the shed are on hold for
        the foreseeable future.
        I have instead focused on building modules  at my office at work. These are completely
        operational and I will continue to work on them the rest of  year.

So new goals for 2015:

1) Finish that house, so close yet so far away
2) Finish Had's McCulloch Chain Saw Shop
3) Finish ground throw pulls on Madras Modules
4) Basic Scenery completed on Madras Modules

The plan will be to update again in October and then see how I did at the end of the year.

Switching Madras

I was able to use the Madras Switching Layout as planned to teach my most recent group of new hire conductors. For a run down of how they did you can heck out my post on MRH. I was also able to rough in the pink foam, I still need to fill in the gaps, but that will wait for another day. Here is the inbound train ready to be worked with some of the pulls ready to go.

Sounds of Progress

I was able to get all the track wired, tested and even spotted some cars. I was pretty happy that I had no really issues once I put power to the track. I need to get the switch machines in and working to consider the project 100% operational.

Gangs out...dignitaries in!

The Tie and Steel Gang wrapped up their work yesterday and the SP&S decided it was time to celebrate. They snagged a few GN passenger cars for a trip to Madras tacking them on the rear of the #1 to be dropped off at Wishram. The mixed train was held until the arrival of the cars so they could be added to the rear. The cars arrived early in the morning and were setout on the small runaround track at the new industrial area.  The dignitaries were driven by motor coach to get some breakfast in downtown Madras. After their hearty breakfast they returned to the site for speeches and back patting. They then had a steak luncheon and returned by motor coach to Pasco. The cars will be picked up tonight by the retuning mixed train and taken to Wishram to make a connection with the #2 and get them back to the GN at Spokane.