Weekend Update 6/8/25

[jpwisc]

Not sure you want to take it that far, but Milw GP 40's had 4 jacking pads on each side with the additional pads just inwards of the steps on each end. The Milwaukee apparently took much pride in being different;-)
Being a slacker, I have never done it myself...

That is awesome! I might just go and add them on there! I think I have some frames I could pull them off of

[robert3985]

I'm a little late to the party, but last Saturday I spent an evening with my best friend and business partner Jared getting organized and running some trains on the section of Nate Goodman's  @Nato  layout that I built for him, which Jared inherited.  Usually I put together a mixed freight pulled by UP or SP F's, or UP Geeps, or a Standard Turbine...but this time I decided to run one of my 2nd run Key FEF-2's with a daily mail train such as what ran eastward out of Ogden every morning in the 40's and 50's...

Photo (1) - Key FEF-2 in TTG pulling the morning mail train eastward with mail cars from both UP and SP in tow...


Photo (2) - Another View...


Had a great time!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[up1950s]

An America proto to bash from that Arnold 0-4-4-0 is "Shookum," Columbia River Belt Line #7, an operational logging 2-4-4-2, Baldwin, 1909.



Built for the Little River Railroad in Tennessee specifically to be light and make tight turns, it proved to be too large to navigate the Little River ROW, which today iare the roads of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  Returned to Baldwin, Shookum was sold where it moved around various western logging roads until in 1955 when it derailed on a bridge and turned over.  The RR was about to be pulled up so the wreck was left in place.  In 1960, while trying to recover the locomotive, explosives were used to separate the frame from the boiler. 

After all that, Skookum was rebuilt and saw steam in 2018!  Note the reproduction of the green "Russian" steel boiler jacket.

If Arnold bashes one I will get it . This is the stuff that don't make radiuses look too sharp , but will make a train sharp looking .

[samusi01]

Amongst other things, I modified my XTTX brush guard to have a better-looking replacement for the OEM MTL brush guard that comes with their fuselage flats.



There are at least three different versions running around on the earlier MTTX/BNSF flats, and the above photo depicts the second most common one. Apologies for how rough it looks... probably try painting it the end of this month. Both the most common version and this one are available here: Cults3d Brush Guards

They come with guide holes so that you can drill and place grab irons.

[OldEastRR]

I have to say Lee Weldon's Cornerville town on his layout inspired me to make a similar scene on a blank corner of my layout. I used buildings and building parts I had laying around from various abandoned projects, then built up a passable ground cover for the area. I still need some ground cover and final installation of the trees. It turned out quite nice.

The road and countryside on the other side of the tracks still needs to be done, but that's simple work.  Sadly, Lee's Cornerville was bulldozed to make way for RR expansion, but I have a nod to its existence with this town's name: Lee Corners, MA.

[RRRover]

And they both run very smoothly...and have a little room for a small DCC decoder. Insulating the Arnold for it could be a bit tricky.

While neither a narrow gauge nor a 2-6-6-2, Arnold made a small 0-8-8-0 Mallet tender tank loco  in N scale.



Minitrix made even a smaller 0-4-4-0 Mallet tank loco.