BNSF's Wenatchee to Quincy, Wa "Spud Local"

[Sokramiketes]

Photo from www.greatnortherntech.com

BNSF runs this local from Wenatchee, WA to Quincy, Wa, which serves, among other industries, the french fry factories in Quincy.  It's commonly called the "potato local" or "spud local" and always seems to have a few tank cars and a few Cryo reefers in the consist.  On this June 18, 2007 shot borrowed from www.greatnortherntech.com, there is a healthy helping of empty 60' flats as well.  Looks like a great candidate for Z scale.

[Sokramiketes]

I had been collecting MTL flats for this purpose, and started modifying and weathering them to mimic this consist.  I don't know the exact cars in the consist, so I'm guessing and going for the right feel...

First car appears to be yellow, but well weathered.  I pulled out a TrailerTrain flat for this one.  Given the early scheme, I decided to distress the wood deck and weather the sides. 



For the weathered decks, I start with a base coat of Pollyscale Milw Rd Gray.  Then layers of paint and chalks, sanded with a coarse emery board in between to make it look more like weathered wood grain and less like paint.  Here's a shot from above, along with the BN car which I'll cover farther back in the train:



And a little closer:

[Sokramiketes]

Second car back is brown, and has a white centerline stripe... not much to go on, but this UP car looks promising.  Deck appears to be in good condition on the prototype, so I left it fairly clean, just gave it the in-use look. 

[Sokramiketes]

Third and Fourth cars are red and have lower bulkheads.  MTL released a pair of CP Rail bulkhead flats, so I used those.  I cut down the stock bulkheads and left them clean.  I removed the CP RAIL from the right side, and left the rest of the lettering in tact.  If I ever figure out what railroad these really were, I can change the reporting marks.  I was pretty sure the 1987 scheme was wrong, just don't know what's right so I modified it a little so it wasn't obviously wrong.

[Sokramiketes]

Next up is that green BN car.  MTL just released a standard flat in BN, the one with the generator loads.  I scavaged the bulkheads off another flat, matched the paint with some Pollyscale BN Green, and did the weathered deck treatment shown above.  I think I like this one best so far:

[Sokramiketes]

There appears to be space for another flat between the Green bulkhead and the last Yellow bulkhead.  So, I'm filling in with this MP flat from MTL. 



Now I just need to come up with a yellow bulkhead flat... and then figure out what I'm going to do about modern tankcars and those Cryo-Trans reefers in back.  Some scratchbuilding may be in order.

[GaryHinshaw]

Great stuff Skibbe!  I don't drop by the Z Board too often, but it's neat to see what the pros are up to.  Are you working on a northwest pike?  (Pardon my ignorance if this is covered elsewhere.)

Cheers,
Gary

[Sokramiketes]

Thanks Gary.  I've made three railfanning trips out to Washington, and each time the modern bug bites harder.  I've been looking at the Wenatchee area for a home layout, but haven't picked N or Z yet, so in the meantime I'm playing with rolling stock in both scales. 

And still doing Milwaukee Road stuff in N scale, and passenger, and HO, and... damn shiny object syndrome!

[shamoo737]

I like the look. I been meaning to weather my flats also. Now I have the inspiration.

[Chris333]

Whoa... Skibbe only going "sorta" correct. I will spit my drink out when I see you use MT power up front.  :-*

Edit:

Ha Ha  I read this topic before I saw the one on truck spacers.  Spitting my drink now

But yeah the trucks look better that way.

[Sokramiketes]

Haha, Chris, you better cover your keyboard, this is going to be a bumpy ride... 

[Sokramiketes]

(Chris, put down your drink first...)

More lipstick on a pig.  BNSF "inspired" GP35.





Haven't found the right BNSF lettering for the cab subbase yet, thinking I need to check out the HO Microscale patch sheet.  This BNSF lettering is from a Robert Ray centerbeam kit and is too small but closest I could find in the stack today.

Etched parts from BLMA.  I built the pilot out, body mounted a shortened 905, and added a carved styrene plow.

[ztrack]

I just keep going back to this thread. Mike, I think this is too cool! I really love the idea of trying to model a prototype consist as accurately as possible. The cars are looking great! I love the finish and the cut down bulk head cars. What are your thoughts for the tank car and cryo reefers? Will AZL's upcoming tank cars work for you?

Rob

[Sokramiketes]

I just keep going back to this thread. Mike, I think this is too cool! I really love the idea of trying to model a prototype consist as accurately as possible. The cars are looking great! I love the finish and the cut down bulk head cars. What are your thoughts for the tank car and cryo reefers? Will AZL's upcoming tank cars work for you?

Rob

Thanks, Rob. I was really happy to see AZL announce the tank cars, I think they'll do nicely.  The re-issue on the GP38 looks promising for this train too.  I think a lot of modelers hang around waiting for the models they need to model a certain favorite railroad or scene or era... I tend to work the other way and get excited when puzzle pieces start coming together to model certain trains and tend to shoot off in convenient directions.  This is one of those cases...  My interest in BNSF was leading me to N scale, but the scenery ratio in Z is really tempting.  I picked up a few pieces in N and Z and was playing with both scales, but after that huge list of AZL announcements, I'm ready to ditch the N scale stuff. 

Couple ideas floating around for the Cryo reefers.  The ends from the AZL 60' Gunderson boxcars are good.  I've been playing with a vinyl cutter for scribing styrene, so I can do the sides and roof easily.  Likely for the roof I'll cut vinyl layers to apply for the roof panels.  For the door I can stretch a plug door off the AZL box, or just scratchbuild it.  Figure at that point I'd cast the master.

Or I just say screw that, model it in Solidworks and send it to some guy with a magic machine.     Actually, the Mark4 reefer might be a good start for the Cold Train cars that also run on this local. 

[Sokramiketes]

Cold Train car sitting in Quincy during last year's WA trip:

http://cgwrr.com/BNSF/DSC_0261.JPG

(Link to really large photo, so not embedding it in post...)

Looks pretty close to this so will need to find some decals: