CSX Hanover Subdivision 3.0

[mu26aeh]

Added horns back on the 15s and some additional weathering.  AC units are on the way.  Wish Atlas would bring back more of the BLMA brass horn offerings 

[mu26aeh]

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not fond of ScaleTrains.  It's not their products, but moreso their business model that IMO leaves nothing for their retailer network to make any sort of profit on their sales.  The biggest thing that irked me was when ST would blow out stock on their own website, meanwhile the retailers are holding the bag at their higher retail price (which in most cases if you notice any retailer price is the same as the ST website price).  Well, anyway, announcements would come and go, awe that's nice stuff but nothing jumped out at me saying "You MUST buy me". as a lot of things were produced close enough by other manufacturers (I don't need all the bells and whistles, every minute detail parts as they just end up in the jewel case or laying somewhere on your layout when they fall off).  Being a CSX modeler, that kinda changed when they announced the CSX GP30 RoadMate or slug.  I still held out.  People asked me, are you getting one ?  You need a whole fleet of them given where you're modeling (they were a staple for a good while, showing up regularly on the local).  Still I resisted, I got a slug project off evilbay to finish instead.  Well, the more I thought about my reasoning for not having them, I began to realize I've done the same thing at times, ordering items direct from Walthers as they blow out items at 40/50/60% off the same items I try to sell every other weekend at my part time job.  Kinda makes me a little bit of a hypocrite doesn't it ?  In the meanwhile, ST sold out of everything from their website and one local shop that carries their items didn't have any in stock.  That's alright, I have enough motive power.  Fall Timonium ended my holdout.  Any time they get brought up, @Ed Kapuscinski always would say don't hold it against them, enjoy the slug (something along those lines).  Yankee Dabbler had one in their stack of ST locomotives today.  It was the only one I seen in the 3 buildings.  I looked it over and realized it was dropped at some point, the locomotive had been forced to one end of the clam shell and had busted off a MU stand off the pilot, dislodged the front handrail and the front truck was dangling somewhat from the chassis.  I pointed it out to one of the people at their stand so they looked it over, took it out of the clamshell and examined it.  Yeah the MU stand was off (in the box) but all the front trucks are like that.  I wasn't really buying that idea, others looked much tighter to the frame.  They ended up knocking another $15 off the price and I bit on it.  Yea, I now have an ST slug.  So now I get it home and put it on the layout.  I grabbed an ESU equipped Atlas GP40-2 (mother), consisted them and hooked up to 18 cars in the yard that my 2 GP15s just brought into the yard.  The mother/slug set couldn't pull them much pass the grade crossing, it's every so slightly upgrade out of the yard.  Just sat there and spun their wheels.  Less than impressed to say the least.  I got my scale out and it showed the ST slug was much lighter than the Atlas units, to the tune of about .6 of an ounce.  Not much but given locomotives don't weigh a whole bunch, this was almost 25% less than the Atlas unit.  I took the shell off (need to remove couplers and of course you pop that out and they come apart, spring goes flying).  I packed the roof, nose and cab with as much malleable lead (derby car weight) as I could fit without interfering with the electronics.  New weight was just shy of the Atlas GP15.  Put it back in the consist and train was out of the yard.  So after all that, am I going to get another one ?  Eh, jury is out on that.  I have my project slug to finish which would give me 2 sets.  Doesn't really change my thoughts on ST, really think by now they'd have gone the route of selling direct and cutting the retail market out completely, like ExactRail (now owned by ST) done after they used their retailer network to gain popularity before pulling everything.  This will be a fun be to weather though.  They really turned into rust buckets when they were painted into the stealth paint schemes.  This one will get yellow ends added and of course a bunch of rust here and there.

https://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3117351

And video from the successful weight surgery, also showing off a few newly weathered cars.

[davefoxx]

Sorry to hear about your displeasure with ScaleTrains and your luck with the N scale GP30 Road Slug.  I love my HO scale version of No. 2225.  I even coughed up the $$$ when Athearn released the mother GP40-2 No. 6427 this year, since the prototypes for these units were mated together for decades.

DFF

[mu26aeh]

I should be building a helix with my time off this week.  Instead, I've been on a weathering kick.

[mu26aeh]

Oye, need to get caught up on project posting.  Currently working on a slug set.  CSX GP40-2 6900 and road mate 2315.  Both of these were stripped down to original bare plastic from others stalled projects.  Used mix of Microscale and Fusion Scale Graphics decals.  Still have all the warning labels to put on them.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The labels really DO make them come alive.

[mu26aeh]

Added some ground cover in front of Suburban Propane.  Then asked AI for a background.  It took the building out so had to ask to put it back.  It moved the tanks but actually they're more correct where AI put them 🤔

[robertjohndavis]

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not fond of ScaleTrains.

Trainworx, ExactRail, ScaleTrains… these are the brands pushing N scale forward. Whatever business models they need to succeed are fine with me. Even though I have thoroughly enjoyed the hobby shop experience, I am more interested in the future of the hobby than the past. If hobby shops are part of the supply chain, great. If not, that’s OK, too. Whatever method gets the models I want put into production, is fine with me.

Onto the main reason I replied…

In my experience the ST GP30 clamshell is not the best. I have four GP30’s so far. One was OK. One was fully out of its seated position and caused damage to the Train Phone antenna (PRR, of course) and two were “loose” with the handrail foam floating around. I am hoping this will be tightened up before the next release, as my pre-orders are in. Hoping the GP40’s won’t suffer from that either.

The thing is, if something does go sideways with a ST model they stand behind it and fix it immediately. In my experience, no one is close to offering the level of service ST does, though BLI has been pretty good. So I have comfort buying ST products.

[mu26aeh]

Working on scratchbuilding the shop/storage building at Suburban.  Crews say there are no doors on the track side of the building, so that's what I'm going with.  The front side is dock height but is pretty much against the wall.  There are 4 large tanks here, I have 2 from Walthers, not sure I can fit 2 more or not.

[mu26aeh]

Got the roof on tonight



I might have to lower the height of the right side to better match the roofline of the prototype

[mu26aeh]

I put some color on the warehouse building today



And ballasted the siding, and mainline in front of it, installed some Whistlestop Models chainlink fencing and asked chatgpt to throw an appropriate background up.

[mu26aeh]

Porters realignment update video

[mu26aeh]

Working on new layout logo ideas with AI

[R L Smith]

Working on new layout logo ideas with AI

Other than the locomotive looking more like a BL2 than a modern GE, this looks good!

And from an earlier post, I agree with your dissatisfaction with ST's business methods. Why should any dealer buy stock for inventory (not pre-orders for customers, but inventory for the store) when they know sooner or later the manufacturer will undercut them?

RLS

[mu26aeh]

There's a new kid in town