As if I do not have enough open projects, I have decided to build a display case to mount on a wall of the man cave for my growing locomotive fleet.  It just is not satisfying to have a fleet of locomotives in boxes, I want to see them!

Some thought went into the design.  I decided that I wanted the shelves to be two-tiered.  I used some half-inch thick pieces of wood to experiment with spacing.  The final verdict: each back shelf would sit 1 1/2 inch above the front shelf.  These shelves would be three inches wide and the main shelves would be six inches wide.​

There will then be three-and-a-half inches between the top of each recessed three-inch shelf and the bottom of the next six-inch shelf.

To Home Depot I went to purchase lumber.  I got two 4'x8' sheets of half-inch thick Birch plywood.  I had them rip them into pieces of the following dimensions:

1 piece - 48"x49" - this will be the back of the case
11 pieces - 48"x6" - these are the outer frame and the 6" shelf inserts
8 pieces - 48"x3" - these are the recessed shelves

As expected, the cuts from Home Depot created some rough edges that would need to be sanded.  A three-pack of fine grit sanding pads from the paint department did the trick!

The 48"x49" dimension of the back piece was chosen so that all of the remaining pieces could be made from 48" strips of wood.  By making the display case 49" wide, the outer vertical pieces, 1/2 inch wide, would leave 48" in-between that all of the shelves would fit into.

lWith enough clamps and the Poplar braces the warped strips of wood were easy to corner and connect.  First I test fit and clamped the wood pieces together.  Once clamped properly, I traced the outline of the shelf onto the back piece.  After removing the clamped piece I would drill pilot holes in the outline on the back board to guide screw installation.

Then I applied a healthy bead of wood glue to the outlined area and re-installed the shelf, clamping it securely in place.  Once satisfied with the position of the piece being added, I drilled into each shelf using the pilot holes as guides and then screwed them in place.

More to come...

​Chris

It has been awhile since I uploaded a model railroad video to YouTube.  Recently my new IC SD70s were delivered to Greg McComas' Michigan Interstate (MCIS) for a test run.  The locomotives performed very well!

This break-in run was recorded for YouTube upload.  I decided to immerse the viewer with the sights and sounds of these models, so I chose a random montage format with multiple runby scenes.  The video is linked below:

With regards to detail, paint, prime mover sound, and motor control these locomotives score very high marks!  The epic fails are the Athearn standard light bulbs and the extremely poor Tsunami horn files.  Both of these locomotives are equipped with Nathan P-5 horns and the decoders were set to the P-5 recording.  The sound is nothing like the LokSound P-5 unfortunately.

Despite these flaws the overall effect is outstanding.  I plan to add the other two numbers to the fleet in short order.

There are a number of videos on YouTube of the prototypes, mostly in the post-CN time period.  A few are linked below to provide some perspective:

Below is the shot used for the YouTube Thumbnail in my video:

Chris

The Meridian Speedway took delivery of a second Athearn Genesis IC SD70 today.  IC 1025 now joins the IC 1021!  Beautiful locomotives...  I now have an IC CONSIST!

Walthers Proto 54' 23,000 gallon Funnel-Flow tank car UTLX 641541 was also received today.  

Chris

Today I took delivery of my first new Illinois Central "Death Star" painted locomotive: Athearn Genesis SD70 IC 1021!  Of course there are plenty of opportunities for me to script Illinois Central power in Vicksburg, MS on my proto-freelanced HO scale railroad.  Those of us interested in modelling late IC power are in luck as many models are coming out.  Athearn Genesis has just released four road numbers of IC SD70's and has four numbers of GP38-2's in the works.  Athearn RTR will be releasing three number of IC SD40-2s as well.  And...if/when the InterMountain GP10's come out, that will be another four road numbers available.  

This will be a total of 15 unique Illinois Central locomotive models that will be available in the very near future!  So there is no time to waste to start tackling this fleet...

The model of IC 1021 received today is factory equipped with a Tsunami Soundtraxx sound decoder.

One freight car was part of this order as well.  I picked up Walthers Proto 54' 23,000 gallon funnel flow tank car UTLX 14850.  This car is from the Walthers latest release.

Chris

This essay was found on-line on the late Bobby J. Garraway's Blog.  This particular post was dated Monday, September 19, 2011.  Records indicate that Bobby J. Garraway was born on November 2, 1930 and passed away on Sunday, April 28, 2013.  This is a wonderful first-hand account of a classy Mississippi Railroad that is now long-gone. 

Respectfully,

​Chris