An update on my hobby:

Sometimes I lose track of all the things I want to do in regards to my model railroading hobby.
It is such a varied hobby, and several things can become a hobby in itself. You've probably figured out, if you've been reading my blog for a while (and perhaps have read back the older posts), that I'm working on a layout, based on the California Northern RR (although it didn't start out that way). Layout progress is very slow, due to the fact that I have a traveling job. My time away from home I try to spend as productive as possible, by gathering info, doing research on my subject, looking for articles / pictures etc on the net, or I take a book on a certain subject along. Another thing I do is to try and take along some small hobby projects. One of the things I sometimes do is to take a locomotive along, with detail parts and some tools, and do some detailing work on these. Taking a couple of sheets of styrene along is another, and do some prep work on scratch building structures etc. That way I can still make some progress, while I'm not near the layout. However, in my enthusiasm, I do sometimes veer of course, and now I've ended up with a list of 'to do' in regards to loco builds, the projects I am still to start/finish are:
- Finish super detailing & painting two UP C44-9W locomotives
- Finish painting my freelance North Eastern RR CF7
- Paint a UP GP35 yard switcher
- Paint a SP GP40R
- strip, repaint and super detail a SP SD9 and turn it into CFNR 203
- weather all rolling stock and locomotives

On the layout itself I still have the following to do:
- finish track work (on the parts of the layout where I've expanded it)
- install turnout controls (either manual or motorised)
- paint and ballast all track
- virtually all scenery
- scratch build several key structures to 'set the scene'.
- upgrade the DCC system to a Lenz system

On top of this, are several things I'm hoping to do but have not purchased, or made concrete plans for, (I'm hoping to be able to buy a couple of Athearn Genesis GP15-1 locomotives to turn into CFNR locomotives, as this paint scheme is currently not available, apart from a few incorrect and very basic Walthers Trainman units).

And of course try to report on all of it here for your entertainment, info, and hopefully, you'll learn a few things along the way (particularly how things shouldn't be done :-) ) including myself.