Western Union meet Sept 2010

Saturday Sept 11th, the Western Union RR group had their monthly meet, which was once again a great meeting for those present (I missed it due to work). Below a picture of the action. Two SP SD9E snow service loco's on the 11the avenue modules, hauling snow fighting equipment.

Oups!

Hi all, I'm very sorry that my last post is more than 6 weeks ago now. I've had a busy period both in my private life (birthdays, family holiday etc) and professionally (a lot of travel and work abroad) that my hobby has been kind of snowed under for a bit. Anyway, while I'm currently still abroad my situation is this:
- My C44-9W work is progressing but very slowly
- My CF7 paint job has been at a stand still (so I have an unpainted shell at present)
- My California Northern Railroad layout has seen the application of a little ballast.
Photo's of these project will be posted when I am home again.  In any case, I hope you will check this blog regularly, as I will try to pick up the rate of posting here again, when my life is starting to get a little more organised. :-)

Picture of the week

F units leading a south bound freight up the grade on the Piedmont Southern railroad by Dale Latham. 

Removing acrylic paint

Not long ago I had a paint disaster, which meant I needed to strip a loco shell of paint. I found after experimenting with a few items from the house hold cupboard, that oven cleaner is very effective.

As soon as I sprayed it on, I saw paint begin to run. I then used an old electric toothbrush , of course wearing protective gloves gently brushing the ovencleaner all over the shell to loosen the paint. After letting it soak for a few more minutes I washed it under running water and kept on brushing and with little effort the shell is almost completely clean after a first go. I would not recommend leaving the oven cleaner on too long as it may damage the plastic, I didn't exceed 5 minutes. My oven cleaner was Tesco Oven cleaner (fume free). See picture of the result after a first attempt. I am not sure if it will work with other paints, but this certainly worked to remove Tamiya Acrylic paints.

Tsunami decoder

Today I received my Tsunami sound decoder that is going to be used in my C44-9W locomotive.
I ordered it from Bromsgrove models in the UK, and they shipped very quickly, so check out their website (link in the side bar on right).
The construction of this locomotive is slowly moving forward, all steps have been replaced, and now I'm starting on the airhoses etc.

NMRA unveils new logo.

During it's 2010 convention, the NMRA has unveiled it's new logo. The old wheel logo is no more.
In it's place came a modern stylised wheel with new type fonts etc. Perhaps this is signalling the beginning of more changes and modernisations within this organisation. Also it's own magazine was re-named from Scale Rails, to NMRA Magazine. (it used to be NMRA bulletin several years ago) I personally have to get used to it, and it isn't love at first sight for me, but it may be the beginning of something great!
Visit the NMRA at http://www.nmra.org.

Picture of the Week

Santa Fe mixed freight on the Gila River Canyon Bridge, build by dutch Fremo-USA members. Photo taken at their convention in Rodgau Germany in 2009. Photo by Gino Damen.