Progress has been made on the sanding tower at North Pierce. Stairs still need to be added to the platforms and the sand delivery piping needs to be completed. Below is a sneak preview.
Additional details are being added to the engine service facilities here and, obviously, the concrete platforms need to be weathered. It is, after all, 1976 and there will be a bit of fuel spilled on them. Once some of this additional work is completed, I'll do a post covering the entire terminal area.
So in addition to everything that I mentioned in the first post about finishing things, there are a number of other freight car projects yet to be completed. Another one of my summer projects was three covered hopper cars for the home road. These are Accurail cars that came with dimensional data and have been ready for weathering for over a year now.
The ends have been left off to make it easier to weather the slope sheets and the backside of the end frames.
Along with the Athearn gons that have been converted to pulpwood cars and the two Tichys, there is Walthers 60' pulpwood flat in the paint shop. In the photo below, you can see a sister car in the background. Also in the photo is an Atlas 60' auto parts boxcar that will see service on the K&LE.
There are also two boxcars that are ready for final weathering. The PC car is a Tangent model and the SAL FGE car is from Moloco.
And there are still two more Bowser wood chip hopper cars to paint and letter for the home road. I really am going to finish all of these projects before I start something else. I really mean it this time...
In addition to the two Tichy pulpwood flats that were rolled out last week, I managed to get the three new cabooses finished. So yes, progress is being made on the long list of projects.
The C8's are the newest cabs on the railroad and were delivered in August of 1974, . They were manufactured by International Car Company and are basically the same design as the Soo cabooses of similar vintage. Spotting features include the single windows on the sides and ends along with square windows in the cupola ends.
Minimal weathering was applied as these cars have only been in service for several years and primarily on mainline freights. Additional details include firecracker antennas, cut levers from Plano and small jewels for lights on the ends.
These three join the two C6A's that were added to the fleet last June and should help make the caboose tracks at North Pierce and Nelsonville look a little more like, well, caboose tracks!
