NEW FEATURE!!!

Lately I have been working on two major structures that provide the main sources of revenue for the CSRR. One of them is the American Forest Products lumber mill in Woodfords. This is quite a large structure nearly 30" long and 14" wide at one end. It is able to hold three 60ft woodchip gons as well as five 50ft boxcars under roof. It is the main focal point in Woodfords. This building is mostly scratchbuilt from styrene sheet goods with parts from a Walthers Lumber Mill kit.

The other building is the Sierra Co-Gen plant in Martell. This structure is really two parts, the turbine building and the incinerator building. Both buildings were kitbashed from a Walthers Papermill kit. The brick portion of the kit makes up the turbine building and the metal portion the incinerator building. This building also provides a focal point, this time for Martell.

Recently placed into service are a pair of Walthers GP15-1's. These units are decorated for the UP and are based out of Indian Hill working everything from yard service to road service. They are also equipped wih Digitrax DH121 decoders.

I am building a small fleet of 4 of these units from Atlas/Roco/ConCor GP38's. These stock units are heavily modified and will be decked out in typical SP regalia. I will also be building a 5th unit as a 'snow fighter' with all the appendages that these units were equipped with to fight snows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. These units will also feature Digitrax DH121 decoders

Also "on the workbench" is a fleet of Southern Pacific GP9E|R's that are being superdetailed and DCC decoders installed. An Athearn GP9 provides a starting point. Each unit represents a slightly different version of the basic unit, but each are easily recognized as being in the same locomotive class that has undergone rebuilding at slightly different times. This was true on the prototype SP as well where light groupings varied greatly among units. Some units are equipped with Lenz 103XF DCC decoders and some have Digitrax DH series decoders. The lighting options decide which decoders will be installed. SP 3702 pictured at right is equipped with the Lenz decoder.

Recently I discovered some photos of protoype SP GP9E|R's that showed notches cut out in the side sills above the fuel tanks. I also discovered I couldn't find any shots that had winterization hatches on the rear of the long hoods. I removed the hatches from the two units shown at right but not from the #3702. I decided that I could live with the hatch on this unit. I will remove winterization hatches from any future Athearn units. I replaced the hatch area with .040" styrene and installed dual 36" fans from Details Associates atop the new panel. During rebuilds SP replaced fans in this area using either dual 36" fans or single 48" fans of various styles ('cap-top' or 'pan-top') depending upon what the shop forces had on hand at the time of the rebuild. If you model these units of the SP, I would suggest that you consult prototype photos.

D&RGW SW100 Switcher (click here)

Future locomotive projects include:

 
SP          GP9E|R
SP          GP35's
SP          GP38-2's
SP          GP40-2
SP          SD35's (one unit to be an SD35E)
SP          SD40's
SP          SD40T-2
DRGW  GP40