Some Variety

Right now, there are two large, arduous tasks underway on the Onondaga Cutoff:  installation of block detection and the sanding (of spackle) and then painting the backdrop.  The prior involves significant wiring changes and cutting new insulation gaps into mainline track.  Both are not much fun.  The latter involves a tremendous amount of spackle dust, which is flat-out miserable.  I took a block of time last weekend and just plowed ahead with it, finished the sanding and got all the backdrop primed.  I'm really, really glad that I am done with that part of the project.  Tasks like these take hours and hours to do well, and neither will be complete any time soon.

This can get frustrating, especially with the rest of life going on, and the new summer coming soon.  My answer to the frustration is to give myself a break from those activities once I get something done, and instead focus on another project that can lend more immediate satisfaction.

One of these has been equipment upgrades, as you have seen over the last few months.  Another is putting new cars into service-and I am proud to introduce you to the first new cars for the Peter Doelger Brewing Corporation, located on the M&E.

PDBX 1201 is one of what will eventually be 7 similar cars, all for modeling the movement of finished product from the brewery to the world off the layout.  I have two cars done, a third in progress, and more to come.  A key feature here is the custom decals, made from digital photos of the actual beer bottle labels.  I used small decals, as that is more plausible for a 1990's-era car than a large logo would be.  Here's a close-up view:

Many thanks go to Mark for all his help with this project - these decals are perfect and just what I imagined they would be.

Further, I also decided it was time to upgrade the local interlocking control panels from cardboard to masonite, even though the final boards are coming soon as well.  Cardboard, while OK at first, did not stand up to the operating environment.  Masonite is much stiffer and more stable.  Here's now the new 'temporary' board looks at CP 280, screwed securely to the layout subroadbed:

It's nice to be able to accomplish side-projects that give a sense of progress while the bigger projects drag on and on.  As always, the key is to just keep working, even bit by bit.  Eventually, it all comes together!