Expansive Scenes

In light of the invitation to present at the Mid Atlantic Railroad Prototype Meet (MARPM) earlier in September, Jack asked for a few images showing different blocks of trains on the Onondaga Cutoff.  I took an evening to arrange some shots and the results came back looking nice, so I thought I'd share a few here.

The RPM and our presentation went well - people were interested and it was well-received.  It is such a humbling thing to see our names next to those of so many guys who we looked up to for years.  I for one am glad to be able to give a little back to those that reached out to me!

The images....

First off, here is ML480, a big autorack and stack intermodal train that runs in the later evenings.

Next, here's the interchange run from NYS&W, the 'SY-1' job coming into Onondaga where the consist will terminate and return with outbound cars for Susquehanna.

A wide shot of NFSE (Niagara Falls, NY to Selkirk NY) coming through CP277.  He has autoracks up front and manifest behind.

And, playing with Photoshop a bit, here's a tighter crop of NFSE at CP277.  It is amazing how good these iPhones are now at shots like these.

It has been a busy time lately, with the RPM itself, work craziness, little kids at home, and all that goes with those things.  This is when the layout progress may slow but enjoyment can go up:  we can always run some trains, right?

Thanks for your reading this blog, and thanks for all the support!

~RGDave

Night Light

Recently I have installed a variety of new lighting on the Onondaga Cutoff, and I am pleased with the results.

First up are Alkem Models yard light towers.  Here's YAON-20, the night yard switcher, resting at the Onondaga Yard Office between moves.  New towers were assembled from kits by Phil Monat, and boy, what an upgrade!

Over at the east end, here's outbound cars for ELSE ready for their shove over to the East Lead for pickup. I love the clarity of the LED light used on the towers.

Using better light towers here made several of the others surplus, so I reinstalled them around the shop building and facility to suggest it was on its own circuit.

To add to the scene above, I did some quick view blocks and weathering on the old B&B headquarters building, then added some light to it, as well.

While the kits were difficult to build, adding lighting is a relatively simple project and makes a world of difference for night operations and night photos.   Those long nights just got a little brighter!

~RGDave