Here an 88-car C903 coal train to Port Sheldon traverses the "Airline" behind GP40-2 7260, 2 SD40-2s, and another GP40-2. The wide radius curves and level track should soon easily accomodate unit coal trains of 100+ cars...
Plans for some modest modifications and possibly some scenery on the Airline have been dropped in favor of drafting plans for a new layout capable of hosting multiple operators. Some kids in the neighborhood have shown interest in running trains and this may eventually turn into a little train club--we'll see on that...
Meanwhile, work has been progressing on stripping and painting CPOX coal gondolas. Here are some from the first batch rolling through Fuller yard. The blue has already been painted and now the cars await thier final coat of black before being gloss-coated while waiting for decales to arrive...
Finally, here are some new wooden crates for storing freight cars. I wish I had made something like this years ago! Makes it much more convenient to sort and store cars by roadname and/or car type. Much more organized, too!
Another DMIL project of late is installing AAA battaries and headlights on the GP40 fleet. Having working headlights adds an amazing note of authenticity to a train, especially in photographs! Since I run straight DC, equipping the locomotive with its own onboard battary keeps the lights consistent regardless of the unit being in motion or not.
And on the computer front, updating the old Access 95 databases to Access 2007. It's quite a project, but makes for eliminating some of the bugs that have been in the older version.
So that's the latest on the Detroit and Milwaukee...
"let's keep the freight rolling, gentlemen..."
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