Two 1-hour Projects - Gon Loads and Cement Car Weathering

I attract Tyco bridges like a hamburger attracts toppings. I picked up so many at train shows that they are piling up at my Dominion Bridge facility on my HO Vancouver Wharves layout. This is not a problem. It's an opportunity! Gondola car drop-in loads! Plug in the Dremel, cut off some ends, glue to a plastic base and wait for the glue to set up.

This was a one-hour project for a recent weekend afternoon. The finished products are a Roundhouse gon load (longer one) and an Athearn gon load (shorter one).

Instead of moving on to my next one-hour project, I got the camera out. Spotting the loaded cars behind Dominion Bridge, I placed the camera to get some angles that are normally unattainable from the aisle. I used my Nikon in-camera 'toy camera' setting to give most of the photos a Jack Delano look. The switcher arrives to lift the two new loads:

The loaded gons are on the run-around track with Vancouver Iron & Engineering Works in the background:

 That's Fairbanks-Morse in the background at right:

Further distracted and intrigued by the shots I was getting, my imagination and camera wandered over to the Alberta Wheat Pool terminal elevator where Pete Bodnarchuk is hard at work:

 Still hard at work, with the wheat-shear logo prominent:

 Other end of the elevator tracks:

Will I ever get to that second project? Two Railgons have gone to Coast Steel Fabricators and Enzio Russo is walking over to check them out:

 The overhead crane frames the scene as that car in the distance reminds me...

 I use real modelling scrap for my scrap. I dump it out. I pour it in:

Finally, I got around to weathering the New York Central covered hopper at Permacon Concrete. Joe MacGregor and Pete Finnegan can hardly believe it. I actually finished the other one-hour project. My attention span is sufficiently long only to weather one side. The other is...pristine.

CPR 2864 is periodically hauled out of storage in the engine house. CPR can also stand for Candidate for Possible Restoration! This Monogram NYC Niagara kit makes an OK stand-in for a Royal Hudson.

Running extra...

Upcoming Christmas and other TV specials for your viewing pleasure:

• December 14 Jolene! Pentatonix on NBC.
• December 16 Food! Lidia Celebrates America's Veterans on PBS.
• December 19 Volume! Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on PBS.
• December 20 Cable Cars! Tony Bennett's 90th on NBC.
• December 27 Eagles! The Kennedy Centre Honors on CBS.

That reminds me - time to get to work on Trackside Treasure's annual Christmas post. All I need is an idea. And a concept. And a Christmas carol to parody. And season to taste.

This year I might pattern it after David Letterman's Top Ten Least Popular Christmas Specials. Number Six: Martha Stewart Makes a Bunch of Cheap Crap Out of Tinsel.