The Bunter Ridge Southwestern passenger fleet has emerged from the paint shop. The detail parts and front coupler on the A-unit need to be put in place, and two sets of silver trucks need to be made black (two of the dome cars) but here she is: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/ppuser/5830/cat/500
The picture of the baggage car was not great, which is probably poetic justice. For whatever reason, it was the hardest car to decorate, too.
These started life as a Kato undecorated PA1/PB1 set, a set of 6 undecorates smooth side passenger cars, and parts to build 3 dome cars and an additional coach. If the freight fleet takes as long to do as these did, I’ll be 97 before they are done. The good news is the freight paint scheme is simpler.
Your kind words are much appreciated. This was a late-winter to spring project, and was not one that I worked on daily. The airbrush is one of those tools I have to be in the mood for. There are some hours in it (about 3 months worth, on and off), as well as some choice words, especially for the baggage car, which there is no picture of. But I can now spell p-a-t-i-e-n-c-e as well as a number of four letter words.
Unfortunately Art, that may never happen. We are in the process of buying a new house, so barring us getting cold feet or something falling through, this staging yard has a limited life expectancy. For now, we’ll call it the “Polar Branch of the Bunter Ridge Southwestern!”
I realized I had the layout powered down AFTER I took the pictures. When I get the ambition, I’ll fire it up and take a new shot with the headlights on. Maybe I’ll even get a decent one of the baggage car, too.
I have this insane idea about wiring up both the headlight (bottom lens) and a Mars light (top lens) in that N scale chassis. I THINK there is room in the chassis for both along with a sleeve to separate the two. The decoder supports six functions. Then I have a moment of sanity. I suspect it will happen after the move or after the move is called off.