My rendering of the Turtle Creek Central in HO for now is confined to locomotives and rolling stock. First out of the shops is a Baldwin VO-1000 switcher with a tall single exhaust stack. Model is an old Hallmark/Kumata brass, one of the better running Kumata chassis I have seen. Trucks are all brass, only 1 spur gear is delrin, the rest are all brass including the axle gears. The model even came with glass in both headlights. I silvered the reflectors on both lamps and added bulbs. I upgraded to 8 wheel pickup by adding brass wire wheel wipers on the insulated wheels. The wipers are mounted to a piece of electronic circuit board that is ACC glued to the side frame crossmember. Eventualy the locomotive will recieve a working roof beacon. She is slow and smooth and has the noise level similar to a noisy blue box Athearn. In the shop right now is a EMD GP38-2 non dynamic. She is an older Alco models brass import with a smooth running Samhongsa chassis and Canon can motor. She is simiar to the Baldwin, road number is #52. She got her horn relocated back by the forward radiator fan, firecracker antenna and Prime stratolite beacon above the headlights. Once the paint gets done curing, she will pose for the camara. I will post pics of my rolling stock on Sunday as some of it is out at the local model train club. I left them both in natural brass as the patina is just beautifull to behold and I just couldn’t bring myself to paint them. At my wife’s suggestion, I clear coated, decaled, then clear coated again to preserve the beautifull brass finish for years to come. The GP38-2 is even brighter in brass tone, the Baldwin has a nice darker finish. Enjoy. Mike
