"Milepost 15": 5 A.M.

What does a model railroader do when they wake up VERY early and cannot fall back asleep?

Silly question...Work on trains of course!

Yes, I am that crazy (or obsessed or whatever).

So I found myself awake. First thing to do is make coffee. What else do you do when you can't sleep? I know, that is counter intuitive, but it seems to work that way. The second thing to do is go out to the garage and clean the new Baldwin shells. Read up on it and everybody has a different idea. I settled on full strength household surface cleaner mixed with Dawn, no water. I set up the little assembly line I use for stripping paint but used the cleaning concoction in lieu of brake fluid. A short soak in the goop, a light scrubbing then a rinse in soapy water. Repeat process a few times and then wash off the soap with clear water...

Baldwin Cleaned

It looks pretty much the same but without the wax. I could now get a better look at the detail...

Oh, That Face

Overall it looks pretty good. There are "artifacts" from the printing process but they have to be magnified to be readily seen...

"Artifacts"

I suppose they could be sanded smooth, but I'm not confident I wouldn't ruin the shell. I can't see well enough and my hands are a tad shaky in these golden years. I think I'll leave well enough alone. If painting really highlights these then maybe I'll revisit the idea.

I have the four track section nearly complete. The curve at Clark's Summit still needs to be completed, but that's only about six feet of mainline...

Clark's Summit

I did a major rework of the track through Gateway tunnel. The curves were just too tight and didn't flow well...

Gateway Before

I widened them and split the mains, similar to the Pennsy tunnels at Gallitzin. There is also a more graceful transition that eliminates the abrupt changes in radius that caused derailments...

Gateway Now

This resulted in a better looking track arrangement at both portals, as the mains split quite a ways from the tunnel mouths...

West Portal at Average

East Portal

The method for building the scenery shell was a bit different from conventional. I did not use balled up newspaper to support it while it dried. The cardboard matrix supports itself for the most part. I had to cut away the east side of Gateway Point to access the track underneath. As you can see the shell holds itself up well...

Self Supporting

The tubular upright was placed there because I wasn't sure such a tall section of the matrix wouldn't collapse from it's own weight. It probably wasn't neccessary and now I can't remove it without breaking the mountain further than I already have.

I finally fell asleep and woke up somewhat refreshed. I've had my coffee and a nap to boot. By that time the PhotoEZ sheets had arrived in the mail. I jumped on that project right away. The screens can handle ink or paint and that has given me some ideas. Using the sample stencil that Circuit Bridge sent with the package I did a couple of experiments. It had occurred to me that what PhotoEZ creates are essentially stencils like you use in painting letters on boxes or other things. Can the stencil be used with an airbrush just like any plain old stencil?

Drum roll please!

YES! Using the sample screen I tried first with a brush and got what you might expect. A smeary mess. Then I fired up ye old air brush and made a light pass. The crazy idea actually works. It appears that I can airbrush my own decals...