Loss and Gain

I failed to find the perfect "fixative" for the decals. My first attempt with Floquil flat clear seemed to work, the second attempt did not. I would have thought an enamel paint would last longer in water, but that was not the case. I sprayed another coat of clear but this time it was acrylic. Despite the fact that the enamel had dried overnight the ink still ran when I sprayed the acyllic on one sheet...

Bleeding Decals

The other sheets came out fine so I applied some and then sprayed a cover coat of flat clear. I wanted to see how the colors matched when all was said and done....

Model Master Insignia Red

Model Master Bitish Crimson

Testors Flat Red

To me the Ontario & Western caboose is the best match. The British Crimson on the boxcar also seems to work. I trimmed the white away after the decal had dried. It became really apparent that the match was nowhere near close enough. Besides, trimming the decal works fine with some heralds but it's impossible for the lettering. For me the idea is a failure.

That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm able to run trains again. Only Track 1 is in place right now. I wanted to test it out before laying parallel tracks. This first one will be the guide for the other three so it's probably a good thing to make sure it's right. I had to "enhance" the roadbed by laying on a thin coat of joint compound and making sure it was level. There were sections of the styrofoam spline that were not square. I should taken better care to see that they were. The resulting roadbed was not what I wanted for this four track section, and made superelevated curves impossible. Filing in those areas and sanding was the only way I could think of to repair it. I also had to widen the curve around Clark's Summit. The radius on the inner track was too tight for the 2-10-0. The curves inside the tunnel under Gateway were also redone. They didn't flow the way I wanted.

The first train to run in months was a VERY short freight headed up by an Pennsy I1s. I made a short video of the train running along the north bank of the Split River, just east of Quotidian...

Tracks 2, 3 and 4 should be in place tomorrow.

Regards,

Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad