Bulletin No. 1: W&Q Crews Instal New Switchstands!

The O scale Alder switchstand is now in service on Peter Mumby's module. We added a couple of tie extensions and a bit of new ballast.

Photos by Peter Mumby
About a week ago we worked on Peter's module switchstand's. Here's how they look...mine are also in place and we will look at them shortly...George Dutka

The switchtand target got a dusting of red chalk. The stands themselves are Floquil grimy black. Peter has three switchstand on his module and I have two.

Peter took these photos with his apple iPad while I held a portable spot light on the subjects.

The W&Q On30" Hoppers

A west coast car moved to an east coast line.

Yesterday I posted about three hoppers Peter and I are updating for our W&Q Ry.. I should have mentioned these actually are not Maine cars but a scratch-building project that Bruce did years ago for his  Western On30" empire. We thought they would fit in as additional equipment that the W&Q Ry. had picked up from a west coast line. We plan to add lettering a Maine two footer would have applied to this type of car...will see how that goes...George Dutka

Additions to the Fleet - Open Top Hoppers

The W&Q will be getting a few hoppers shortly.

Last year Peter and I purchased a few of Bruce Peachey's nicely scratch built On30" hopper cars. We spend a bit of time last Monday cleaning off the lettering. I have them at home now for painting. They needed a few end rivets replaced prior to a new coat of paint on the sides. The cars also had a bit of a load inside. I decided to remove this from my two cars...Peter will have that option when we get together to re-letter the cars for our W&Q fleet...George Dutka

A look down into the three cars. The additional end rivets are also seen in the photo. One has the load cleaned out viewing some of the interior details.

I have been busy scraping out the load. The interior has some nice details such as chains were the load rested.

Winter Snowfall in Maine

Another photo from the Mark Harris collection. Seems like winter is well underway in this scene. It might be easier to model Maine in winter if you have a good source of snow. One only needs to build the top half of building and trees...no details needed...everything else is buried in snow...George Dutka

New Truck

A new addition to the W&Q Ry. Not sure if it will stay with that billboard...but for now it will do. It sure looks good size wise for my O scale module.

While staying in Key Largo back in November we stopped by a local weekend flea market held along the main highway...in all places storage units. It appears they are set up as shops for the weekend crowds. One had some model railway items which with the heat are all baked and warped...just like if you stored your models in your oven. What I found interesting one of the vendors had a few Winn-Dixie heritage vehicles. Some as piggy banks and other as collector series. The collector series appeared to look like a close match to O scale, so I picked one up for $4.00. I probably will change the billboard to a something from up north...don't think Winn-Dixie made it up to New England other than on my W&Q Ry. layout...George Dutka

As it looked on a flea market table. Plastic cover missing.

Out of the box.

A bit of the history on the back of the box.