PAINT AND NUMBERS

Oh sure, it’s easy to spray paint a bunch of what were silver Texaco tank cars into the black sinister “Mystery-Tank-Wagons” . . Let’s face it; not having to worry about any identification makes some tasks pretty simple.  However when it came time to install my new Missouri Pacific fleet, I was having a terrible time locating cabooses. (cabeece? Cabice? – What the heck is the plural of a caboose?!?)  I think I’ve had this dilemma before . .

All of these started life as something else.  The little bay window pair started life as Burlington Northern Green.  I sold off all my BN cars and engines on eBay, but nobody wanted these gems.  The cupola cabooses are all Santa Fe.  I spray painted them – yes, literally spray paint from Ace or Lowes – and went on the web to “Champs” and purchased decals for them.  Now true, they aren’t really prototypically authentic.  The “Route of the Eagles” usually only appeared on boxcars, and there’s supposed to be a white stripe around the bottom of each car. . And they’re not exactly the correct red for MP, but they do identify the branding, and that’s all I was looking for.  (Let’s face it – For most of my guests, a red caboose is a red caboose. Period.)

These two cement hoppers also started out as Burlington Northern. I covered the green with gray primer spray paint and decaled the sides, courtesy of Champs Decals.  It really wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Every set of decals has everything you would find on any particular railcar including classification boards and numbers.

Got the five big rigs for the Soylent Red factory with one low bid on ebay.  Of course, as you can see – they were the ugliest green trucks imaginable! – No doubt the reason I got them with ONE bid.   Sometimes you paint to make a “good” deal a “really sweet” deal!

This is really my favorite repaint.  This started out as an Amtrak Orange transfer caboose with a gray tank.  This one was painted with a brush using Testors “steel” paint and then decaled for the Burlington Line.  White spray paint and silver Testors completed the project.  (Of course it sets next to that infamous TYCO fake blue-red-gray caterpillar flatcar that just screams “PLEASE PAINT US YELLOW!” at you every time you see it.)  So I did.   ********************************************************************************   Several have written lately about seeing some pictures on eBay that are obviously from my layout site.  And YOU’RE RIGHT.  Some guy in Thessaloniki, Greece is offering “5100 Photos for Layout ideas” and is using one of my pictures for the advertisement.   Actually, a few months ago I wrote to him jokingly asking about my royalties from the CD sales.  He replied, “Good to write.  Have nice day.”   I’m assuming that’s the Grecian way of saying, “kiss off”.  But oh well, I assume that 1-5100th of 99 cents is probably smaller than the one cent Grecian Euro anyway.  I’ll just wait until I win the lottery for the big payoff.   Any day now.   Holding my breath.   Turning blue.

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Page 1 - Box Canyon Layout
Page 2 - Anytime, Any Spring Disclaimer
Page 3 - Starting Over, December 2003
Page 4 - March, 2004
Page 5 - June, 2004
Page 8 - Layout Design
Page 9 - August, 2004
Page 11 - January, 2005
Page 16 - January, 2005 Redux
Page 17 - First Day of Summer, 2005
Page 20 - August, 2005
Page 21 - In the Farmland, February 2006
Page 23 - Layout Potpourri, February 2006
Page 25 - In the Cornfields, 2006
Page 27 - July, 2006
Page 30 - November, 2006
Page 33 - MARCH, 2007 - A Break in the Action
Page 35 - November, 2008 - The ATAS Returns!
Page 39 - January, 2009
Page 42 - March, 2009 - Burlington Station
Page 44 - April, 2009
Page 45 - May, 2009 - The Cliffside Nursery
Page 51 - August, 2009 ? The Last Neighborhood
Page 52 - November, 2009