Canute

Like the Doughboys attacking in their campaign hats.😉

An interesting figure, for sure. Caesar's friend.

Another neat critter! Sorta-kinda Renault-ish.

A toadus alonis? They're insect hunting for the winter. You have an urban camo one. Down here they tend to greens and browns. 😁

Yes and they are sharp, too. (said Thumbs)

Railroad "empires" tend to do that. 😉

Yes, roughing up the surfaces of smooth parts, such as plastic, metal and resin, helps the CA grip better. Removing paints and oils help, too.

And I think they are carbide, so they're brittle. Using them in a drill press should keep them workable for your holes. Hand drilling with a pin vise will learn you some new cuss words. Been in that game, glad to be out .

For some reason, I get some old Talking Heads tune, "Burning Down the House", running around inside my head when I look at these explosions and fires in our models. 😁

Enjoy the feeling, mate. That little boat looks the purpose of reclaiming hard coal from the Susquehanna.

Nice work with those pesky decals. And the wolf pelt looks good. He'll look good at Mons Graupis, the site of the battle of the 9th Legion and the Picts. Nobody is sure where it was. Neither side left records.

Now you need a Chief to carry that mug. 😁

Glad you're back, Brian. All the details you've been popping out really bring this boat to life. 👍

Good idea, bracing the walls of this kit. I brace walls in wood, plastic, plaster and resin. The bracing increases the available gluing area, along with the obvious strengthening. Yes, Blair Line makes some nice kits. Is that house the start of the "wrong side of the tracks"? 😄

Nicely done scratch-build. 👍 If I might add, since I've been zinged about this myself. Most structures should have some kind of foundation, lifting it above the terrain. Could just be planks of wood, running around the base. And some dirt, etc. just above the base. Mud splashes and green algae buildup.

Suitably decrepit engine; very nice.👍

I was going to suggest a piece of fiber-optic material, but while it transmits light from end to end, it's not too good at glowing out the sides. Your idea is better. 😉

It's a good base. I await your weathering approach. Should have pretty nicked up boards, thanks to the treads.

Nice looking kit. I'll follow along.

Great work on your wooden deck. What's your technique?

We use 2 man crews a lot, especially when we get new operators. Some just need local area rules orientation, others are a multiple session mentoring program. Those commodity trains were usually the fastest freight trains on a railroad, since the feeding/resting/icing rules were hard and fast for properly handling these freight classes. Milk trains were another type, but may be run as a passenger train, since they may have a coach tacked on . Cows could ride up to 28 hours; then they needed 8 hours outside the cars while those cars were cleaned and re-bedded. Most produce and meats needed ice, but the shipper specified what type and the timing. Some veggies, like potatoes, needed to be kept to a specific temperature range, so instead of ice they could put charcoal heaters in the ice bunker during the winter.

Very good explanation, Eric. Proper "blocking" is the key to this location's switching activity. Eric touched on that in his write-up. Blocking is the arranging of cars in their switching order before arrival in town. Sometimes a good yardmaster will do that before departure, sometimes the train crew will do that along the way, with permission of the railroad dispatcher. The telegraph was introduced on the railroads in the 1850s. The Erie issued train orders back then Waybills were generated by freight agents of the railroad and went to regional offices of the railroad. Copies went to the home office for billing and others went to the originating yard. The railroads employed a lot of clerks to process the waybills and carbon paper ruled. Copies of the waybills travel with the conductor in the caboose. He'll make up switch lists for the engine crew and brakemen, to use while actually switching the cars. All the paperwork can become a nightmare, that no model railroader wants to duplicate. We just generate waybills to get cars on and off the layout. On bigger layouts, the cars may have to stop in several locations to have work done. Livestock, produce and meat products had special rules for feeding and resting animals.Refrigerator cars needed icing base on shipper requirements. Don't forget, railroads hauled many different items from our earlier industries. Sears, Roebuck was Amazon until probably the 1960s in the US. All the goodies in the old Sears catalog went by rail. They shipped everything up to kit build houses. Mail was treated the same in special Railway Post Office cars. Mail got sorted enroute. The railroads were wide-ranging across the US.

Nice detail pictures.

Well done, Eric. Nice to see your work in print.

Glen, I'm in, helmet on and straps fastened. Ride 'em, cowboy! This will be fun. The grain of wheat bulbs are small but becoming harder to source. The LEDs have lots better longevity and they come in pretty tiny sizes. And they do make flickering modules, if you want