It's not all modeling

As mentioned previously in this blog, not all my time is spent modeling, but rail fanning the real thing. A number of us - Ken Heyl, Allan Silverberg, Jim Martin, and Stan Swope - travel to The Horseshoe Curve area in western Pennsylvania two or three times a year to photograph the prototype. We've just returned from such a trip with several unique photos.

Showing up early one morning was this Norfolk Southern heritage unit remembering the Southern Railroad. It's one of my personal favorites. As part of its 30th anniversary celebration two or three years ago, Norfolk Southern painted one each of some 20 engines in the colors of railroads absorbed through mergers and acquisitions. Each of the heritage units is used in regular daily service, and have become highly sought "targets" by rail photographers throughout the NS territory. They even enjoy their own section as a part of the NS website.

We also spent a day "chasing" the Everett Railroad, a short line that originates in Hollidaysburg, just outside of Altoona, and travels to Martinsburg, switching several industries along the way. In the photo below, it's seen returning from Martinsburg via Roaring Spring, and passing the historic Roaring Spring station.

It was a great week, and now back to work on the P & LE.

Adding a small industry

On the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, just across from the famous St. Louis Arch, is this small oil unloading industry. It has the storage/office building of some sort, an oil unloading platform, and a series of storage tanks. It can be seen from I-70 just before the highway turns west back on to the bridge; however, this shot was taken from the St. Louis-Chicago Amtrak train about a month ago.

The second photo is my effort to replicate the facility; the building, oil unloading platform, and storage tanks are placed here simply to check space parameters and perspective. Obviously, there is a great deal of work to do in terms of adding piping, possibly more tanks, painting, detailing, and weathering. But I think when completed, it will make a nice scene in a corner at the entrance to Paducah.

The four white tanks in the foreground are from a Walthers kit; the four large tanks behind are scratch built from Plastruc materials. I may add 2-4 more; undecided right now. The unloading platform and building are from an estate sale.