Copper Range #29 is looking...well, primer red is about the only way to describe it. It no longer looks like
this but they have a long way to go. My personal opinion is that they should hold off on the cosmetic restorations until they have sufficient money and manpower to get #1385 or ST #2 running again. It's beyond me why they took all their formerly functional steamers apart at once rather than staggering the overhauls.
Anyhow, I have so many pictures from there that I'll make a seperate post on my blog for them later. My last visit to MCRM was in 1994 when I was 8 years old, even though we've been going to the Badger Steam & Gas Engine show just down the road for years since then. My mom's photography focus during our visits in 1992 and 1994 was the 6 or 8-year-old me rather than the trains, so I decided it was time to remedy that.
In the meantime, here's the Grovemont Branch's new motive power and rolling stock aquisitions. I call our (my dad & I's) layout the Grovemont Branch because Grovemont is the name on the signs on our Bachmann station. It is on a 4' x 6' wooden platform and has just a single-track mainline that crosses over itself for a "twice around" pattern. Both the inner and outer loops have a passing siding and there are three dead-end spur sidings.
If it were a real railroad, it would be of the "Class I crossover" branchline type that was mentioned in some of the "design your own roster" threads.
This is an Athearn model of Canadian National EMD GP9 #4235. It cost me $15 at the Badger Steam & Gas Engine Show flea market. The Grovemont Branch now rosters five of these locomotives. The road likes them because they are reliable yet often available cheap from bigger roads looking to dump their old motive power.
The previous owner personally painted and detailed the model, as well as adding a bunch of extra weight to the inside. I think they added too much, because the motor sounded like it was really straining when I tested it. I've never seen an engine make so much noise yet move so slowly. It is now awaiting maintenance (weight removal) on the storage track.
This is an Athearn dummy model of an EMD F7, likewise purchased at the Badger show flea market and likewise hand-detailed and painted, this time as Great Northern #678A. It looked too cool to pass up, with its working diaprahm on the back. I might add a motorizing kit to it someday, but for now the fantasy land story is that this locomotive was donated to the local railroad museum and is being moved there over Grovemont Branch tracks.
It is technically the only F7 model I have, since I have confirmed that my two AT&SF Bachmann ones are actually F9s. They are indeed detailed with the one distinguishing external feature-an extra set of vent grilles ahead of the front portholes.
The Grovemont Branch has to be the only railroad that still rosters F-units for ordinary freight service (the 2 ex-AT&SF ones are still in the active roundhouse); but they are seldom used, only in emergencies or severe rushes (in real life, because the cheap Bachmann train-set engines don't run very well).
Finally, the new additions to the freight yard. The AT&SF refrigerator and Libby's boxcar were actually purchased LAST weekend, from the garden railroad exhibitor in Brodhead. He was selling off all his HO scale rolling stock, track and accessories to focus exclusively on large scale railroading. The C&NW boxcar in the picture below was purchased this weekend at the Badger show from the same source as the two locomotives.