In the early days of building the layout a look at a Rand McNally map revealed that Mopac were all over Arkansas like a rash, so I have always had a couple of Mopac switchers in my collection. Coming more up to date we see the UP taking over the Mopac track. I have always been an admirer of UP, they generally keep their locomotives clean and they photograph well against my predominantly green scenery.

So I was easily seduced into buying a UP road switcher, the not so common GP40x at a bargain price at an exhibition I did at Northampton.

The UP had six of these 3500 hp locos that arrived in 1978, they look a bit different to a normal GP40 because of their trucks and flared radiators.

Note it wasn’t until I downloaded the photo onto the computer I noticed one of the handrail stanchions was not secured properly, now done with a touch of ACC glue.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 11:10 am by Broadoak

Having got a GP40X what I needed now was a standard GP 40 -2 for a comparison. Luck was on my side when I visited an exhibition in Armitage in Staffordshire and bought a UP version along with a couple of tractor units at a very attractive price.

UP 1349 spotting a Rock Island covered hopper at the Farmer’s Coop elevator at Colonel’s Crossing. The elevator is a lightly modified Con-Cor plastic kit.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 11:12 am by Broadoak

A CNW covered hopper is spotted at the Medusa Cement un loading facility. A fairly heavily weathered Atlas model. I find these such a versatile model taking up less space than the bigger ACF types allowing a few more cars in a train.

The long grass and vegetation in the foreground is made from a cheap shaving brush bristles and tinted with acrylics.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 11:17 am by Broadoak

This photograph shows the differences of the radiators on the GP40-2 nearest camera and the GP40X with the flared ones.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 11:28 am by Broadoak

A Conrail B23 - 7, here are a couple more photos of the locomotive working at Colonel‘s Crossing.

The model is a visitor on my layout, it actually belongs to Andy the guy who has taken the photographs.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 11:46 am by Broadoak

Here we have a Rock Island covered hopper at the Farmer’s Coop. The roadway serving as the other team track at Colonel’s Crossing. The road surface is three layers of card glued down and allowed to dry thoroughly. It was then painted with several coats of emulsion paint tinted with drawing ink and water colour paints giving it a flat slightly textured finish. A black fine line pen is used to represent the joins and cracks in the concrete.

One of the industries served by CC is drilling mud which arrives by truck and is then loaded into box cars. The important thing with a team track on a model is it is so versatile and needn’t take up too much room.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 11:48 am by Broadoak

An SP SW1500 in as new condition so it is obviously brand new, sits next to the Farmer’s Coop and team track at Colonel’s Crossing. The truck is picking up some fertiliser and seeds for a local farmer.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 12:06 pm by Broadoak

A faded bankruptcy blue RI covered hopper sits on the team track at Colonel’s Crossing. The Pennsy steel gondola next to it has a load of agricultural limestone waiting to be collected by local farmers to spread on their land to improve the soil quality.

The CAT loader is for the pulp wood flats.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 12:07 pm by Broadoak

The rock formation hides a sharp curve behind it. It is made of polystyrene blocks roughly cut to shape then covered with old pieces of cloth soaked in poly filler. When this was dry more poly filler was added with a spatula and then carved when dry. The whole was then painted with several washes of emulsion paint and acrylics getting darker with each wash. When dry it was lightly flicked over with a dry brush. Then it was covered with ground cover and some cheap trees that had been covered in pva then dipped into various coloured flocks were added. The structure in front of the ore car is a disused ore loader made from odds and ends from the scrap box.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 01:54 pm by Broadoak

A few of the details at the loco re-fuelling and sanding facilities at CC. They are very minimal really. A small open engine house, out of shot to the left. A scratch built sand drying house and an inspection pit between the tracks in the foreground. Tools on work benches and an EMD prime mover under the blue tarpaulin. (Kitchen towel soaked in pva then painted when dry, finally a flick over with a dry brush) The grounded reefer is a tool and spares store.

It is assumed that freight cars are repaired here as well. This gives an excellent excuse for all sorts of cars to turn up on the layout from time to time.

This time we see a Rock Island SW1500 idling sitting over the inspection pit.

Last edited on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 01:55 pm by Broadoak