Spring 2026 Layout Update

Here are a few of the things that I've been working on in the past few months that have not been otherwise covered in their own posts.  Weathering a few of the covered hoppers that will serve the EP Minerals plant in Lovelock. 

After reading that the RPO cars still ran on the El Capitan between La Junta and LAUPT until 1967, I purchased one for my train.  Also added the two car on set which included an additional coach and baggage car. Full train with 13 cars seen here in a test run before going to the annual setup at Hiller Aviation Museum.

A few more Freight Waybills have been added to the library for inbound and outbound loads.  Distant customers were based on actual industries that I researched using Chatgpt.

Away from the home layout, we had our annual exhibit and the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California in mid April.  This year we again did a combined Peninsula Ntrak / AsiaNrail layout.  With several Ntrak members missing this year due to health and travel reasons, I had to bring all of my modules to this one.  In the weeks before the show I got the pump jacks working on one of those Ntrak modules.

A team track for Carlin

Something that has been sitting in my unassembled kit box for years is this laser cut loading ramp kit from Blair Line.  This was an easy kit to build.  The pieces are quite thin and all of the sections that make up the support structure are doubled for strength.  I used yellow wood glue applied with a tooth pick. 

Once the kit was fully assembled and the glue dried, I set it in place next to the existing spur in Carlin that has been used for transferring chemicals from tank cars to trucks.  While I had originally thought I would use this ramp for the team track in Lovelock, it seemed to me to it fits in here better.

After staining with some diluted Vallejo burnt umber paint, the ramp was glued down next to the track with canopy glue with some paint bottles for weight on it until the glue dried.  Some weeds were planted around and under the ramp.  Later, I may build a concrete ramp for the team track in Lovelock.