Great Northwestern Railway

A bit behind in sharing some construction stories.  Frankly I post these just as much to remind myself what I did and used as it is to share the story with others who may want to know.  To me, track always looks better painted.  The bright silver side profile with the plastic reflective ties just takes so much away from the realism.  I know some who painstakingly hand paint ties and the sides of the rail.  I just don't see that as practical for the amount of track I need to do.  I also didn't want to spend the money on pre-weathered rail.  I used the basic Atlas code 83 flex track and turnouts.  Cheapest stuff out there. My go-to is Rust-Oleum's Camo paints, offered in spray cans.  It is opaque, dead flat, and goes on both metal and plastic without any issue.  The Earth Brown color is closest to the look I am wanting. WARNING: This is an oil-based paint.  So when spraying, be sure to use a LOT of ventilation!...

Last week we had the second test run of the new GNW!  The biggest addition in this session was to test run the train sequence.  Seemed to work OK, but some tweaking to do.  All in all though, I think everyone had fun.  Kudos to operators Meeker, Kampsnider, Kersting and Mr/Mrs Botkins for tolerating trains without ANY blocked cars!  And then 2 switchers decided to poop out.  It was truly a pain and they took it all in stride.