patrick

One year ago this area was a badly maintained lawn. Things have improved somewhat since!

One year ago this area was a badly maintained lawn. Things have improved somewhat since. Not sure about the lawn though!

More progress on the Tincup freight depot. In the background of the first photo is a Rio Grande sign, a gift from Maureen who was insistent that the railroad had a name!

My current project, Tincup freight house.

Finally a pure Rio Grande Western consist! 20250812_165526.mp4

https://youtu.be/rH-Lx8iFqvw?si=QrjRDT4p2VYpFUpO 468 in action in and around Gunnison in the early fifties.

The railroad finally has an identity, the Tincup branch of the Denver and Rio Grande out of Gunnison Colorado about 1950. The decision was pragmatic, I already had a great running Aristocraft C16 locomotive which just needed to be relettered and a number of Rio Grande freight cars. Bachmann Big Haulers boxcars, gondola and stock cars in Rio Grande livery were available at very reasonable cost. I removed the factory lettering from the C16 with brake fluid and relettered it for Rio Grande 278. A second Aristocraft C16 268 in the D&RGD bumble color scheme was found on Ebay at a very reasonable cost, The previous owner adapted the locomotive to run on battery power and removed itspickups, It has two wires running from the motor to the tender. I plan to return it to battery power by installing a Piko r/c unit and rechargeable battery. Both 268 and 278 worked lightly laid branch lines out of Gunnison Colorado in the early fifties. 268 was painted in the then new diesel color scheme in 1959 for the Chicago World Fair in 1949 and retained this scheme until retirement when it was donated to the city of Gunnison where it is on display. 278 is also preserved. I imagine the railroad to be an imaginary branch out of Gunnison to the real town of Tincup, a town Malcolm Furlow used on his San Juan Central project layout in the Model Railroader in the 1980's and has inspired the railroad.

20250808_162902.mp4

A few pictures from today's running session.

Today brought us a break from the heat and humidity of the last week. Time to run a train. 20250801_151147.mp4

I have been constructing few buildings for the railway. The windows are cut from plastic screen for fluorescent light fixtures.l, a tio I found on YouTube.

This afternoons running session.

Here's a few more from the same evening. 20250708_235550.mp4 20250708_235513.mp4

Since the weather has been very hot and humid lately most running is done at night. Here's a video from last week. 20250708_235733.mp4

Recent engineering work on the railroad.