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Model Railroading

10 Sep 2014

CR 6981 SD40-2R in HO Scale

In March, I acquired a pair of used Kato SD40s, one of which was Conrail 6345.

J. Alex Lang

Model Railroading

14 Jun 2014

Conrail 3401 GP40-2 in HO Scale

Last summer, on a random trip to a local hobby shop, I spotted Conrail 3401 for sale at a good price. Thinking that I could use some more four axle power for my intermodal trains, I purchased the Athearn RTR unit for about $65. I knew that the numberboards would need to be re-decaled as […]

J. Alex Lang

Model Railroading

7 Jan 2014

1st Operating Session & Subsequent Improvements

In October, the Aspinwall Belt hosted the first “official” Operating Session. For the uninitiated, this is essentially a bunch of grown men pretending to run a real railroad, when obviously it isn’t. But that’s the last time you’ll hear me admit this. I set up some documentation for the group, including an overall train plan, […]

J. Alex Lang

Model Railroading

3 Oct 2013

Conrail 8110 GP38-2 in HO

[singlepic id=21 w=320 h=240 float=center] After the baby was born, I received the most awesome of gifts from a close friend of mine: a Life-Like Proto2000 GP38-2, painted as Conrail 7993. These engines are wonderfully detailed, out of the box, and they run really well. Well, I’m modeling the early-mid 1990s, and by then, this […]

J. Alex Lang

Model Railroading

30 Sep 2013

Conrail’s Aspinwall Belt track expansion

In August, I posted an outline of the so-called “temporary layout”, Conrail’s Aspinwall Belt. I thought I would share some layout progress and additional thoughts. As I mentioned last time, the goal of this layout was to quickly get to the point where the kids and I could run some trains. This way, Dad can […]

J. Alex Lang

Model Railroading

4 Aug 2013

The Aspinwall Belt

I have always been troubled by having too many hobbies, and never time for all of them. Consequently, I go through various phases… As a kid, HO scale model trains (along with a few military aircraft for good measure). High school was mostly music, with a bit of railroad photography; college was about the same. […]

J. Alex Lang