So, one week has passed more or less and it seems no one has found my little corner of the web. I thought I would add a little more to encourage anyone who stumbles on this to join in and help me get this rolling.
It will probably be some time before the main aspect of this blog takes hold if it ever does. In the mean time, anyone who finds this should feel free to share some of their hobby. I will do so until it is obvious I am talking to just myself.. ha ha!
My latest creation is a pair of N scale GP60M engines for ATSF. These are readily available JnJ resin shells riding on a Life Like GP60 drive. It should be noted that the as delivered LL GP60 has the incorrect trucks and need to be updated if you are looking for accuracy. The correct trucks can be obtained from a LL GP38-2 which has the correct updated trucks.
The JnJ shells are pretty nice as resin goes. Certainly not on par with Grant Eastman or Kaslo shells detail wise, but certainly comparable to most injection molded plastic shells that come with off the shelf locomotives.
As with all resin there is some clean up needed before proceeding but it is minimal and other than cleaning out window openings, the only other flash is from molding tabs that need to be removed. Once this is accomplished if no further detail is desired, you can pretty much jump right to paint and decal.
All but the front corner hand rails can be used from the LL GP60 on the resin shell so the only wire to bend is two very simple corner grab rails.
I replaced most of the cast detail with photo etched or machine bent wire to add to the appearance.
I wish I could tell you the background is my layout. That would be pretty cool. It is just simple photo-shop trickery so there is something there besides a blank sheet of paper. Ha ha!
If anyone is watching, I hope you jump in and add some comments good or bad. At this point it would be cool to know I am not talking to just myself.

what I do for a living

I could not begin to share all my work, but I thought to get this started, I would share what I consider to be my signature piece of work. A Milwaukee Road Bicentennial engine. Road Number 156.
This started life as an original run Kato SD40-2, N scale. This is the only real place to start with this particular locomotive as details on the more recent model are incorrect.
This is a full detail project where everything possible in N scale has been corrected to accurately reflect the original prototype. Other than many small detail items, the largest and quite noticeable change is the reduced capacity fuel tank which was to anyone who know, a trademark of all Milwaukee Road SD40-02 engines and many others too.
More of my handiwork can be viewed on my personal web page which is
http://www.milwaukeeroadtrainshop.com I also post on Trainboard.com as kingj63. The latter is a fun web page worth signing up and exploring as much as you have time for.

Some of my work

Sharing N scale trains by the internet

Hi, my name is Jeff and I am a custom model train painter in Milwaukee WI USA. I specialize in N scale locomotives and passenger cars.
The purpose of this blog is to explore the potential of meeting fellow N scale enthusiasts around the world and creating a virtual railroading experience. I guess as I think about this, scale is unimportant. No real models will be exchanged unless the owners and operators choose to do so. Be careful if you do try that and be sure all proper measures are taken to insure your exchanged equipment's safety. I take no responsibility for anyone who decides to actually share parts of their collection, but that could be fun too as well all like something someone else owns and wish we could run it. If even for just a while
The basic idea is to tell others about your layout and then to communicate by the world wide web when you are operating. For example if you wanted to create a realistic running experience and you ran Union Pacific, you might chat online with another person who runs oh let us say CSX. Those two railroads meet in several locations and you could run your train to a yard on your layout and then tell your buddy the train is ready to be picked up.
This of course would require two enthusiasts with similar interests and who model a location on each layout that meets the "end" of the other person's layout. Similar equipment would be great as it would somewhat defeat the purpose to leave a unit coal train pulled by Union Pacific in a yard and then it leaves on the CSX as an intermodal train.
That is the sort of stuff left to imagination and the world is a large place. This page is intended to help others seek out modelers who might have similar interests and pull of a virtual railroad where the operation is larger than just your own layout.

I am new to blogging so I am not sure how this will work. You will probably have to do something more than simply log onto the page and see what is going on. Once I get the feel of this I can update the way this will work.

Let us see if this train has any traction and can even make it out of the yard.

The place to start is to say hi by whatever means that is here. I am brand new to this so don't feel like you are alone if you have never tried this before. I can imagine we will all earn together and the process if it takes off at all will get a lot of refining as time passes.

I am actually not the best person to get this rolling as my layout is pretty simple and small. My interests are The Milwaukee Road, Amtrak, Union Pacific, and Southern Pacific. What runs on my layout, when I even have time is what I have an interest in that day.
I truly think this will best be left to others with larger more complex layouts, but I am happy to give the train the all clear sign and get it rolling.

If you have found this page, drop by and see if anything new is going on. Also be sure to tell all your buddies about is as the only way this will grow is by word of mouth.

Have fun to all!
Jeff King