City of Los Angeles, 16th Train, 1950

Progress

January, 2008

It has been a while since I wrote about the progress. The COLA project has been on the back burner for a long time due to other commitments. Things should change in February after I move and I hope to set up a small paint shop and get to those brass cars.

Speaking of brass cars, I now have located and bought all missing cars, all in brass. That leaves me with the Diner and the 10-6 Sleeper as the only plastic cars in my fleet.

September-October, 2006

There has been too much of that "8-5 stuff" to really put some serious time into the model work these two months. I did get some mail about lettering of some of the cars and these notes are now added to the Color page.

I was also able to find an E6B unit, painted and ready to go. It has the wrong number but that shouldn't be too difficult to change, once I get some decals with the correct numbers on them.

July-August, 2006

The summer months are really slow when it comes to railroading, aren't they. These were another two months where very little happened, with one, major exception: A railroad friend of mine had seen the Sun Valley observation car for sale in a Model Railroad shop and tipped me off. I now have the original Sun Valley in my train, painted and all.

I also found out, through help from friends on the "UP Modeler" group on Yahoo that I should not plan on having two E8B units for a train in 1950. There were not enough B-units to make up a complete ABB set of E8. UP used what they had on hand and very often that meant an E8 AB combination followed by an E6B or whatever else was on hand that day. My old E6B will have to be dusted off, painted and be put to good use in the train this fall.

May-June, 2006

These have been slow months. Too much of that "8 to 5" stuff to really get in to doing anything with the train. I gave up on the U-43-HR kits and exchanged one for a built brass truck. The manufacturer, Precision Scale Company, was very helpful in the process. With the brass truck to look at, I should be able to finish the plastic kit I started.

I found another 6-6-4 sleeper, this one made by Wasatch. It will replace the NJI sleeper I have since I think it looks much better.

April, 2006

How do you like my moving train on the consist page? The U-43-HR trucks for the 4-4-2 sleepers are in. They just (?) need to be built and painted. The second coach has also arrived.

March, 2006

There is a market of available cars outside of eBay, fancy that! Through the Yahoo lists I have found a few more cars that have been added to the train this month. Now, if I only could get enough courage to plug in that compressor and pour some Armor Yellow in that airbrush, everything would be great.

February, 2006

Careful watching of eBay has brought a few really good bargains and I am now the lucky owner of three more Coachyard cars and two (almost) antique observation car kits.

The engines have finally arrived as well. Broadway Limited sure limited that series of E8B units didn't they?

September, 2005

Birthdays are great! I now have a coach made by Coachyard. Not painted yet, and that will take a lot of courage to do, so it may take a while.

I'm beginning to figure out what end of each car would be facing the engine. Through the help of the friendly crowd on the Yahoo group PCL (Passenger Car List) I have sorted some of it out, but some of the information is conflicting so there is still a lot to do. I have collected the information that I have received so far into a couple of "rules" (and, oh, for those that are as much in the dark as I was: the "B" end is where the hand brake is - "B" for Brake, that's easy, even I can remember that)

A summary of the car orientation is listed on the Car Orientation page.

Acknowledgments

The trademark "Union Pacific" is used with permission of Union Pacific Railroad.