Conrail Era Signal Boxes

On July 27, 2026 I went and checked the mail to find a package that I have been waiting on. In this package was two 3D printed Conrail Era Trackside Signal Boxes. The detail on these are amazing and this is the first time I have bought anything that was 3D printed. I will say that I was blown away by these and this is another step towards the railroad coming to life. Once the weather breaks from all the rain we have been getting, I plan to get them outside to paint them. Until then I will be making either the milepost signs or they will have a name on them as I have seen plenty of them have names or numbers on them. 

I plan to have at least 12 of the signal boxes if not a few more than that. I am looking into getting a few of the different ones that were along the line as Conrail had different ones. Below are the two that I ordered and recieved.

MOW Project - Part 2

In Part 2 of the series with the MOW Project we see the cab decals removed, added and painted. The frame has been cut at a specific point to allow for an extended frame. After looking at the different type of MOW vehicles that Conrail had, I decided to build a dump truck using the conventional tractor I got. This will be a huge undertaking and I have saved a lot of pictures of the truck I am building this after. The biggest part is cutting the frame and getting it to the correct length that is needed. I have a dump bed that I will be cutting down to use as well. It may need some work done to it to extend it but I won't know for sure until I get everything set up on the frame.

Below is the next part of the series where I have removed the UP decals. Once the decals were removed I went and painted it a flat yellow using a brush and testors flat yellow. Doing it this way got the cab closer to the yellow Conrail used on all their MOW Vehicles.

The next part of the series will cover the frame and the mounting of the cab to the frame. The next part is going to the most difficult and time consuming with the frame.

  

MOW Project - Part 1

In this series we are going to go be taking a Conventional Tractor and turning it into another Conrail Maintenance of Way Vehicle. As of right now I am researching different type of MOW Vehicles that Conrail had on their roster to see which one would best fit this. There is a lot to go over and it may take some time. I will be cutting the frame down to extend it out some if needed. I have a few more that are on order and should be here in the next few weeks.

I am trying to get the MOW roster built up now that way I won't have to worry about it. This is going to be a fun little project as there are still many projects I have to finish yet. The tractor that I ordered was supposed to be undecorated but when it showed up in the mail, it was labeled for Union Pacific. That isn't an issue as I can remove the UP logo and numbers. The positive note is that it is already painted yellow so there will be no painting that is required of this model. The yellow may be a little off from the MOW yellow Conrail used, but once it is weathered, you won't be able to tell unless you know what you're looking for.

Altoona, Pa - Big Boy

A trip was made to Altoona, Pa to see a once in a lifetime event, The BIG BOY!! The experience of being able to see this massive steam locomotive is hard to explain. This is a living, breathing machine that is admired by many. Although I didn't get to meet Ed Dickens, he was answering all kinds of questions from the crowd and every so often he would reach over and blow the whistle to let off some steam. At one point the safety valves did pop off to let off more steam. Anyways, the shear size of this locomotive is unbelievable. It was a great time in Altoona even with the large crowd, you was able to move around and not bump into anyone. Between my fiance and myself, we took a good amount of photo's and I will share some of them with you all here. 

Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific sure outdid themselves with this event and the Coast to Coast Tour. This was surely a once in a lifetime event because no one knows if this locomotive will ever be back through this area again. The hospitality that was shown by both railroads is above and beyond what anyone could expect. 

This concludes our day at Altoona, Pa

Conrail RS-3M - Part 2

Conrail RS-3M #9950 was originally Penn Central #9950. Conrail inherited this locomotive along with a bunch of others when they took control on April 1, 1976. 9950 had it's short hood removed during the PC era and had a front porch added. Even though this locomotive will not fit into the era I'm modeling, I wanted to build this locomotive as I thought it was a pretty cool looking locomotive. It will make an appearance when I do flash back days on the model railroad. Below are a few progress pictures of what I have done so far. There is still more to do on this locomotive. 

9950 had a short life on Conrail. By April 1984 this locomotive was retired and ultimately met the scrappers torch in the end as Conrail was cleaning out the oddball units on its roster to make way for newer and much more reliable power in the 1980's through the 1990's.

Numbers cut out and ready to be applied

Slowly getting the decals added onto the RS-3M

Work on this locomotive has been on and off over the past few months as other things have happened and most recently a major ankle surgery. But since I have more down time right now, I figured this was the best time to finish up this project.

More to come in the next couple of days.

Conrail #0 - Part 5 - The Finale

Here we have Part 5 which is the last part in the series. Conrail #0 was a fun scratch building project over the past few months and I am sad that this critter is done. Now I can move forward with X481 since this one is completed. 

Here we have one of the vents that is on top of the roof. I took polystyrene and cut them to length. I then used super glue to hold them together. Once the pieces were dried ( after about 10 minutes ) I then glued them on top of the shell. The two cylinders on top of the shell have since been painted blue.

Next while the vent was drying, I got out the decals and found the F that way it is designated which end of the front of the critter. I cut the decals out and placed them in water. It took about less than a minute and they were ready to be applied to the front. I will say out of the entire scratch build, this was the most difficult thing to do. You can see how small the F's are and getting them in the right position was no easy task since the front of the critter isn't that big. Once they were applied, I took micro sol and set them in place.

I know other people use micro set but I found that it does not work as well as the micro sol does. The micro set works well for removing decals while micro sol works great for setting decals. Everyone has their own taste and we are all learning. Right now lets continue on with Conrail #0.

Up next is finding the lights that were on top. As of right now the lights are wired and are only for display purposes only. Eventually I plan to have the lights set up to blink orange but right now that's not on the table. I found two identical lights off of a old RS1 locomotive that I figured would best suite the critter. I glued them onto some polystyrene and left them to dry. I then used my Dremel tool to cut them out and sand the edges smooth. After all that was done, the lights were glued on top of the shell.

Now onto the final Part of this 5 Part Series. Below is the final product. I think the critter turned out pretty good. Everything is painted that needs to be painted, all the decals that I currently have are on with the exception of a few which will be added at a later date. I hope you all enjoyed this 5 Part Series. There will be more series coming in the future. But for now, enjoy Conrail #0.

Shop Goat X481 - Part 2

Welcome To Part 2 of the 3 part series on Shop Goat X481. Work has progressed some on this shop goat. I did manage to get the other end closed off and started to paint the goat. There isn't as much detail on this shop goat as there is on Conrail #0 so getting this goat finished will be much easier.

Here is the other working end all closed up and waiting on paint. The battery box has also been glued onto the frame and is drying in these pictures.

Here we have the paint being applied with a paint brush. I don't own a air brush system yet so all the scratch built stuff and repaints that you see is all done using a paint brush.

The metal coupler clip you see in the above picture will be cut off before the rest of the front of the goat can be completed. A new coupler will be glued on since this goat will actually not be used to shuffle locomotives around. Each time that it is viewed on the layout, it will be coupled up to a different locomotive to give the illusion that it is working.

This concludes Part 2 of the 3 part series. Stayed tuned for Part 3 in the next few days.