So what have I been doing in the meantime you may ask?
First, I finished the second of my Nn3 T-TRAK modules. The trackwork had been finished and bulletproofed and the dock itself was built, what it needed was scenery. I had gotten the basic mountain done and I had built the shack, but it needed trees and finish work. The outhouse, trees, shrubbery, talus and people were all installed and then the module was cleaned and finished. I think it turned out really good.
The railings and dock workers were the finishing touches that the module really needed. Now I have two corners and a pair of singles with the Nn3 curving off to the back that will finish the narrow gauge loop to complete and then perhaps the whole collection can be taken to a show or two.
I also got some building done on my narrow gauge rail cars. I had purchased a bunch of them in anticipation of the closing of Republic Locomotive Works; Marshall (the owner) had expressed an intent to retire at the end of 2019 but apparently everyone else decided it was time to put in an order at the same time I did. He ended up having a great year and decided to hang around for a while. That is a good thing, but that meant I had a bunch of rail cars to build before I can put in another order (the East Broad Top had a lot of hoppers).
The above picture is the fruit of my labors in that respect. Along with my regular order I got a bunch of stuff that I didn't order, mostly defective castings that I suspect came from the scrap bin at RLW that Marshall was throwing in with the orders to clean out his bins and also to give his customers some scratchbuilding materials. So along with the boxcars, hoppers, flat car and caboose that I did order I got a couple of boxcars that I didn't order that just needed some holes filled and truck bolsters rebuilt, and I also got a tank that I decided to put on a flat car.
The East Broad Top did have such a tank car, built out of flat car 116. As has become standard for my building style this is not an exact copy of that prototype, but it captures the flavor of the original. Since this photo was taken the tank has been painted silver and the car has been decaled so it looks a lot better in my opinion. It is a welcome addition to my fleet. The flat cars aren't prototype for the EBT either, but...yeah, close enough.
Then I decaled the whole lot, starting with the caboose. I already had 28 so I turned this one to 27. I finished the flat car and the tank car, then I did three of the five boxcars before finally calling it a day. I finished the other two box cars the next day, and now I can concentrate on the hoppers.
My medical vacation will be finishing up soon, I hope, but before I have to go back to work I'm hoping to finish up the coal hoppers I have in the build and then decal some of the ones I already have built for the rock trade. There are ten of those, some are fully decaled, some are partially decaled, and some are not decaled at all. The decals available from RLW do not have the labels for the rock cars, but fortunately the Friends of the East Broad Top sell some in the company store that do. I just got in a few decal sets from the FEBT, so I'll be able to finish up the ROCK decals now.
As for coal hoppers, I have six on the work table right now. The RLW hopper kits consist of a top cast in resin and a bottom frame with attached dumps in white metal. Of the six, three have had their resin tops sanded and fitted to the white metal bottoms with end platforms built and three more sanded and fitted to the bottoms with the end platforms left to build. I also have three more that are still in their package and three more on the way. I should have enough trucks and couplers for the first six but since I have more boxcars than I had planned it's probably about time to take inventory and order some more trucks and couplers. I also need to buy some brake cylinders to fit to the end platforms, something that I overlooked when I put in my initial order.
That should keep me busy until I get back to work.
