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Jun 6, 2005
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Ed Kapuscinski is a student at the University of Maryland and is involved with NTRAK in the Baltimore area. He has plans for a future N scale Conrail empire set in 1985.
Currently, Ed is modeling Conrail in N scale during the mid-1980s, when the company was finally coming out of its early days and becoming a major, profitable North American railroad. By 1985, Conrail had stored, sold off, or scrapped much of its under-performing and oddball predecessor locomotives, replacing the tattered units with a modern fleet of reliable power. Ed says that he wants to capture Conrail on this cusp, allowing him to have modern equipment, such as the SD-50, while enjoying the remaining rundown units, such as the RS-3M and the GP-9. Here is a glimpse of some of his current projects. Look for more from Ed in future updates.
Following an article from Railroad Model Craftsman, Ed built RS-3M CR 9927 (left), his first real attempt at kitbashing. He began with an Atlas RS-3, grafted on GP-7 fans from an old shell, added new exhaust stacks, and replicated the sheet metal on the hood covering the new prime mover inside. Here we see 9927 working the industries near
Philadelphia's Frankford Junction. Another common sight in 1985 is a Conrail boxcar, such as the one seen here to the right. Ed says that he has three of these cars, and that they all started out identically. He re-decaled this one to make it different, adding the consolidated lube stencil and changing the number. He then weathered the car using drybrushing techniques and vodka washes. Ed has promised to do a future article on weathering with vodka washes.
Since Ed is modeling 1985, cabooses on trains are still fairly common but are coming to an end. CR 22135 (upper left) is a class N-20 former Reading Company widevision caboose built by International Car Company. The model began as a stock Atlas widevision caboose. Then Ed did some subtle modifications, touched up the paint, and weathered it with his vodka technique. CR 18832 (lower left) is a class N-4A
Northeastern Standard caboose seen on many of Conrail's predecessor railroads. Ed started with a pre-painted Life-Like Northeastern Standard Caboose, working around the factory paint. He then sanded off the roofwalk, altered the end railings, plated in some windows, and added MV lenses for the marker lights. Finally, he touched up the paint and weathered the car with some paint washes.
Of course, every layout set in 1985 needs a few CR-stenciled units. This also happened to be he same year Conrail repainted the last predecessor loco that they planned on repainting. If a locomotive had not been painted by the end of 1985, it was not going to be repainted because it was headed for the scrap heap or the deadline. As a result, many older locomotives died in their original paint scheme with only some black paint obliterating their predecessor logo and some CR decals stuck on the side. CR 7182 (upper right) is one such locomotive, a former Penn Central GP-9 that has had its logo painted out and CR stencils applied but will probably never see blue. As even the casual railfan can see, time has taken its toll on the 7182's maintenance.
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More Photos Some more photos of Ed's N scale modeling. | ||
 CR 6287 (xCNJ) SD-40. Kato SD-40 with brake wheel moved to rear. (74K) Jun 6, 2005 |
 CR 9927 RS-3M began as an Atlas RS-3 with GP-7 fans, new stacks, plus other mods. Taken on Andrew McCann's 60th St. NTRAK module. (92K) Jun 6, 2005 |
 CR 7883 GP-38, an almost-stock Atlas model (95K) Jun 6, 2005 |
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