Calamity's Railroad; Shifting to On30

I decided that I would go ahead and make the shift from S Scale to On30 for Calamity's railroad. There are just to many advantages to ignore. So I set up searches on eBay and I have been keeping my eye on the local Craigslist. There is a lot of stuff on eBay at reasonable prices for On30 and a lot of it is new! The part that I expected to be difficult is; acquiring the locomotives I want at reasonable prices. The second part surprised me, there is a definite lack of box cars for sale. I may have to buy these new and they are not cheap! I have already acquired all the cars for the passenger train.  I would just like to add a combination car to it. The freight train seems to be more difficult to acquire. So far I have acquired a tank car, a short side gondola, a caboose and a drover's caboose. I found a 2-6-0 Mogul at a good price, but its lettered for the Colorado and Southern so I'll have to re-letter it for the Colorado and Northwestern. I need to find someplace that does custom decals the C&NW has a fairly complex logo and it shows up on the tender and the passenger cars. There is a simpler version on the freight cars.

I set up some shots with the Sarissa Precision Railroad Station and Reaper's female huckster for a little scale. I'm definitely liking the look and feel of these elements together. I'm itching to get back to working on Calamity after ReaperCon is over.

The Baggage Car with the doors opened. I just need to letter it for the  C&NW and it will be ready to go. Well maybe a little weathering.

One of the four passenger cars I acquired on eBay. Again just needs to be lettered and weathered. I could afford to trade off two of these passenger cars if I wanted to. I have four of these and they have lighted interiors and seats.

The Caboose. I would like another one of these as the C&NW had two. This is an eight wheel caboose, I would prefer a four wheel caboose but I can't find one out there, although I could make my own if I decide its that important. This one needs to be completely repainted, re-lettered and weathered.

This is the Drover's Caboose. It features a small passenger section and can be tacked on to a freight train if needed. The two baggage doors are open but can be close. This one is in D&RGW colors so I'll need to paint, letter and weather it. It also is lighted with seats in the passenger section.

The Tank car. Not quite sure what I'm going to do with this one but the price was right.

C&S Engine 22. I'll need to add a DCC decoder and sound to this one. I haven't decided if I'm going to repaint this one or not. The C&NW did borrow C&S engines on occasion. However, if I date from 1870 then the C&S didn't exist yet. C&S #22 was rebuilt from the Denver, South Park and Pacific's #35 (named Dillon and built in 1882). I could back date it and letter it for the DSP&P. Fortunately I own a copy of M.C. Poor's Denver, South Park & Pacific book (second hand  #336), hopefully there is a picture or two in there.

I like the proportions here. If she was not on a base she would be a perfect fit, bases really get in the way when you are trying to place your minis on and around vehicles and trains.

A little weathering and a little steam, shift it to black and white and  it would be a great shot.