Museum Visit - Colorado Railroad Museum

If you are longtime reader you know that this is one of my favorite museums in the area to go to. Its definitely a love hate relationship though. I took my wife for her first visit and was pretty excited as I hadn't been there since the Goosefest in 2012. That was also the year the museum had acquired C&N #30 (also C&S #74 and RGS #74). It had been determined that she could not be returned to operating condition without replacing like 90% of the parts, although I would certainly love to see her run again. So I was quite excited to get to see her again.

The museum has gone through a lot of changes since 2012 and most of them for the good. The issue I have is that they restore a piece of equipment and then don't seem to be willing to follow up with regular maintenance. C&N #30 is a good case in point. Check out the photo I took in 2012 and see how she looks six years later in 2018. I'm a bit put out by that. I see it happening in a number of places around the museum grounds. Equipment that a lot of time and money was spent restoring, now just weathering away in the harsh Colorado sun.

But there are good things happening as well and the roundhouse was full of equipment that was going through restoration. The one locomotive I was looking for, RGS #20, was not to be found though. Apparently it has been sent back to Strasburg, PA for restoration to operating condition. It has been a long project but it seems it might be coming home sometime in 2018. We shall see. Currently #318 is sitting in the spot where I expected to find #20.

I couldn't really get to the geese that day, they were outside at the roundhouse but in a fenced off zone. So no really good pictures there. Still it was a good time and my wife enjoyed it which is always a plus.

Part of this trip was to try out the new camera and get ready for a vacation coming up that includes a couple of museums that I'm really looking forward to seeing. More on that at a later date. Here are some pictures from the visit though.

C&N #30 in 2012

Looking pretty out of sorts from this angle. What ever covering they have put over the boiler is looking decidedly out of place

The logo is rapidly disappearing and the paint is peeling away in a fairly straight line. 
A little correction here, this is not paint but a vinyl wrap as pointed out by Darel Leedy. Now that I look at the pictures a bit closer I can see it, I think I was so ticked off at the time I just assumed it was paint.

I don't think I have ever seen paint peel away quite like this. I would guess that the surface wasn't properly prepared for the new paint.

She was looking pretty good from this angle

At least she the steam chests are still tilted out instead of in like her two sister 2-8-0s (C&N 31 & 32, C&S 75 & 76).

Here is a look at the rest of the museum:
The Garden Railroads, both electric and live steam. There is a lot of bridges crossing that stream! I love the use of pine trees but that has to be a lot of work.

And now for the real thing:
Locomotives

And a little bit of rolling stock

The inside of the standard gauge UP dining car

C&S 1009 was running behind the small train that was operating that day

I think RICO was repainted in 2011 or 2012, she is in desperate need of a new coat of paint at this point.

A few random elements

A pretty good Saturday all told.

C&N Railroad Project - The 2-8-0 conversion project - acquisition

I just acquired a Bachmann Spectrum Baldwin 2-8-0 Consolidation in HO scale off of eBay. Now don't panic I'm not switching scales again. The C&N will remain firmly grounded in O scale while the LA Warehouse district will be HO scale. This 2-8-0 is hopefully going to serve as the basis for a C&N 2-8-0 in O scale. Basically I just need the drive mechanism and the rest will be discarded. The drivers scale out to 60" in HO which is just about right for the 37" drivers I need in O. I just need to dis-assemble it and mount a boiler closer to the right size, add an O scale cab and see if I can find a new tender or modify this one. I picked this one up for $50 so its not going to be cheap by any means but it will allow me to acquire parts at a more comfortable pace.

In Search of: Bachmann On30 2-8-0

If you have been reading my blog on a somewhat regular basis over the last few years or so then you are aware that a big part of the wild west town of Calamity will be the railroad. While I have a reasonable selection of 2-6-0 Moguls, freight and passenger cars at this point I'm still lacking the key player the 2-8-0 Consolidation.

Near as I can tell Bachmann doesn't seem to be interested in re-releasing this backbone of my intended freight service. I do find them on a somewhat regular basis over on eBay although they tend to go for $150 plus every time they make an appearance. Since I intend to do some major conversion work to make them at least resemble the 2-8-0s from the Colorado and Northwestern I'm a bit unwilling to spend quite that much money on something that might turn out to be a mangled mess.

I guess the plea here is if you have one of these sitting around an gathering dust let me know and we can work something out. It doesn't even need to be in working condition, I would be interested in just the frame and drivers at this point since I would be rebuilding a significant portion of it anyway.