This varied report from the K&BH is significant because it is presented in commemoration of the first anniversary of the layout — construction began the weekend of October 18-19, 2003. We are able to document the wide range of modeling activities that are underway at this time as we tackle more modeling and less construction, 12 months into the project. To be sure, there is plenty of track laying (8%) and scenery work (98%) still to be done, but the important point right now is found in the fact that progress is being made — and trains are running on a daily basis!

Because I had so little equipment when we started the layout, I am adding lots rolling stock to the operation. An important part of that phase is the need to weather equipment so here is a view of how I weather wheels. Goal: Nothing shines on the layout except windows, rail heads, and wheel treads. Intermountain is my choice for free-rolling wheelsets and I buy a box of 100 at a time. I paint the inside of both wheels first (dark gray) and then the outside next while trying to avoid getting paint on the tread. Finally, I "rust" the wheels using a thinned rust wash (1:9), painting one wheel, inserting the opposite axle point into a piece of foamboard (as shown here) so the thin wash will spread evenly as the paint dries. When they are all dry, I flip the axles over and finish off the remaining wheel. At this same time, I am also painting (a dark color), weathering, and rusting the plastic truck prior to remounting everything back onto a car. I paint with Polly Scale.

While everything else is going on, I have felt the need to see something completed. This BNSF maintenance facility is not yet complete — but it is getting close, so I thought you might like to see it. This is the Walthers "Clarksville" station, a simple kit that has turned out nicely in my view. It represents the original brick CB&Q station in Kearney, but with all passenger service now coming out of the UP/K&BH station, this building has been turned into a maintenance crew facility. I kept the CB&Q alive by painting it NYC Pacemaker Red with trim in CNW Green and then added BNSF decals to indentify the current owner. Adding shingles to the roof really changed the look of the building. The ones I used are black Slate Shingles (#511) from Builders-In-Scale, a very nice product indeed. I got the idea to add these shingles from Walthers itself! When you look at the box cover photo for this kit, they have 'cheated' by adding shingles to their own kit! (Not quite fair, if you ask me — and they move the position of the chimney, too.)

This shows the entrance to the BNSF interior staging area which is the Hastings yard. (There is a duplicate of this duck-under for the K&BH at Rapid City.) While none of us particularly enjoy duck-unders, these were designed to be four feet wide and 51" above the floor. You see the pipe insulation used to protect one's head from the edge; another strip of that is located on the inside edge. I put the warning tape on the floor to mark the outer limits of the duck-under ceiling so a person would know when it is safe to stand up once again. The handles on each edge give extra support when one passes through this opening.

At long last, it is time to paint some of the rail in anticipation of ballasting and viewing some finished track work. I decided to paint the tracks on the three curves because they are complete (except for scenery), and here is the first step on curve two. Those beautiful clouds had to be protected so I masked the curve with newspaper using blue (non-residue) masking tape so it would not pull off any of the sky paint up behind the valance. You can see the tape at the bottom, too, and you'll see the results of that positioning below. I completed masking the full curve before airbrushing the double-track mains using Railroad Tie Brown as the basic color for ties and rail at this point in time. (You'll also note that the valance and facia have not yet been painted the basic gray which is to come.

This is what Curve 2 looked like once the track was painted. You can easily see where the tape was located, too, but that has now been covered with an earth-brown latex just to cover the pink foamboard. I can airbrush about three feet of rail before stopping to clean the paint off the rail head. As soon as I stop painting, I cover the paint jar and then stick the entire head of the airbrush in a dish of cleaner (more on that subject in a separate note sometime soon). This must be done quickly to avoid having the paint dry on the rails! I dip a cloth into this special cleaning mix and start scraping the paint off — with the cloth over the edge of my finger nail — just as fast as possible. Once the rail is clean, I begin painting the next stretch of rail and repeat this process until the job is complete. Because each curve has at least 12 feet of track — and because I am so darn slow — I disassemble and clean the airbrush at the half-way point before proceeding. One cannot afford to have the acrylic paint dry inside that piece of equipment. It is a drag to stop this way, but I feel it is critical to do so.

At long last, I can show some ballast on the layout. This is certainly a preliminary view, but it gives me hope that trains will roll on finished roadbed someday this century. Once one of the curves is complete, I will come back with a brush and "rust" the side of the rails with a 1:9 thinned mix. This very thin coat actually runs down onto the ties and roadbed — just the way it really happens — and provides a nice look to the rail. After that, I will airbrush all of the roadbed and rail area with 1:9 thinned weathered black and then some darker earth tone to tie it all together, to make the roadbed as dirty as it should be. Please keep that in mind as you see it so clean in this photo — the job now is to make it dirty/used/weathered — truly, a view of a working railroad.

This is where we find the layout at the end of one year. It is my pleasure to share it with you — to benefit from your suggestions, questions, and friendship. On behalf of the Management of the Kearney & Black Hills, we thank you for your interest in the K&BH. We hope you'll join us as we share more progress in the future.