[steved]

A snow plow that uses wing blades to push the snow away from the track.
This is a good example, https://www.facebook...329993371196061
Sorry it's on facebook but it's a good video.

Randy

[Weter]

Thanks again.
I've read about vibro-bar for removing ice from contact wire, propelled by compressed air.

[bwyrick]

Hi Weter, the flanger is that caboose-looking car behind the power. It has a pair of movable blades that go between the rail flanges (hence the name) to clear out snow in the gauge.

[Weter]

Hello, bwyrick.
Never encountered such method before, so it's interesting.
The familiar stuff looks like this and this
https://www.youtube....h?v=gvKHC0rG-EI

[steved]

Somehow I got flanger and Jordan spreader mixed up. Duh.

[Zecora]

10 years after I came up with the earliest incarnation, and 5 years after Dustin showed me how to start reskinning for MSTS, I can safely say that the Chicago, Mishawaka, & Toledo is still very much alive and well. Not much to show in the way of anything new for the CM&T in Open Rails, as I haven't really added any new locomotives since 2019-ish, but that's mainly because the focus has been on trying to bring the CM&T to life in HO scale. I've already got two U33Cs, an "F45-2", an SD40, and two "Blue Box" SD40-2s in varying stages of completion, and I've even got some freight cars either painted up or patched for the CM&T. So, little by little, it is starting to become a reality in HO scale.

That said though, I would like to talk about how I sort of overtook my model railroad club's own fictional railroad. . .

Back in 1986, railroad artist (and now friend irl) Ron Hatch was helping to design a model train layout for the Carl Sandburg Mall here in Galesburg, and he and a buddy of his conjured up the Illinois Midland as a fictional railroad to run on the mall layout. They never really made a concrete back story, route, or locomotive roster for the railroad; it was simply just the idea of making something that looked familiar but didn't actually exist in real life. They simply built the layout and painted up some cars and locomotives for the layout and called it a day.

That being said, I noticed that the window of opportunity was wide open for me to get creative and make a story for the railroad. I worked with Ron to come up with a good story and a realistic locomotive roster, and here's what we came up with. . .

In 1890, the Illinois Midland was formed when two predecessor railroads came together and merged in an effort to compete with what would eventually become the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy. The railroad ran from Chicago to St Louis, by way of Tampico, Coal Valley, Quincy, and on down to Alton and Granite City before entering St Louis. The railroad primarily hauled bridge traffic to and from Chicago and St Louis, as well as hauling agricultural products and coal from mines in the Coal Valley area. The railroad's steam fleet was mostly made up of USRA locomotives, and they stuck with their stock USRA engines up until the end of steam in 1958. Unfortunately, the 1960s were not kind to the Midland; interstate highways, the Burlington, and a decline in local businesses for locally originated traffic all lead to their decline, along with the Burlington Northern merger in 1970. The Illinois Midland tried looking for a merger partner in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and after finding nobody to merge with, they reluctantly sold themselves to the Burlington Northern, who subsequently turned around and completely abandoned half of the railroad between Quincy and St Louis.

I've been working with Zephyr4501 to make videos on our club's railroad. He is a fantastic narrator, and did a great job to help tell the story of our railroad.
Part 1:
https://www.youtube....h?v=EeNgNcALQJo
Part 2:
https://www.youtube....kaYzFrE&t=1158s

[Mipman25]

Ten years and a day ago, I debuted Gump Transit, my first completely original fictional in MSTS. This was by no means my first fictional; I had created a slew of fictional roadnames and liveries in Trainz 2004 thanks to its easy-to-learn Paint Shed. However, being freed from Paint Shed's constraints let me push the limits as far as my graphic design skills would allow. More than anything, it would be a stepping stone in finding my identity as a total fictional foamer.

https://i.postimg.cc/hjSh53vd/GT-5950-at-Yonder.png

https://i.postimg.cc/43G3YFzS/Gump-Transit-900-cropped.png

[SD45T-2]

Well, after yet another hard drive fiasco, DMMC returns...again.



This isn't technically a kosher combo (DB and non-DB units together) of units, but I'm doing it until I build another non-heritage GP38-2 (Probably ex-CSX for a little variety.)

[Weter]

Hello.
As I guess, DB is the rear one with additional air intake?

[SD45T-2]

Yep, and there's an extra fan above said intake.