TP&W Caboose #529: Part II

I resumed work on TP&W 529 in April. I painted the body with Scalecoat II CN Orange-Red and then applied the decals. I used pieces from four different decal sets to get what I needed:

• Diamond TP&W herald: Microscale 87-648, New T. P. & W. Diesel Locos. -1991
• 529 numbers: Microscale 87-651, Illinois Terminal Diesel Locomotives
• White stripe: Microscale 87-1064, Toledo Peoria & Western Diesels (1969-1983)
• ACI tag: Microscale MC-4280, Automatic Car Identification (ACI) Plates

The "529" numbers from the IT decal set are a bit taller and narrower than the actual numbers. Numbers from a Railroad Roman decal set (e.g., Microscale 90321) might have been better, but I already had the IT decal set on hand and they look close enough for me. Neither TP&W decal set was readily available: the 87-648 set is no longer in the Microscale catalog and the 87-1064 set is currently out of stock. I was fortunate to find both at out-of-state hobby shops with old inventory.

My model after decaling with a prototype photo from the Morning Sun TP&W book for reference.
I have since painted the equipment box black.

The white stripes have been very stubborn and won't settle down nicely on the model, even after multiple applications of Micro Sol. For now, this project has taken a back seat to the layout construction. I'll come back to it later and reassess the stripe situation.

Benchwork Progress

Time has been scarce lately for layout building, let alone blogging about it, but over the past couple of months I have acquired the necessary lumber and fasteners, built the three 2' by 4' boxes that will together form the initial 4' by 6' table, and constructed one set of legs.

The tabletop is at a height of 40" above the floor. I settled on this height so that I could build the benchwork for the future expansion high enough to clear the access doors to the storage area behind the knee wall. 40" is above the bottom of the thermostat on the wall and I decided that it wasn't worth notching the benchwork to fit around it, so the layout won't be right up against the wall in this area.

Next up is to build the IVAR shelf unit that will support the front of the layout, followed by bolting the sections together to form the complete table.