Soeobo Pacific Model Railroad

This post is part of a running series on my home layout progress. I decided to continue work on the Lumber St. industrial area by adding roads and smaller buildings near the two anchor factories covered in my last progress update. I wanted a small commercial area along the street separating the two big factories to capture the feel of the mixed-use neighborhoods typical of mid 20th century cities. The focus of the commercial scene would be Klein’s Pharmacy, a kit by JL Innovative Design. I liked the unique look of the building, and it fit perfectly into the corner lot I envisioned for the scene. The kit is a mix of materials. The walls are mostly laser-cut wood parts. The front entrance is a molded plastic section. Numerous white metal detail parts and printed signs are included. These really bring the building to life. The kit went together fairly easily. I generally followed the kit instructions, painting and detailing each wall before assembling the final structure. I added a select...

The Burlington operated extensive commuter service on the “racetrack” out of Chicago Union Station. The volume of trains was one of the reasons three tracks were needed as far west as Aurora. The late 40’s - early 50’s were a time of transition when the Burlington extensively modernized its fleet of suburban equipment. Going into this period, the backbone of the fleet was made up of steel open platform coaches built in the 1920s. In 1949, the Burlington started to rebuild some of these with enclosed vestibules and air conditioning. This program coincided with the purchase of new stainless steel bi-level gallery cars that began arriving in 1950. Some of the former open platform coaches were converted into power cars to supply electricity to the new gallery cars. Lastly, several heavyweight long-distance coaches were also transferred to suburban service. This shuffling of equipment resulted in an interesting variety in suburban service that I wanted to model. This post will focus on the ...

I  stumbled across an ad for a Bethlehem Car Works heavyweight observation car kit that looked very similar to pictures I had seen of CB&Q prototypes with a two-window solarium section at the rear. It seemed perfect for my Exposition Flyer consist. After doing some research, I found these cars were modeled after a class used on CB&Q name trains like the Aristocrat and Black Hawk in the 20s and 30s. By the late 40s period that I model, they had been transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad. I decided to use some modeler’s license as the CB&Q still had similar looking DL-3 lounges operating in the 40s. I was also curious to try out a BCW kit. The kit is a combination of resin sides and ends with a former Branchline heavyweight core and roof. There is a complete set of underbody details and Branchline trucks. A collection of other resin and plastic detail parts is included. I used a combination of these and 3rd-party details to better match the Burlington cars of the 1940’...