This past Friday Wayne Robichaux and I took another field trip. This excursion was a repeat of an earlier trip in which we had “followed” the Louisiana Central from it’s beginnings near the east bank of the Mississippi River, to it’s eastern terminus at Bude, Mississippi.\u00a0 That trip was made in the dead of winter so that we would be able to see better into the terrain.\u00a0 Friday’s trip found the landscape in full summer greenery.\u00a0 While it was considerably more difficult to see beyond the edge of the road in places, the look is more akin to the way the modeled scenery will look as I will be placing the time period in the summer.<\/p>\n
We were able to precisely discern several of the locations where I’d taken photographs several years ago.\u00a0 However several other scenes I’d previously photographed were hard to identify this go-around due to the extensive foliage and because of the passage of time.\u00a0 I re-shot many of the scenes as a comparison, but didn’t discover anything “new”.\u00a0 While there are way too many photos to post here, you can see the original collection<\/a> on the website.<\/p>\n We broke off late in the afternoon and headed over to McComb, where we caught the northbound Amtrak train, with a northbound CN freight hot on his heels.\u00a0 As most of you know, a local railroad museum makes its home in the depot at McComb.\u00a0 Outside, a former Illinois Central Mountain<\/em> steam locomotive, along with a few cars, are on display under a shelter roof.\u00a0 We were pleased to see that an extension of the train shelter is well under construction.\u00a0 This will place the recently acquired passenger cars on display under shelter as well.\u00a0 After checking things out, we drove south on Highway 51 to Hammond where we caught one additional train before heading back west to home.\u00a0 It was an enjoyable day!<\/p>\n Progress on the layout was a bit light this past weekend, but I did manage to assemble a few more car kits.\u00a0 I also painted a new rack I’m making that will hold Dremel bits.\u00a0 Oh, and I finally<\/em> got started on those code 70 turnout DCC modifications that I’ve talked about several times in the past.\u00a0 I’ve got a pair ready for installation on the layout now.\u00a0 If anyone shows any interest, I’ll have to take a few photos showing what I’ve done with them.<\/p>\n -Jack<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This past Friday Wayne Robichaux and I took another field trip. This excursion was a repeat of an earlier trip in which we had “followed” the Louisiana Central from it’s beginnings near the east bank of the Mississippi River, to … Continue reading