September 2025
Well, I know this is late…but better late than never. The month kind of ran by me without even acknowledging how fast time passed. But, things are humming along nicely and I am thoroughly enjoying the drive to work each day and the drive home is beautiful as well. The days are getting shorter now, and it’s getting closer to model railroad business time. People will be working on their trains and that means that work will get busier and busier. But work really isn’t work when it’s your favorite pastime in the world, right? (Yeah, the Cubs and the Illini are also up there…but time will tell on both).
I’ve been working on putting some decoders in my engines finally and have gone full BLUNAMI by SoundTraxx. I have sold off the Digitrax System I had for 24 years and am ready for the next chapter in model railroading. The versatility of the Blunami decoder and app is second to none. It even has me thinking about updating my phone to an iPhone 16 or newer!!! (Go figure…I still like my iPhone 13…but maybe getting rid of that number isn’t a bad idea? )
The GP15-1’s are getting new lighting features added to them and that will be featured in a couple of upcoming articles. I am getting a couple of parts box engines out of mothballs too so I can build them up and get them ready for Blunami installs. I am mixing up a little bit different shade of Jenks Blue similar to the old-school Floquil days…I am taking the existing Tru Color Jenks Blue and adding 1 part pullman green to it. I used to do that to my MoPac Floquil mixes…which were basically 50-50 Floquil light blue and dark blue; with 1 part pullman green mixed in. I will, of course, use Tamiya lacquer clear coat for the finishing up on the engines.
My painting and repair shop is back up and running and I am going to start doing decoder installations for modelers once again. I will offer milling services and full decoder installations; as well as lighting upgrades and programming the installed decoders if needed. I am not sure on the full scale custom painting until I get a few more of my fleet engines built and Blunami equipped.
I am going with Athearn diesels for now with a few Walthers-Proto diesels. If Atlas were to bring out a phase 3 U23B, I’d be in for a few of them. I am looking at an upgrade project for the B23-7 from Atlas, so I can add that unit to my Joppa Sub Fleet. It is entirely possible right now with the 3D printing the way it is. The glaring miscues on the shell could be fixed and I’d have that excellent Atlas B23-7 drive system…with the decoder buddy setup and Blunami installed.
Finally got my photos up on the walls and now the place looks like a train guy lives here. Good stuff! Things are great at SoundTraxx, and we are gearing up for our visit to Trainfest in November. This will be my first show as a member of the SoundTraxx team, and I am looking forward to it. There are a ton of new exciting items on the way for HO scale and N scale modelers alike. The new BLUNAMI 1100 decoder will allow N scalers the opportunity to have the Blunami control and operations in N scale. I am going to use it as well in my switch engines. My Walthers Proto NW-2 is the first one up for the Blunami BLU-1100 and the custom decals are finished and ready to go. I will also do the CO&E (Former MP) 1147 in the Jenks Blue scheme, which will be alongside the #17, which will run as well with SoundTraxx Steam Blunami in it as well.
I’ll post the October blog about the middle of the month, then get back on track for November with a Trainfest Report.
Regards,
