St. Albans 2026

    The Vermont Rail's 2026 Model Railroad Show a few weekends ago.  It's a small show in St. Albans, Vermont, but gets a pretty decent turnout.  The show is nice because it's one where you never know what you're going to find, so it's always worth the trip.  

I came away with a few cars and spent less than $30.

I'm going to wait to do a little more with the Atlas Blue Box Central Vermont boxcar.  I'd like to weather it seeing that these cars were few and far between in the early 2000's.  However, there are photographs on the web that show there was at least one riding the rails in Ontario during the layout's time period.  I don't do much weathering on my cars, but after reading an article in the March Railroad Model Craftsman, I'm interested in trying something out and this inexpensive car is a good one to practice on.

Not much was done to the Rapido Procor hopper before it entered service on the layout.  I swapped out the couplers for my standard Kadee whisker couplers.  I decided to add Smokebox Graphics FRA self-adhesive yellow reflectors (the company has stopped making these) to each side of the car.  It really is as easy as peel and stick.  Using prototype photos from the web helps with accurate placement of the stripes.

It was a quick five-minute project with nice results. 

Sorry for no additional pictures of the show.  It's held annually in March by the Northwest Vermont Model Railroad Association.  Their website has more information about the show and their club.  More about the Central Vermont car in a future post.