The River Basin Railroad (AAR: "RBAR") is an HO scale freelanced regional railroad that operates within the lower Midwest, operating on spun-off Illinois Central and other class I territory.
As the name implies, the Carrier follows the Mississippi River and serves a variety of heavy and light industries, as well as barge-to-rail transload operations.
Hills, curves, poor drainage, and heavy vegetation dominate the landscape and create a very scenic yet sometimes challenging operation.
I finally digitized one of the documentaries from my childhood even though I'm sure that an ***official*** VHS or DVD copy exists somewhere, but I've had this tape since I was a kid.
Back then I primarily enjoyed the railroad content but now as an adult, the North American cultural and political discussions are interesting and thought-provoking as well. Plus you can't beat those old scenes of steam-heated passenger equipment... Last Train Across Canada w/ Murray Sayle, part I
Last Train Across Canada w/ Murray Sayle, part II
The audio isn't the greatest and there are copyright claims for the music, but so far YouTube has not taken it down. I'm not interesting in monetization in any way because I wanted to post this for the educational, historical and cultural value.
Oh yeah, my channel has some other model railroading stuff on it too.
I don't have much time for writing, so here's a few pictures of the local scrap yard.
In the interest of economics, I decided to attempt the rusty, junky look using sawdust and washes of India ink. The piles are still drying, so the scene isn't completely done yet...I may add some more "rust" effects and junk laying around too.
The signage was simply printed on glossy paper I had in the stash, then cut out and glued to the fencing with some brand of tacky glue. It seems like "SCRAP WORKS" is a real business, but I went into MS Word and added a Missouri area code and fake address to give a sense of place.
The rusted, beaten-up walls were created with self-adhesive insulation tape that I embossed on a sheet of styrene, using the end of a paint brush. A million-dollar project, for sure!
Oh yeah, the ground and scrap yard walls were weathered using a "rust" solution and paint sold by Modern Masters. I think I got the idea from Jim at JSSX, who used it to beat up some gondolas, if I remember correctly...
The last photo I've got right now is the material handler I found on Amazon for about $12...so I bought three! They came with a magnet too but the chains they used don't really let them hang properly, so I've got the clamshell in use right now until I can modify those parts. This guy was weathered with a spray of Testor's clear flat (protecting the windows with Micro Mask), then shot with an India ink wash out of a small pump bottle. Probably a little too heavy, but that's fine. It's in a junkyard after all.
