Expanding the roster

A couple of months ago I picked up a bunch of HOn30 equipment from a very helpful member of the Yahoo HOn30 list, including some flat cars, a Railway Recollections caboose kit, a railbus, and a forney.  The railbus and forney are sure to make an appearance here at some point, but I am currently concentrating on assimilating the freight cars into the St. G. R. R. roster.  Here are two Monson-prototype flats now lettered 27 and 28, with #32 (A Mount Blue kit) for comparison. They still need cut levers but are otherwise complete:

I have also been building the road's first caboose, a Railway Recollections kit for an early Sandy River caboose.  I'm about 95% done, and just waiting for a few detail parts which are supposed to arrive tomorrow.  Meanwhile I have been debating how to arrange the lettering. My initial inclination was to spread the letters across the width of the car, but I'm not sure that's the right look so I mocked up a more compact formation on the other side;

The decals are not firmly set on the model yet, so I will give it a few days before making a decision.

The smoke jack is a length of 1/16" brass tubing inside 3/32" tubing, with a thin paper cap solidified with CA.  The grabs are bent from standard staples with NBW castings added.  I use staples a lot for grab irons and cut levers, since they are easy to bend and come pre-bent with right angles. They are a little thick, though, so I may switch to 0.010" or .015" wire in the future.