Larry,

You have to love a critter!! Nicely done!
Enjoy the holidays!

Dave

Larry, congratulations for finishing the critter. Now, put that thing to work!

Dave thank you and thanks for stopping by. Happy Holidays to you as well.

Mike thanks and yes it's going to see some long hours for sure. Enjoy the Holidays.

Yepper! Better and better!

Merry Christmas!

Philip thank you and Merry Christmas to you too.

That critter looks right at home there. Fits right in nicely. Nice job with your cab, and idea.

Louis thanks it's much appreciated. It's always nice when someone else sees what you're trying
to achieve.

Larry,

The critter is looking good! Like the change you made to the roof, and the added details are nice as well.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Larry,

Interesting little critter you have there, well done. I can see it doing a lot of work on your layout.

Scott thank you and yes Christmas was nice. Hope you have a great New Year also.

Ron thanks. That will be my major motive power on the layout. Also I do have a secondary
that I will use as a "pusher engine" when I get around to build it on the other end of the layout.

Hi Larry. I like the cab area of the critter. Looks suitably rustic.
But overall it could be improved.
And looks like all the attaboy replies, are not actually being of any help. So here's some constructive criticism

The engine cover needs some work. Probably should be narrower than the cab.
Also I assume it's supposed to be made of wood, so could be improved if you score in some lines to represent planks.
Then repaint each one so they are more individual
Finally add a bit of metal colour to the chassis sides. either dry brush with a sponge or you could even use a lead pencil along some of the raised bits.

If it's going to be your only motive power, you want it look as best a you can get it.

Rob thank you for your honesty, much appreciated. As far as the hood width goes....this is an
engine purchased in the mid 1970's which has a rather large motor. This is under the hood so making
that narrower is not possible. I do however like your idea concerning scoring the hood to look like
planks and also adding some metal coloring to some of the raised parts. I'll see what I can do with
your suggestions.

While work continues on the CC&W RR with the less exciting stuff, I thought I would post a "back story" on my vision of the motive power. Yes I probably
should have posted that before the build but I've never been known for doing things by the book...so here goes for your amusement:

It's about the time that the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroads were set to merge. One of the agreements in the negotiations was that the New York Central would sell off some of their derelict equipment. Upon hearing this the Owner of the CC&W RR decided it was a good chance to replace a rather old and worn out steam engine for a good price. His railroad was profitable but wasn't swimming in money. To this end he grabbed JD, who could fix almost anything, and headed for the NYC train yards. JD found a used 50 ton diesel engine which had been in a mishap and had a badly bent and twisted Cab. Being confident that JD could bring the old diesel back to life, the Owner purchased the engine and brought it back to JD's Machine Shop to start the repairs. After some time JD got the thing up and running almost like new. Although sheet metal to fix the Cab was in short supply, so a wood cab would have to be fabricated instead. So the Owner enlisted the help of Harold, Ray's oldest son, who could make anything out of wood. To that end Harold was tasked with building a brand new Cab for the, new to them, engine. After a few months the build was completed; so now they had a good working engine with a sheet metal hood and a wooden Cab which would hopefully serve the CC&W for years to come.

So that's the "back story" and I'm sticking to it. That's it for now and will post more of the progress on the layout when the more exciting stuff happens. Thanks for looking.

Looking forward to the next installment!

Thanks Philip!!