2013 IRM Snowflake Special and some updates

A couple of weeks ago was the annual Illinois Railway Museum Snowflake Special. No snow this year, but plenty of cold, cold weather. I don't think the temperature ever got above 35 degrees. A few photos...

And some videos I took ... I still have a few more to put together.

Other than that, the only thing I've been working on is home renovation (about 60% done, still need to paint family room/kitchen, lay 700 square feet of hardwood floors and install new kitchen cabinets).

I did start the 3D modeling for the ends of a CTA/CRT 4000 series car I hope to have 3D printed. I then hope to have sides laser cut and make a body that will fit on a MTH 6000 series chassis.

So far, after about 4 hours of learning Google Sketch Up, I've come up with the following test model:

This was more of a "proof of concept" to see if I could figure out Sketch Up in a reasonable amount of time and if I could model a car end. There wasn't any detail added to this model, just the basic shapes. So, once I'm done working on the house, I hope to make another more detailed 3D model and see what it would take to have that printed.