Flag Stop Parking Lot

The Mineral Springs Road flag stop parking lot.  The lot is Highball Z scale light gray ballast held down by slightly thinned white glue. After it dried, I sanded the 'busy' parts of the lot with coarse sandpaper to simulate wear from vehicle traffic.  A wash of raw sienna acrylic, followed a day or so later by a dry brushing of titanium white, completes the look.

Another view of the lot. The grayish flat spots in the lower  right of the lot are where the flag stop shelter and the crossing signal will go.

Track Ballasting and Weathering Complete + Lessons Learned

Close-up of weathered and ballasted track. The final stage of track weathering described in the Frary and Hayden scenery book is a light drybrushing with Titanium White oil paint, a step that really blends things together and also shows off the incredible detail of the Peco track and turnouts.

Track ballasting and weathering at Dunes Junction are complete! Per my earlier posts, I'm using a combination of techniques from Model Railroader magazine (link here for a reprint of Cody Grivno's track ballasting article; requires registration) and the incomparable How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery (3rd Edition) by Dave Frary and Bob Hayden, which ought to win some kind of publishing industry award for most timelessly useful and densely packed how-to book of all time.

A couple of key lessons learned:

• Disposable 1" or 1 1/2" foam paint brushes are awesome for spreading, leveling, and shaping ballast.
• Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement is essentially a ready made version of the matte medium recipe that Frary and Hayden describe in their book. If I were building a large layout, I would probably make my own per Frary and Hayden to save a few bucks--Scenic Cement is around $8 or $9 bucks per 16 oz. bottle.
• Cody at Model Railroader uses an airbrush to weather his ballasted track, but Frary and Hayden explain how to accomplish the same results with washes and drybrushing, a method that takes longer but offers more control (and doesn't require an airbrush).

Finishing the overpass and the flagstop are up next.

Overview from southwest.

Overview from southeast.

Why so serious (about your model railroading)?

Over at Trevor Marshall's Port Rowan in S scale blog (that's Trevor Marshall of the incomparable The Model Railway Show podcast), the talk is about runnin' trains--you read that right, just plain ol' running of trains, just to see them go.

In a recent post, Trevor recounts the experience of a friend who visited a famous model railroader's large home layout:

My friend took along some beer as a thank you for imposing on the [Famous Model Railroader’s] time and after a tour of the layout room tour in which he ooohed and aaahed appropriately, my friend asked, “So, FMR, why don’t we run a train or two?” 

The answer was, “No, I don’t think there are any trains scheduled to run on the railroad today.” 

As you can imagine, my friend was ready to take back his beer – perhaps to help wash out the sour taste the experience left in his mouth. Now imagine how this attitude would go over with someone who is not already in the hobby. After an experience like that, chances are they never will be.

Trevor goes on to discuss informal train operations that are probably similar to what we'll eventually see at Dunes Junction, but I realized once again that one of my key model railroading goals is to create community--not to turn people away or cause people to not want to share beer (heaven forbid!).

I can't imagine getting really excited about model railroading that pushes people away or excludes new or non-modelers. Thus my decided indifference to this 'serious' model railroading that has seems to have little regard for newcomers or outsiders.

When visitors to our home look at the a-building Dunes Junction, I can explain the concept in one simple sentence: these are my favorite trains and places from my youth back in Indiana. All but the littlest visitors grasp this immediately, and understand why I go to all the effort of fancy trees, exactly colored track ballast, DCC, rare models from eBay, and other geekery. I have a stepstool for the little ones that just like the trains and lights and horns, and they 'get' it for other equally valid reasons.

Another model railroad blog, Some Railroad You've Never Heard Of, also touched on model railroading's 'serious' problem recently.  What caught my eye first in a post titled 'Model Railroad: From Family Room to Basement' was a happy picture of the blogger, his wife, and their newborn baby. Some Railroad's author, Titus, is focused on narrow gauge and advocates a Do-It-Yourself approach to our hobby. But Titus reflects a bit on the connection between his slim gauge modeling and that wife and little baby.  "What," he asks, "will my friends and family like the most or be the most engaged in regarding my layout?"

What if we start making decisions on our layouts, influenced by prototypes, but based on what would draw in our friends and family more? Would that actually free us to make the compromises we know we need to make, without second guessing them the entire way through? Would that allows us the freedom to enjoy our layout with others because we aren't consumed with an unholy pursuit of perfection? Might we just find that others can enjoy our layout just as much as we can, which gives our railroads a purpose outside of moving passengers and freight around a mini world?

Here's hoping that Titus's little narrow gauge railroad plants a little seed of interest, of curiosity, of imagination in the mind of his wife's and his new child. She doesn't need to become a model railroader for that layout to be a success.  Patient grownups and their sometimes fanciful model railroads opened for me and many others a whole world of non-railroading interests and possibilities.

Little kids, neighbors, and party guests are part of Dunes Junction's audience. They're not the only reason I'm building Dunes Junction, but they get to be part of the audience. And hopefully they all walk away with something more than what they came in with.

Quick Snaps of Ballast Progress

A couple of enforced days off because of Hurricane Sandy--and miraculously, no power outages--gave me an opportunity to catch up with Dunes Junction. More ballasting . . .

My ballast dispensing apparatus, ready for action

Ballast taming accoutrements taking a rest

Train Pictures From the Blogging Hiatus

Lots of busy-ness in my non-model railroading life--packing our youngest off to college, big changes at work, family visiting--has caused a several month hiatus at Up Dunes Junction.  But this post marks the end to that hiatus, and I thought I'd include some photos of trains I've bumped into on my travels over the past few months.

Buffalo & Pittsburgh tunnel motor gets ready to depart Salamanca, NY, 
above and below

Dig that NYC lightning-stripe paint job on this Finger Lakes U-boat outside of Syracuse, New York

Norfolk Southern intermodal freight in the rain at Gallitzin, Pennsylvania

NS helpers on the move at Horseshoe Curve, Altoona, Pennsylvania

NS unit train gliding downgrade on dynamic brakes at Horseshoe Curve.

A view across the curve at an eastbound NS unit train.

Horseshoe Curve long shot in the rain: that 's what Allegheny mountain railroading looks like.

Track Ballast + 'Good Enough' Camera Tricks

Testing my aged-to-perfection matte medium and Highball Natural Lime-
stone ballast on small pieces of (expendable) transition track.

With power outages, college searches, graduation, big work projects, and all those other real-life distractions in the rear-view mirror, we're finally working on Dunes Junction again.

Track ballasting has begun. I started small because I have a massive gallon jar of matte medium thinned and prepped per the instructions in the Frary and Hayden scenery book, which is also something like six or seven years old.


I am using Highball #220 HO Natural Limestone ballast, which appears (to my eye, anyway) as good match for South Shore's ballast color and texture. Limestone, by the way, is in some abundance around Northwest Indiana because it is an ingredient in the manufacture of the region's leading production commodities, concrete and steel.

Like Jack Nicholson's Joker once said, 'It's hard to stay inside the lines'-- Here I am already putting ballast down on the layout. Hope my vintage matte medium works out!

I'm also using the Model Railroader magazine technique of ballasting between the rails first that I've previously mentioned. This technique goes somewhat more slowly than trying to get shoulders and between-the-rails at the same time--but it is much neater and gives much more control.

Meanwhile, I'm exploring the Anti-Motion Blur mode on my new Sony NEX-7 camera, which allowed me to take the two accompanying photos without busting out the tripod and remote control. In this mode, the camera apparently takes many exposures in rapid succession and then automagically processes them into a usable image. Not altogether happy about the depth of field, but it works. The photographic result is 'good enough', as Allen McClelland would have put it, at least good enough for this little old blog.

Stay tuned for more ballast progress . . .

In Other News, I See Non-Electric Trains Sometimes

The past couple of weeks have been quite eventful, with epic power outages here in Washington and all kinds of other work and neighborhood craziness.  But I did manage to get these snaps over at nearby Point of Rocks, Maryland, a couple of weekends ago . . .

CSX freight at Point of Rocks, Maryland

Amtrak at Point of Rocks, Maryland

Trains I Ride On Everyday, Part 748

Work has been getting in the way of progress on the Dunes Junction, so it's only fitting that I post a photo of new a-building Washington Metro cars under construction, courtesy MetroForward's Flickr stream and the the Yahoo commutermodeler group.  Metro whisks me back and forth to work every day, which ensures that I do get a small hit off the electric railroad crack pipe on a daily basis.

Our new Metro 7000 series car under construction.  That knobly black end is quite butch and industrial looking compared to our current inset brown ends, which are standard across all series cars currently in service. Photo courtesy of/All rights reserved by MetroForward

O Scale South Shore Model Sighting!

In a sort of sad post announcing the retirement of O scale custom traction model maker Jean Deschenes, Ed Halstead at the Modeling Insull's Empire in O Scale blog posted awesome pictures of O scale South Shore equipment built by Jean.

This is awesome stuff. . . very inspiring! Makes me want to go out and build South Shore models!
Ed Halstead photo, courtesy Modeling Insull's Empire in O Scale http://modelinginsullsempire.blogspot.com/

Jean's retirement ain't exactly premature or undeserved--he's been at it since 1965! Says he wants more time for his ship modeling.  And the models look great . . . go check out the post and see for yourself.

Again with the Mountain Railroading? How about a flatland railroading book?

This little ditty was in my email a few days ago . . .

If model railroading publishing giant Kalmbach really wanted to impress us, they'd get Tony Koester
to do a flatland railroading book instead of mountains, again.

I got an email a few days ago announcing Kalmbach's newest Tony Koester title, Model Railroader’s Guide to Mountain Railroading, and I thought, "oh swell, more tunnels, more coal mines, more puff-ball trees, more rock castings, more basements full of Rockies and Appalachia . . ."

Don't get me wrong--I am actually a Kalmbach superfan, with a long history of subscriptions to and even a couple of by-lines in Kalmbach magazines, plus a sizeable library of Kalmbach books.

But I do think those nice people at Kalmbach love them some mountain-y railroads. I came up as a little guy reading Model Railroader and Trains--and for a long time, I thought the trains in my home area of Northwest Indiana were somehow deficient because we had no tunnels or mountain vistas or high trestles or any of that stuff that seems to get a lot editorial love up in Waukesha.

In addition to this new book, Model Railroader just concluded a Virginian HO project layout, and the year before, a high desert N Utah layout--both were outstanding examples of what could be done in small spaces with decidedly non-exotic materials and techniques (that N layout ran on Kato Unitrack, for crying out loud).

But it's always mountains, mountains, mountains.

Sure, I know that tunnels and bare rock faces and trestles are all 'model-genic' but I would really like to see Kalmbach and its experts like Tony Koester turn their creative guns on the great flat spaces that are actually what a lot of American railroading actually looks like.

So, hey Kalmbach, how about a project layout or a book featuring the glorious flatlands? It actually shouldn't be too hard: after all, Tony Koester does have a flatland layout in his basement, and so does Bill Darnaby, who has penned an article or two for Model Railroader and the Layout Planning annuals that Tony edits.

A project layout in one of the big model railroading magazines featuring midwest themes is certainly overdue. Maybe Tony and Bill could build a layout from one of those Layout Design Element 4x8 plans that have turned up in Model Railroader and its specials, with a town or scene on the front of the layout and staging area on the back, out of sight.

There would be lots of flatland-specific techniques to show off in such a project layout. For example, trees, weeds, crops, and other vegetation of the flatlands, or region-specific architecture, right-of-way, and engineering practices. The visual trickery of seeming featureless landscapes could also be covered--how to disguise passages through backdrops, or use of forced perspective.

I'd buy it if they printed it.  I'll probably buy the mountain book, anyway, though, too.

My Own Awful Truth: Temporary Markings for the Geep

Doesn't it look awesome? Now I have a reminder of its DCC address. It will also shame me into getting this project done.

I didn't come up with this myself--that wiseacre Joe Fugate guy at Model Railroad Hobbyist wrote in his May 2012 "Reverse Running: The Awful Truth" column about how he used yellow sticky notes to temporarily re-number some out-of-the-box diesels. I needed to do this so I could have a visual reminder of the number I programmed into its DCC decoder--it's the number that I will eventually apply.

While I gleaned a marvelous modeling tip from Joe's column, he was actually telling a story about how people who build layouts don't have time to finish fancy locomotive projects. But I'll take a good modeling tip wherever I can find one.

Some More Thoughts on Photography

A lot of good insights here, a few of which directly apply to model and railroad photography:


100 Tips from a Professional Photographer [Photography]

Northwest Indiana Trains in the New York Times

Indiana Harbor Belt's Gibson Yard in Hammond, IN in National News.  The South Shore is a mile or two north of this
spot.  Purdue Calumet, my alma mater, is a few miles south. Memories! | Nathan Weber for The New York Times

Trains of northwest Indiana are in the news again, this time in a New York Times article on the project to improve rail connections and grade crossings around Chicago. The photo above appeared in all its glory at the top of the web version of the story. That is Indiana Harbor Belt's Gibson yard in Hammond, Indiana--my old stompin' grounds. Drove across that bridge hundreds of times on my way back and forth to classes at Purdue Calumet.  If I weren't a South Shore modeler, I'd think really hard about an IHB layout--lots of good small layout possibilities, not to mention a roster of small-radius friendly SWs and GPs.

Takeaways from Photography at Dunes Junction

Samsung TL500

Something I strive to do with each Up Dunes Junction post is include some decent photographs. Part of this photograph policy is the conventional wisdom of blogging--posts with pictures get more hits, supposedly, but it's not as if Up Dunes Junction is Gawker or Huffington Post or some other 'mainstream' blog that counts on millions of visitors. I'm not going for lots of hits--just trying to share and make friends with other model railroaders, heavy electric fans, and South Shore watchers.

So photographs help me tell the Dunes Junction story. And because we are talking railroading and model railroading, which is a very visual enterprise, photos, or at least illustrations and graphics, are an essential part of the storytelling.

I became interested in photography in my teens because of trains.  I started with a 110 Instamatic and graduated to Canon 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) cameras by the 80s. I've since joined the digital revolution--and it's difficult to overstate how digital has made photography cheaper, better, and easier than it ever has been ever to photograph trains, big and small.

Sony NEX-7 with 18-55mm lens

My own approach to photography for Up Dunes Junction demonstrates how inexpensive gear, plus some relatively easy techniques, can yield decent model railroad photos.  Most of the photos on the blog were taken with a so-called advanced point-and-shoot camera--a Samsung TL500--but more basic point-and-shoots can yield images of comparable quality.

A digital SLR or one of the new mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras offers more options and controls. I recently acquired a Sony NEX-7 interchangeable lens camera, which I have been using for my most recent Up Dunes Junction photos.  It offers a decent selection of lenses and very fine exposure and focus control, as well as an excellent wireless remote control.

The main trick is to use built-in close-up and self-timer features and a cheap tripod. Most point-and-shoots have a close-up feature marked with a flower icon--this will give good close focus.  Self-timer mode eliminates camera shake, as does the cheap tripod. If a remote or cable release is possible, it will also eliminate camera shake. 

Sony NEX-7 camera on tripod next to Dunes Junction

The other trick is practice and repetition.  When I first shot trains back in the late 70s, I carefully budgeted each shot because of costs--in those days, each image cost around 30 cents apiece.  Now multiple shots at different settings and lighting conditions cost virtually nothing--and you only need show the good images.  I estimate that for every photo that makes it on to the blog, I discard around ten or so.

South Shore in the National News!

The South Shore Line. (CBS)

This just in from WBBM Chicago!

Summit Could Mean Airport-Style Security On Metra Electric, South Shore Trains « CBS Chicago

Northwest Indiana flavor to go with the Northwest Indian Trains

Jean Ishmon, pal of my wife and me, is a fellow Northwest Indiana native who occasionally hangs out in Washington but is still very much connected to 'The Region.' (Which is what people call Northwest Indiana, home of the South Shore--it's not really fully part of the Chicago suburbs, yet also different from the rest of mostly rural Indiana)

Zel's roast beef is what you eat in South Shore country. Polo shirt courtesy Jean Ishmon, my 'Region' pal.

Jean visited recently and with the conspiratorial help of my wife, brought me one of my favorite Region culinary treats, a Zel's roast beef sandwich.  Think of an Arby's sandwich, but made with real, thinly sliced, juicy roast beef instead of latex solar beef or whatever Arby's is made of.  Jean had the sandwich lovingly packed by Zel's awesome staff, and then smuggled it to Washington via planes, trains, and automobiles. It was delicious and brought a tear to my as I ate for lunch at work last week. I don't want to rat her out, but I think she might also have flagrantly defied various authority figures along the way.

As an added bonus, Jean also managed to rustle up a rare Zel's polo shirt, seen above. This shall henceforth be my 'running trains' shirt.  Thanks, Jean, for the awesome treat and cool bit of Northwest Indiana culture to go with my Northwest Indiana trains!

Recent Acquisitions, impulse buy edition

Bachmann E60CP with DCC factory installed!  (Apologies
for the bad focus . . . it was a hasty photo for this hasty,
impulse purchase)

Sometimes, I'm a sucker for anything with pantographs.

This little ditty was staring at me up in Timonium a couple of weeks ago while I was buying a DCC decoder for the C&O/CSS&SB GP-7 . . .

The Backdrop Tree Line is Done

The Tree Line and Backdrop.  I plan to go to the real Mineral Springs Road sometime in the next year or so (while visiting my son, who is an e-commerce big shot) to get a photograph that will actually fill that gap where the road dead ends. 

Sharp-eyed readers of my recent GP-7 post may have noticed that the tree line behind the C&O loco looked denser, nay, even more complete.  That's because I bought a bunch of much needed foliage at the Timonium train show, which I promptly glued in.

Next up: track ballast, grade crossing lights, and the flagstop parking lot.

Recent Acquisitions, Part Deux

Duneland Electric by Donald R. Kaplan

I journeyed up to Timonium, Maryland last weekend for Howard Zane's Great Scale Train show with my neighbor Doug. He is an N scale modeler who is getting ready to build a layout for his collection.  Doug didn't have much luck at the show but I happened upon this copy of Duneland Electric by Donald R. Kaplan.  It's a great mid-eighties snapshop of the South Shore, focused on my favorite 'Duneland' area between Gary and Michigan City. Page 41 even has a couple of photos of Dune Acres, which is the inspiration for my own Mineral Springs Road flagstop.

Recent Acquisitions, Part 1

With No. 2 son finishing up high school and choosing a college and churn at work, it's been interesting times.  Work on Dunes Junction has slowed but not stopped.

This Atlas #8355 GP-7 5746 in C&O colors will soon be a South Shore 1500-series GP-7, appropriate for late 70s/
early 80s operations on the Dunes Junction.

One recent bit of Dunes Junction activity was finally(!) finding an Atlas GP-7 in Chesapeake and Ohio livery that will become a South Shore 1500-series GP-7, courtesy of eBay. The South Shore acquired eight C&O GP-7s in the late 60s when the road had fallen on hard times, so these second-hand locos mostly stayed in their old C&O paint scheme, save for South Shore heralds and road numbers.

CSS&SB GP-7 #1503 at Burnham in
1979.  Photo by Tom Golden
Courtesy rrpicturearchives,net

My goal is to use the Atlas C&O GP-7 as the starting point for a CSS&SB model. I know, I know, it's an evil old diesel, a symbol of the South Shore in decline, the end of electric freight, blah, blah, blah.  But it's part of my memories of my beloved old South Shore, and I'm excited to have this project underway.

Looks like it will need a nose mounted bell, spark arrestors, sunshades, and a five-chime horn.  Plus the heralds and lettering need to come off--I'm reading on the interwebs that Solvaset and pencil eraser will do the trick. I have the Atlantic seaboards largest collection South Shore decals (both Walthers and Champ made 'em), so that's where the heralds will come from. The road numbers look like they should come right off a C&O diesel sheet, and the bugboards are standard fare as well.

First Attempt at Tree Planting

First go at tree planing on Dunes Junction. A line of shorter, younger trees will go in front of this row of trees just in
front of the backdrop.

Finally, Mineral Springs Road is Done

Have a look . . . 

Mineral Springs Road.  I started with a base coat of dark gray acrylic craft pain, then heavily drybrushed light gray. The oil/exhaust streaks are dark gray pastels ground and applied with that fluffy brush.

Another view. Time to get some three-dimensional trees in front
of that backdrop!

Ken Lawrence's Westchester Northern: NYC Area Electrics in HO

Our latest 'Juice in the Wild' post takes us to Ken Lawrence's Westchester Northern. I really enjoy checking out the photos of this HO heavy electric layout--it's a shelf layout not unlike mine in size and it features a free-lance concept that draws together a couple of different prototypes from the New York City area and beyond.

The free-lance thing has kind of gone by the wayside in 21st century model railroading  (a loss, by my lights), but Ken pulls it off with aplomb. Many of us heavy electric fans got our early inspiration from a very famous--and freelanced--O scale traction layout, Bob Hegge's Crooked Mountain lines. Ken's work carries on a very proud tradition.

Of note, Ken used a home brew of scratch built and Sommerfeldt catenary products from Germany for his catenary.

Ken Lawrence's layout features heavy electric rolling stock from around the US, and makes great use of
European heavy electric components such as overhead wire and pantographs. This former Cleveland Union
Terminal motor appears to be equipped with German Sommerfeldt pantographs, and is running under
catenary that blends Sommerfeldt wire  components with scratch built US prototype poles.
Photo courtesy Ken Lawrence/ RAILROAD.NET 

Virginian Electrics in UK Model Railroad Magazine

Courtesy Continental Modeller/Exact Editions

If you're a Model Railroader reader, a '4'x8'+' Virginian Railway has been under construction for the past few months. But if you love you some catenary and pantographs, like me, all that Virginian goodness probable has you wondering: where are the models of Virginian's electric operations?

Look no further than the January and March 2012 edition of Continental Modeller for Peter North's Virginian electric layout. Unfortunately, to see the articles in detail, you'll need to be a Continental Modeller subscriber. Exact Editions makes that easy enough, but you'll still end up paying $15 USD or so for three months access (minimum available) to the digital edition of Continental Modeller. I took the plunge and do not regret it--Mr. North's treatment of the electrified Virginian in modest space is well worth the coin for inspiration and ideas.

Many thanks to loyal reader and fellow South Shore enthusiast Martin Tuohy for tipping me to this excellent find!

South Shore Catenary Span Bridges from Model Memories

One of the treats awaiting me upon return from my recent travels: Model Memories South Shore catenary span bridges.

Don Silberbauer of Model Memories worked very closely with me to produce these great-looking and well-constructed catenary bridges. He made a few for me, and he can produce more for your South Shore layout for $23.50 each--visit the Model Memories page and click through to 'Contact' to get yours!

Model Memories 5" South Shore catenary span bridge, next to the box in which they
arrived.

Even More Road Building Progress! Plus Trees

The excess dirt will be vaccuumed up and the resulting texture will get a couple of coats of gray.
And those are trees!

Here's some texture for Mineral Springs Road--that's baseball diamond dirt sprinkled into wet dark gray acrylic paint.

Coloration and then blending the shoulders into the surrounding scenery are the next steps.

Meanwhile--check out the trees! I became impatient with the gluing of the road and the paint, so I experimented with some tree planting.

The big view. After the road is done, the remaining trees will go in on the east and west sides of the road.

More Mineral Springs Road Progress

The past month or so has been quite busy with the tax man, work travel and projects, and visits to far-flung offspring, slowing progress at Dunes Junction. With the focus on major scenery in preparation for catenary construction, Mineral Springs Road work continues. The plan is to use another Frary & Hayden scenery technique: adding pavement texture and color to sheet styrene. Here  we are fitting the styrene to the terrain and Blair Line wood grade crossings. Look for a future post with texture and color.

Test-fitting the base of Mineral Springs Road. The long stretches are
.020"Evergreen styrene.  The short bits between the parallel crossings
are .060"styrene. That's a wet-or-dry coarse emery board from a
beauty supply store.

Additional .020" strips  lift the
.020" road base flush with the
Blair Line crossing.

Pushpins and various culinary doodads holding the road base down
while clear Liquid Nails for Projects sets. Salsa and hot sauce jars
were handy, so I used 'em. A bamboo skewer and pushpins hold
the backdrop end of road down while the Liquid Nails sets. 

News About the Trains I Ride Everyday

On previous occasions we've discussed the Washington Metro trains I ride back and forth to work everyday.  Metro is currently expanding out to Tysons Corner, Virginia, and will eventually reach Washington Dulles International Airport.  The expansion has necessitated acquisition of the first all-new cars in decades, maybe since Metro was built in the 70s.

Courtesy of the incomparable Unsuck DC Metro blog are these photos of Metro's new 7000-series cars.  That's an all-new paint scheme, window configuration and interior divider, for those who aren't familiar with the three or four previous series of Metro cars that are virtually identical, save for a few esoteric details and differently-colored interiors.

7000-series Cars begin to Take Shape:



More on the 7000s