Year 9 of the Night Owl Modeler Blog Starts Now

Well, I can't quite believe that it has already been nine years since I started posting on this blog.

Just a few of the 293 articles that have been made in the last nine years here.

I know the last couple years have been slower and I've not posted as many articles each year due to real life taking more of my 'hobby time'.  I've branched out slightly with the SP Jawbone Branch (direct link here to the Index Page) posts going to their own blog now.

Stats Update

Stats as of tonight as I'm writing this post, July 5, 2025.

The blog has been seen over 600k times, probably by humans 400-500k of those.  Bot-webcrawlers have certainly made up some of the views, but with as many comments as I've received at events over the last couple years, I believe you're not all bots out there yet!

The blog has had over 300 comments on the 293 published articles and 23 published pages (mostly index pages for references and other useful info that I didn't want getting lost in the regular stream of blog posts.

Looking Back...

As I want to do every year during these blog updates, I like to take a moment to look back at my favorite blog posts of the last year... and your most viewed posts.  This year I'm actually going to include posts since July 2023, because I see that I didn't do a review last year, Oops!

Back in Oct'23

Wait... Pullman Green SPMW patched bunk cars?!

Having some fun with old Rivarossi HW 12-1 Pullman cars.

Back in Feb'24

Modeling SP Post-war boxcars with Tangent's new B-50-28-31 series models.

Renumbering of SP 102856 and decalling the undecorated 106272 to match prototype photos at Owenyo.

Looking Forward...

Well, hopefully with most of my (and the families) medical issues behind us for a while, these are some of the projects I'd like to get back to...

Where did the Daylight go?

Finishing up my SP 10400 Coffee Shop car for my San Joaquin Daylight & Starlight consists.

Or how about finishing up the back-dated SP 10251 for my Oct, 1949 San Joaquin Daylight consist?

Quite a long time ago I was working on some Daylight passenger cars here on the blog.  With all the talk about the Golden Gate Depot stuff coming "soon", maybe I can get some of my other passenger car models caught up.

I also have a couple HW DOG cars to finish up some redecalling work on.

As I recall, I have a couple of HW 12-1s and the HW 10-1-1 'Prior Lake' to redecal and finish up detailing.  Someday, I'll build my Osgood-Bradley Chair Car kit and HW 8-5 Pullman.  So maybe, I'll be able finish up my Owl and West Coast consists too....

Announced Golden Gate Depot SP 77-D-3/4 Diner and 75-CS Lounge in Dark Olive 1946 scheme!

...soon that should be possible with HW Diner and Lounge which have been announced by Golden Gate Depot.

SP 4251 with No.58, Owl, at San Fernando - James Salkeld Collection (color balanced)

One can hope!  I've got several of these cars on order to complete the Owl and West Coast consists.  Obviously, they'll be getting a review here as soon as they show up! - Yes, I'm a bit excited to see these come out.  I've only been waiting 30+ years for these in plastic.

A little more 'down to earth' maybe?

How about building more on the Jawbone Branch layout?

Ohhh yeah, dirt scenery!  There's a lot to do on the Jawbone Branch still before I can get to running trains.

How about some layout to run trains on first?!

Yes, I've been trying to refocus any 'hobby time' to getting more done on the layout itself... which has been slow going.

How about getting some steam up?

SP 3203 has still been gathering rust as a hanger queen since I picked her up about six years ago already!

The backshops also need to get caught up with putting several 'new' brass engines into service, which have never really seen any running before.

In Closing

What I hope to see soon on the Jawbone Branch... but only Photoshopped for now.

There's lots of projects I'd like to get back to working on soon.  I'm going to try to focus mostly on getting the layout up and going, but those posts will be over on the JawboneBranch-NightOwlModeler blog.

Just this last week I picked up some new foam core material to start making mock-ups for some of the buildings at Owenyo and start working on the buildings for the next modules too.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

Happy New Year 2024, Highlights of Modeling in 2023

Six Years of Blogging and Counting (Review July 2022)

JawboneBranch-NightOwlModeler - The SP Jawbone Branch layout blog, which is where I'm putting all the layout construction, planning, operating, etc blogs.  The main NOM blog here will stay with general modeling techniques and skills.