Took a break from the Bucyrus crane kit I was assembling while I waited on pictures for references, got the grab irons installed. Now she is ready for paint. I will be brush painting this since I have no access to a compressor and all the goodies i would normally have in my home.

You might want to consider using Tamiya spray paint. I've heard it sprays very well, but I have no experience with it, so I can't really comment.

Tamiya paint does spray incredibly smooth and fine unlike most of Testors stuff. It is expensive (worth it IMHO) and the smell/fumes can take your breath away. One MUST use proper ventilation and safety precautions. (How do I know that, one might ask.....)
I use it for military aircraft colors in particular so I am not sure what relevent railroad colors they may have, probably won't find Reading Green and Yellow

I don't think i can spray colors well, soray cans always go on too thick. i do have a tamiya can of flat clear that i use here to overcoat my decals and weathering, but i literally spray a foot away, and very quickly coat over the model, and stop spraying a foot away. otherwise i will puddle the paint and ruin everything.

Well, kicked my butt for not continuing this project a couple weeks ago, and this week have tinkered around with it. Got it all painted and glossed the parts where there will be decals. then got the decals on. Next will be a shot of flat coat and then the weather will take effect. I don't have yellow paint, so i will be doing the grab irons later. As stated before, I don't have access to my air brush, so the paint quality has suffered greatly, and this is my very first scratch build. fortunately i planned on heavily weathering this old wooden anyway, so i wasnt being near as careful with the modeling as if i was detailing a loco or something. I just dont have the tools I need here for that, so i'm getting by with minimal stuff. Here is the progress so far.

looking great, can't wait to see it finished and on the rails.