C&O Walther 50' Hopper - Updated

In service on the WRD.

One of my flea market finds is this Walthers 50' Hopper. Some weathering had been already done when I purchased the car by air brush. The photos tell the story...George Dutka

The car as it was when I got home. One short afternoon with these products and the model is good to go.

I did not rust up the car a lot, I did use some PanPastels to tone down the final appearance. Burnt umber shade and colourless blender ( to fade the colouring down more).

Rust Bucket No. 12

St. Thomas Brian Smith photo.

My friend Brian Smith forward these photos taken in the OSR yard in St. Thomas, Ontario...enjoy...George Dutka

Nice patchwork Jan. 2020, Brian Smith photo.

Throwback Thursday - It's All in the Details

CP 5606 South is passing the old station at Britt, Ontario on August 21, 1991.

By Peter Mumby.

When I took this photograph almost three decades ago, it was probably just another train picture.  In this case the train was CP 5606 South.  Nothing unusual in this - another train led by an SD40-2 on what was basically an SD40-2 railroad.  The location was Britt, Ontario, on the mainline between Sudbury and Toronto.

What I see when I look at this picture today is a scene that could really appeal to a modeller of the late 1980s/early 1990s era.  Here is an opportunity to include an older passenger station on a layout representative of a time when local passenger service was a thing of the past.  The structure has been given a new lease on life by being converted to company service use.  At the far north end of the structure can be seen a motor car shed and set-off track.  The tall pole close to the station appears to be topped by some type of antenna.  The south end of the baggage/freight annex has been rebuilt with roll-up doors.  Next to the building is a fenced compound housing vehicles and track supplies.  To the left side of the photo can be seen the main sliding gate for the entire facility.

In the foreground of the scene we can see organized stacks of track supplies.  To the left of the high level switch stand, the vertical silver unit is a block occupancy indicator.  At the rear right side of the photo, near the box cars, we can see a mile marker attached to the line pole.  At the extreme front right edge of the image an old telephone call box is visible.

So, take another look at the photo.  You might see a train, you might see a station - or, you might see a little modelling inspiration!

Wordless Wednesday No. 360

1938

Pikestuff - Loading Dock

The loading docks are complete and ready for loading details.

One of the kits I picked up at Woodstock earlier this month was a loading dock kit. Peter Mussen who had the table next to us still had it near the end of the show...I was surprised it lasted to this point. Glad I got it. I was able to construct two docks from the kit with a few leftover pieces...George Dutka

The small dock is done. After a spray bomb of gray a coat of india ink and alcohol is applied. More on how I did the weathering to the small dock is on my narrow gauge blog.

The wood bumpers and nuts-bolts are from my parts box. The small dock will be added to a industrial building.

Paris Train Show and Springfield

I was working on another FOS kit-of-the-month project. I also had some FOS kits finished on display...Peter Mumby photo.

Peter and I attended Sunday's Paris train show this time working on projects at the NFR craftsman corner. Peter was weathering rolling stock using PanPastels and I began building another FOS kit-of-the-month. We also helped out manning the door.

Wednesday Peter and I are heading to Springfield for the train show there. This is the first time for Peter. On the way we will be doing some railfanning and maybe stop at the Kodak museum to see the railroad display that is on this month. A visit with Kip Grant on Friday to see his layout again and then off to the Springfield area to meet up with a gang for dinner...George Dutka

An overall view of my display and mess on the work surface. Peter Mumby photo.

Peter had a few cars along requiring PanPastels. I think they all were done by the end of the show.

The WOD-NFR gang talks things over. Think they were suppose to be working at the craftsman corner.

Roger Chrysler displays his fleet of CPR equipment.

Peter hard at it. Looks like this car has been around awhile.

The tool guy had a whole room to himself and it kind of looked like a hobby shop.

B&O - Weed Sprayer

B&O weed sprayer VC13. Martinsbury W.Va, 1974 Bob Bowes collection. The car was converted on 6-11-67.

Abandoned Truck

Shows you what can be done with some cast-off parts.

My new abandoned pickup truck. I picked it up for a buck at the last train show...now to find a place for it to rest...George Dutka

This is what I got...not all the parts are included so it just became a junked truck.

Painted it orange.

Flat finish applied.

I made an axle out of a parts spur. I then added a F&C block to the front and some old boards to the rear.

The rust is a mix of AK rust washes followed by some Bragdon powders. While taking the photos I realized I had not applied a plate which if from FOS. The box got a lot of junk.

I eliminated my comment and added Manny's s letter as the caption regarding plates. License plates are issued by the individual provinces and states, not by country. Various provinces and states have single or pairs of plates and it is constantly changing. Manitoba for instance had single plates in the 1944-49 and 1987-97 time-frames with pairs all other years. Politics, lobbying, law enforcement all play a role and it's about half and half of pairs vs singles across North America. Manny Jacob Licence plate collector since 1987.

ALLSTAR TV & Radio - Rebuild

I went through all me signs and came up with a nice group of TV signs. The TV signs are actually from a Walther catalog. The catalog includes a sheet of signs in each catalog.

I picked up this tiny building at the Woodstock train show a few weeks ago. As it turned out it became a quick rebuild of a small structure...more in the captions...George Dutka

As it looked when I got home...the lines of building are nice but the details suck.

I pulled the doors and base off. The windows are poorly applied but there was no chance of removing them without damaging the walls.

Starting off I spray-bombed the structure with primer brown once I added the new doors.

PanPastels in brown and green are used. A brass piece of ladder is used and a piece of paper corrugation is used as an awning. Some new vents are added.

Wire is used as a rear wall downspout. BEST pigeons, wire and wood are added to the junk pile on the roof. Some posters and signs are added to the walls. There was a large ground foam vine on the rear wall. I just added some new ground foam.

The roof was brush painted dollar store black prior to detailing. Bragdon soot was then applied.

This structure would look a lot better with a TV antenna on the roof. FOS used to offer one but I could not find it on their website.

A Circle Trip on VIA

VIA 70 arriving in Toronto. I was able to get some photos on the platform before heading down to catch my next train.

On Monday I departed London on VIA 70 connecting in Toronto to Montreal. My good friend James who is high up in the Federal Government tax office had meeting in Montreal and Ottawa. He was flying to Montreal then taking the train to Ottawa the next day for a few days then flying home. We talked about meeting up in Montreal before when he would be there. I had mentioned it was around 1980 the last time I worked a train to Montreal and had not been back by rail since. This became a golden opportunity as he already booked suites in down town in both cities and he knows the good places to eat and visit. So while he was in meeting I just took in the towns and we would meet up for drinks before dinner. I was able to book the seat next to James for our ride to Ottawa and yesterday in some nasty weather in eastern Ontario headed home...a great experience as I had never been to Ottawa by rail and now I have been on two different routes. Now we are talking about Vancouver and Halifax as locations to meet up...George Dutka

Monday morning VIA 70 to Toronto.

Connections was pretty good with only about an hour wait at Union Station...a lot of stops

I was able to walk up to the head end of train 64 before we departed and get a few views...all with my phone. I did not take a camera on this trip. Although there was a few delays such as crossings needing flagging and a couple of freights in the way we arrived only 5 minutes late in Montreal.

The head end of our train to Ottawa on Tuesday afternoon. The train backs out of the station before departing. I found it very dark and not great for photos.

We arrived about 10 minutes late. I found the ride very rough. I don't know if it was the LRC coach which I never like the ride on or the trackage. We bounced around a lot more than on my sailboat in the chop. One could not drink a coffee without wearing most of it....so we didn't.

The Ottawa station is a new and impressive structure. I did not expect what I saw there. Note the models on display. The platform had three trains on it. There appears to be a lot of business for VIA in Ottawa. The rapid transit system which is brand new is found out in the parking lot. I had used that to get here from downtown.

Weather was not nice when I left Ottawa on Thursday, so not a lot of photos from there.

Looks like winter in Kingston one of two stops on the was to Toronto. By the time we got near Toronto there was no snow.

VIA 73 at Union Station. VIA 43 was late coming in from Ottawa so I just walked back on the same platform to get on the train. It departed about 10 minutes after our arrival leaving me no time for photos of 43's head end in Toronto. With all the snow in Ottawa I did not take any platform views there. It was snowing and dark and not a good combination for railfanning....another trip to Ottawa might be in the works.

Throwback Thursday - Freight Locomotive Evolution

CN 3733 was showing off its fresh paintwork at Belleville East on December 30, 1984

By Peter Mumby.

The three locomotives featured in today's presentation were all constructed at the MLW plant in Montreal, Quebec.  The 1958 and 1970 products were MLW models. By the early 1980s the plant and MLW designs belonged to Bombardier, so the 1982 product was a BBD model. 

CN 3733, class MR-18d, was an 1800 hp RS-18 built in 1958.  Next up is CN 2316, class MF-36a.  This M-636 model produced 3600 hp, and was assembled in 1970. 

The BBD product was CN 2102, class MF-32a, model HR616.  The "HR" stood for "High Reliability," although some CN service personnel might have disputed this claim.  It was built as a 3000 hp locomotive in 1982, but as part of the 2100-2103 group it was temporarily re-acquired by BBD to be operated as a 3200 hp demonstrator unit.  This group operated between February 1983 and May 1984 on CP as demonstrator locomotives 7001-7004.

CN 2316 was ready for duty as it sat in the Rectory St. service area at London, Ontario in March of 1986

CN 2102 was also photographed at London's Rectory St. facility.

Wordless Wednesday No. 359

DWC 793340 Sept. 7 2019 Aldershot, Ont.

Rust Bucket No. 11

A very realistic model in a smaller scale.

Once again some interesting weathering on a tiny N scale hopper...George Dutka