ROW Telegraph Poles

A finished pole at the Northfield Falls crossing.

Last week I worked on a few smaller details for the WRD that can be done in an afternoon. It was a rainy day and I was getting the day off from chores. I had built some BarMills telephone or ROW poles in O and HO scale a few years ago. Don't go looking at their web site for them, they were a free handout kit at a past Fine Scale Model Expo. Peter Mumby and I built mine awhile ago. I liked how they looked so I decided to copy them for other areas of the layout I am working on. I only built 8 and it looks like a second afternoon will be required sometime soon...George Dutka

My poles are made by cutting a skewer in half and using the cross bracing cut out as a jig included with the BarMills poles. Scrap stripwood is used.

The poles are painted with Hunterline stain then Floquil grime. Some PanPastel highlights are also used. For the insulators I cut the nibs that hold Tichy parts on the spurs. These are painted gloss green and glued on the poles.

Covered Hoppers

CP yard London, Ont. May 13, 2020

Here we have a group of covered hoppers clean and dirty that I though I would share with you...George Dutka

Brian Smith found this car in the St. Thomas, Ont. CN yard earlier this week.

There has been a lot of BN hoppers around town in both the CN and CP yard. CN yard London, May 6, 2020.

CN yard London May 6, 2020

A view through the fence of an ex- SOO covered hopper in the CP yard London, May 22, 2020

CP yard May 22, 2020

CP yard May 22, 2020

Reclamation Yard - London

A view along Pine Street, London, Ont. of steam power waiting their turn into the reclamation yard. July 1960. George Dutka collection.

Just an old and new view of the reclamation yard...check back later for another post...George Dutka

I shot this view looking east from the Hale St. roundabout towards what is left of the reclamation yard on Friday. The track on the right is the London yard switching lead with a stop block . At one time it ran all the way back to a storage yard at the far end of the reclamation yard. May 22, 2020.

Snapshot - May 2020

OSR March 7, 2000 at Ingersoll. I may have been working the Ingersoll  Cami CN switcher at that time.

This months Snapshot is scans of slides and prints I took in Ingersoll, Ontario. I was looking for a ramp photo from across the tracks from the station...I guess I found a lot more...George Dutka

CN  7038-7027 the power for the CN Cami Ingersoll switcher on Sept. 28th 1998. This looks like early morning when I would have showed up for the shift. We used the old section house for our office at that time. It is across the tracks from the power. The station is abandoned by then. Note the yard is full of multi's that we would switch out and run over to the Cami yard on the CPR. One can see the loading ramp next to the power.

The CN Ingersoll switcher 7038-7027 laying over on Sept 28, 1998. I would have been the engineman on that day. Note the loading ramp next to the power. It would have been made from bridge timbers. I may have taken this photo at the end of the shift.

This was the last time Peter Mumby and I got together railfanning. We had just left Gary Pemblton's home after a visit and saw the OSR heading over to the CN interchange. We hung around for the return movement. March 16, 2020.

I was able to get a second view with the OSR hi-rail posed out on the mainline by just standing back a bit and zooming out the lens.

Gotta take a last look at that Alco smoke.

Scratch-Building a Loading Ramp

The finished ramp and loading dock prior to being applied to the layout.

For my second loading ramp location I scratch-built the structure following the dimensions of Kip Grant's ramp. I used my laser kit leftovers, reject off cuts from Mt. Albert Lumber and a package of 1 by 6 boards for the decking. These deck boards are a bit thin but with hobby shops closed due to the virus I went with what I had. Since the dock is fairly small they actually look really good once finished...George Dutka

The beginning of the loading dock.

The ramp is done and the dock is about to get a deck.

The deck boards are being applied.

The loading dock began with a coat of Hunterline Creosote black. One could leave it just like this.

These are the other products I applied to the loading ramp and dock.

 A closer up view of the loading dock. Bolt castings are added around the edges.

When I built the ramp I left a bit of a gap between the boards.

Throwback Thursday - CN London Reclamation Yard, Part Five

CN 720063 was available for viewing in the plant on April 22, 1990.

By Peter Mumby.

Today we will take a second look at some of the interesting rolling stock that showed up in and around the Reclamation Plant.  Prior to being shoved into the pit, many of these cars would be staged on the south tracks of London Yard.  Pine St. paralleled the yard at this point, and nice open views were available for the interested photographer from this thoroughfare.

This will be the final installment of this current series on the Reclamation Yard.  More photos may follow in the future - if I can coerce George into doing some more scanning!

Yellow ore car CN 345063 was photographed on November 18, 1989.

CN 72928 was on view along Pine St. on August 30, 1989.  The capital "D" marked on the car side indicated it was in for demolition. The "453" notation referred to the official form that had to be submitted along with the demolition notification.

CN 198824 was awaiting its turn to be pushed into the pit on October 29, 1998.

You can see that form 453 has been submitted for car-go-rail car #9504 which was parked beside Pine St. on October 29, 1989.  I think by this date if the number 9504 was entered in a CN computer a very different unit would have been referenced.

Wordless Wednesday No. 376

CV George Melvin collection.

An Ice House for the Back Alley

My finished back alley ice house.

This ice house is made up of leftovers that I have. The block building is a small bit that came in a box of structures at a RR show a few years back. The compressor box at the rear is built using leftover Pike Stuff loading ramp material and the rest is out of my detail boxes...George Dutka

This is the little block bit that I pulled out of a box and placed it on my workbench . It sat off to the side on the bench for a few months before I figured out what to do with it. It almost ended up back in the junk box.

Not sure what it was used with originally.

The roof is brush painted black and the walls are spray bombed primer gray. PanPastels are used to weather it up.

Some of the piping and valves are from Williams Bros...they make car kits also. The Palmer Ice sign is a copy from a FOS kit. The compressor box is being built at this point.

A rear view with the Pike Stuff loading dock bits and pieces as a compressor.

The door got some AK rust and PanPastel rust. The electrical box on the side wall is a leftover FOS detail.

The grills on the compressor and side of the building are actually leftover diesel engine details. On the roof that is a signal  relay box that actually looked OK up there. Most of the rust is AK products.

CN in Portland, Maine

CN power on the shop track Oct 8, 1965 William Flatt photo, George Dutka collection.

Here is a view of CN 3118 on the GT  shop track in Portland, Maine. I don't know that much about the photo other than it is one I scanned from my collection...George Dutka

My Time Railroading

Peter Mumby took this photo of me working a road switcher at the Ford plant Talbotville yard during January 1985. I don't remember being this young 35 years ago.

I recently was looking for a particular slide when I found a few photos taken of me working on the CN...George Dutka

One thinks selfies are something new. I took this photo with my camera set on the kitchen counter or oil stove when I worked as the conductor on train #380 on March 28, 1991. The train is stopped at Aldershot while a lift was being made.

I am working as the engineman on train #422 on Jan. 30 1988 when my friend and CN engineering department employee Chris Martin took the photo.

Not sure who took this photo but I am on train #399 on Dec. 16, 1999.

A CN supervisors inspection train March 1984 Chris Martin photo. I must have been the conductor on this trip since I have my hat on with the gold bar.

This and That May 2020

A look back to 1964

Guess the lead in photo got your attention. Post number three for the day. If you have a wall on one of your CV or B&M related buildings for the Brattleboro area maybe you might want to reduce this calendar to what works in your scale. The auto parts business sure like their girls...George Dutka

VIA 72 this morning at Springbank Flats park a location I had not taken photo from before. There is a bike and walkway under the track, the entrance is seen under the train. It connects a long bike path  through London.

Covid sign at the entrance to CP London yard, May 13 2020

CN Egerton St. London. Layover power May 13 2020.

One can never have enough signs on a building I guess.

Brian Smith sent me this rusty old car photo found in the yard at St. Thomas, Ont. May 2020

Rouses Point station Sept 29, 1992. Kind of neat to see a NJ emblem on the door.