B&M Ice Car

This car 0364 is freshly painted in the photo which is nice to see.  

 Former Boston & Maine refrigerator car 0364, now in ice storage service, location unknown on July 31, 1954.

Ice storage cars were loaded in the Boston area and set off in various passenger car yards to store blocks of ice for passenger car air conditioners. Lawson Hill photo. Courtesy of David Hutchinson.

Throwback Thursday - Before and After – Canadian National GP9/GP9RM’s

 

by Keith MacCauley 

Canadian National’s GP9 locomotive remanufacturing program is fairly well known. Beginning in 1981, some three hundred Rich M. Dilworth designed 1950’s GMD London built GP9’s were transformed into chop nosed GP9RM’s, or were neutered becoming unpowered booster units. Under the direction of Chief Mechanical Engineer Bill Blevins, modification of the first generation locomotives was performed at Pointe St. Charles (PSC) in Montreal, later renamed Atelier Montreal Facility (AMF), subsequently change to AMF Technotransport. CN’s program was among the most successful of rebuild projects. Some thirty years after its close, dozens of the rejuvenated units still toil away for CN. In addition, many of the sold/cast off rebuilds continue in service for their new owners.

CN 4135, delivered in December of 1956 as CN 4528, was remanufactured and painted as a road switcher in 1991 by PSC. The venerable unit 4135 continues in service for CN, currently assigned to their Montreal based Taschereau Yard facility.

Wordless Wednesday No. 699

 

St. Mary's, Ontario November 2026 Keith MacCauley photos

Late Fall

 

Springbank park railway.

Well it looks like all the leaves are down around here. Now for the snow to come and keep me in my basement...George Dutka  

ONR 40' Boxcar

This nicely weathered ONR boxcar is a True Line Trains model I picked up at Broughdale hobbies recently which was nicely done by Neil Thomsen. The weathering patchwork and re-stenciling is nice. I am going to add air hoses, uncouplers some chalk marks and placards to take it a bit further along...stay tuned...George Dutka  

Vermonter at Waterbury

April 30 2026

On my Spring trip to the RRHS convention I stayed in Waterbury, Vt. for a night. I was able to catch the SB Vermonter on a rainy morning...George Dutka

To my surprise the brakeman this day was a CVRHS and RRHS member. I don't recall his name at the moment.

This and That - November 2026

Walkerville Brewing truck from the 1940's. 

Just a bit of what I had on hand to show you this month. I am away on the 16th  for 6 days so no posts then and I am off to the Bahamas on Nov 29th for a week and again no posts. I am not taking my electronics with me...George Dutka

Boy that is a lot on this wall. Might make a nice project going forward.

CV 533 at Essex Jct. This car got the yellow noodle on green body back in 1962 and was dismantled in 2012. From the Milk Car Journal on Facebook...check out the site there is a lot of interesting views of milk related items.

Clare Gilbert of Sylvan Models brought this truck along for breakfast on Monday for us to see. Something new out.

If you model New England in the 1950's one of these cars should be on your layout. It is a new release from Atlas as a Trainman series car. You might want to watch for it in your hobby shop. I am not sure how accurate it will be but we can always fix the features and it works as a good stand in.

The current issue of RMC has a nice feature by blogger Ben Maggi. Congratulations Ben! His blog link is on my sidebar D&H "Colonie Main" layout.

More Buildings!

These ITLA buildings are the experimental build ups that Nick gave me to use when I built his Alley Scape test kit. Two I finished using extra parts from the kit. I loaned Don these for his layout planning as he has these structures to build also for his new switching layout. I am excited to see how that all goes. What he has done so far looks great...George Dutka

Throwback Thursday - Peter Mumby - GMDD London Part 2

by Keith MacCauley

Some additional views of newly built locomotives from London. Note the design development over the years. While the CSXT and UP locomotive are equipped with so called ‘Safety’ cabs, both the SOO and SP sport ‘Spartan’ cabs that debuted with EMD’s GP35 back in the early 1960’s. Of course, corporate paint schemes evolve as well. CSXT would transition to dark blue and yellow, while SOO would adopt all red (I’ve never understood why anyone would paint railway equipment white?). However, incredibly, ‘Uncle Pete’ has never changed his clothes.

Wordless Wednesday No. 698

 

Don Janes Photos  

D&H Cement Car

I took this photo of my cement car yesterday on the layout.

I had a comment about this car a couple of post ago which only showed the roof. I thought I would share some views of the model. It is a Tichy kit I built way back in 2012 in the boxcar red coloring. It is also offered in a grey which I still have to build. Some weathering has been done to it back then using chalks...George Dutka  

Under construction back in 2012.

The finished model. Floquil boxcar red was used as paint. Decals are included in the kit.

Snapshot - November 2026

VIA 84 from Sarnia is EB at Pulham Road Oct 7, 2026

This months Snapshot is a railfan visit to Denfield bridge over the CN and CPKC lines just west of London. Our model club gathered there last month...George Dutka  

Waiting to go at Pulham Rd.

At Denfield an EB 148 the container train. All Oct. 7 2026.

VIA 72 EB

Units on both end of VIA 72

CN WB

The Sperry car is EB passing the CN WB.

Milk Cars At Bellows Falls!

A look at the milk cars I have on the layout in the Bellows Falls yard and at the creamery...George Dutka  

Trip to Peterborough Area

By Don Janes  

 " In September my wife and I made a trip to Peterborough, in the Muskoka district, to look at the fall colours.  I wanted to see the Lift Lock in Peterborough in action but unfortunately due to being so late in the season there was no boat traffic but I did see the lock and captured a few shots of it, without any boats.

     The next day we made a trip to Lindsay where I found Memorial Park with a nice display of old railway equipment including an old CNR EMD SW-8, a TH&B 0-6-0 and a couple of CN cabooses on display, in quite good shape actually, considering they sit outside unprotected.  The railway pulled out of Lindsay a long time ago so it was nice to see these trains preserved.

 While in Peterborough the following morning I saw the Havelock job from Toronto go through town but couldn't get a shot of it.  I did manage to find the train switching the yard at Havelock later in the afternoon after returning from the mine.  The three CPR units tied up for the night at a location I couldn't get to so I wasn't able to get any photos from the sunny side. The yard did seem quite full of covered hoppers so business at the mine must be good.  This is the only active railroad line left in the area.

    The next day, before heading home, I went and had a look at the CPR swing bridge in Peterborough.  There was  a CPR truck parked by the bridge and the employee told me the train would be leaving Havelock, on its way to Toronto in a couple of hours and would be using the bridge but we wanted to get on the road for home so I didn't get a chance to photograph the train on the bridge but did get some shots of it in the open position.  It is located in a park so was very easy to take photos of it.

    One added bonus, we stopped in Bobcaygeon on the way to Lindsay and treated ourselves to a Kawartha Dairy ice cream cone which was absolutely delicious."

Ferrisburgh, Vt. Creamery

Ferrisburgh, Vt.

A little while back I mistakenly labeled the creamery in a post as Vergennes. Jim Dufour brought that to our attention with Randy Laframbois sending me this photo of his model for Ferrisburgh, Vt.  location...George Dutka  

Randy Laframbois photo and model.

Throwback Thursday – Canadian National Sweeps

by Keith MacCauley 

Seeing George’s recent post on the upcoming Rapido CN ‘Sweep’ caused me to search through my photos to see how many I had captured over the years? Somewhat to my surprise, I had recorded all but one; CN 7100. According to the Canadian Trackside Guide (CTG) and the fabulous reference ‘Canadian National Railways Diesel Locomotives Vol. 2’, the Sweeps were manufactured by Pointe St. Charles (PSC) in two groups; CN 7100 – 7101 (1985) and CN 7102 – 7107 (1987). I believe CN 7100/7101 (originally numbered CN 7300/7301) were test beds, released ahead of the others.

In the late 1980’s, early 1990’s Canadian National’s Stuart Street Yard in Hamilton seemed to receive a steady diet of newly rebuilt power, including GP9RM’s, GMD1u’s and Sweeps. No doubt, contributing to my good fortune in seeing so many newly painted units. Recognizing that the cost was high for the end result, the CN Sweep fleet only totaled eight members. Subsequently, eligible SW1200RS’s were rebuilt in kind and renumbered into the CN 7300 series. Incredibly, cast off by CN, many of the Sweeps soldier on for their new owners in industrial switching service.