Staging Equipment

Two trains are staged at Fairlee ready to head towards Bellows Falls. CN 6767 is on the head end of the milk train for this run. With many of the visiting guests being CN and CPR fans I thought I best have some of my Canadian equipment included in the fleet. The B&M Alco is handling a local including coal and propane.

A few days before my open house I staged a few trains as I did not think we would have much time for switching. Dick Walker stopped by to check out the layout and to take a few photos. I decided to take a couple myself of the same scenes. Here they are...George Dutka

A CPR passenger train is headed to White River Jct. The engine is a Proto offering while the two coaches are from Branchline Trains.

Bar Mills

Peter Mumby's view of the company logo on the wall.

Peter and I visited Bar Mills during our trip to the Fine Scale Expo. A two part post has been already posted on my Modeling Maine in Narrow Gauge blog if you want to find out more about what we saw. A few extra views are posted here...George Dutka

Peter is getting his views of the Sn2 layout. Note the storage area under the layout. Pretty much everywhere you look a diorama or kit is on display.

Bar Mills offered at one time an O scale version of a Fine Scale Miniatures kit.

Bar Mills has two laser cutters that seem to be running all the time. Some finished cuttings are seen on top of each machine.

Tichy Stop Blocks

One of my two Hays stop blocks can be seen located near the Robertson Paper Co.

I purchase a Tichy two pack of standard Hayes Manufacturing Co. car bumping post. These were first made in 1926 and are still in use today. Once assembled I painted them at the same time as I sprayed my rails Floquil rail brown. I used some yellow chalk and Bragdon powders to finish them off. Guess I will see how they do when my engine forgets to stop...George Dutka

Throwback Thursday - Hunter Loves Golf

UP 4439 E, operating as CN 386, is actively promoting the CN Canadian Women's Open in this Aug. 05, 2006 photo.

Photo and Commentary by Peter Mumby
E. Hunter Harrison loves making money, both for himself and for his shareholders.  He's good at it.  He also loves raising show jumping horses on his Connecticut estate.  He's good at this, too.
Further down the list, he must love golf, and he's probably good at this as well.  It was during his tenure as president and CEO of CN  (Jan. 01, 2003-Dec. 31, 2009) that the railway became the corporate sponsor of the Canadian Women's Open Golf Tournament.  The 2006 version of this tournament took place Aug. 07-13 at the London Hunt and Country Club in London, Ontario.  The photo shows the advertising banner that was hung on the CN bridge over Oxford St. West in London, and was taken early on the morning of Aug. 05 of that year.

Hunter Harrison later became CEO of Canadian Pacific ( June 29, 2012-present).  It probably was no coincidence that CP later took over sponsorship of the Canadian Women's Open, with the inaugural of the CP Women's Open held again at the London Hunt Club on Aug. 18-24, 2014.  It has been announced that the CP Women's Open for 2017 will be held in Ottawa to coincide with the nation's 150th anniversary.

The train in the photograph, UP 4439 east, was operating as CN 386.  This train was returning from Flat Rock yard in the Detroit area after leaving London yard in the wee hours of the morning as CN 387.  At this time the St. Thomas Ford plant was still in business, and the train carried empty autoracks and loaded frame flats for Ford, as well as empty frame flats for the Formet plant in St. Thomas.  CN 387 was generally a long train and doubling it up would tie up level crossings in the downtown core for extensive periods, making a very early departure preferable.  On occasion it departed later in the morning, making for a lot of annoyed motorists.  Such was the case in April of 2006 when I caught this train with CN 2656, CN2634, BNSF 9380 and BNSF 9389 on the head end.  It was quite normal for 387 to forward new deliveries from the General Motors Diesel Division plant.

George was quite often the engineman on these 387/386 trains.  Maybe we will be able to prevail upon him to provide us with a few anecdotes at some point in the near future!

Wordless Wednesday No. 178

Railfanning the OSR

One can tell the OSR is a railfan's railroad. A gang gathered at the Woodstock, Ont. CP station to photo or watch the train complete its switching.

Yesterday Don Janes and I headed over to Woodstock for the train show. We made it fast as the sun came out and we heard the OSR are in town. Sure enough when we arrived at the CP station the OSR had already arrived and was busy switching. We took our shots then headed over to the diamond to catch the train leaving. The train moved along well limiting our chances for shots along the way. We once again caught up with the train at the wye at Cami. There they put most of their train away then headed back down town. By that time the clouds filled in and we called it a day...George Dutka

OSR 1620 - 6508 cross the CNR Dundas Sub. mainline as it heads out of Woodstock, Ont. While waiting for the train we spoke to two railfans from Buffalo. They both are CSXT engineman with a few good stories to tell. They actually filled us in on the action and operations around the Albany area that Peter and I just came back from.

Not far out of Woodstock the OSR is chugging along.

Don and I stopped at a crossing he had used before for photos. I took advantage of the missing sign at this location.

The OSR is easy to follow from Woodstock to Ingersoll with the roadway right beside the ROW.

I got this shot with the Ingersoll, Ont. sign at my back.

The OSR complete their switching at the wye at the Cami auto plant.

London and District Layout Tour - White River Division

Some visitors discuss DCC while I try to get a Broadway engine programmed on my program track for a guest. As it turned out he needed to take the engine shell apart to reset the engine by pushing the reset button found in not a great location.

Yesterday our area held its annual layout tour. I was not sure how many visitors the WRD would host since 21 layouts are open spread over a wide area. As it turned out Peter and I found ourselves pretty busy keeping up to questions, visiting with new and old friends and on occasion run a train over the road. I can tell you not much got switched other than the five finger kind but in the end we did run a good amount of trains over the road. At last count the guest book had almost 60 signatures and I know of a few that forgot to sign. Here we have a few photos Peter and I took of the gang...George Dutka

Peter Mumby chats up old times with  Bob Winterton.

Checking out the Rapido gondolas on display.

Gary Pembleton and Don Pearce stopped by during the morning rush. They are standing in front of my N scale display. No surprise as Gary is a N scaler.

Peter and Bob Winterton had a nice visit taking in all the scenes. We had a chance to discuss CPR modeling and the CP Sig magazine before they left.

Terry is an O scaler and a retired CN conductor who stopped by to check out the layout. Terry and I worked together a lot over the years.

Andy Greenlees another retired CN engineman and Clare Gilbert of Sylvan Models also stopped by for a visit.

Snapshot - April 2016

The lead unit on this day is the ex-Rutland 405 handling a transfer run for the Green Mountain Ry. The train had just exited the south end of the Bellows Falls, Vermont tunnel.

This Month's snapshot follows my interest of modeling the Bellows Falls tunnel. I took this photo of the Green Mountain heading south with a cut of cars to be placed in a siding. It was a nice sunny morning during my April visit 17 years ago (April 30, 1999). I am thinking my next tunnel view at Bellows Falls was taken on this years trip in March with Peter of the Vermonter...George Dutka

One always needs to take a photo of the train before it enters the tunnel. I then rushed back to the spot I marked for the top photo on April, 30, 1999. Both photos are scans of prints I have from that trip to Vermont. I am thinking I was here to attend a Rutland Ry Historical Convention somewhere in Vermont.

Fine Scale Expo - Vendors

One of many displays found at the 2016 Expo. I thought Fos Scale had one of the best displays this time around.

This year it appeared the vendors present were a bit thinner than in the past. Some of those I usually purchase from did not attend. Other commitments or distances may play into the mix but all in all I did find some goodies I would have never found at home...George Dutka

MoTrak Models display of an upcoming kit.

MoTrak Models had some interesting kits and details. I picked up a few of their details.

I thought this was a really great structure with many details on display at the Gatorfoam table.

One of the larger kits offered by Carolina Craftsman Kits.

This was a nice looking building flat in HO scale offered by RailroadKITS

RailroadKITS office kit is HO scale. The windows appear to be large such as in S scale or more like O scale. I purchased this $29.00 kit and may try to convert it to O scale if not used in HO scale.

Atlantic Scale Modelers had a nice group of HO scale structures on display.

Another look at the Fos Scale Models displays. They also had this impressive signage.

Feed Mill in HO Scale

The siding is cedar cigar wraps.

Viewing Matthieu Lachance's recent efforts shingling the sides of his Montmorency Falls station (seen on his blog hedley-junction.blogspot.ca ) reminded me of the photos I took of a mill displayed at this years Copetown Show. The shingled siding was also painstakingly applied using cut cigar cedar warps one at a time. I remember Dave Frary mentioning this as a method he used years ago in one of his books. This mill has used various siding and roofing types making for a very interesting model...a tip of the hat to both modelers...George Dutka

This structure makes use of various types of modeling material including stone, metal and wood.

Overhead view and back wall...sorry about the quality as I was taking these hand held with my pocket camera.

Wordless Wednesday No. 177

If this scene interests you check my Modeling Maine in Narrow Gauge blog tomorrow.

An Interesting Stop!

How patriotic, red, white and blue passing lines. Here we see Peter out in the middle of traffic on Main St. I'm more sensible, I am standing in the crosswalk holding up the traffic taking photos.

After visiting the Franklin & South Manchester Ry. and the hobby shop across the street in Peabody, Ma. we were ready to head out of town. We noted the main street through town has a red, white and blue strip down the middle of the street. We thought that was really American and decided to get a photo of it even though it was drizzling out. Crazy Canadians. Heading back from the middle of a busy Main St. on a Saturday morning we noticed a small car with a large coffee cup attached drive in behind the fire house. We headed back to check it out. Two girls got out of the car...one with a backpack full of coffee and a coffee cup holster. Well that was worth another photo. The girls were off around town promoting New England Coffee (which we found out supplies Dunk'in Donuts). This stop was the fire hall. Well I never turn down a free coffee so here we are getting our pictures taken with the coffee crew...George Dutka

Did I say free coffee.

Even Peter is having a coffee and he does not even like the stuff. Not sure if his wife will let him go away with me again.

An interesting sight seeing this coming down Main St.

Modeling the Bellows Falls Tunnel

Don Jane was over last Wednesday and when we discussed the tunnel scene he mentioned thinking there was enough room for the roadway alongside it. It was something to think about. On Friday I got an e-mail from Bill Gill basically stating the same thing but with a photo shop image he though would work. It sure looks good and I might just give it a go once construction resumes. Here are Bill's comments and photo....George Dutka

Bill did a mock up of what he thought might fit...I think it looks great.

 "Your existing fascia is the black area below the thin horizontal gray line on the left and it would be extended upward, as shown, to match the angle of the new half road. The street and building above that at the top of the slope would be a photo, expanding the apparent depth of the scene.  Cheers, Bill Gill"

Schomberg Narrow Gauge Show

Have you ever seen an narrow gauge multi level rail car. Well there was one at Schomberg this year.

Yesterday was the annual Ontario Narrow Gauge Show held here in Ontario. Peter Mumby and I hauled up a collection of our narrow gauge models which filled a display table. A selection of what one saw is seen below...more photos on my Modeling Maine in Narrow Gauge blog...George Dutka

This is a scene which a narrow gauge modeler is incorporating into his layout. It follows the CP's west coast operations.

Clare Gilbert of Sylvan Scale Models had his collection of kits on hand.

This was a neat operating On30" layout hauled over from the Ottawa area.

A great looking narrow gauge module.

Some of the critters one saw.

Peter and I picked up some of Clare's N scale vehicles for our N scale module which is in the works.