StJ&LC - 70 Tonners

 Numbers 46, 54 and 55 retired and stored, June 1977. Gord Taylor photo

June 1977, Gord Taylor photo

MEC #302

Bruce just returned one of my photos I took of his engine...he added a little heat distortion to the stack...neat...George Dutka

MEC S-2 Alco Switcher

MEC power is seen on the WRD hauling my just finished MEC PS-1 50' boxcars.

One of the other model railroad pieces Bruce Douglas gave me on my visit earlier this summer was this well detailed Atlas engine, MEC #302. Bruce is out of HO scale modeling now concentrating on his growing S scale truck collection. Many of these trucks he has modeled using his own made decals. Bruce was in the printing graphic design industry for many years. When modeling in HO scale he was working on a SJ&LC layout.

MEC #302 was built in 1949 (301-303) and used until about 1980. On this model Bruce added wire grabs, class lights, wipers, an engineman and a modified stack. Bruce also painted and lettered this engine. I did do a couple of thing to it as the paint was chipped on the handrails when unwrapped. This I touched up with Floquil CN #12 yellow and added jewels to the class lights. I decided to add a touch of weathering to the trucks and lower areas, just so it shows better in photos and when viewed up close. Bragdon powders was used. At some point it will be brought back to the workbench for the addition of DCC and sound. For now it just looks good spotted on an un-powered sidings...George Dutka

This is how Bruce Douglas's Alco looked once unpacked and posed at Westboro. You may note some chipped paint and dust that will be removed shorty.

All has been touched up and some weathering can be seen on the trucks and around the stack. This is the lead leaving Westboro for WRJ. instead of a river crossing I have a roadway underpass dividing the two areas. Just no room for that great river bridge found in White River Jct. By the way the stonework is a New England Brownstone offering.

Heading to WRJ it looks like MEC #302 is busy pulling an empty sand car from the Westboro shop track area. There is a loaded sand car in the WRJ yard to take it's place.

MEC 302 as it looked in early 1980 and how Bruce modeled his engine.

New Haven Double Door Boxcar Kit

PS-1 double door kit  that is next up on my workbench.

At last years Collinsville RPM I picked up a NH 50' boxcar from the NHRHTS. It a double door car kit offered by Robin's Rail for the NHRHTS as a limted run. I did dig up a photo of this car that will help. As I have finished off my leftover projects from last winter during the last two weeks I decided to pull this one out...will see how it goes...my guess I will be finishing it off in the fall-winter as we are off to the lake for a bit then up for a few days in Muskoka...George Dutka

Wordless Wednesday No. 191

MEC Milk Car

The newest milk car on the White River Division roster is seen in Bellows Falls.

When I visited Bruce Douglas last month one of the cars he gave me for the White River Division was this great looking scratch-built MEC milk car. Bruce had an article published about his model in the July 1989 issue of Model Railroading. There has been a couple more articles about how this car can be built or kitbashed. John Nehrich used an Accurail car which one can find in  the January 2002 issue of Model Railroader. Eric Clegg got a RMC kitbash award back in June 1989 for using a Des Plaines (Storzek) CN boxcar kit for a starting point.

Car History
These cars came to the MEC in 1918 numbered in the series 1506-1525, 20 cars. At that time they were double sheathed but by 1932 were converted into outside braced milk cars. Three cars, 1510, 1513 and 1517 received steel ends, frames and roofs in 1954. They remained in service till about 1962.

The Model
On Bruce's milk car he mainly scratch-built the model but used some Athearn reefer parts such as ends and underframe. The car is painted Accu-paint #26 MEC Pine Green and did receive some nice weathering. I normally add my own touchs to the cars I have on the layout, but this one is staying just the way Bruce modeled it...George Dutka

Bruce's milk car rests on the article he wrote about his model in Model Railroading.

Currently MEC 1513 is seen with CV 538 ready for lifting at White River Jct. on the White River Division.

A short MEC train is departing White River Jct. with one lone milk car on this occasion.

MEC 50' PS-1 Interior

My current project involves a MEC PS-1 50' boxcar that has been modeled with an open door viewing the leftover paper scraps and banding.

With all the heat and humidity out there I have been inside working on a few projects for my wife and at my work bench. I have been working at cleaning up a few rolling stock projects that have been hanging around for sometime now and awaiting my motivation. I will fill you in on those shortly.

 A couple of years ago Peter got us a $10 deal on two Kadee 50' PS-1 boxcars. For mine I decided to paint it in MEC green with the silver door and tiny herald. The car got painted and set aside for a couple of years. Since then at a train show I came across a MEC trio of the same car I had still awaiting decaling. These cars were offered by Intermountain. Peter and I built one each this past winter and the third was set aside for a later date which came this week. The kit is actually a pain to assemble. The ends, doors and roofwalk are all warped and need glueing and clamping. I was not looking forward to this project. I wanted to model an open door paper car which had been unloaded. This became that car...captions tell the story about the mess inside...George Dutka

I added the details that would show through the door in this Intermountain kit before I added the roof. The floor got a coat of Floquil black then grime dabbed on. I also added some powders to the mix. The leftover paper scrap that can be found in paper shipment is modeled with brown bag pieces cut to width and glued into place. I rolled one piece around a screwdriver shaft before adding. The band wire is electrical tape cut to length and placed randomly.

New Brick and Stone Complex for WRD

I built a stone structure a couple of years ago using Railway Design Associates bits and pieces. Recently using some of Don's castings I came up with this add-on complex which should add additional interest to the backdrop in Bellows Falls.

Don Janes dropped off some castings for me to play around with on his last visit. I am actually building another building flat to expand the look of the Bellows Falls tunnel scene using these casting. To add some additional interest to the Bellows Falls backdrop I decided to assemble a few of Don's castings into a complex that once added to my finished stone structure looks really good. Amazing what one can do with leftovers...George Dutka

I cut some styrene roofing and added a wood sided throughway between the two buildings.

The smoke stack is a Sylvan casting that has been moved from my Bellows Crossing scene.

Call 911 - Railway Safety and Training Equipment

Chris Martin shot this slide of CP 911 on Oct. 10, 2015 in London, Ontario.

Commentary by Peter Mumby
Photos by Chris Martin and Peter Mumby.

Late last fall my friend Chris Martin gave me a slide of CP 911, a hazmat training car that had been sitting in Quebec St. yard in London, Ontario.  This got me digging in to the collection to find photos of similar cars that I had seen, also sharing the 911 number.  Although not carrying the 911 identifier, I will also present a rubber tired safety vehicle sponsored by Direction 2006, Operation Lifesaver, and Transport Canada.

Labelled as a VAF Training Car, GTW 911-R was lensed by Chris Martin on May 15, 1995 in Durand Mi.

CN 911, likely a refinished version of the previous GTW car, was photographed in London on Aug. 04, 2014.

Here we see CN 911 again, this time in the company of the DuPont/Norfolk Southern safety train.  This 3-car set consists of tank car DUPX 913A, box car DUPX 913B, and caboose DUPX 913 C.

This Direction 2006 safety vehicle was in attendance at a safety convention in London on May 08, 2007.

Anyone know of a decal set for an HO model of this vehicle?

CCPX 911 had been repainted in dark blue by June 14, 2003 when I caught up to it at Walkley Yard in Ottawa.  The occasion was an Ottawa Central open house.

CCPX 911, belonging to the Canadian Chemical Producers Association, was passing through London on Nov. 26, 1991.

Wordless Wednesday No. 190

Sept. 29 1979.

Railfanning the LVRC 1980

In northern Vemont the tale end of a LVRC train, May 1980. Gord Taylor photo

Here we have another small group of Gord Taylor's views of the LVRC on one of his trips to Vermont with Bruce Douglas. I am sure Gord took many more slides during this trip other then these and the two B&M-CP pooled train, but for now that is all Peter found...George Dutka

May 1980, Gord Taylor photo.

May 1980, Gord Taylor photo

CP GP35 Display

A CP engine mounted on a small display is assembled for my nephew, a CP conductor.

My nephew works out west for the CP. His service is about a year and a half. My wife though it would be nice to make him up a engine display for his mantle or desk. My friend Bob Hannah had just stopped by with a box of old Bachmann engines, rolling stock, and brass track that was passed along to him. He thought I might find a use for it. Well I did for one of the engines already. The GP35 is now off to Saskatchewan...George Dutka

I decided to spruce up the standard display with a bit of details, weeds and grass. The engine got Kadee couplers and some weathering.

I added a conductor and engineman to the plain Bachmann engine.

The base is a 11" by 3 1/2" piece of pine with a bit of a bevel. I sprayed it flat black adding a piece of brass track which is given a coat of gray primer and India ink stain. The rails got a dusting of Bragdon rust. I used flocking, ground foam, cinders and dirt to finish off the scene.

For more interest I added a crossing approach sign which normally is used on the roadway...but you know those CP guys...enough said.

Portland Terminal Boxcar

My finished Accurail boxcar after a short visit to my workbench this summer.

Some years ago at a long forgotten train show I picked up an Accurail boxcar finished in PTM paint with logo's. This became my to humid to go outside project which only took a couple of afternoons. The main change was replacing the side ladders with grab irons. I only did a rough carving as I did not want to remove the corner details and the bit left would not really show. I also added a missing brake wheel and added cut levers, Tichy grab irons, and new stirrups.

Since this car was going to be used in the 1970's-80's fleet it got a good dose of powder weathering. I also used some old silver washed over with rust on the roofing. The car did have some weathering sprayed on when I got it but needed improvement. I also used a pencil to run along the grooves in the boards and along the roof walk which helped highlight the boards. The grabs and stirups got painted with a mix of Floquil Reading green and Brunswick Green. Think it turned out pretty good with minimal effort...George Dutka

Carving off the ladder was not all that hard. I did not take it down as close to the siding as I usually do. But leaving a bit and staying away from the sandpaper the other details are saved.

I still need to touch up the paint on the new grabs and weather the sides. I decided to play around with the roofing a bit adding some additional streaking.

CP-B&M in Vermont

Gord Taylor's notes on the slide recorded this as CP 4220, 8777, B&M 1747 near Summit, Vermont on May 17, 1980.

Yesterday's Wordless Wednesday, a Gord Taylor photo was also taken in Northern Vermont back in 1980. Bruce Douglas mentioned that they followed the train from Newport, Vt. An interesting mix of power and a nice scene to model...George Dutka

Wordless Wednesday No. 189

Snapshot - July 2016

As one can see we are at the Lawrence station catching the Boston commuter train. Was a kind of gloomy day with rain happening at times. It did clear up near the end of the day. April 2, 2016. I had already got my money train shot when I decided to turn the camera on Peter.

When railfanning with fiends I usually like to include a few views of my buddy's with the trains...kind of a record of the trip. Here are a few which include Peter Mumby from our trip to this years Expo...better watch out if you follow me around...George Dutka.

Peter and I clowned around a bit between trains at Syracuse, NY. Hard to believe he can hold up the concrete mile marker with only one hand. This was a stop on our way to Danver, Mass., March 29, 2016

I had gone to the car to get my telephoto lens. On my way back I thought to add Peter running his video camera at this great spot we found that gives one an overall view of the yard at South Portland, Maine. March 31, 2016.

I added Peter to my view of the South Portland, Maine tower on the last day of March 2016.

Tired of seeing Pete's mug...well this is the last one while visiting the Franklin and South Manchester layout.

Summer Update

Bruce Douglas built this CV milk car decades before any of the milk car kits became available. It now has a new home on the White River Division.

Although things are kind of quite here on the modeling front I seem to have been to a number of Model Railroad events and locations last month. Posts for this summer are looking good with Don just posting a part two of Greg Rich's layout and his creamery feature. Peter has a number of posts he is working on that should keep posting busy this summer. Peter also acquired the slide collection of the late Gord Taylor this spring. Gord mainly shot views from our area but was also a New England railfan making 13 trips to Vermont-New Hampshire in the 1970-1990 era with his good friend Bruce Douglas. I have just finished scanning some slides for posting this summer. I visited Bruce Douglas a few weeks ago. Bruce, an extremely good New England modeler gave me his great scratch-kitbashed CV milk car. I always loved this car which he build years before any of the milk car kits became available. I will cover this model along with a few of Bruce's others..check back from time to time and see what we are up to...George Dutka

LVRC 3612 an ex-CV RS11 departs St. Albans with one car at 11am Friday July 23, 1988. Gord Taylor photo. This was one of Bruce and Gord's many trips to Northern Vermont.

StJ&LC #51 if found at the CP shop track here in London, Ont. on a wet day during the month of Aug. 1972. Gord Taylor photo.

A Stone and Brick Mix

Would you ever think of modeling your brick and stone wall next to your door this way. Well this is how it looks in Collinsville, Ct.

Last year while at the Collinsville prototype meet Don and I spent some time photographing the large factory in town seen in yesterday's Wordless Wednesday. One structure had an interesting stone and brick arrangement...thought I would share those photos with you...George Dutka

A step back view of the doorway.

Out front this is the signage.

A look at the whole structure, a real mix of materials.