Foster's - Milk can loading station at the end of a spur.

An overall view of the end of the creamery spur which at the moment houses two Borden's milk loading facilities. This was a marble quarry till yesterday afternoon.

I have made a few changes to the layout over the last couple of weeks. I still plan to revamp the track plan but there will be some trackage that will remain the same. I just want them to look different.The marble quarry has been at the end of this spur since about 2004 and I think it is about time for a change.

I just finished another FOS kit-of-the-month which is the Foster's Milk station. I liked how it looked when I held it alongside the track at the end of my spur where a marble loading area is. It was a very easy afternoon changeover. I removed the crane, office, marble loads and some ground details. I just dropped the milk station in place with a few details around the base and all is well. There is another Borden's creamery on the spur which will shortly be removed once a feed mill is completed.

More on how I built the milk station shortly...George Dutka

This FOS kit came with a stencil  which adds this nice looking sign.

Both walls are modeled differently. This is a copy of an original Borden's sign found along the D&H. I just turn the structure around when a different look is due.

Looks like a good load of milk cans are ready for pickup. The other creamery handles bulk loading.

Snapshot - February 2020

A still clean boxcar that is only a couple of months old at Utica, NY on Jan 23 2020. Peter Mumby photo.

This months Snapshot is some of the rolling stock Peter Mumby and I saw on our way to Springfield last month. One train surprised us with a number of new pieces of rolling stock...enjoy...George Dutka

Peter and I hung around East Syracuse, NY on Jan. 23, 2020 on our way to Springfield. There was a WB train waiting to depart that we got a few shots of trailers we don't see a lot of in Ontario. Peter Mumby photo.

East Syracuse, NY Jan 23, 2020. Peter Mumby photo.

In a string of reefers on a WB freight in Utica, NY. was a few brand new cars scattered throughout. I think between Peter and I we shot them all, Jan. 23, 2020.

More new cars..

Two more new cars together. Peter Mumby photo.

A ghosting logo on a railbox car. I believe there is a ghost HO model boxcar of this type of lettering but with a lot less graffiti. This car was on a WB train at Utica, NY Jan. 23, 2020. I believe we caught three maybe four trains including Amtrak in total during our visit to Utica.

This might be a neat car to model. The numbering and lettering is just a ghost image now. The car still has the ACI label. This car was in the NECR yard Palmer, Mass. Jan. 24, 2020.

I did a similar effect when removing a dry transfer on a air-slide hopper recently.

Throwback Thursday - A St. Albans Interlude

CV 1509 and 1510 team up to pull a cut of cars out of the St. Albans yard on July 16, 1986.  Keeping it all in the family, the first car up in the consist is bulkhead flat DWC 605209.

By Peter Mumby.

My one and only visit to the Central Vermont at St. Albans, Vermont, occurred on July 16, 1986.  Two of the locomotive models I encountered on that occasion are featured in today's post.  CV 1509 and 1510, railroad class GR-12j, were SW-1200 units built 4/57 by EMD for the Grand Trunk Western.  CV 3613, class MR-18a, was an RS-11 built by ALCO in 9/56 for Duluth Winnipeg and Pacific.

Here is one for the modellers.  Just like the real railroads, we all have at least one locomotive that we just can't get to run properly.  Apply a little weathering, remove the battery box covers, place on a shop truck, and voila - a nice little static mini scene!

Wordless Wednesday No. 365

Sept 17, 2019 London, Ont.

Rust Bucket No. 13

CEFX 72897 in St. Thomas, Ont. Feb. 2020

Brian Smith sent me this photo taken this month of a hopper car with a good amount of scratches the length of the car...thinking it was a bit to close to something with a sharp edge...George Dutka

B&M Brookside Milk Car

My B&M Overland Models which I painted a base coat of Floquil tuscan red followed by a light overcoat of  a 50-50 mix of  Floquil tuscan and caboose red. The lettering is from Concord Junction (c1985) No. 8511-8501. The billboard placard is a colour photocopy of the decal reduced to 90%.

A bit more on the B&M milk cars  that was also used by the Bellows Falls Co-Operative Creamery. I have included my brass model, a F&C kit I have to build and a newer version of the F&C kit. I also have an older F&C kit that is very nicely built by the late Bob Bowes that he had painted way to bright and I will have to figure out a way to tone it down a bit...George Dutka

John Hajnosz sent me this photo of his F&C B&M milk car kit that is a new offering through Willyma Hobbies. It is a finer looking model from the one I purchased decades ago which cost $50.

The finished Willyma Hobbies F&C kit from their web site.

The kit box.

Springfield 2020. Note each car has two Brookside billboard placard mounted at the ends.

One of Don Janes Railworks models.

This is my Overland model with the B&M lettering. On the other side I modeled the billboard style. So I have both styles on one car.

My old F&C B&M  kit. This is the mechanical version. The resin is very hard to sand and drill holes into.

This is one of the old F&C kits built by Bob Bowes. I purchased it from his estate. Bob has done a great job building the model, unfortunately he painted it a bright red. Now to figure how I can tone it down.

A Walthers D&H Boxcar

This particular D&H boxcar was only on the line for 13 years and would not have got to rusty. This is the cleaner of the two sides just some colorless blender.

This is a Walthers boxcar that Peter gave me last month. I borrowed a D&H equipment book  from Peter that had a photo I could refer to. This car was part of an order delivered to the D&H in 1965. They were leased from North American Cars. These cars left the roster in 1978. Car no. 28031 was freshly painted and on display at the Alco plant in 1974....George Dutka.

After a coat of flat finish I applied a coat of india ink-alcohol mix to weather the silver roof. I applied a ACI decal to a location I found in a photos of this car series.

The ends got a spray bomb coat of flat black. For the end numbers I used a Tichy decal set that included D&H numbers and letters.

This side got a bit of extra rust applied which is acrylic paints and AK colouring. The other side was just dusted with PanPastel colorless blender.

This car had a rare outline version of the D&H herald.

Northern Vermont Railroading

LVRC 7805 at St. Johnsbury, Vt. on May 25 1989. It appeared Gord followed the unit this day. Gord Taylor photo.

A few photos from Gord Taylor's visit to northern Vermont during the spring of 1989. Gord and Bruce Douglas traveled together to Vermont and were fans of the old St. J...George Dutka

LVRC May 23, 1989 at Morrisville, Vt. Gord Taylor photo.

I had also seen this snow plow on many occasions while visiting Morrisville, Vermont. May 25, 1989 Gord Taylor photo.

The LVRC is running light at Gilman May 25, 1989. Gord Taylor photo.

Tangent Tank Cars

These cars came with this neat looking shopping bag...maybe they thought I would fill it up at their booth.

At last November's Trainfest I picked up two more tank cars adding nicely to my WRD fleet. They are beautiful well detailed tanks cars...George Dutka

My two cars ready to go to work on the WRD.

I clipped the couplers and gave them a light weathering using PanPastel colourless blender.

Copetown RPM this Weekend.

If one lives near the Southwestern Ontario area maybe a trip to Copetown is in the cards this weekend.

Throwback Thursday - CN Transfer Vans with a Twist

CN 76673 is showing off its unique paint scheme in the yard at Brantford, Ontario, on July 26, 1993.

By Peter Mumby.

During the 1977/78 time frame, CN acquired in excess of 200 transfer vans.  These were constructed in-house at Montreal's Pointe St-Charles shops.  The two cars illustrated in today's post wore something other than the basic CN paint and lettering scheme.  CN 76673 had been partially repainted in a Test Engineering scheme, and was used for advanced train control test trains.  It was one of the few pieces of rolling stock, either revenue or company service, that wore the 1992-era "CN North America" logo.  Ex-CN 76695 is an example of a car which found a second career after being discarded by the big railway.  It was very tastefully decorated for the Esquimalt and Nanaimo division of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association.

CRHA 76695 is sitting near the E&N roundhouse at Victoria, British Columbia on August 16, 2002.

Wordless Wednesday No. 364

Brookside Milk Cars

A pair of B&M milk cars on Don's Green Mountain Route.

Last August while visiting Don Janes I took a few photos of his nicely painted B&M Brookside milk car. These are brass models that I would love to have also...George Dutka

A few Brookside milk cars were converted to mechanical equipped units.

This fleet had a mix of plain finished or billboard applied cars.

A Look Back at a few Structures

A Rutland Car Shops section house set on a Gatorfoam base that I interchange from time to time on the layout.

I took a few photos the other day of structures near my workbench. Some are interchangable into the WRD while others are just waiting a new home...maybe during a rebuild...George Dutka

A Full Steam Ahead model I built back in 2013. I did a post on this structure back then. A neat looking old time fuel station.

The other end of the structure were I have included a coke machine and pump jockey.

Another drop-in that is a Rutland Car Shops kit of the North Dorset, Vt. section house on the Rutland Ry.

The back wall is pretty plain. I scratch-built the train order signal from a prototype photo of the location.

I covered this structure and location a few years back. The prototype  is restored in northern Vermont while this is a Creative Laser Design kit. I took a photo of the sign on the original station and reduced it down on a color photocopier to HO.

The backside of Inwood. This was a simple build that works well for someone just getting into laser kit building.

I altered the roof of an Atlas station to emulate one that would have stood on the Rutland Ry. It is another drop-in.