In RMC and MR at the same time.

My friend Jim Sloan from Sarnia, Ontario kind of did the impossible. He had a photo published in MR and RMC in the same month, August...and this was his first modeling work ever published to boot. Congratulations Jim. More of Jim's work can be found on his blog on my sidebar "JSSX Railway"...George Dutka

Jack Ellis - Weathering Mix

The ingredients.

If you follow BarMills Facebook monthly presentations you might have noted Jack Ellis commenting on his formula mix for India Ink and alcohol. I normally just keep adding drops into my 3 ounce bottle till it appears dark enough...I never kept track of the drops. I also have been using 70% alcohol.

Jacks formula is 12 drops of India ink into a one ounce paint bottle of 90% alcohol. 8 drops for a lighter tone. I mixed up Jacks formula and found it a bit light...found I liked 20 drops better for the tone I am normally looking for.

FOS includes some modeling information in his kits. I noted he mentions alcohol stains he uses are  one pint of alcohol and two teaspoons of ink as a starting point...do you have a preferred formula...George Dutka  

Mixing it up.

    12 drops on the left and 20 drops on the right.

Throwback Thursday - Display Car

 

On display at the Elgin County Railway Museum on August 27, 2004 was NS Exhibit Car number 27.

By Peter Mumby.

Not that many years ago the Elgin County Railway Museum of St. Thomas, Ontario held their Railway Days open house and train show twice a year.  The spring show took place in May or June, while the summer show occurred in August.  Available for viewing inside were numerous pieces of the museum's rolling stock, along with smaller artifacts and their model railroad layout.  Modellers could also purchase supplies from a number of local vendors who were set up in the hall.  For many years, as well, the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society was in residence at ECRM and much of their equipment could be checked out.  Many of the more significant cars and locomotives were on display outdoors, and interested photographers could observe this marshalling process at around 8:00 am and again at 4:00 pm when the units were being returned indoors.  During the day, short train rides were provided both on SOLRS equipment and on trains brought in from Port Stanley Terminal Rail.  Originally the museum had access to railway connections to both CN and CP, so periodically other companies sent equipment in for display as well.  At various times, locomotives from CN, Ontario Southland, and Cando Contracting put in an appearance.  As long as the Norfolk Southern trains were running to service the St. Thomas Ford plant, NS too would contribute to this outdoor display.  Such was the case on August 27, 2004 when ECRM visitors were able to tour NS Exhibit Car number 27, as seen in today's photo. 

Wordless Wednesday No. 435

 

London 1959 UWO Collection

Working under a bridge

CP at work under the Windsor Sub bridge May 12, 2021.

I took this photo some months ago of the CP working on their Windsor Sub. bridge in Hyde Park, Ont. At one time the CN Exeter sub crossed underneath...George Dutka 

This and That - July 2021

Dave's Decals offer these pop coolers that come with various decals and lighting if required. Kind of a neat addition to a scene.

Once again a group of photos that I did not feel needed a post of their own...enjoy...George Dutka 

I noted this paint advertised in MR that I found interesting. Looks like some of the old Floquil colors that are offered here in acrylic. I have been told this brand of paint is mainly for airbrushing and not great for brush applications.

My workbench was a mess last week while I worked on another FOS kit. Note all the MEG paints which was sent to me to experiment with...more on that at some point.

An ex-SOO covered hopper which could make an interesting model weathering project. March 12 2021

CN 4-6-2 5562 just west of the Thames River bridge and Wortley Road on Oct. 8 1957. Interesting to see there once was a section shed at this location.

CP on the ground in London yard under the Quebec St. overpass on July 10, 2021. It appears this was a good place to go on the ground hidden from others to see.

I was doing some paint samples and mixing of MIG paints to see what they could look like. A friend is working with a few paint companies to see if the basic Floquil colors could be offered in Acrylic. This might be a long way off at the moment. One never knows though.

RMC's Receiving Yard viewed these two cars offered in N scale from Micro Trains. They are really nicely weathered.

A Weathered Nose

 

This engine had a lot of fading happening on the nose. CN 2510 heads EB 410 over Komoka Road on May 6, 2021. I wonder how hard this weathering effect would be to apply to a model...something to try I would think...George Dutka    

FOS Kit of the Month - Toppers

FOS signs for this little diner are very nicely done. There even is curtains printed for the window interior. Note that huge exhaust fan on the smaller structures roof. Don't want to get sucked into that one.

I finished another FOS kit this spring that probably will not be used on the layout...likely a diorama. More on how I constructed it later. I find that many of FOS kits are missing parts and details...maybe a third of them. This one had all the parts which makes me happy. It is really hard to get Doug of FOS attention when mentioning the problem...George Dutka

Although the kit comes with roofing I changed it out for construction paper colored primer gray.

A look at the rear wall.

I changed out the smoke stack included in the kit which I felt was too large. I just used a piece of styrene tubing painted black.

A New Tavern For Waterbury

 

Wiley's Good Time Tavern is the newest structure for Waterbury.

      Building Mine Mount's Wiley's Good Time Tavern

     A couple of weeks ago I added a post to the blog showing some of the structures that make up my Waterbury Vermont scene.  Just last night I finished another structure for the town.  It is Wiley's Good Time Tavern, a kit from Mine Mount Models.  I bought the kit as I thought it would be a good fit for the town and to me, it had a nice New England look about it.

This is the box for the Wiley's kit

      Like most craftsman kits, Wiley's is mostly laser cut wood, some laser board parts, Tichy windows and doors and several small white metal castings. The kit came with a set of very well written instructions, a parts list and many good quality photos to help the modeler build the kit.  The instructions also give a few optional things you can do to the kit but I elected to build it as per the instructions as I liked the look of the kit as it appeared on the box

     Construction was straight forward and everything fit as described. I made sure I added lots of interior bracing to keep all the walls nice and straight and free of warping. The front of the tavern is supposed to be covered in stucco and I think it adds a nice touch.  To accomplish this look I built and braced the wooded front and two sides of the front portion then filled in any gaps with wood putty. Once dry I sanded these parts smooth, and slightly rounded the corners.  The stucco effect was accomplished by giving the walls a couple of coats of textured spray paint as suggested in the plans.  It is Rust-oleum Multicolour Textured paint.  This paint is quite expensive at $17 for a can but I feel the results are worth it.  I couldn't get the beige colour they suggested so bought the brown colour and painted it with light acrylic craft paints.  Hopefully I will build some more stucco structures to use up some more of the paint. 

     The fancy sections at the entrances to the pub and restaurant are built up from several layers of laser board that can be painted separately then laminated together to form each section.  This makes for a very neat finished section with nice clean colour separations.  The vertical posts are laser cut wood.  I used the paper curtains and signs that came on a sheet in the kit and added City Classics curtains for the other windows.

These two photos show the completed window sections/

A lot of the interior bracing can be seen in this shot

      The roofing is very thin laser board cut to represent round shingles and is a nice change from the standard slate or three tab shingle roofs found on most structures.  This job went quite smoothly but it was very time consuming going around the dormers and chimneys on the front of the roof.  The only extra thing I added were some Tichy shutters as I felt they added a little more character to the building.

      The chimneys are made up of laser cut wood sections that need to be glued together.  The mortar lines are very nicely done and the finished chimneys are quite interesting.  You can almost picture  couple of big fireplaces at each end of the tavern room.

     There is a sheet of various signs that can be added to the structure if desired.  

      Overall this was a fun build and this kit gives me a very interesting tavern that will sit across from the depot so thirsty travelers can quench their thirst after a long train ride.

The large lamp over the door is the top section of a Campbell lamp post and the "W" was on a sheet of laser board. The lamp hanger is a piece of .020 brass wire.

Throwback Thursday

It is Sept. 5, 1955 when these two geep's head west out of London, Ontario with a freight. Not sure if it would be headed to Sarnia or Windsor. At that time this was the new big road power. By the time I hired on with CN in 1977 these would have already been downgraded to way freight power.

For this week's throwback we have a CN WB that has just crossed Rectory St. here in London, Ontario with two classic colored geep's. I forget the name of the lumber yard that was north of the mainline at Rectory St. but Belton Lumber seems to ring a bell.

 Peter is back from the lake and stopped by this week. He is now ready to go once again with some great photos and stories...George Dutka

Wordless Wednesday No. 434

 

 

ITLA Shed at Bellows Falls

A new addition to Bellows Falls.

Not much has been done on the layout lately other than I have began planting the little ITLA tool shed in the foreground of Bellows Falls yard...George Dutka

I built the area for the shed using scrap Gatorfoam.

The scene has some plaster applied which will be shortly painted and textured.

Rolling Along

CN EB at Komoka, Ontario, June 4, 2021 had a neat mix of rolling stock. I don't really care for graffiti but sure do like eastern road cars. The car number 2354 was actually clean up or reapplied in areas.

A couple of freight car I though I would share with you from my railfanning trips this spring...George Dutka  

I really liked the look of this weathered Wisconsin Central covered hopper on an EB freight on June 4th at Komoka, Ontario. Unfortunately the train came by before I could get over to the sunny side. Peter Mumby met up with me shortly after and caught the sunny side of this train a few crossings over. Will be interesting to see what cars he shot on the train.

CP Weathering

If one would like to replicate how CP weathers their engines here is a look at one in Smith Falls, Ontario working the yard on June 12, 2017...George Dutka  

VIA Stainless Repainted

VIA 78 Komoka June 22, 2021

At Komoka in the company of area railfan John Allen I caught VIA 78 with 4 stainless coaches. Recently VIA in my area was all LRC coaches. Peter and I noted these coaches earlier in the day heading to Windsor on VIA 71 but did not have clear views of the coaches. I thought I would return after supper for a better view of the return movement.

Of the four stainless steel coaches three are refurbished with a yellow lettering boards above the windows with VIA dark green below around the windows on the coaches. On the VIA 1 coach a gray metallic color around the windows has been applied...George Dutka  

VIA 1 car with the metallic gray around the windows and yellow band above.

VIA coach with yellow band above the dark VIA green tone.

That's John Allen in my view as he had picked a spot to video the train while taking photos of the coaches. I run across John regularly west of London.

ITLA - Trio of Structures

 

A trio of ITLA structures I have built over the past few years. I thought I would group them together for a photo-op. Two are currently used on my layout. The Albany Manufacturing Co. I recently finished will be in a new back alley scene I am working on.   

Throwback Thursday

An interior view of CNR London car shops back on July 5, 1948. UWO collection.

The CNR had a large car shops here in London, Ontario which closed in May 1966. Here are a couple of photos from an earlier era. Today all the buildings are gone...George Dutka

London Ontario CNR car shops views Fort Qu'Appelle July 5, 1948 UWO photo collection.

Wordless Wednesday No. 433

 

 

Used Railway Ties

 A look at a pile of rails and railway ties found at Paris Jct. on June 4, 2020. We talked about modeling these earlier this month on the blog and modeling these was covered in RMC recently...anyhow the pile look neat and would fit into any era...George Dutka

Weathered Snow Plow

On display at Smith Falls, Ontario June 12, 2017. The nice thing about the display was that one could go inside for a look around.

If one follows Hedley Junction you would have seen Matthieu nicely weathered CN slow plow. Well if you visit the rail museum in Smith Falls a weathered version is on display...George Dutka 

Looking back from the cupola one can see how weathered the roof appears.

Looking forward.