Wordless Wednesday No. 491

 

 

Snapshot - August 2022

VIA 72 August 1, 2017

This group of photos were taken in 2017 of VIA with their colorful warps celebrating Canada 150. The end platform gate was open in London, Ontario on my visit in August as VIA 72 arrived so I got a few nice shots before getting the evil eye from the station master. Once again I took a few shots on a trip to Toronto later in the year on VIA 72...George Dutka

VIA 72 August 1, 2017

The VIA station banners found at many of the stations.

Inside the station there also were celebration signs August 1, 2017

Dec. 5 2021 am boarding VIA 72. I think I was using my phone for the photos this day.

Dec 5 2017 at Union Station, Toronto. We went down to shop at the St. Lawrence market and visit the Distillery District prior to Christmas.

AK Pencils

On30" flat car with some AK pencil marks.

I posted about using AK pencils on On30" flat cars on my narrow gauge blog about a year ago...but thought I would suggest it to you for on HO scale flats. I have yet to apply any on my standard gauge equipment but will get at it shortly...George Dutka  

Weathered Wheels

A close up view of the wheels in yesterdays post. As the car came to me used the wheels had some weathering applied.The coloring applied is a mix of acrylic burnt umber and cinnamon brown applied as a lighter coat leaving a bit of the black showing through.

There is a lot of different approaches in weathering and the appearances to one’s freight car wheel sets. None are wrong. It really depends on the region one models. If the area you model is mostly clay, wheels would pick up a lot of red tones and in coal areas there would be a lot of black dust on the trucks and wheels.

I like to have a variation in the appearance of my wheel sets. The simplest way I found to get this effect is to begin with a dollar store acrylic coat of cinnamon brown brushed on the faces of the wheels which becomes the base coat for whatever tone of coloring I want to add to the wheels. Cinnamon brown is a medium to dark rust looking tone. The smaller size Testors brush works well for this coating.

My second option for painting wheels is to coat the wheel faces with Vallejo Rust Texture which is a very dark looking rust tone, almost black. I like to leave these wheels set with only the Vallejo coating but one can then adjust the coloring with your favorite PanPastel tone. I have been known to also paint the truck side frames with Vallejo Rust Texture although my go-to paint for trucks is Princess Auto product Cast Iron Gray which comes in a spray can.

It is nice to have different effects for each car...I try not to have too many looking the same...George Dutka

Rapido steel wheels have been painted acrylic cinnamon brown followed by different shades of Bragdon Powders. I normally use soot or dark rust. This one is getting a light rust applied to emulate a new wheel.

This Rapido open top hopper has had the wheels and trucks painted Vallejo Rust Texture using a brush. I did not apply any powders on this truck.

A look inside the open door. I used some scarp paper bag material to resemble leftovers from the last delivery.

Branchline Blueprint Series 40' Boxcar

The finished Branchline model is in use on the WRD. I did not have any Pennsylvania Ry. boxcars on my layout till this summer, now I have three.

 Branchline reported back in 1997 that development work had begun on the first of their own line of freight cars. Marketed under the "Blueprint Series" banner, these cars were designed to set new standards for a freight car kit. The first series of cars, the 50' AAR postwar boxcars, offered a variety of combinations of optional parts that allow them to closely replicate nearly any of the prototype cars. This philosophy would continue into future Blueprint releases. 

I had mentioned my model a few weeks back and here it is now finished. The roof was a mess and needed repainting. I gave the roof a coat of tru-color matte dark red brick followed by a light coat of cast iron gray while still wet. I had taped the sides so no overspray would venture below.

Once dry a coat of PanPastel red iron oxide extra dark is applied to the roof followed by raw umber shade. The couplers are coated Bragdon rust. The car sides along the ribs are lightly coated with PanPastel raw umber shade...George Dutka

The finished roof with the two colors sprayed on the roof once the car was covered with masking tape. The cast iron gives the appearance of metal showing through the paint once some PanPastel is applied.

PanPastel tones are being applied.

Raw umber shade is added to the car sides lightly as the car should look new as the era would be 1957.

Since the door was open I applied some brown paper bag as leftover packaging from the last delivery.

Mulder's Diner - Atlas Gorge

This structure is included in the yearly kit FOS offers called Atlas Gorge.

A diner scene setup on the WRD using two recently constructed FOS kits...George Dutka 

An overall view of the two structures.

Throwback Thursday - YDHR Number 3612

On July 26, 2002, YDHR 3612 is getting ready to haul its next load of passengers from Uxbridge to Stouffville.

By Peter Mumby.

Located northeast of Toronto, the York Durham Heritage Railway operated a tourist train between the municipalities of Uxbridge and Stouffville.  Locomotives and rolling stock were kept in a small yard adjacent to the group's station/office building in Uxbridge.  In today's photo RS11 3612 is in the process of running around its train in preparation for the next run to Stouffville.  An Alco product of September 1956, the unit was built as DWP 3612.

On May 21 of 2022 a tornado struck Uxbridge, causing some $750,000 in damage to the station and nearby rolling stock.  As of this writing, the operation remains closed until further notice.

Wordless Wednesday No. 490

 

 

RailroadKITS

I added a tarpaper roof to the structure. It still needs a platform-loading dock or stairs. Not sure were I will use it so left it off for the moment.

I built this RailroadKITS structure last December but have not got around to taking photos of it till later on. It is an all hydrocal-plaster kit. The walls are good to work with but all the small fine details such as trim are also plaster and very hard to work with. I broke a number of them before deciding to use wood and styrene for them...George Dutka 

Another Back Alley View

 

Fooling around with my engines. Another look at my back alley scene...see you tomorrow...George Dutka 

Staging a Scene!

Westboro shop track with a bit more of a backdrop.

After I built my back alley scene I spent an afternoon taking a group of photos of the diorama around my layout. Here it is behind the Westboro shop scene. It adds a bit more interest to the scene although not sure if I want that much of town showing in the scene...George Dutka 

A New Industry For Waterbury

 

CV 4551 shoves an empty boxcar into Delabarre Woolens for loading

Delabarre Woolens Gets Some Scenery.....by Don Janes

      Many years ago I purchased and built Delabarre Woolens, a multi structure kit from South River Model Works.  It consisted of the main mill, office/warehouse and a boarding house.  I placed the mill and warehouse at the north end of Waterbury and there it sat for several years.  Recently I finally got around to finishing the scene. The mill is water powered and there is a small river and a couple of dams and water inlets and discharge areas. 

       The river was poured using Envirotex resin and when dry I started adding the ground cover around the buildings and along the river, building the scenery up in layers.  While the ground cover was still wet I inserted lots of detail parts and various weeds and vegetation around the buildings.  

      It was nice to finally finish this portion of my Waterbury scene and I am now ready to finish off the scenery in the town Of Waterbury, Vt..  The following photos show the finished scene.

This ITLA has had a full interior added

 

Throwback Thursday - Also on Display

Cando Contracting locomotive CCGX 1110 added to the displays at the Elgin County Railway Museum on August 22, 1999.

By Peter Mumby.

In the recent post "On Display," Ontario Southland 181 was putting in an appearance at the Elgin County Railway Museum.  Visible behind it was a second locomotive, specifically SW 1200 CCGX 1110 as shown above.  This was an EMD product from February of 1963 which had been assembled as MP 1110.  By the time of today's photo it was the property of Cando Contracting and was used to switch the Formet frame plant in the east end of St. Thomas.  This was the principal customer on CN's Cayuga Spur.  Accompanying the locomotive to the ECRM was a frame flat carrying a sample load of the company's wares.

 

Wordless Wednesday No. 489

 

2017

  

More This and That!

Ex-CN station in Port Dover this past weekend. It is down at the beach. There is a second station in town also.

Just a bit of extra material for you to view...enjoy...George Dutka

This is my New Haven boxcar which Peter Mumby and I each built a model of on our Workshop Mondays a few years back.

I took this photo a few years back of a huge barn near the CP tracks in Komoka on Komoka Road. One can not see the whole thing without going on private property but still a nice view. This could make a great model peeking over a hill next to the tracks.

A Milk routing map that was posted last week on the B&M Yahoo group site. It is not that clear but gives one an idea of were milk came from in 1929. The map was posted by Earl Tuson

CV Postcard - Montpelier, Vt.

 

     

 

At a Different Angle!

This is an angle that I don't take photos of the WRJ scene much. I thought you might like a look at the fuel depot and yard in the background for a change. The track in the foreground is the lead to the Westboro shop...George Dutka  

White River Paper

Jim incorrectly labeled his view at WRJ.

Here we see a different angle that I have not seen in the past of the White River Paper Co. storage at White River Jct. Vermont which Jim Parker allowed my to publish on the blog...George Dutka

Throwback Thursday - On Display

Ontario Southland Railway locomotive 181 had been brought to St Thomas for Railway Days at the Elgin County Railway Museum in late August of 1999.

By Peter Mumby. 

At the time of the establishment of the Elgin County Railway Museum, the property was adjacent to a working CN yard.  This meant that when the museum held its semi-annual Railway Days, several tracks were available both for display and operation of equipment.  Having indirect interchange both with CP Rail and other CN lines meant that visiting units could be brought in for the duration of the show.  Of course, new additions to the collection could also be made using these same interchange routes.  CN has subsequently closed the yard, removed most of the trackage, and left the museum with no connection to the outside railway world.  Today the museum's only interchange partner is Port Stanley Terminal Rail.

At the time of today's photo (August 22, 1999), visiting units were still the norm on display days.  OSR RS 18u number 181, built by MLW in May 1958 as CP 8777, looks fresh and clean in the morning sun.  In a later post we will have to highlight the unit visible to the rear.

Wordless Wednesday No. 488

 

  

August "This and That"

BEST has a new offering if you model a early era. Looks like a neat looking model. Could this be a good start to model Brookside creamery milk cars although the under-body would need extensive changes.

A little current news and a few photos from the past that I thought I would share with you this month.

I have been doing a bit more modeling in July that in the past months. I hope to get my act together and show you some of what I have done...keep checking back...George Dutka

This is a scene on John Blatherwick's layout of Swanton, Vermont. One can distinguish the mill once located there in the background. Ed Freeman sent me some photos taken of John's layout prior to it being torn down. I always enjoyed viewing John's Brattle-Falls which was a combination of Bellows Falls and Brattleboro in one scene.

If one knows the Frank Lane area just west of London you will enjoy this photo. Today the area is so overgrown it is hard to get good views. VIA MLW 3150 with Tempo equiment WB approaching the bridge on March 6, 1976. My friend Bruce Douglas passed along this photo taken by local railfan John Allen. I see John trackside a lot since covid as we seem to like the same areas west of London. We also trade views on line.

The last times I was at a train show was just before covid. In this view I am working the WOD-NFR craftsman corner at the Paris Ontario train show in January 2020. Peter Mumby photo.

Peter catches me once again working at the last show I attended in March 2020 which was the Kitchener train show. I miss taking in these event. Will see what this fall brings.

If one is familiar with Goderich, Ontario you know the story of this load. At Goderich Champion graders where built in a plant located beside the yard. Graders were then loaded and shipped from there on a regular basis on flats. This was a CN yard at one time but by the time this photo was taken in 1992 it was Goderich and Exeter territory (GEXR)