Welcome, follow along with George Dutka in his journal which documents the additions and future thoughts for the HO scale White River Division model railroad and to his continuing historical New England railroad research. The White River Division is now in its 17th modeler's season. The "modeler's season" runs from November to April each year. Inspiration comes from the Boston and Maine, Rutland and Central Vermont Railway during the 1950's with additional posts by Don Janes and Peter Mumby.
Wednesday 18 September 2024
Tuesday 17 September 2024
Road Trip
Don Janes and I will be away from Wednesday to Saturday attending the NER - NMRA convention in Rochester, NY. A recent decision to go. I will not be posting anything for a few days after Wednesday...see you when we return...George Dutka
Monday 16 September 2024
Bellows Crossing
Sunday 15 September 2024
Stonetown Model Railroad Association
This scene will be one of the locations in St. Mary's area that CN switches. |
This sign hangs at the far end of the layout. I don't think it ever was used by the CN. |
This is an interesting faded and graffiti car. |
A mock-up of a freighter in Goderich harbor, one of the scenes they plan to model. |
Saturday 14 September 2024
B&M Rapido 44 Tonner
These B&M Rapido engines sold fast in my area leaving me with only one number choice...117. |
Friday 13 September 2024
St. Mary's and Stratford road trip
VIA 84 arriving St. Mary's |
Next it was over to the local community center to drop off the engines at the Stonetown Railway Association Club. The HO layout on the left side of the room is all new. It is DCC powered and also signaled and a long way from what once was there. The membership is really small though, only 4 members...but they seem ambitious. It will be interesting to see how the layout turns out.
Next stop was the station in Stratford. We got lucky as the GEXR power was tied up out front of the station. It appears it did not run this day to Goderich. The last few times by here it was quite and empty., so seeing the power was nice. From there we headed over to Paris and the CN main line which did not result in any action. With the afternoon almost gone and a bit of a drive home we called it a day...George Dutka
Although the layout is far from complete there is a good amount of detailed and weathered equipment there. |
One can see the old sign when the club was open to the public. Today with the rebuild an appointment is required. |
GEXR power on layover in Stratford, |
Thursday 12 September 2024
Throwback Thursday - Company Service Boxcar
ONT 2574 was photographed in the yard at North Bay on August 29, 1990. |
Wednesday 11 September 2024
Tuesday 10 September 2024
B&M Blue
My two B&M PS-1 Kadee cars on the WRD. One is faded a bit more than the other. The car to the left was my Christmas present from Peter Mumby last year. |
Monday 9 September 2024
Frank Lane Trestle - The WRD Version
I took this photo a few years back of a CV freight going into the WRJ yard past the A frame bridge. |
We saw the prototype photos that Peter Mumby took of the wooden A-frame trestle last week. I built a version of this structure back in the 1990's for my small shelf layout. It became a feature on the WRD hiding the entrance to my staging yard when I built the layout. It is still in the same location but covers the entrance to WRJ yard. There are some similar structures along the CV, not exact. I don't remember the lumber I used or how I built it. Today a similar structure can be purchased from Hunterline. Oh, by the way this is one of my favorite locations to railfan west of London. It is a short drive from my house and at least once a year some of the guys I worked with on the railroad gather here. A great view of the CN and CP can be found from here and almost no traffic...George Dutka
My friends Terry and Andy met up with me for a morning of railfanning back in 2022. The Frank Lane bridge is a great spot. |
The area around my A frame bridge is being installed many years ago. |
The prototype bridge is for double track. |
A bit of a climb to get up top just like on the prototype. |
Sunday 8 September 2024
St Mary's Station
VIA 84 from Sarnia arriving at the St. Mary's station. There is a wonderful old stone water tank across the road. |
Note the brick size is much smaller than a normal brick. |
The ticket office. |
The original station bench. |
Saturday 7 September 2024
Don's Green Mountain Division - Layout Lighting
The buildings are lighted up but the room light is still on. |
Don has done a wonderful job with the lighting. |
Friday 6 September 2024
Mooretown Museum
Thursday 5 September 2024
Throwback Thursday - Country Overpass
By Peter Mumby.This view looks westward towards the Frank Lane overpass.
A model of a structure like this would require a lot of nut/bolt/washer castings. |
Many of the planks were being replaced in July of 1994. This allowed for a look at the bridge’s underpinnings. |
Wednesday 4 September 2024
Tuesday 3 September 2024
CN Niagara Falls
Looking at the ex-yard office area July 16, 2024 |
Close-up look |
Noted an end door was added to a container as probably storage. |
Monday 2 September 2024
Train Show - Elgin County Railway Museum
A Howard Zane weathered model all ready to go on the WRD. |
Yesterday I attended the first train show of the fall season in St. Thomas at the railway museum. I was looking after selling Peter Mumby's trains that he packaged up for me. It was a pretty good show although the crowd was smaller than normal...it is the long weekend. I picked up a Howard Zane weathered boxcar from Peter's stock which really looked good. From the table next door I also got a nicely detailed and weathered N scale GM switcher for my small N scale module. I actually needed something to run on the module as it will be at the WOD-NMRA train show at the end of the month.
Looking through Peters stock I noted some hoppers that might be of interest by Don Janes. So I took some photos of the cars with my phone and texted them to Don...we went back and forth with what I thought he might like to see and I set a small group of cars aside for him that I will deliver when we meet up Tuesday. So one can always shop without attending the shows if you have friends there...George Dutka
A N scale road switcher with many extra details added. It needs a bit of dusting off before heading over to my module. |