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SOO 111389 was caught at CP Quebec St in London, Ontario on August 20, 1995. |
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.
Thursday, 6 February 2025
Throwback Thursday - History Illustrated
Wednesday, 5 February 2025
Tuesday, 4 February 2025
Railfanning Springfield, Mass.
Power shuffled around the west end of the yard on January 24, 2025 |
Looking east from the roadway layover power is seen on the right while a WB train road power is getting ready to head over to its train. |
A couple of the railfans that gather there on a regular basis. |
A local switcher arrives on the scene. One could see more power down around the middle of the yard. |
Lined up for a moment one could get a group shot. |
A WB train was leaving as I arrived at the west end of the yard. This photo and the one below are from that train. |
At the east end of the yard a short train of maybe 10 cars heads east just as I was heading to my hotel room. There is a bit of a pull off along the river where I tucked my car into. |
Crossing the Connecticut River. |
Monday, 3 February 2025
ITLA Back Alley Kit
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There might be some extra details added on the roof later on and I have yet to decide if this structure will get a fire escape. It is a block building with a few rows of bricks up top. |
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An overall view yesterday. |
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There are a lot of detail options that one can add. |
Sunday, 2 February 2025
ITLA at Springfield 2025
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RMC editor Otto stopped by the ITLA booth and took this photo of me. I was working on the back alley test build kit. From the sign up sheet the kit might do well. |
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Steve shows some of the painting techniques he uses on his builds. |
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Nick manning the sales area. |
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This was a huge display with lots for modelers to look at. |
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Sunday morning getting ready for the day. |
Saturday, 1 February 2025
CN 1233
By Keith MacCauley
Some additional background on yours truly. I grew up in the hamlet of Hannon. Hannon, while not a locality ever identified on any map, is situated above the escarpment on Hamilton Mountain (as referred to by ‘Hamiltonians’). A new housing development has somewhat put Hannon ‘on the map’, so to speak.
What became known as Canadian National’s Hagersville subdivision bisected Hannon south westerly, less than a mile from my parent’s house on Glover road. If the wind was in the right direction, I could distinguish the twelve cylinder 567 chant in a SW1200RS from the sixteen cylinder 567 drum of a GP9. The branchline was the former Hamilton and Northwestern Railway (H&NW) right of way linking Hamilton with the Lake Erie community of Port Dover. Descending the escarpment, the line crossed over the former T, H & B main line in the lower city swinging on to Ferguson Avenue to do some street running prior to entering Stuart Street yard on the Hamilton waterfront. Fate of the branchline? From daily except weekend service (Extra’s occasionally on Saturday’s), the former H&NW line experienced increasingly diminished usage into the early 1990’s and would eventually be lifted in 1993. Service south from Hamilton would be suspended in the late 1980’s following the lateral displacement of the Stone Church road overpass (in both directions!) by transport truck collision. Today, portions of the ROW between Hamilton and Caledonia remain as the ‘STONE CHURCH ROAD RAIL TRAIL’, to the north, and the ‘CHIPPEWA TRAIL’ to the south.
The attached photo (taken by my younger sister) is among my all-time favourite. Unfortunately, I did not record the date; most likely 1976. I recall that we rode our bikes to the adjacent St. George’s cemetery. My sister had my parent’s Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, while I manned a Radio Shack (remember them?) CTR cassette tape recorder. The cassette tape? Long gone. So too, SW1200RS CN1233; built 1956, retired 1990. She is shown delivering a CP bulkhead flatcar load of lumber to Penn Lumber. To access the Penn Lumber siding CN 1233 and a sister would have detached from their consist and used the RYMAL siding as a run around. Sobering to realize that this took place almost half a century ago!
Friday, 31 January 2025
New Haven Station
Thursday, 30 January 2025
Throwback Thursday - Roof Details
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DUPX 38318 was displaying an unusual profile at Belleville, Ontario on July 18, 1995. |
I have always appreciated opportunities to take down-on photographs of railway equipment. Shooting from overpasses or embankments adjacent to the right of way allows us to document roof details and study weathering effects and differences in colouration. Today’s photo illustrates a less typical way to go about recording roof details - but it still gets the job done!
Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Switching Marmora
It's the 1950's and the conductor stays behind aboard the True Line Trains CNR caboose which is parked out front of the Marmora station while the crew runs a boxcar up the branch into town. |
Monday, 27 January 2025
Marmora
An overall look at the roof prior to me building the order board. I used three tones of acrylic gray's then overcoated with PanPastels. It makes the roof much more interesting than it once was. |
A couple more views of Marmora station model as work continued on it before Christmas...George Dutka
Sunday, 26 January 2025
At the Springfield Show
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At the Bethlehem booth the 3-D printed train was operating. |
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Gator Dave out front of his Gatorfoam booth. He has a great product for using as a base. Dave had an order for both Don and I. |
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Dave sold all his built structures except for this one which he scratch-built of a round barn structure near Morrisville, Vt. |
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The gang at the CVRHS booth including long time members Harvey Allen who is now in his 90's and Glen Annis. |
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I was told the B&M milk car 1908 at North Walpole NH is going to be moved to Troy, NH once funding is in place. |
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A Mount Blue Modeling Co. offering. |
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Stopped by Onondaga booth but left saying hello till tomorrow as there was a lot of people there. |
Saturday, 25 January 2025
The Day Before Springfield Show
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It appears the Ft. Erie, Ontario station will be offered as a model shortly. |
I spent some of yesterday railfanning, checking out how the setup was going at the train show and out to dinner at the Outback in Springfield West with the gang...George Dutka
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Lots of layouts being assembled. |
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Scenic Express. Lot of work to assemble their display. |
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Rapido booth is coming together well mid day. |
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The gang at the Outback. |
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Thst's Ian Stronach next to me. |
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Oh that is Robin on the right all the way over from England. At the end of the night he made a toast to the King. |