Modeling an Abandoned Diamond

The CP -CSXT diamond is removed with the CP line running through at Chatham, Ont. This is a great way to model a diamond area with a abandoned line. Luc Sabourin photo.

Following last Mondays mini-RPM Luc Sabourin contacted us with a bit of a follow up regarding the layout he has planned and the diamond area. Luc had a great idea how to model it. Here is Luc's comments...George Dutka

"Originally, my intent was to model a diamond, with an interchange with the Pan Am/Guilford, on my layout but as I discussed with you earlier this week at our mini-RPM meet, I decided not to actually physically place one due to a number of reasons.  

In it's place will be something similar to what has happened to the CP-CSXT diamond in Chatham, Ontario.  The attached photo was taken this past October where CP has taken the old diamond out.  My plan is to do something very similar but to have the Pan Am line be abandon (with tall weeds covering the old tracks taking over the right of way) past the interchange tracks and have the approach signals to the diamond on the BRAR still standing but inoperable and the target heads be turned 90 degrees away.  I thought it would be an interesting look to have the old Guilford one, facing the interchange track, still operating as a constant red as you would be able to see that signal standing on the other side of the layout.

Also, a lots has changed in Chatham the past few years where CP has taken out almost all the yard tracks except for 2 yard tracks widely spaced.  And the local is now out of London where there use to be a set of switchers based here."

Luc's track plan for his new contemporary layout.

The CP yard Chatham with much of the trackage removed. Modeling a contemporary era this is one of the realities. Luc Sabourin photo.

AK Rolling Stock Weathering Kit

The interior and a bit of the exterior received these products. I began by putting a good dose of railroad wash in the joints between the walls and floors, turning the model upside down and letting it dry. The wash ran up the walls to a point which became the areas that the rust spots are added and streaked down. On the floor dark steel and dark rust pigments are applied. I also scribe in welding joints which are coated with Vallejo fuel gloss coat which make the areas look wet like leftover rain water.

I recently picked up this AK three pack weathering set for rolling stock. It includes a railroad wash and two powders or pigments, dark steel and dark rust. I have tried them on two different projects and really like how they work...George Dutka

I normally paint my trucks with cast iron gray from Princess Auto. This time I just used these pigments, the dark steel on the side-frames then dusted with dark rust. It looked really good. The dark steel gave the same appearance as the spray did and in less time. I decided to try these products on the under-frame with work out well also.

My current build, another FOS kit of the month offering has two steel doors. I decided to try the AK products on the laser cut wood. I began with a coat of railroad wash followed by a light coat of dark steel mainly in the center areas of the doors. On the edges I used dark rust. It was very simple to do and turned out great.

A closeup of the finished steel door which took little extra effort.

CN 10650

London, Ont. April 1991.

I found this ex CN express reefer at the reclamation yard in London, Ont. during 1991. It was a surprise that it still was wearing the green black and gold scheme. I thought this could have been a good candidate to be saved and displayed in a railroad equipment collection, but no it was cut up...George Dutka 

I guess I got up top for a rooftop photo. One can also see what was in the reclamation yard that day.

Bellows Crossing Photos

Here are a few more Bellows Crossing photos I took this year. As mentioned the scene will be changing quite a bit...enjoy...George Dutka

Throwback Thursday - Cominco

NAHX 455605 was in the employ of Cominco Limited at the time this photo was taken on October 04, 1997 in London, Ontario.

By Peter Mumby

Canadian Pacific Railway got into the mining business in southern British Columbia in 1906 when it set up the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited as a subsidiary.  Several decades later the company started producing chemical fertilizers as a side line as a way to make use of sulphur dioxide which was emitted by smelting processes.  The company's official name was changed to Cominco in 1968, and then CP gave up its ownership stake in 1986.  Seeing this car in a CP yard in 1997 provided a nice little reminder of when Canadian Pacific was a highly diversified company. 

Wordless Wednesday No. 399

 

Peter Mumby photo 

Another Visit to Sarnia - A Mini RPM?

Our group of four included Luc on the left then Don and Jim on the right. I have a shelf in my PT Cruiser which we used as our display area.

Yesterday I met up with Don Janes so we could exchange items. I called Jim Sloan (his computer is down) and e-mailed Peter Mumby, Brian Smith and Luc Sabourin to join us. Jim and Luc attended, but Peter and Brian could not make it. I became a mailman delivering Brian's model to Jim.

We all had a nice chat, watched three trains go by and set up displays one at a time on my PT Cruiser trunk table. All four of us brought something to show and tell...George Dutka

I forgot to take photos of my models brought along and Don's, other than the underside of this completed Speedwitch model. Don says it will be painted later in the day.

Don points out his two models...the other is a CV passenger car.

Luc brought along 4 of his really nice look boxcars. I brought along my building flat scene as seen in the background.

Luc helped with the design of the decal that has been applied to his Railbox car.

Luc also showed us this really neat application of thin panels that have been buckled from behind to show wear. This custom work is done by someone Luc has in the US do some work for him. The graffiti on his models are all done by hand. He noted one of the finest graffiti jobs is done by a dentist in his off time to work on keeping his hands steady....I guess a gym workout for ones hands.

Jim setup his models for display but we all ran away to get a shot of CN 397 heading to the tunnel. Sorry Jim we did come back.

Don and Luc discuss things as the tail end rolls by.

Jim Sloan's models are gathering dust as the train rolls by.

Jim has completed two Exact Rail models from Rock Island boxcars to second hand GTW purchases. THey are really nice looking models. A third boxcar will be completed shortly.

Snapshot - November 2020

SOO on the CP shop track on April 3, 2020.

A look back to the Spring of this year when a SOO unit was a visitor in the London, Ontario area for a week or two making for some interesting views...George Dutka      

SOO 4410

CNR Express Train

Along the WRD

 Looks like an short express train is on its way along the WRD. The geep is a Proto model with extra details, the caboose is True Line Trains and the express cars are Juneco wooden kits I built back in the 1980's. I will be doing a post shortly on these and the Sylvan express reefer kit...George Dutka

Canadian Equipment - Don Chalmers Collection

CP service car at Sault Ste Marie Aug 5, 1969. Note the truss rod and kc brakes.

Some more vintage photos from the Dave Chalmers collection...more to follow...George Dutka

CP script lettered International of Maine Division in London 11-84. Running boards are gone with some data patching and I assume the ladders are shortened on the other side.

Colbourg, Ont. Feb 3, 1989 Don McQueen photo Don Chalmers collection.

Adding Goldenrod to One's Layout

The two seasons of goldenrod is seen here. The yellow tops are seen through September in my area with a mix of both in October.

One modeling detail I like to add to a fall scene is goldenrod which is different for the early fall and late fall stages. I like to mix the two. One can add a lot of this as in the real world but I have just adding a hint of these so far. I think goldenrod make a difference to my scenes...George Dutka  

I normally add one to three in locations near the front edge of the layout our around structures. Normally I plant one of each together. This scene could use at least another three weeds. This detail goes fast so two more packages have been ordered.

Throwback Thursday - The Golden Rodent

CP 8246 was taking the day off on December 25, 1998.  It was resting on the service track at Quebec Street Yard in London, Ontario.

By Peter Mumby.

The first encounter I recall with a CP unit painted in the candy apple red and having the gold beaver and shield on the long hood occurred on May 23, 1998.  SD40-2 number 5698 had been freshly repainted and was displaying the new logo to best advantage.  Later in the year delivery of the 9100-series SD90MACs commenced, and they arrived in this scheme.  AC4400CW diesels delivered from GE in 2003 and 2004 as 9700s and 9800s were also decorated with the beaver shield.  At that point the gold logo seemed to fall out of favour.  ES44AC deliveries from 2005 through 2012 still featured the block "Canadian Pacific" on the locomotive's flank, but the beaver shield was omitted.  Lately, however, the "golden rodent" seems to have made a comeback, as the red SD70ACU units in the 7000 series are once again displaying the beaver and shield.  This second generation shield seems to feature slightly different colouration.  It uses a fairly uniform shade of gold, whereas the earlier one displayed some copper-coloured elements.

One of my favourite variations on this scheme is the one illustrated in today's photo with a small size shield appearing on the cab side.  This was applied to a number of the smaller four axle units in the 1500, 1600, and 8200 number series.  I was able to find 14 examples in my photo collection, so I don't believe this variant was particularly widespread.  Three of the units I found, namely 1507, 1569, and 1588, also featured the earlier RCMP Musical Ride emblem along with the beaver.  It was interesting to note that, by the time I photographed the 8246 again in 2008, the beaver shield had been removed from the cab side. 

Wordless Wednesday No. 398

 

Don Janes model and photo 

B&M N Scale

The creamery is a Branchline model wooden laser kit.

This is one of the models I built to fit into my N scale module. The B&M milk car is a ready to roll model that got some additional weathering...George Dutka    

The worker is handling milk cans at the B&M steel milk car. Steel milk cars are normally made for bulk loading but this milk cars is not a bulk car. It can handle cans but is normally used for loading boxed bottled milk in crates at the Bellows Falls Co-Op Creamery. It is a 1950's milk car build.

Steel Beam Flat Car Load

A CV switcher is about to spot a load of I beams for unloading

An Easy One Afternoon Project....by Don Janes

     I was going through my stash of freight cars that are stored under my layout and found a Walthers Pennsylvania 50  foot bulkhead flatcar I had forgotten I had.  I decided to pull it out and update it with a few extra details.  The car was already lightly weathered so I added Cal Scale air hoses, Tangent cut levers and new Rapido 33" wheels.  These wheels are great and roll exceptionally well.   

The finished Bulkhead flat car before the load was added.

     While I was at it I thought it might be fun to add a load to the car. About a year ago I bought a large box of  Evergreen assorted styrene shapes from a friend of George's who was taking care of an estate sale so I  rummaged through it looking for something suitable for a load.  I found several packages of 1/4" "I" Beams so decided to go with that.

Styrene "I" beams used for the flat car load

  I started by cutting the styrene "I" beams into 40ft lengths.  Each piece yielded two 40' beams and a shorter leftover piece.  I cut a total of ten 40' beams and five shorter ones.  I used a dark gray primer to paint each beam before assembling the load. Going from my memory of my working days at CN and from photos for reference, I laid out the load by gluing the bottom row of three beams to scale 6" x 6" wooden strips.  I also used a 6 x 6 vertically to space each beam.  After the beams dried I added a second row.  Once they dried I cut thin strips of black electrical tape to represent metal band iron and wrapped it around two layers of beams, then added the third layer and added more banding.. The top row consisted of one long beam in the middle and four of the shorter pieces on the outside at each end. More banding was then added.  Although I would have liked the load to be removable I decided to glue it to the deck so I could add some banding through the stake pockets and over the top of the load to help secure it in place.  For this strapping I used some black " Easy Line", an elastic material that is often used for telegraph and hydro lines and is sold by Berkshire Junction Railroad Supplies. I used the heavier size.  The line was tied on one stake pocket, stretched over the load and tied off on the other side of the car.  I think it adds a nice touch to the car.

 

The completed load with the 6x6 spacers and band iron strapping

This view is looking at the top of the load

This is a view of the bottom of the load showing the horizontal and vertical bracing.

Another view of the completed load.

     Before I attached the load to the flat car deck I decided to add a bit of rust to the beams.  I didn't want to overdue it but give the impression it had been exposed to the elements for a while.  To do this I used AK Rust Streaks and lightly dabbed a little bit here and there just to give it a bit of texture and interest.

Here is the finished car with the load.  I think the rust gives it a little extra detail to draw your eye to the load. 

     I am really happy with the final look of this car.  I think I will go through my freight car fleet and add a few more interesting loads to some of my open top cars. I was an easy one afternoon project which was a lot of fun to do.

Coarse PanPastel Coal

PanPastel coarse coal is used on the tarpaper platform roofing. Geoff Southwood photo.

I posted about PanPastel coal a few weeks back and received the following e-mail from Geoff Southwood. Peter and I also took in the 2016 Expo in Danvers, Ma. sitting in on some of the same clinics that Geoff attended...George Dutka

"Further to your posting today, I have found that the coarse black Pan Pastel is also useful to give some texture to tarpaper or asphalt roofs.  Those on these concave platform canopies are applied over actual small pieces of real tar paper.  The seams are using Enamel Accents dimensional faux enamel as recommended by one of the clinicians at the 2016 Fine Scale EXPO in Danvers MA.  For the centre of the concave canopies I used a silver Van Gogh Oil Pastel crayon to simulate the gutter and further hide the seam."