Odds and Ends

With the Brockville section coming along I thought I'd let you know a bit more about it. This section took three years to build. The original plan was to utilize the Grand Trunk line as there was already a spur line running up to Lyn pit. GTR said no so the building of two trestles, bridge etc. Ironically when the line opened in 1885, as all this work wasn't complete, they began by using this same line. Three years later the line was fully open. I hope it doesn't take me as long as we are hoping to host an open house in Sept.

I read recently (although the author had service beginning in 1888) that ten years later the Company was in such dire financial straits that passengers were being carried in box cars with a bench running the length of the car. The passenger cars having been sold off. I hope they put a stove in.

By our era there must have been an infusion of cash as they bought two brand new loco's as well running passenger cars again.

I've begun working on the Brockville station building and will have some pics soon. Under the bridge, where the GTR lines are, one will be a programming track and the other will be wired for DC as a test track. Then a friend suggested making the whole layout DC capable. So here is a wiring diagram to do that. The wye will need to be isolated to protect the reversing module (and the wye in Westport will need to be retrofit).

Even though the plan says DPST I will use all DPDT's as I have them plus they will look neater if they are all the same. As well they will give an added layer of off to prevent accidentally switching on.

I met Railway Bob this summer at the Ottawa Model Rail Expo, and got to thank him for doing a lot of my research for me. I went to a few other shows as well, the largest in Syracuse NY at the NY state fairgrounds and will post some pics from them soon.

Cheers for now.

You don't know what you don't know

We have a student at work putting in his steam time, and I was showing him the blog pics and realised how much is missing.

Ploughing the field in Westport. The plough and man still need painting. Woodland Scenics kit. I was at a show in Massena NY the other week and I saw one field that was corrugated card with dirt cover. Our earth is previously enjoyed tea bags (the bag itself makes great tarpaulins).

You have probably noticed there is a dearth of signage. Very white I know, nor is it actually glued on yet as I'm still undecided on whether I like this or no. The flat is left over parts from the Delta mill kit. with some Tichy windows.

A couple of shots of Forfar Dairies. I have signs made up for this too. The work printer is black and white and my printer doesn't speak Linux, hence the current lack. the windmill is another WS kit, and I made the saw from brass wire and card and sawbuck behind the boiler room. The log is Christmas tree.

It's hard to see in the pic but Luigi's restaurant has a veggie garden by the kitchen door, picket fence around the Doctors house with his car in the road. In the center pic is Steve's sense of humour. The sign by the hitching rail says 'Parking limit one hour'

Delta has come along too, with roads and telephone poles.

Here is the beginning of a snow shed around where Soperton will be with bark rocks.

.
And finally, Athens as it stands now.

Cheers

A New Loco

I just received a new lokie, which has been given #65. I need one more to complete the roster. Like the others it's a Spectrum. The big difference from the other two is the shape of the steam dome. This model comes with two different domes, so the first job will be to disassemble it and install the right one. It does run very smoothly, and those finicky front pilots stay on the tracks, Yay.

Here it is crossing the bridge into Athens by Lake Eloida.

This is as far as we have power, to the edge of the fill. The bridge is going to be painted and weathered before it gets finally placed.

This ones a better pic of the fill than the loco.  The fill has a foam core and the stone is added in layers to make sure it all glues down. the stone is from the 30kg bag of limestone screenings ($7.00) that I've not even used half of for the ballast. This is what remains after the ballast is sieved out.

This is the fill in 1951 covered in grass now, these days you could easily miss it for the trees, although the dog knows the way.

That pic is from Canada Science & Technology Museum. http://www.images.technomuses.ca/  Endless hours of pics.

Lyn to Brockville

This is the section with the trestle , bridge over the GTR, rock fill and cut through the St Lawrence escarpment.

Looking down into the Brockville yard.

Not much of a post.

A Bit More Delta

With Forfar looking a lot better it was time to get round the corner.

Most of the houses in Delta are brick, so I downloaded some brick sheets from www.paperbrick.co.uk to build some card houses. The card had been a ginger ale carton and needed bracing and for that I cut down some tongue depressors. The holes for the doors and windows were cut out with a sharp #11 blade. The doors and windows are from Tichy Train Group. The house with the yellow windows has a temporary roof from an old piece of Plasticville. The other roof is shingle from Tichy. The clapboard siding on the addition is 3/16 strips of white card and stuck on with double sided carpet tape.

 The grey road is sanded grout and is the same material that we used in Forfar. After it is sprinkled on it is wetted down with wet water. I've found that a few thin layers gives a better finish once it's been painted.

Well. that's it for now. Next I'll be on the other side of the mill, as the mill is in the center of the village.

Cheap, Cheap

Here's a money saving tip. All the logs on this flatcar are trimmed off an old Christmas tree. This past Christmas's tree is still buried under the snow losing it's needles, but it will get the same treatment. They can also be used for longer logs. Maybe I'll try to make a log cabin one day.

Forfar Dairies Kitbash

Lately I've been working on Forfar Dairies, which at the time was a mile and a half north of the village. That building was destroyed in a fire and rebuilt in the village.

I started with a Bachmann lighted freight station. The chimney stack is just a cardboard tube covered with printed brick from paperbrick.co.uk. The boiler room is a part of another free download of a false front store, the porch roof is part of the same store. The roof vents are pen tip protectors from chart recorders (the old Bailey panels). I then added Tichy Trains milk station, which is 48 scale inches above track level. This meant scratchbuilding a lower platform and ramp. The building cupola is actually a mistake from Delta mill. That building came with a separate powerhouse (with internal detail, but no windows to see it), and the cupola had two different gable ends. I accidently used the wrong pitch. It seems to go quite well here though. Being a boiler man by trade I realized that either they were burning natural gas or had a cold furnace, so I made a little sawbuck and saw with all sorts of odd scraps of wood, twigs, previously enjoyed Xmas tree, shavings and off cuts.

A few more pics

 Westport and the extension of the wye. The red warehouse flat in the background is some of the spare parts from the Delta mill. There are only the four spare windows though. Not a problem as Tichy makes windows just that size.

 This N scale church is all thats left of Crosby and Newboro. The rocks are the bark mentioned earlier. I don't think I said but after all my efforts into making these, my buddy just gave a very light spray with the grey primer and got the same result. They look quite good I think.

 Here's the farmhouse just out of Westport. The ploughed field is dry tea leaves (previously enjoyed).

One last pic of the coal dock.

Currently I'm working on the Athens section and have a control panel made and the beginning of Lyn.

More on that later.

Cheers

Delta and the mill

 Nice little village is Delta. It took its name from the shape of Lower Beverley Lake which is like the Greek letter. First the long view.

 And the mill building, which is interesting in its own right. This is a RDA kit Easton mill. I really didn't like the loading dock that came with it, so made my own. It was quite a build. Forget using a sharp #11 blade to cut from the sprue, a machete worked better. The wall sections had to be sanded down so the edges were a 90 before they could be glued together (the instructions showed a shiplap joint, but they weren't molded that way), It wasn't all bad though. The walls and roof are thick enough that they won't need any liner to prevent light coming through, and the windows were separate pieces to make painting easier. Also it came with spare wall pieces, which are going to get used as a flat in Westport.

The real mill was the most modern building of its kind in Upper Canada when it was first built in 1812. It was fully automated from day one, and was a two man operation. One Lackey, and one Boss to rake in the Coin. By our era the wheel had been replaced by a pair of turbines and the mill was converted to electrical power. There was sufficient to supply all 12 houses in Delta with a light bulb, but if your wanted to pay double you could have two bulbs. The village of Lyn, by comparison, didn't get electricity until 1927. There is a story that the Owner was walking through the village one evening and saw one house brightly lit and knowing they only paid for one light went to see what was going on. He found they had creatively used strategically positioned mirrors, so he charged them as though they had two lights anyway.

Some pics of Forfar

 At last I seem to have the pic situation under control. So, finally an update. It's starting to look more like a town. I've started a veggie garden at the side of Luigi's and a stock pen for the farmers market. Forfar Dairies was a mile and a half north of town then. So far nothing has signage, which is going to change soon.