Adding Wood Chip Gondolas to the Roster

New Additions to the Layout

Woodchips are generated by lumber mills and separate purpose built woodchip mills in many areas of the U.S. and Canada. Most are used in paper or cardboard manufacture. While I have a paper mill on my layout, I chose not to model the wood chip portion due o space constraints.  Currently wood chips are received at the mill in the Yard and the loads removed after a set number of days before being returned to the yard as empty's.  Wood chips are received from either an off-site source, or from the Muskoka saw mill (on the layout).  As I discussed in another blog entry, I currently have four wood chip car resin kits manufactured by Alpine Railway Shops of Kettleby, Ontario, which were marketed as being representative of rolling stock used by CN and BCR for saw mills and paper mills. I have several additional car kits which are modeled after the BNSF cars to also handle chips.

A common variation of CP’s woodchip gondolas rebuilt from a 52′ gondola with extended sides.  Bill Grandin photo.

I recently found myself with three 52' gondola kits which I have tried to sell at several railroad shows, but unfortunately no takers. So rather then seeing them sit for months until the next show, I decided to try my hand at kitbashing these kits to resemble a photo I had seen of a CP rebuilt gondola that was placed into wood chip service. These would become lettered in the ONR, although to the best of my knowledge the ONR never had any cars that even approached this configuration.

From what I have been able to research, in the 1970's, CP Rail began to convert some randomly selected old boxcars to woodchip cars; this was done through the early 1980s.  These cars were made by cutting away the old roof and adding an extension. Later cars did not receive the extensions to the sides.  They also took an unknown number of 52' gondolas and extended the sides.

The story for my cars is that CP rebuilt these wood chip gondolas with extended sides from a standard gondola.  After some years of use in the north, CP parked them on a siding for lack of use.  The ONR then purchased them and repainted them to a woodchip only service marks that you see.

Proto 2000 Gondolas getting ready for conversion

Adding bracing for wall extensions. I didn't like the looks of this so the other two cars were done by adding bar stock

No matter how carefully you cut, there are always gaps. Next step some sanding followed by painting

Finished product in chevron scheme

Finished gon in the progressive paint scheme and added Wood Chip Service Only. Note I carried all of the ribs forward on this car after realizing that the gon looked odd with only alternating ribs. Still need to make a load for this unit

ONR Convention - Warm up Trip to White River

With the ONRHT&S convention scheduled for Kirkland Lake this year, I had originally planned for a few days to railfan my way up to the convention as well as to ride VIA's train 185/186, with its two Budd cars that travel from Sudbury to White River.  I have photographed this train several times over the years, but never have been able to ride it.  Bram Bailey and I had decided to jointly make our way to the convention this year, and it didn't take much for me to convince Bram that we should make this side trip to White River.  Somewhere along the planning, we mentioned our plans to Lloyd Leonard and soon we had three ONRHT&S members making the trip.  So the Monday before the convention, Bram and I headed towards Ontario from Ohio.  With tickets purchased long before the ride, Bram picked me up at 0100 (yes that's 0100 dark) to begin our trek east and northward into Ontario and our destination for the day being Sudbury.  As many of you know, Bram lives on the far west side of Cleveland while I live on the far east side.  In a few hours we found ourselves talking to the officer at the Peace Bridge about where we were headed and what we were planning to do. I can only imagine what he thought, maybe something like what kind of folks to I get crossing so early in the morning and going to ride a train?  After passing into Ft. Erie, it was onwards to beat the Toronto traffic and get northward of all of the commuters. A quick stop at Tim Horton's and we were ready to begin our day railfanning around Perry Sound before ultimately landing in Sudbury.  A few trains were caught south of Sudbury, as well as exploring some of the old CP trackage before we decided to head north.  Of course after setting our departure time from Perry Sound after sitting there hoping to catch a shot of a train coming across the CP trestle that spans the river, our railfanning pal Murphy's Law came along and sent a NB CN train while both our camera's were packed and we were ready to leave.

Tuesday morning we met Lloyd at the Sudbury station, and after a small delay, our train arrived and we boarded with about a total of close to a dozen passengers.  As most of you may know, the VIA train shuttles back and forth between Sudbury and White River three trips each week.  The train provides flag stop service to many remote locations only accessible by rail on the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline.  The journey is some 300 miles in length and averages about 10 hours travel time as it treks through Ontario.  The typical equipment are Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDCs), using an RDC-2 (6219) and RDC-4 (6250).  Lloyd mentioned that he had ridden the train when an extra RDC had been included.  While it’s a long journey, there were several stops at established stations such Chapleau as well as the opportunity to photograph some meets with CP Rail freight trains.  I also used the time to take some photos of the landscape, in hopes that I could add some of that Ontario flavor to my home layout. 

Brief stop at Chapleau

One word of advice for the trip is make sure that you make motel reservations prior to the trip and bring along enough munchies for a two-day trip. While White River has a grocery store, selections were a little limited, although a sufficient stash of crackers and peanut butter was available to make the author happy, especially for the return trip. 

So after our return to Sudbury Wednesday afternoon (we actually arrived ahead of schedule), it was on to Englehart for the evening and meeting fellow convention attendees Thursday evening. 

Upgrading the Lighting

For several months I've been following the various discussions on the MRH website about new ways to light a layout.  So let's take a step back and say that the KLR was originally designed using a combination of track and rope lighting.  Track lighting to cover the upper level (back when the rail way was a two-level adventure) and rope lighting for the lower level.  Track lighting certainly lights up the layout, however, the initial costs were high, as I had to run one track over the center of each module and most modules required 1-2 lamps per section, which is fairly pricey when the average lighting can runs about $10 USD.  Now add on the costs for special adapters to turn the tracks 90 degrees, add extensions, etc. and the system quickly becomes pricey.  Add to it that the cost of bulbs (which burn out fairly quickly, especially when you forget to turn the master switch off and everyone coming to the basement is turning the entire system on).

When I added the paper mill and Muskoka Lumber island, I used regular florescent lighting from a system that I had salvaged from a job site long ago.  Re-purposed yes but again not the best system as tubes tended to wiggle free and lose proper contact with traffic on the floor above, making it always questionable whether light would be present when you flipped that switch.

The last lighting used was the "rope" lighting found prominently in Christmas displays.  A bargain when bought on sale after the holidays, but mounting has its own challenges and I never quite liked the yellow-ness of the lighting in spite of them being white ropes.  So this was the first lighting to be removed.

On my layout, I've figured that I have around 100 linear feet to light. At 1 track light can per each 36", that meant that a minimum of 8 lights on my longest section.  All told, I think that I've bought 20 some cans of varying sizes.  Over the years I've switched from small 60-watt incandescent bulbs to 25 watt or lower LED bulbs.  I've also tried a few halogen bulbs, however they're pricey and really not well suited for this task.  

Enter my new favorite, the LED strip light. Weighing in at practically nothing and looking more like a strip of tiny bumps, the LED light strip comes conveniently packaged in a 10 meter rolled "tape" strip, set on a plastic spool.  Of course a transformer was also needed to take the 110 volt power to what is usable for the strip.  One strip operates on about 12 volts DC at around 1 amp or so of power, produces no heat to speak of and costs only $20 bucks (or LESS) a roll! And if that weren't enough, it even comes with a nice bit of self-adhesive on the back side so you can just peel-n-stick it practically anywhere you want it.  All I had to add was a strip of cabinetry molding to allow the lights to be slightly pointed downward and the job was complete.  Though truthfully the sticky tape part isn't really that good and you'll probably want to make other arrangements to hang it. For my layout I went back to the old tried and true hot glue gun and laid a small bead of glue about every 12 inches.

LED lighting installed on the back side of drop down valance over the island modules. Skyline in background is another set of modules along the wall

I'd say the project took me all of a few hours to install around my island section of modules and I'm very pleased with the results.  Definitely the next materials I will use when I re-wire the modules when we move to a new location.

ONR Convention - 2018 @ Kirtland Lake - Saturday

Day 2 of the ONRHT&S convention had us reviewing the morning lineup and trying to determine which trains and locations we could photograph.  Our first train of the day was the southbound train from Englehart to North Bay.  ONR SD75I #2105 was leading a newly repainted SD40-2 #1734.  While some of the group decided to shoot this train at Englehart, Bram Bailey, Mike Robin and I opted to head south to Earlton, where we had previously seen some piles of hay bales.

Southbound train passing by Mini Farm Rd crossing at Earlton. Photo by Ken Stroebel

We chased this train southward, however, he got ahead of us and we watched him beat us to the Hwy 11 crossing at New Liskeard and broke off the chase.

Pacing shot through the farmers fields around Earlton. Photo by Ken Stroebel

We found the ditcher still working at New Liskeard after a brief lunch break at Gillies, however, the sun was mostly behind the clouds and the ditcher would soon be headed back north.

Work train at the New Liskeard station siding. Photo by Ken Stroebel

So it was back to Englehart as we tried to remain one step ahead of the northbound work train.

Work train approximately 1/2 mile east of the Englehart River bridge. Photo by Courtland Saunders

Northbound Work 1733 is captured crossing the Englehart River. Photo by Mike Robin.

ONR 1733 and 1735 at Englehart. Photo by Terry Shwetz.

Catching the work train was our last bit of railfanning for the day, as attendees had an appointment to tour the Museum of Northern History in Kirkland Lake. Located in the former chateau home of successful mine owner Sir Harry Oakes, this museum focuses on Northeastern Ontario including the Kirkland Lake area.  The site’s collection dates from 1907 to the present and includes many objects related to the home as well as mining industry and documents from the area.

Chateau of Sir Harry Oakes

Various mineral and rock specimens; note large scale on top of cabinet

Our evening presentations included a review of mining and smelting operations for Kidd Creek, Rouyn-Noranda, and Sudbury, as well as an overall review and discussion of the geology of the area and how the various ore deposits came to be.  Bill Woods then taught us how to make conifer trees using wire, hemp sisal, spray paint and ground foam.

ONR Convention - 2018 @ Kirtland Lake - Friday

This years convention was held in Kirkland Lake, with accommodations provided by the Super 8 motel.  Our thanks to Peter Ross for doing all of the planning and up front work to secure locations. Special thanks to Gerald Harper for helping to arrange our Friday morning trip to the Glencore Horne copper smelter located in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec.  The following set of blog entries recounts my impressions as well as the fun we had once again getting together to share our interest in the Ontario Northland railway.  I will try to post some thoughts and photos to summarize the daily activities. 

We begin our day after a great meal on Thursday evening at Vienna's Bar & Grill. Somewhere in the night the weather changed to rain and cooler temperatures.  A quick breakfast and we were off to Rouyn-Noranda and the Glencore Horne copper smelter.  According to our two tour guides, Glencore is one of the world's largest copper and precious metal producers, as well as North America’s biggest recycler of electronic components. 

Aerial view of smelting operations (Photo courtesy Horne website)

Copper casting (Photo courtesy Horne website)

Our tour started with an overview of the company and operations which take place at this site, as well a history and discussion of the geology of the area and previous copper deposits.  After suiting up in coveralls, safety glasses, steel toed shoes, dust respirator, gloves and ear protection, we got the chance to see the molten copper coming out of the furnace as well as seeing the copper cast.

Hey we look like miners....Check out all of that PPE on ONRHT&S members as we get ready to enter the smelter bldg

Boxcar spotted outside of smelter. Note reporting marks

Sulfuric acid plant

Switching gondolas

Our trip back included a stop at Cheminis, MP 32 of the where members of the ONRH&TS got a chance to photograph train 211 as it passed through on its way to Noranda.  

Cheminis MP 32. Photo by Mike Robin

Passing MP32 sign. Photo by Ken Stroebel

After returning to the Super 8, Bram Bailey gave an outstanding presentation of his new book, Trackside around Ontario’s Cottage Country, which will be available on January 5, 2019.  This book will showcase various ONR, CP, ACR and CN trains around the cottage country of northern/southern Ontario. Looks like another solid read from Bram and shouldn't be missed.

Woodchip Gondolas - Part 2

Building the Kit

The resin kits, manufactured by Alpine Railway Shops of Kettleby, Ontario, were marketed as being representative of rolling stock used by CN and BCR for saw mills and paper mills. The gons were to become lettered for the KLR and be used in shuttle service between the Muskoka Timber mill and the Spruce Falls Pulp & Paper mill complex.

I have to make the following disclaimer first off that I'm not a huge fan of resin kits, especially older kits. They seem to lack the lateral stability of their plastic sister kits, and usually seem to have their fair share of air bubbles at the surface as well as excessive flash along the sides. The other problem that I find troublesome is most long surfaces have a serious warp to them. So with that said, I began the build of the three gondolas I had bought years ago.  My first observation was that these looked to be an older resin kit based on the typed xeroxed instructions, and while you could say that there are directions, they are lacking in detail. A Google search of the company name yielded no results, except for a single eBay transaction for a car months ago, so no help there.  

So off to step number 1, which gave me my first puzzle.  The instructions were to use the polystyrene supplied, cut to the same dimensions as the under frame and set them aside. Which dimension...car length or width?  No picture either.  OK, this is going to be a challenge. I had to read ahead to instruction 29, which gave me the clue that this was to become a false floor covering the weight (not supplied).  Come now, did I really need to read the directions?

This lead me to my second discovery, which was not only was the kit missing any sort of weighting material, there actually were no details as to what pieces part were to be supplied.  So after opening each of the kits and finding a lack of consistency between all of the supplied materials, I was off to a good start building without all the parts and clear directions. This was definitely going to require some extra hardware from the excess parts and accumulation box. 

Multiple clamps and a spacer needed to keep the sides from warping and wandering as the CA dries

The sides went together relatively easily, although I found that a full length spacer was needed as the model dried to keep the sides in alignment. Some scrap cardboard cut to size did the trick.

After tackling the sides, it was time to turn my attention to the underside.  Relatively no problems there except for some missing parts.  Good thing I always keep extra parts from other kits.

OK car walls on, underside completed, now it was time to address the weight of the cars.  Spreading some glue on the interior floor, I used some buckshot as my weighting material. A quick check on my scale and it looks like the weighting along the length of the floor will be more than enough to have a compliant car.

Wheels and trucks are on next and the units are almost ready to go to the paint shop.  However, when I got to the point of where the ladders need to be added, I had to stop as I didn't like the ladders which were provided and need to do some catalog shopping to see if I can come up with a suitable substitution.  So they are now on my projects track and will be one of the first items to be addressed when building resumes in the fall. 

New Power for the Paper Mill

The long anticipated SW1200RS from Rapido has arrived and I immediately had to try it out at the paper mill.  All I can say is what a beautiful piece of model railroading engineering and manufacturing.  I purchased the unit with DCC sound, as the price difference isn't enough to go for a non-DCC unit, and DCC version includes sound.  For anyone who has followed the development of a suitable Canadian version of the SW1200, designated by the trailing letters RS, there has been on-going controversy for some time as both Rapido and True Line Trains announced intentions to build this model.  It was actually an interesting story as it developed, as Rapido announced their intentions and showed production samples, while TLT announced their version and showed a photo of an OMI model as their unit.  In any event, Rapido delivered the goods and TLT (as of a May 2017 web site posting) has not.  Knowing the quality of work that goes into a Rapido model, I spent my modeling $$$ and ordered CN 1341, with the idea that this would become my main power for switching at the paper mill, similar to use of the SW1200RS units at paper mills in Marathon and Iroquois Falls, Ontario. 

A little history for the SW1200RS, which comes from the Rapido website.  General Motors Diesel (GMD) delivered the first example of what would come to be known as the SW1200RS model to Canadian National in September 1955. As its dieselization progressed, CNR needed a compact, lightweight locomotive to replace steam power on branch lines and other over-the-road assignments (freight and passenger) not requiring a full-fledged mainline road switcher. General Motors’ 1,200-hp SW1200 switcher model, in production since January 1954, combined the right size and muscle, but needed modifications for use out on the road.

First impressions out of the box...Rapido just continues to produce detailed, quality products which get better each model produced.  Starting off it is very well packaged and the model rides snugly in its plastic cocoon.  A detailed instruction manual (more on that to come) is included and one of the first things you see after opening the box.  Sound is very good and matches what I have seen with my RDC unit.  Engine noises are very throaty and nice chugging sound on acceleration.  Lots and lots of detail included on the model.  My only initial complaint after running it for about 30 minutes is a slight jerky movement at very slow speeds although it's getting better with more running.  My other concern is that the motor seems to have a slight whiny sound when the sound is off and you can hear the engine running alone.  Hopefully both of these problems will continue to work themselves out of the unit.  

The instruction manual is a typical Rapido manual.  Too much frivolity and joking for my tastes.  I understand that maybe a couple of humorous lines of text breaks up the monotony of a technical manual but let's focus on tech issues and specifics to the loco rather than more attempts at humor.  For example I searched and could not find if there is anyway to turn off the side lights on the trucks but I did find the oblique reference to Quantum Physics while dancing the Watusi.  Nice to know but my question remains unanswered.  Maybe a little more thought given to some tech drawings such as showing the 21 pin socket and less jokes.

I am quite please with the unit after running it on the layout.  Now comes the hard part, how much weathering should be done to give it that proper industrial locomotive feel versus how it currently looks.  I choose to loosely model the 1341 using the 1305, which was used at the Abitibi-Consolidated mill in Iroquois Falls, Ontario.  Abitibi acquired the 1305 in January 1994 (ex CN 1305) and a photo taken in 2003 clearly shows that the CN noodle is long faded away and the CN red is heavily faded.  Sounds like a topic for another posting if I decide to weather the unit to this condition.  The last photograph I have of these unit was after it was repainted into the green/black scheme and was serving the Resolute Forest Products (last reported as DESX 1305) in Thorald. 

Industrial Infrastructure

One of the aspects that I have tried to cover everywhere on my layout is whether the scene is realistic and will it work.  For the latter point, what I mean is will supporting aspects be in place and actually fit correctly into a space.  Take for example, industries that use trucking as a means to deliver materials and take away finished goods. Assuming that the truck and trailer are somewhat correct for the modeled era (example not having a 53' trailer in a 1960's scene), is there actually enough space for the truck to pull in and back up to the loading dock.  I'm always amazed when I see the parking filled with trailers but no visible way to actually move the trailer.  Is there an access road for the trucks to leave the facility or are they apparently stranded since the only exit is over the rails and no crossing has been installed?

Another aspect that I think modelers tend to overlook is what utilities support the industry.  You can follow the same logic and ask do your commercial buildings and residential structures have sufficient utility support.  You may only need a transformer on a pole at a street corner, or you may need several small ground mounted transformers to power each building.  

For an industry, most require a large amount of power, often coming onto the property at multiple locations.  This may mean that they need one or more substations, as well as  multiple transformers as the power is stepped down sufficiently for a building or process to use.  For example, my paper mill has it's own power house, where electrical power is generated from a nearby river which runs along side the mill but is actually just at the edge of the paper plant module.  Since the power house also supplies power to the electrical grid and near by town Spruce River, an electrical substation is located adjacent and in a corner of the property before the electrical lines cross the rail and head away into the distance.  I also have several large transformer situated outside of several of the buildings, as well as electrical infrastructure on the top of several roofs.  In my mind, these little details make the scene "pop" with realism. 

Hearty Recommendation - Mike Rose Hobbies

I like to recommend companies and vendors who do an outstanding job in this hobby that we pursue.  So with that in mind, I want to discuss the excellent care given by Mike Rose Hobbies for DCC sound installation.  I recently sold off some horsepower that I had not been using for years and had come to the conclusion that modifying these units was just not a project that had any priority.  So why not sell off those old units, and take some of the funds to pay for some DCC sound installation in other units?  

After some searching and review of vendors who provide this service, I opted to send the units to Mike Rose, as he offered what I considered a fair price and could complete the work in a reasonably short period of time.  Now I need to go back and say that I had previously met Mike years ago at a SIG which was organized by modeler Jim Six and held in northeast Ohio, and knew he was a terrific modeler.  I had corresponded with him at different times and his web site was very informative as to what would be done and the different potential costs. So I asked Mike for a quote to add sound to a Proto 2000 ONR unit which I knew would require some frame modifications and an older Atlas C-424.  

Mike is very professional and walked me through the process for decoder selection as well as how the speakers would be mounted.  After some back and forth discussions, which are really needed for both parties to understand exactly what is going to be done, I agreed on a price and shipped the units to his work shop.

During the install, Mike would send me a series of questions so that the installation would reflect how I wanted lights to be turned on and associated with the non-standard headlamps on the GP38-2.  When I say non-standard, the Proto 2000 units are built to replicate American power, with twin lamps on the nose and no lamps above the windows.  Unfortunately in my haste to get my engine converted and sent to Mike, I actually sent him the wrong unit, one that I had not removed the headlamps and replaced with a bell.  Mike immediately caught the mistake and at some point I will add the bell in the correct position to this unit. 

So if you need some DCC and custom sound work done, check out his web site and the work he has done for others.

Ltd Edition Rolling Stock

My current collection of rolling stock does not have much in the way of special club cars or limited edition cars.  I will state upfront that I don't have much interest in collecting specialty or club cars, rather, I like to have fairly prototypical cars that I can put directly into operation.  But I do have a soft spot for certain uniquely branded cars, especially if I can justify that they might be found in northern Ontario or northern US service.  And yes, I do even have one NMRA car that I purchased in a moment of weakness while attending my first NMRA National Convention (Toronto, 2003).  Come to think of it, I'm not sure I even assembled that car.

Several years ago I was searching on-line for rolling stock which might have been associated with paper mills in the northeast US or eastern Canada.  I was already familiar with the Spruce Falls Power  & Paper boxcar, and wondered if any other mills might have specialty cars.  In my search, I came across a fellow from the Eastern Maine Model Railroad club who was selling some special run cars which had been produced by their club.  While several of the cars produced as the Fraser Paper trailer and boxcar, none of those cars were available.  However, a 50 ft boxcar lettered for the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad caught my eye due to its unique name for a railroad. So a little research was in order after I received the two boxcars.

According to Bruce Cooper's website (A SURVIVING SHORTLINE CONTEMPORARY OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD: THE BELFAST & MOOSEHEAD LAKE RAILROAD), the railroad was located entirely within the boundaries of rural Waldo County, Maine, and the B&ML’s “last spike” was driven a mere sixteen months after the Pacific railroad's “Golden Spike” at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, on May 10, 1869.  While there was a whole lot more history to the B&ML, I thought the purchase of two boxcars would make a great addition to my CN, CP, ONR and other boxcars that were servicing the paper mill.

The club produced the car in only number, so my first task was to re-letter the two cars I purchased by adding another digit with the decals provided. After all, the prototype didn't actually have these cars so a little artistic license was not a problem.

Next step was off to the weathering station. With the exception of wheels and trucks, I have settled on a mixture of using oils and pan pastel chalks for my weathering efforts.  I still like to use spray paint or a small brush to apply a dark color to the wheels, bearing box, etc, and then build up the rust and dirt colors from there.

Once the wheels are done, it's time for the shell.  First step is a quick spray of dull coat to the entire car. Once this is dry, I begin to add pan pastels to the body, starting with the vertical ribs. Using a fine brush, a small amount of dark color such as black or brown is added to either side of the rib and then a wider brush is used to blend this is to the area between individual ribs.  Unfortunately no prototype photo to base the weathering efforts on, so I dug into my photo collection and found a general boxcar roof and used that as my guide.  Car 360 got a much heavier application of color than 361, mostly because I wanted to skip ahead to the sides.  361 will be revisited and the weathering effort intensified.

Weathering the roof on 360

Very small amount of roof weathering on 361

The sides will be done next using a combination of oil paints and panpastel chalks. I'll cover that in the next blog

Can you ever have enough (or too much) rolling stock / locos?

A recent purchase of several pieces of rolling stock from an estate sale got me thinking about how much rolling stock and/or engines do we really need for a layout, especially if you have a limited basement or layout space and have come to the realization that you're never going to build the mega-layout that you commonly see in publications.  I freely admit that I have a lot of "stuff."  Boxes worth neatly stacked and identified under the layout.  Some of it will ultimately be placed on the layout, while others seem to stay in their storage boxes, only to be brought out every few years and then placed back into storage. I open the box for some reason or another, but the "stuff" never stays on the layout.  That got me to thinking that maybe I need to sell off some of these pieces. 

If you have followed this blog, you'll remember that the KLR is a modular layout, point to point, which spans about a 12 ft by 23 ft area within my basement.  While that seems like a large size, it really isn’t when you try to model several large industries such as a paper mill or lumber mill. The other consideration is that I was really focused on operations and switching when I designed the layout, so long trains and runs are just not within scope of my layout.  That’s important to remember, since I don’t need a large number of engines, as there only a few daily trains which run on the layout and even fewer run throughs.

I don't consider myself a "collector" (whatever that is). My idea of a collector is someone who has a lot stuff that he/she never "uses". OK maybe from the above I have inadvertently collected stuff. But I really mean to use it, honestly. I have never been one to have to have, for example, a convention car just because I attended the convention. I sort of equate that as a collection.  Rather I like to think that my purchases have been more towards what the local industries need to move their products or receive raw materials.  I tend to think that Collectors accumulate stuff they don't use (which may or may not have any significant monetary value) while avid hobbyists purchase the best items in their area of interest, especially since manufacturers have gone to limited runs, hoping or thinking that in the long run the item will spend time on the layout. 

With all of this as background, I decided this winter to make a serious evaluation of my rolling stock to see if my core industries on the layout really supported all of this traffic.  My criteria was simple, look at the number of car spots on my layout and take 2.5 times the number of spots in order to establish what I need for rolling stock.  I’m not sure where I first heard about using this sort of formula to determine the amount of cars needed for a layout, but it’s a good starting point, especially for operations on a home layout.  Undoubtedly, modelers who run on a club layout or others layout may want to have a different criteria or even an entire set of cars and engines dedicated for that purpose and separate from home operations.  

The KLR currently has a total of 62 locations for spotting rolling stock.  So using the equation of 2.5 x total number of spots, I should only need 155 pieces of rolling stock.  I use the Easy Model Railroad Inventory software to track my layout, and a quick report showed that I had a total of 176 pieces of rolling stock.  Oh oh, it already looks like my fleet is too large. But maybe not as bad as I had originally thought.  No matter how good a deal I may have gotten on a past purchase or whether I wanted to have a certain road name, my thoughts were that if I exceeded my criteria, the piece needed to go into the For Sale box. 

Let's try another approach by looking at the number of spots needed for each of the industries versus the number of individual classes of cars.  After all, I might have 66 boxcars, however, with 20+ spots at the paper mill, maybe my fleet isn't isn't so bloated as I imagine.  The first rolling stock I looked at were boxcars.  Now for my own layout, I need a fairly sizable number of boxcars to service the paper mill, with nine active loading spots and two dedicated storage tracks.  I don't make any distinction whether they are single doors, double doors, wide doors, hi-cube, etc., although at some point in the future I'm sure that I will.  My inventory list shows that I have 66 available boxcars, however, that number is really 56, as I already put 10 cars up for sale.  OK so this method suggests that I have a nice distribution of cars, although maybe a little heavy on the boxcars.  But then again, there are several industries which may utilize boxcars on a random basis, so let's do some more analysis by breaking down individual spots by the typical type of car to be spotted there.

Now remember I'm looking at typical requirements, knowing that some businesses will get the odd load which requires a car that they don't typically handle in a day to day operation.  For example, on the KLR we typically see the following:

Boxcars - Husky Plywood; Spruce Creek Mill; Algonquin Timber

Centerbeam Flatcars - Niagara Distribution; Muskoka Timber

Covered Hoppers - Quaker; Canada Bread; Cantal; UCM; Unimin

Tank cars - Spruce Creek Mill; Sherwin Williams

The maximum number of centerbeam flatcars I may need on the layout is five, since only the Niagara Distribution and Muskoka Timber businesses use this type of car.  When I look at my inventory, I only have 8 of this type of car, which is actually less than what my car accounting model would suggest that I have.

Let's try this again for bulkhead flatcars.  Businesses that use this type of car include Bailey Timber, Muskoka Timber, and Niagara Distribution, with a total number of 6 spots available.  My current inventory shows that there are 17 bulkhead flatcars on the roster, which just about supports the car accounting model.

I used the car accounting model for the remainder of my rolling stock and came up with the following summary:

                                                                 Available      Loading Spots

Boxcars                                                        56                  20
Boxcars, all door                                          21                    7               

Bulkhead Flatcars                                        15                    8

Centerbeam Flatcars                                     8                    6

Flatcars                                                        12                    8                 

Pulpwood Flatcars                                         3                    6

Gondolas                                                     16 *                  0   

Hoppers / Cylindrical Covered Hoppers      29                   22              

Tank cars                                                     32                   14

Notes: * interestingly enough, I never designed the layout with any industries which would require gondolas. The closest thing I can think of is that at one time I wanted to include a wood treating site on the layout, but never seriously designed for it. So how did I get so many gondolas?

So after all of my analysis, I think I have just about the correct number of rolling stock so that I can have operating sessions that the same is not showing up.  I think I'll keep a few gondolas for use in a through freight but the rest can be sold.  Any buyers ???

Modeling a Paper Mill - Part 4.3 New Warehouse Addition

In the last post, I talked about how I added another building within the cellulose portion of the mill.  I had another project on my to-do list, which was to expand the Walthers stock kit warehouse building so that I could load more boxcars with finished product.  When I initially designed the paper mill, the warehouse was to be two Walthers kits joined together, which would allow at least five (5) 50-foot boxcars to be stored for general rail loading and leaving the truck bays intact.  However, two buildings took up a large amount of space, and the paper mill modules were going to be restricted to a 12 linear foot area.  So after running with a warehouse which could only accommodate 3 boxcars, something had to be done.  After all, the paper mill can only survive by increasing it's outflow whenever demand is present.  Remember, it's 1985 on the layout, so consumers are still reading their daily newspaper and the paper mill is constantly busy meeting the demand for paper rolls.  While business has started to see a slight decline in big city newspaper demand, small local and regional papers continue to flourish and demand has increased.

Accordingly, two new tracks were laid into a portion of the grounds which was being used for storage of miscellaneous items and equipment, including a small transformer yard.  The plant manager, after presenting a capital investment plan to the bean counters, was able to procure the funds to add track and place it under roof to avoid those harsh northern Ontario winters.  This meant that the electrical substation had to be moved onto the roof of the warehouse, which while a little bit of a stretch, is not too obvious or out of place.

I had purchased several pieces of laser-scribed basswood several years ago from  Monster Modelworks, but never got around to using them for a project that I had intended to scratch build in N scale.  While maybe the sheets and brickwork are the wrong scale for the purist, I opted to use the three sheets that had been purchased rather than buying sheets in HO scale. After all, the main purpose was to house boxcars, and I wasn't looking to model something exactly like a building that doesn't actually exist on the prototype.

Several weekends ago, I started to take measurements and started to draft what my addition would look like.  As I was doing so, I realized that the addition would likely have to cover the existing windows on the Walthers papermill kit, so I decided to remove the windows and make the addition high enough to accommodate the tallest of boxcars while at the same time covering the windows.  Removing the windows without breaking them took some finessing the plastic from its glue, but everything came out without any significant damage. So after joining the three sections of wood, a little cutting was in order to re-install the plastic windows into the new addition.  

Structure is complete and it's time to think about finishing the roof as well as the area by the doors. I'll add a circular tube at the top of each door to simulate an overhead door.

While I originally was going to install a platform at door height of the boxcars, I opted to install a concrete walkway at ground level and only finish a small portion of the doorways.  Some drums and workers were added, but since you can't see very far into the building, I decided to forego and real detail. Again, the building was built to house boxcars and really meant to be a storage space for loading and unloading purposes.

View from the other side. Tracks in foreground are yard storage of empty boxcars waiting to be loaded and excess tank cars ready for other parts of the Mill.