Passenger Service comes to the KLR

I have thought about adding an RDC to the KLR ever since they were first introduced by Rapido.  But I held to my original thought that the KLR was simply too small a railroad to have need of such equipment.  Well several weeks ago, after running on Bram Bailey's Ontario Central, I decided that I also needed at least one RDC.  Bram has three OCR units running on a regular passenger train route, and those Rapido's just run so nicely that after hearing them spool up to speed, I was hooked.

RDC 9051 picks up passengers at the Peterborough station.

After some Internet searching, I found someone in Indiana (of all places) selling a CP Rail RDC-1 at a decent price. The treasury of the KLR was able to come up with the money and the purchase was made.  The unit arrived this week, and after a little break-in session and some tweaking of the DCC system, everything was working and the RDC has been placed into service.  I'm still working on the details of its service, but for now it's going to function similar to what some of the RDCs used in British Columbia were used for.  That is the transport of school children and workers.  So until more details are worked through, the RDC will run in the early morning and late afternoon to transport everyone to Pembroke.  These will be whistle stops and all are welcome to flag down the unit for pickup.

RDC 9051 begins to pass over Eels Creek on it's way to Pembroke

Loon Lake Country Store

One of my summer projects was to work on the placement of buildings and roads in the town of Pembroke, Ontario.  Pembroke is my only real town, but that I mean other industries are located in various spots on the layout and represent actual town or city locations, but I have made a conscious effort not to include any other buildings than the industry itself. My other towns are simply depicted by photo backdrops.  For a review of Pembroke, see my earlier discussion in a posting entitled Modeling Pembroke.

As I began to finish the Pembroke area, I still had several vacant spots which were marked with only a 3x5 card to tell the type of building to be placed.  One of those spots was reserved for a country general store, which can be found in various sizes and shapes throughout rural Ontario.  For this building, I chose to use the American Model Builders Corydon General Store/Post Office as my base building.  It's a very nice laser kit, which takes about an evening to build and with painting, was finished in about two evenings. Add some signs and decals, and you see the result.  While this is just a support structure, when I have the time, I'll add lighting and other details to make this a stand alone and make the structure really blend into the countryside. 

Modeling Pembroke

I chose to model the city of Pembroke, Ontario on my Kawartha Lakes Railway, although like many modelers, I have taken many liberties for the town. Essentially Pembroke is within the Ottawa River valley, which was a convenient way to allow the KLR to head northward and then turn to the west so that it could interchange with the Ontario Northland.  For my time period, this would actually have been the domain of CP Rail, as it followed the southern shores of the Ottawa River.  However, the location fit in for modeling purposes, and it was similar to several of my local towns that I have spent my summers visiting.

So when I say I chose to model Pembroke, I really mean that I chose to transport local businesses from all over Ontario into the Pembroke area.  I wasn't striving to make true to life buildings, rather take the existing businesses that I found to be interesting or unique and fit them to a readily available kit.  I have some typical businesses, like Home Hardware and a book store, to unique stores such as Cahill's Furrier and the McKenzie Brew Pub.

My thanks to fellow modeler and friend Dale Photo, who helped me out a few years ago by taking some of my DPM building that I had assembled but never got around to painting, weathering or even placing roofs on the structures.  I convinced Dale that when the 2014 NMRA Convention was scheduled for Cleveland, that I could use his help with getting some structures ready.  So he did a lot of painting, some window and roof installations for me, enough to make the layout a little more presentable. During the summer of 2016, I decided to get busy with installing windows, lighting, signage and other details.

Most of the signs you see on the buildings come from searching the Internet for company logos and signs.  All have been printed on a color laser printer.  In some cases, such as the radio station ad on the McKenzie building, decals have been used.  Ultimately each of the signs and buildings will be weathered to age them.  Lighting has been added using the Woodland Scenics Just Plug hardware (see previous posting for my review).

Strange Brew...the McKenzie Brothers Bar & Grill.  Still waiting for a bar, tables, etc; also waiting for the beer which comes from the McKenzie Brewery via Bram Bailey's Ontario Central Railway

There actually is a books n' things in downtown Peterborough. One of my favorite visits for some summertime reading

Fashioned after Whetung's General Store at Crowe's Landing on Upper Stoney Lake; really liked the kit and needed to capture the spirit of the common look which makes it's home on Stoney

Home Hardware Bldg - you can find these in every Ontario town of any size.  First task is to modify the lighting and add an interior