Preventative Maintenance

How many of us actually have and implement a preventative maintenance program for our railroad?  I know I have one, as my using the Easy Model Railroading software reminds me that I have entered some dates periodically.  But have I really implemented a PM system?  For those who know me, I work in the chemicals business, where PM systems are taking very seriously as part of maintaining equipment operational and ultimately quality control.

So one of my winter projects was to drag out all of my tank cars, and start performing PM activities on them.  Of course this morphed into adding some weathering efforts and deciding what to do with several of those pesky duplicate tank cars. With a trip to several hobby stores and swap meets in the plans, I ended up with enough new decal sets that I was able to repaint and re-letter all of my duplicates.  So I know have six brand new tank cars available for operations.

What about the weathering?  Well that work will take a little bit more effort, but I have been weathering wheels, trucks and axles as I can.  To date, approximately 1/3 of my 32 available tank cars have had weathering applied this month and I really will try to get the remaining done in the weeks to come.

At the same as I complete the weathering efforts, I have inspected all of the fittings, wheels, trucks, etc and made repair efforts.  Again I anticipate having all of these efforts completed in the next 3-4 weeks.  Not a bad start, but then I look at all of the remaining 120+ pieces of rolling stock and realize that I really need to start a more periodic and routine PM program.  

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

First Operations in 2017

The first operations of 2017 occurred on the 2nd day of the new year and saw the KLR delivering some empty Thrall boxcars and woodchip gondola to the Muskoka Timber operations in Bracebridge, ON.  Plant workers finished loading the order the last day of the year onto the centerbeam flatcar, just before the New Year's holiday kicked into gear. By mid-morning Tuesday, workers were ready to load another flatcar with finished lumber and were eagerly awaiting the arrival of KLR 1646, which consisted of two empty thrall boxcars and an empty wood chip gondola.  The KLR made quick work of the pickup and drop and was headed back to the yard in time to catch some more holiday football games.

Dropping its van, KLR 1646 begins to move empty thrall boxcars onto the loading track

While a truck driver bringing in a new set of trees waits to unload, KLR 1646 inches past the boiler house.

Having dropper two thrall boxcars for loading, engine 1646 begins to back an empty woodchip gondola onto the chipper track

Woodchip Gondolas - Part 1

This update has become the companion piece to my recent Almost Completed ...Saw Mill entry.  While I had plenty of centerbeam hoppers to support the Muskoka Timber saw mill operation, one item I was lacking was an adequate number of woodchip cars.  So over the Christmas break, I decided to dig into some unbuilt woodchip car kits which have been sitting on my build shelf for several years. I should stop here and point out that while the manufacturer called them wood chip cars, in Canadian railroad terms they are correctly identified as gondolas. 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.

Researching sites such as the Canadian Freight Car Gallery, it appears that National Steel Car built this particular gondola for the Algoma Central, Canadian National (CN 879250-879749, Built 1975) and Pacific Great Eastern (PGE 90001-90140, built 1970). The Algoma Central received two groups of these cars. The first group, comprising 90 cars numbered ACIS 1401-1490 was built and delivered in 1974. The second group, delivered in 1981, were the 23 cars of series AC 1501-1523. About half of the 1500-series cars were sold off to Newaygo Forest Products in the early 1990s when the mill at Mead closed in 1985; some of the others were sold to Westar Timber (WESX) in British Columbia. Both series of ACR cars were built with one solid end, and one end that is a door, hinged at the top, for unloading the car using a hydraulic ramp. The car is tilted on end and emptied much like a dump truck. These cars were acquired for service for Newaygo Forest Products, shipping chips from the mill at Mead on the Northern subdivision to pulp mills in the USA.

Source: http://canadianfreightcargallery.caPhotographer: William Henderson , Location: Glen Valley, BC. 
Date: May 21, 2014

Source: http://canadianfreightcargallery.caPhotographer: George Widener 

Cars similar or identical to the 1500 series were also built in the 1980s for Quebec-Ontario Paper (QOPX) and Euro-Can Pulp & Paper (EURX).  The cars were 163 gross tons, with a 6,600 cubic foot-capacity, painted light green and numbered QOPX 100-204, with the reporting marks signifiying the Quebec & Ontario Paper Co. The cars were Leased from General Electric (GERSCO) by the Donohue Paper Company and used to service the newsprint mill in Thorold, ON, which received woodchips from northern Quebec and Ontario.

Woodchip cars were built as large pieces of rolling stock, due to the density and relative weight of the material that they were carrying.  As you can imagine, woodchips are very light and don't really compact bery well, meaning that cars can be overfilled without reaching the cars rated capacity.  Often loaded cars were tarped to help keep the contents from flying out of the rail car and to the surrounding landscape.