Pontypool / Cargill Construction

When I decided to change the layout to install a new yard, I ripped out a previous corner that was basically finished with scenery, which is always difficult to do. However, I rationalized that it was basically a corner that was doing nothing for the revenue stream for the railroad and it might actually enough space to add two rural industries.  The first spur was set aside to hold an elevator that I had built years before to mimic the elevator at Pontypool, ON.  The elevator is located along the CP Rail line and is about 25 miles SW of Peterborough. The Pontypool elevator was constructed in 1918, and was unique as the base was constructed from cement while the upper portion was the typical wood construction.  It was also unique in that the sides of the elevator were covered by cedar shakes.  A store and office, which disappeared in the 70's or maybe even before, had historically been present.  You can still see the outline of the building roof where it attached to the elevator if you look hard enough.  Remnants of the foundation can also be found if you take a closer look through the grass and weeds.  The current structure, which has not seen any signs of life for 40+ years actually replaced the original elevator built in 1894.  The original purpose for the Pontypool elevator was to store barley, wheat and oats in the days of horse and buggy. These products where shipped to Toronto and Montreal by CPR train. As the elevator expanded its services, the first power line to Pontypool came to the elevator and later the first diesel generator in the area was added to grind crops for the farmers. As farms expanded and the transportation system improved, farmers were able to store their own grain and have it trucked to larger elevators.  From what I have researched, it was a Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd elevator.

1977, Kawartha Lakes Public Library

While no longer in service since the 70's, this elevator has always a fascination for me due to its construction. I hope someday that some group will restore it before the termites find it.  Several years ago I decided to scratch build the elevator using the plans from Campbell as a general guide.  The hardest part of the build was fabricating molds for each of the cement walls. Some day I'll detail that process.  I also need to change the cedar siding as I used a commercial product and was not thrilled with the results.  Unfortunately after the structure was built, I really didn't have a good place for it on the layout and it was boxed up. So it has been moved many times and sustained some damage since I didn't pack it well enough.

The former trackage and elevator were fit into the corner and at some point in the future I will paint the track into the backdrop.  But for now the modeled area will serve as storage for cars or simply sit empty.

The second addition to this area is a fertilizer supply business.  This was modeled after the Cargill facility in Mount Elgin, Ontario (Mile 7.7 Port Burwell Sub).  While I don't know much about the former operation (Cargill stopped using this building roughly 6-8 years ago), I came across it while railfanning the Ontario Southland and thought it would be interesting to model some day.  I have modified the structure and placed it up in the clay belt of Ontario so the that the ONR can service it.  While I would have liked to model it as is, once I started to draw up plans I realized that I would have to significantly compress it.  So I have ended up with two buildings, but only support one conveyor tower instead of the two the prototype has.   

Conveyor partially completed

Bldg #2 with completed conveyor set in place

My buildings are primarily scratch built, although some of the components have come from the Walthers Saw Mill buildings and a Rix grain system. Building 1 came from a different part of the layout and was repainted to match the Mount Elgin facility. The 2nd building was scratch built, although I had to compress part of it and omit the 2nd elevator. I hope to add the 2nd conveyor in the future, especially since it has the very prominent Cargill logo painted towards the top and I have the conveyor parts.  The roof was the toughest part of the build, as I had to add more supports that I originally thought were necessary and forgot to take into account that the styrene roofing that was purchased had no real strength and buckled and warped enough to make installation difficult.

Completed building (sort of). Amazing how the photo shows me a few errors and omissions that I have yet to address

The Cargill facility is now open for business, as new track has been laid and the building has been set into the scene.  While many details still need to be added to the building and the scene, I'm pleased with the outcome and it's time for this part of the layout to start receiving cars.

Revamped Corners

July 2020 UPDATE - after writing this discussion, I removed this part of the layout to accommodate a new staging yard and several new modules.  The revamped area was started in the Fall of 2020 and I'm happy to say that as of January 2021 the new yard and modules are operational and undergoing the addition of scenery.  See the replacement blogs titled Pontypool/Cargill Construction and New Yard.

The KLR has a total of three 90 degree corners, only one of which is partially hidden by several industries.  When I first designed the layout, I intended to have all of the corners be rounded, however, upon building the first corner (industrial area) and installing the flexible backdrop, I realized that I was going to lose more space than I had planned.  So the decision was made to change the backdrop and have two intersecting backdrops which came together at a 90 deg angle. Not optimal but no loss of track or switching potential.

The other corners however were simply scenery, and I wasn't too worried about the background appearance as I didn't expect anyone to be hanging around these areas.  However, as I wrote about in the Addressing a Lingering Mistake, I ended up changing the track as it exited the old Eel's Creek module, which was actually the lead in to the curve and the back wall of the layout. In order to accommodate the change in track radius, I needed to rip out most of that corner, although I was able to save the portable rock walls that I was using.  However, after the track was fixed and I put some temporary scenery in place, I realized that I was going to need to change the backdrop.
The past several weeks have been spent removing the corner, including my two portable rock walls, in order to complete the scenery. The photo below is what the second corner just a few weeks ago. Boy when I look at now, I really wonder what I was thinking when I built it. Rocks meeting at right angles is just awful and I had intended to draw trees into the background but never got to that part of the project.  I probably should have built the original corner with a flexible backdrop, but alas, I didn't and there's little reason to go back and try to alter that part of the layout. 

90 deg Corner - still adding some rock castings to make the rock wall

Removable rock castings set onto Luann plywood backing - actually a good idea as this were removable and simply rest on the frame of the module

Here's what the revised corner looks like.  You can still see that it's a corner by looking at the surroundings, but it's a little less obvious.  Ground foam clumps are the new tree canopy and the upper level consists of re-purposed furnace filter evergreens. Still need to add more trees to the top but the scene looks at least a little more plausible.  While there's still a seam where the two sheets of backdrop meet, lots of trees will cover this up.

Removed the house in the foreground and opened it up to just scenery

Rock cuts are the old plaster castings reworked into the scene. Still need to color them some more. Clumps of ground fom were used to simulate the tree canopy while the upper level will completely be covered by trees.  Maybe some day I'll work on painting trees into the background.

Still need to add some fencing and possibly a dirt road to support the idea that folks can drive back to the fishing hole.  But that's another project in the works.

Static Grass Applicator

Every now and then, I get the urge to start some serious scenery efforts.  I've been borrowing my friend Lee's static grass applicator for several projects and really liked the results I've been getting. I liked it so much that when I saw a review for a new and slightly less expensive applicator being made by WWS, a British firm, I did some research and eventually bought one.  It appears that the applicator is also sold under the Peco name as the Scene PSG-1 Pro Grass Micro Applicator. I liked that the unit is slightly smaller than the Noch unit (which seems to have been the gold standard for many years), but has a much more durable feel than the strainer model sold by companies such as MicroMark. I don't doubt that the strainer type of applicator is good, it just feels a lot less substantial than the others.

So I started to lay some grass on portions of the paper mill, as well as ripping out some previously installed ground foam adjacent to the main line as it approached the paper mill. While I still have much more scenery to go, I'm very pleased with the initial results.

I started the process much the same as any area that I cover with ground foam. A latex paint (green base) was installed and allowed to thoroughly dry before coming back with the status grass. I started the first layer with the short, 2 mm static grass to give a short base coat to all of the area. I typically use some diluted matte medium or 50/50 solution of Elmer's white glue to provide the adhesion. I then followed up with an application of 4 mm high static grass, which was a slightly different color than the base coat. I should add that the base coat was a late summer/fall blend that is available in bulk from Scenic Express. All subsequent layers were also fall grass colors, however, they are sold under the Heki ?? name.

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. 

Progress thru 2017

As 2018 approaches, I thought it might be a good idea to review the current status, progress made and overall goals of the layout.  The Kawartha Lakes Railway is a freelanced model railroad, which means no prototype ever existed.   However, I have tried to include elements of the Ontario Northland Railway (ONR) as well as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) into the design.  The route follows the imaginary trackage north from Peterborough to Pembroke, followed with connection to North Bay and the ONR.  Some areas are modeled to closely follow the prototype and other parts are purely creative, however, all of the modeling attempts to reproduce the landscape, general scenery and industries of Ontario.   

Era
The time period modeled is the mid-1980’s. Mostly 1985 for no particularly significant reason.

Style
The layout is a linear, point to point road, although at some point a bridge may be added which will connect the small staging yard to Pemberton.

Design Considerations/Goals

• My general interest in Canadian roads, especially the ONR.  I spent my summers in the Lakefield/Peterborough and wanted to re-create the look and feel of that area.
• Run the number and types of trains that typically can be found on the ONR.  This essentially means that most trains are mixed freight or passenger, and unit trains such as autoracks or intermodals do not exist.
• The layout should consist of distinct scenes, and not try to jam as much operations or buildings into a space as possible. 
• My general interest in Canadian roads, especially the ONR.  I spent my summers in the Lakefield/Peterborough area and loved to watch trains come into Havelock, switch the Quaker Oats plant in Peterborough or run along the Otonobee River towards Lakefield.
• The fact that Canadian equipment is somewhat unique.
• A desire to model a paper mill, as well as several forest products industries.
• Wanting to model the nepheline syenite mine at Blue Mountain, north of Havelock.
• Desire to model the grain operations at the Quaker Oats facility in Peterborough.
• Including a paint plant somewhere on the layout, since I work in the chemicals industry for one of the largest paint and coatings manufacturers.  When I visit a paint plant serviced by rail, I spend free time observing rail cars and operations as much as possible.
• Have most of the railway be centered around on line switching
• Try to model some prototype scenes.  Use scenery to give the illusion of changes in topography while not actually changing grade levels.   

Progress to Date

• Trackwork is completed and fully operational.  Still have some occasional issues with manual switches in the paper mill, but otherwise operations are usually derailment free (unless the operator isn't paying attention and forgets to align switches). 
• The Spruce Creek Pulp and Paper mill took up a lot of time in 2017, and as you can see from previous postings, the complex is built.  This includes all of the buildings that I had originally intended to model.  With the exception of the two Walthers paper mill kit buildings, most of the buildings and structures are scratch-built.  Still need to work on details for the scene, such as roadway surfaces, piping, people, signage, vehicles, etc.). I'd also like to start adding lights to the complex.
• The Uniman nephytheline syenite mine is the last major scene which needs to be completed.  Only a small number of buildings have been constructed, although I have roughed in the large ore processing plant building using foamboard.  The mine has been constructed.  So this looks like a big project to handle in 2018.
• Buildings are in place for several of the forest products industries, although I have only scratched the surface with regards to scenery.  This has become a 2018 goal. 
• Grain unloading can be done at the Quaker Oats facility; again, finishing scenery is minimal and hopefully becomes something to be completed in 2018. 
• The Sherwin-WIlliams paint plant is mostly complete, and a few details have started to be added.  I plan to re-paint and add discharge piping to all of the tank farms this coming year.
• I still need to build my passenger station.  While I have the kit, it remains un-opened.
• The town of Pembroke is fairly complete, and during this past year I began to electrify it and add lighting to buildings as well as signs. Hopefully a few weekends of work will allow the town to become fully illuminated.
• I started to build a total of five woodchip gondolas in 2017.  Two of them are now fully constructed and sit at the sawmill awaiting loads, while the remaining three are structurally built, however, I need to add several details and wheel sets.  None of them have been painted, and I need to start designing the decals that will be applied.
• Several Canadian rolling stock kits, along with a CPR van and SD40-2F unit, are within the pile of items to be built. 
• Rapido continues to roll out some fantastic models and I already have my order in for an SW-1200RS, which will be dedicated to service at the paper mill.  The Canadian cylindrical hoppers are said to be shipping soon. And Rapido just announced that the FP-7 project will be happening in 2018.  Guess this means I need to look at my box of engines and sell off some used power.  Anybody in the market for a PA-1A/B unit?

Summary

So there you have it. Quite a lot of tasks for the future, however, this is a hobby and work proceeds at a reasonable pace.  The vast majority of projects seem to center around scenery, since most of the heavy lifting has been completed.  However, a possible move may occur in 2018 if the right piece of real estate can be found, so who knows what the end of 2018 will look like. Stay tuned as I continue to document the progress of the Kawartha Lakes Railway. 

Modeling a Paper Mill - Part 4.2 Construction Progress

Between travels for work and time spent this fall preparing the yard and house for the winter months, I have not had as much time to spend on the layout.  However, I have been able to do a little painting and install some scenery materials so that the paper mill doesn't look as bleak and empty as before.  And of course I've had some re-do's, as I wasn't satisfied with the way some of the roadways turned out.  Apparently trying to model a very fine, crushed stone roadway with fine ballast was harder than I previously remembered it to be when just trying to do small roadways.  Large areas that could be a roadway or just an open area just seem to show even the finest of gravels rather than a well worn gravel and dirt roadway that I was trying to achieve.  So between roadways and some ground scenery, some color is appearing and the modules are beginning to take the form that I wanted.

When I had some free evenings and paint was drying in various portions of the two modules, I also dug out some tank kits that I had accumulated for the mill and began to build them.  And of course, all tanks should be set inside some sort of spill containment structure, so I have also been rummaging through the scrap styrene box to fine appropriately sized pieces to build containment structures.  My recent work has been to start adding some pumps and piping; I found some great HO sized pumps on the Shapeways website and will be adding pumps and piping shortly.

Initial construction; still need to add piping to each of the three tanks as well as the 3 tanks in the background

The biggest project undertaken was scratch building a new building within the cellulose portion of the mill.  Based on a general visitor guide I obtained in 2001, I believe that this building is actually part of the bark boiler complex on the Temiscaming mill  I liked it due to some unique angles that are present, as well as the ability to accommodate the placement of several stacks I built using the Walthers refinery kit.  So it has now become part of a background building for the specialty cellulose mill.  For my building, I added a rail unloading shed at ground level, which I'm fairly sure is not present in the prototype, but allows some more spots for tank car off-loading.  It also allowed me to spot some storage tanks in between some of the tracks which will be used as part of the chemical products group alcohol plant.

Start of the specialty cellulose mill. Still need to cut the angled middle and bottom panels. Hardest part was cutting the windows to the correct size. Several catwalks and stairwells will be added to the left side of the Bldg (not shown in picture)

Bldg is now partially done; major components are in place, however, work still needed for the piping and exits along the left side of the Bldg

Windows still need to be worked on and some sort of backing put into place so that the windows and styrene don't deflect and bow; many of the pieces used are leftovers from other projects

Working through some of the details

Additionally, I have been able to ballast most of the track in the paper mill, as well as setting the switches permanently.

Modeling a Paper Mill - Part 4.1 Construction Progress

If you have stuck with me this far and read through the other posts, let's take an overall look at my construction progress.  As of this writing, the newly revised track configuration is just about completed, although I'm waiting on some additional pieces of track to finish track work to the small engine house.

As I discussed in another entry, one aspect of my first paper mill design was a lack of tracks to load paper bales and rolls and no suitable amount of space to store empty or loaded cars ready for pickup.  The old design used the Walthers paper mill kit as the primary structure, although I long realized that the brick building is at best a suitable building for a warehouse and/or loading tracks and not really to house the paper machine as Walthers seems to imply with their advertising.  That building, while nice in detail, really lacks a suitable amount of space to install a loading track with any real storage capacity.  The best I could manage was two (2) 50-foot boxcars inside and one boxcar peeking though the end.  My three store age tracks were not much bigger, allowing me only to keep 4-5 cars present, and at the other end of the mill.  Clearly all of this had to change.

When I decided to redo the paper mill modules, the two key elements needed were more loading space and more capacity for yard tracks.  I also wanted to have only one track where chemicals would be loaded, although I came to designate certain areas within that one spur for different chemicals.  Here's a basic summary of what was completed:

• The inbound and outbound Yard tracks are each now single tracks with a capacity of 9 cars.
• The primary warehouse track has been lengthened to hold 6 cars.
• Warehouse #2 track will hold four (4) boxcars.
• Warehouse #3 track will hold seven (7) boxcars.
• The chemical and slurry tracks were combine to one track, each with 3 to 4 loading/unloading spots.

Progress as of Oct 1, 2017

View of the road crossing to the warehouse; paper machine building in the background. Lots of work needed to finish the pavement, which was created using black dyed spackle to form the roads and parking area

View from the warehouse looking north. I fill the gap between tracks using construction foamboard, which is rough cut to match the configuration of the tracks. I then add the colored spackle mud to fill in gaps and create a small amount of relief or contour.  Ground foam and fine dirt will go on next.

View looking south; warehouse in background

Same view as above but foamboard has been partially painted to show where static grass and weeds will be applied

Oct 15 Progress

After adding foamboard to each of the areas, it's time to paint and add texture to the paved areas. The first coat is a craft paint from Michael's in basic black. I then use several coats of craft paint in a pewter gray color, adding fine dirt in between to add some texture to the asphalt surface.

Pine Trees

In keeping with the holiday spirit, I decided to sit down and create some trees for the layout, specifically some pine trees.  Several years ago, I acquired three boxes of Campbell Scale Model trees that a gentleman approached me about trading for several Athearn blue box kits that I had listed for sale.  I knew nothing about these trees except that they came five to a box, with all of the materials supplied in the box.  I couldn't recall seeing these at any shows, but decided to go ahead with the trade anyway based on the reputation Campbell has for kits.  So the kits arrived and I promptly placed them on nthe modeling shelf of projects to build down the road.

I needed some evergreen trees for a corner of the layout and decided to start building my first pine tree.  The first thing I noticed was that the pine tree "sticks" were much larger than I had anticipated and larger than any other pine tree that I have on the layout.  I think that the trees are more in keeping with some western pines this week, however, as I'm going to place them in a corner and they won't be a focal part of the scene, I'm hoping that they don't stand out too much.

The foliage consists of two bags of what I believe to be air ferns.  Air fern has a delicate, airy structure as the name implies and is available through florists or garden centers. The truck of the tree consists of a pre-stained wooden dowel, with pre-drilled tiny holes in the trunk of the tree.  So it's a simple matter to insert the air fern branches cut to shape into the hole after a small amount of white glue is placed on the trunk.  Branches can be re-trimmed with an X-Acto knife or scissors as you build your tree, and most branches need some amount of trimming as the air fern seems to twist quite a bit.  

I'm very pleased with the results to date. Each tree takes about an hour to construct and trim. My only complaint is that whatever the air fern has been treated with, or maybe it's naturally like this, the smell tends to become annoying after about 30 minutes of working with them. It's some sort of moldy type of smell that I find to be distasteful. Fortunately the result is worth the temporary annoyance

Next step is to "plant" my trees.

Initial tree materials. Sorry for all of the background clutter but it's my active work bench.

Completed treet

Close up of the branch structure

Addressing a Lingering Mistake - Part 1

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had the opportunity to be part of the LDSIG tour during the 2014 NMRA National Convention held in Cleveland, OH.  As part of the tour, layout owners were asked to report on what they would have done differently during a discussion session after the tours.  While I didn't have the opportunity to participate in the discussion directly, it did get me thinking or maybe it actually solidified some thoughts I had been having while constructing and operating the KLR.  One of the last things that I wanted to admit was that my design on the south wall of the layout had to sharp a curve in place.  Sure it could handle 40 and 50 ft boxcars OK, but I knew that I would be running some larger woodchip cars and centerbeam flatcars, as well as the daily passenger train.  However, I didn't have a yard in this area as yet, so I kept telling myself it was OK and never tested the curve with larger equipment.  However, fast forward to present day and the small staging yard is complete, connections made to the adjoining track and I've been running trains.  Well, I thought I was running trains until I tried some of my longer cars, including my nice Rapido passenger cars.  So tonight I bit the bullet after many weeks of thought as to what I could do. Maybe it was trying to run my passenger train through the curve that finally got me to act.  So instead of the barely 22 degree curve that was in place, I opted to rip out track and scenery to accommodate a 30 degree curve.  The choice of the 32 deg was based on this was about the smallest curve I could handle without a major reconstruction of the model and use some of the existing trackage nearby to reasonably make a connection.

Ripping out the scenery from two modules was sort of bittersweet. I never really liked that corner, something always bugged me about the scenery. While I liked the rock outcroppings in the background, the lack of any clear way to get to the N scale cabin that I had placed there bugged me.  So with my handy multi-purpose tool and hammer, I removed everything to the base foam layer. Boy was that hydrocal that was used tough to remove. Even the adhesive glue I used back then was tough to remove, as pieces just didn't want to come off. But an hours work, and here's the result, a new canvas to work with. I was able to save all of the rock outcrops, as I had built them to be removable.

Next to be modified was the old Eel's Creek module, which is actually the lead to the curve. In order to accomodate the change in track radius, I needed to add some new real estate and the only way to do so was to modify the bridge and surrounding scenery.  I had originally used a resin material to create the water, and while the effect was good, it was never really deep enough and I wasn't quite satisfied with the bank edges.  So it had to go too, which was no big loss, although I did try to save the bridge piers to no avail.

Prototype bridge over the Otonabee River

Not to bore you with the details, but here's a quick recap of what changed after the tear-out was completed:

• Increased the track radius to 30 deg  
• Re-shaped the topography of the western bank of Eels Creek
• Carved a new river channel
• Added a new river base via adding several coats of ModPodge
• Added a new bridge section
• Re-routed my track as it came to the creek and immediately after the bridge
• Ripped out the area behind the curve; the final scene in this area as yet to be determined
• Added many more rock castings

Most important thing, the curve now accommodates larger rail cars although it still is a fairly sharp curve.

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

Product Review - Woodland Scenics Just Plug System

I decided to add some electrification to the town of Pembroke in order to give it a little life.  Originally, none of my buildings have had lighting, and in fact, the only lighting was provided by a couple of street lamps I had picked up years ago and mounted to the scale sidewalk.  So when Woodland Scenics introduced their Just Plug system, I was intrigued and anxiously waited for it to hit my local hobby store. It looked like a simple process to light and building, and was basically a plug and play type of hardware.  Fast forward to present day, when I finally opted to make the purchase.  So after designing my electrical network and determining how many Light Hubs, individual lights, etc., I was ready to place my order.

Opened the mailbox Friday to find that two packages had arrived containing each of my new purchases.  So I quickly got to work that evening and began the installation process.  Ten minutes into it, I found my first real problem with the system.  After looking at the supplied instructions and going back to their web page, I realized that no where can you find the size of the drill bit or hole size you are going to need to pass the connector pin through the layout and underneath to the awaiting Light Hub. By the way, it requires a 3/8-inch drill bit.  The light itself is fairly large (approximately 3/8-inch squared), which is actually good for giving more illumination, but the pin at the other end of the wire is roughly the same size as the light.  Unfortunately the instructions are not the best and no way to see this before you purchase. Grade = C-

So for any existing structures without a removable floor or roof, you need to create a mega hole cut into your nice expensive structure.  Fortunately, each of my buildings have been built from scratch or kit and I left space to mount a floor at a later date, when I will install detailed interiors.  Of course you could always try to cut off some of the wiring, run the two thin wires through a small hole and reattach them to the light but this sot of defeats the idea of plug and play.  Grade D+

So after drilling my mega-sized hole and attaching the light to the building, as well as mounting the Light Hub to the underframe of the layout, I realized that the connector pin actually mounts to the top of the Hub, not the underside of the box.  So you need nimble fingers to press the connections into the box when your box is actually mounted high on the side frame so that it is out of sight.  We are model railroaders aren't we, and used to small wires and small spaces.  Perhaps Woodland Scenics will engineer and top vs bottom connection in the next version. Grade C+

Plug in front and pass through hole above "dg" in Bldg

It's probably just me, but I feel like the connection plug is very flimsy and just a little bit of extra force will break it and the delicate wires inside.  I have no confidence that if I ever want to remove the wiring plug that I'll be able to do so, as the connection os so tight. Grade C

Light Hub - tough to place wire/plug into hole when you can't see the receiver top

Once all of the lights were installed, I will say that the system nicely lights up the scene and the little bulbs are very powerful.  The dimmable bulbs is also a nice feature, although I found that that controls between Light Hubs were a little quirky and not as sensitive as I would have liked.  Still trying to figure out why adjusting one dimmer results in the next door dimmer have momentary lapses and losing power. Grade A-

Full brightness with the diffuser screen in place

Lights dimmed, still with diffuser screen in place

Pricing....the system isn't cheap but is affordable for the average hobbyist if you plan well.  The simplest system requires a Light Hub, power supply (can be DC) and lights.  So you have roughly $45-50 easily invested.  Through in multiple Light Hubs and you'll need an Expansion Hub as well. My biggest problem is that individual lights are about $4.50-5.00 each and only sold two per package. I think that WS is making a huge profit here and would have preferred that they offer a package with a minimum of 4 or 8 units with a price of may maybe $2-3 per unit.  Throw in the cost of the building light diffusing kit and some extension wiring to reach those distant spaces away from your hubs, and you see that the price creeps higher and higher quickly.Wait we haven't thrown in the cost of the individual street lights yet.

Lighting attached to ceiling of first floor

Overall I like the system and the plug and play concept. I'm really looking forward to installing some street lamps.  Unfortunately I think that it does have some shortcomings and the price is slightly on the steep side.  Overall grade = C.

Adding the Unimin Mine - Part 2

In a previous post, I described how I created the walls of the open pit mine as a background to my Unimin mining area, using a number of rock castings to portray the mined area.  This posting continues from that point, and I describe how the mine area was completed, using dyes to color the rocks and other materials to simulate the base of mining operations as well as blending the scene into the rest of the Unimin mine complex.

This photo shows the completed castings in place; gaps have been filled with spackle.  I added Sculptamold to the top of the hillside in order to smooth out the surface and give a slightly rounded top to the hillside, which will be planted with trees, bushes, etc as a final step.  While the top of the hillside was drying, I used dry wall compound or spackle to fill in any large joints which were present due to the castings pieces.  

Gray and white wash added to castings; top of hillside painted and ground foam applied.  I've also started to add the last wall in the bottom right of the photo.  I ran out of the pink foam board, and started to use some floral block in the upper right corner of the photo. Both are easily sculpted to the desired final shape.

Once everything was dry, it was time to get out the knives and start chipping away at the castings and spackle, to create the final shape of the rock face.  I've found that there really is no secret to this, unless you're trying to carefully follow a photograph.  I simply start changing the rock face by gouging the plaster, pulling deep cuts with my knife, until the shape takes on the appearance I'm looking for. Maybe this is where my geology background comes into play, as it's fairly easy to visualize the fissures, cracks, joints, etc in order to give the rock face a certain craggy look and feel.

For the mined road surface or bench, I simply added some spackle and dry plaster of paris onto the surface to complete it.  I don't want the surface to be perfectly smooth, rather the floor has to have the appearance of an area that has been mined but not so rough that trucks can't navigate on it.  Next come the difficult part, coloring the rock to the right color and consistency.

I like to use various colors of dyes to add color to the casting, rather than buying some of the commercially available liquid pigments.  The liquid pigments do a good job, however, you generally get one color per bottle and the bottles are about twice the price of available concentrated dyes.  I have found that Rit Dyes are inexpensive, come in a variety of base colors, and really set the color well in the plaster. One other advantage is that Rit has done some of the leg work for you, as their website provides a series of colors and what amounts of the colored dyes are needed to produce the final color.  I have colored many rock castings on the layout and still using my original bottle of Rit black dye after all this time.  I'm sure I would have gone through many bottles of liquid pigments rather than one.  Plus, I can easily make custom colors and if the results aren't to my liking, toss it without the feeling that I just used a good amount of the liquid pigment.  I mix my dye in a 70% rubbing alcohol solution.

I have a series of small, plastic screw-top containers that were bought at a discount store that hold approximately 2-oz of liquid and these are used to store my various color combinations. Before applying to the scene, I always like to test a small casting for the correct color content.  For example, to cast the plaster in a gray color, I have series of bottles ready, each with just a few more drops of black dye in them than their surrounding bottle, which allows me to darken the gray as necessary.  Remember to always start with the lightest color and work towards darker colors. 

Tools of the trade

Same area after several washes of gray have been applied.

Here's a photo after the initial "tan" dye has been applied.  It doesn't show well in the photograph, but the stark whiteness of the casting has been toned down and the plaster rock takes on the appearance of a more off-white color.

For the mine, I didn't want to add too much color to the castings, as the rock walls have a very light gray color to them when weathered, although they seem to take on more of a white hue on a fresh cut of the rock.   I always start with just a few drops of dye in the alcohol, progressively adding a few more drops of black dye to each bottle and testing each color before I apply it fully. 

Active mine area. Note that the rocks are a very light gray and in some locations appear to be white on a fresh cut of the rock face.

Here's the final version of the mine, although I need to undo some of the weathering I did as I'm not happy about some of the large "splotches" of gray or black in areas.