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. 

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.