Clermont: How You've Changed!

We layed track in Clermont yesterday using the new Shinohara 24"/20" radius curved turnout which end up to be a 24"/16.5" radius turnout in reality. Another reason why I don't have a lot of fondness toward Walthers. What's the point in not labelling products correctly? You'll see the west side of the siding is quite sharp. It's gonna be a restricted area to some material. I'm seriously thinking to commission a custom turnout with a 24"/21" radius to make this spot looks better and run better. But for the moment, it should do the work for a while. If you have recommandation about people building custom turnouts à la FastTrack, let me now.

The new siding can hold eleven 50ft cars which is one more than previously thought. Since we still use a few 40ft boxcars here and there, it means a 10 car trains with a caboose and 2 locos can be spotted there without problem. Exactly what we wanted.

The siding is installed on N scale cork to make it lower than the main track, like the prototype. For some reasons, it doesn't show well on camera. The new team track is lower and nailed directly on the benchwork.

The east curve toward the bridge is very broad and should work well to switch car. On the other hand, the west side is quite sharp at 24" and 22" radius. That a compromise I have to live with. Space is at premium and rebuilding the benchwork wouldn't have giving enough benefits to be worth doing. Anyway, this area will be "hidden" by the rock cut through the steep Cap-Brûlé cliff.

We tentatively spotted the old rotting boxcar at Clermont's west end. It's not definitive, but it gives a good idea. If we keep this setting, a speeder shed will be added.

Clermont's team track is also longer than first designed. Instead of 3 feet, it is now 5 feet long, which is far better. We will be able to store some MoW rolling stock while spotting cars.

Generally speaking, I'm quite satisfied with the scene. It looks broader than though and there's a good visual separation between scenes because of the severe S-curve. Scenery will be minimalist with one or two houses on the hill, a street and a dirt parking lot along the team track.

Operation: Special Train to Villeneuve

Before our building session yesterday, we played a little scenario involving limited rolling stock but enough to last at least a good 45 minutes.

Action start at D'Estimauville when a set of for cars are left by Limoilou switcher to be part of an extra train to Villeneuve. Cars include a grader on a flat car, an empty gondola and two empty cement boxcars to be loaded with bagged cement at CSL warehouse. 

Here's a close up of a breach of security as the grader isn't secured at all on the flat car. Will have to remedy to that someday!

Extra train will be pulled by a single GMD1. It should be enough for such a minimalist freight manifest.

 

A few minutes later, the train now has a caboose and is ready to leave D'Estimauville as soon as instructed by the dispatcher.

The extra train crosses D'Estimauville Avenue at 15mph even if it looks faster on the picture!

 

A few minutes later, our train arrives in Villeneuve, taking the siding and ready to start doing it's switching chores.

GMD1 performs various moves at the cement plant to spot the cars. It ends up many loaded cement cars are ready to be shipped on the upcoming Limoilou switcher run.

Limoilou switcher's GP9s are now ready to lead a 20 cars train to Quebec City while GMD1 still perform a few extra moves while spotting gypsum hoppers at the conveyor.

And here ends a typical working afternoon on CN Murray Bay Subvision in the early 1980s.

Weathering Proto 2000 CN Double Door Boxcar

I purchased this car many years ago from a local store when it was heavily discounted. I didn't have use for a 50ft automobile boxcar, yet thought it could be useful in the future.

While reading Richard Yaremko's excellent Canadan Car Pictorial book series, I found out they were into lumber service in the 80s which could fit my prototype.

It didn't alter the model, a straight forward build, something I rarely do nowadays.

I decided to keep the weathering subtle. From my childhood in the 80s, I remember very few rust buckets. Cars were mainly faded, dull and slightly dirty. It was uncommon to see heavily weathered cars. I decided to go this way with this boxcar.

Weathering was essential done by airbrushing a thinned tan color to fade the car paint. It was followed with a thin wash of alcohol and India ink. Dirt was built up by applying several coats in specific areas, particularly the doors, the sill and the roof.

Trucks and wheels were painted a dark brown color and weathered with Dark Earth AIM weathering powder.

I have nothing against rust bucket, but I feel you need to keep a balance between newly built cars, in service cars and junk cars.

Kitbashing Bachmann 50ft Boxcars - Part 2

This small project is progressing smoothly after a short hiatus.

A fellow modeller was kind enough to send me various sets of old Beavercraft CN freight car decals. A few sets were in good shape but one was altered by water a long time ago. Fortunately, I was able to salvage enough lettering to complete the second car. A few missing letters were replaced with a Microscale set I had. Not a perfect match, but with some weathering, I should be able to hide this with some rust spots.

Before final assembly, I added 6 oz. of lead to each car to improve their performance. This is becoming a standard on the layout with boxcars around 9-11 oz. each. So far, it works fine with me.

Finally, the heating apparatus was scratchbuilt using various styrene sheets and styrene round shape. A new air reservoir from Accurail replace the old Bachmann one.

I still have a set of C-D-S dry transfer lettering to make a 40ft insulated boxcar. I think I have a suitable model on hand that could be painted and could do the job.

I don't know if I'll do more cheap CN boxcar conversion projects, but with the Canadian dollar taking the plunge, it's no longer advisable to buy +US$30 cars. I still have plenty of old Roundhouse 50ft boxcars that could be converted to NSC cars and I'm thinking about merging a Model Power 50ft boxcar with an Athearn 50ft mechanical reefer to get a decent CN stand in model. The good side of bad economy is that it push you forward to develop your creativity and skills.

Relaying track on the Peninsula

Hedley-Junction is moving toward the last track upgrade phase. Yesterday, we ripped off all remaining Atlas Code 100 track and started to implement new Peco Code 83 tracks. The returning loop is now part of history after more than a year of debate. It was no longer useful to operate the layout, so it met its demise.

Gluing tracks with white glue (PVA) was a wise move and made removing the old track and ballast a piece of cake. I soaked the track with water with a spray bottle and started to pull the track less than 5 minutes later. Removing the ballast was as easy and the cork roadbed is now as smooth as when installed many years ago.

I also started to fit my newly-built structures for Donohue. Sidings had to be relocated to fit the new buildings. I also replaced the right hand turnout on the runaround with a left handed one to free more space for structures. All in all, I much prefer the new track arrangement. Funny how slightly realigning a few tracks can change the perception of an area. At least, now we have a better vision of what Donohue will look.

On the other hand, Jérôme replaced track in behind the furnace. Only two lengths of flextracks, but what a pain to install them in a less than 4 inches wide space!

On a sad note, we won’t be able to use Peco curved turnout to build Clermont’s siding. At least, partially. Instead, we will have to rely on Shinohara curved turnouts. Not my favourite brand, but we have very little choice left since we decided to keep the peninsula dreaded 24 inches radius for many reason. Oh, well… I feel this is gonna be a challenge... and we thought relaying the peninsula would take maybe one evening!

We also tested a few locos that never ran on the layout and were kept in their boxes. First one was Atlas new S-2 in Canadian Pacific scheme. The new improved version is awesome, the sound is excellently Alco-ish and details are very fine. This one is going to be bashed into Donohue’s switcher.

The other locomotive is a sound-equipped Atlas C424 in wet noodle scheme. It is an excellent performer, but plague with serious pick up issues. That will have to be addressed because the model is almost useless. Once again, the sound decoder by LokSound performs quite well.

Next challenge? Complete Donohue structures, mainly the woodchip unloader by bashing lots of bits and parts. Also, Louis-Marie recently travelled on Murray Bay Sub and came to the conclusion he wants to redo his rock faces on the peninsula.