A Bit of Railfanning on the M & M Sub.

I went down to Ritchie yesterday for a bit of railfanning. I caught a local doing a bit of switching at the elevator, along with a couple of freights.

First in was a general freight from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay, led by SOO 6623 and 5480 (ex-SOU/NS 3429). It took the siding.

At first, I wondered why. A short while later, I discovered the reason when a hotshot pig train from Winnipeg to Duluth, led by 5449 (ex-DRGW 5402) and 5447 (ex-CNW 6910), blasted through.

That's my story, at least. Below find a couple of other shots of the scene.

Great Canadian Model Railroad: William Flatt's Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto

Coming from St. Catharines, Ontario, I have a fond spot in my heart for the old Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto Railway.

By the time I was old enough to appreciate trains (in the 1960s), the NS&T was owned by CN and was completely dieselized. Today most of the tracks that were in operation in my boyhood are gone—turned into trails, torn up or paved and built over.

The old NS&T Lakeshore line near my boyhood home.

It’s rare to find someone who models the NS&T in its electric or diesel incarnations; earlier this year I posted photos of Tom Wright’s layout (now dismantled).

Now I’m pleased to share another layout that models this railway—William Flatt’s S scale NS&T.

William models the railway as it existed in the mid-1950s. The layout is in a U-shape, with Merritton, where it interchanged with the CNR, occupying the majority of one leg.

The connection between the two sides of the U is the transition from Merritton to Thorold, and the other leg represents Thorold. William plans another extension to represent Fonthill.

Track is code 100; turnouts are constructed using the Fast Tracks method. Digitrax DCC is used to control the trains. William has mounted trolley poles, but they are for cosmetic use only.

“I discovered that on my previous layouts, both HO and O scale, that the most frustrating aspect of trolley operation was dirty wire, with the consequence being erratic operation,” he says.

Rolling stock is mostly ready-to-run, with the modified kits and scratchbuilt. All the trolleys are scratchbuilt from brass, wood and styrene,  while two CNR diesels were assembled from kits and detailed with a blend of commercial parts and some cast from William’s own patterns. 

A third steeple cab, NST #17, is under construction. William credits Dave Browning for many of the paint jobs.

There aren’t many people who model the NS&T, the last operating interurban railway in Canada. I'm glad I learned about William's great layout.

Great Modelling and Weathering

One of the great things about the Internet is getting connected with modellers in other parts of the world. 

One person I have become acquainted with is Edgar Romero Roldán of Mexico. Edgar does great modelling and weathering, as seen in the photos in this post.

Also check out Edgar's modelling of the Kansas City Southern de Mexico Christmas Train.

Great Canadian Model Railroad: West Toronto Junction

A model railroad doesn’t have to big to be great. It doesn’t even have to be finished, as the West Toronto Junction shows.

This HO scale switching layout, being created by a new online acquaintance, seeks to replicate railway activity by the CPR in the West Toronto area.

The layout--the first "real" one attempted by the builder (after building the usual 4 x 8 as a youth)--is the result of his desire to return to the hobby.

The decision to build a switching layout was influenced by the amount of space available in his basement—about 12 by 10 feet.

His list of givens & druthers included a small yard with capacity for some light switching; at least one runaround track; and a few spurs.

The next step was deciding what area to model. The builder settled on an area near where he lived. He found three sites to model—Lambton yard, the H industrial spur (with six industries) and a major industry with four spurs.

His goal is to create a switching-heavy urban layout that mimics, as close as possible, the freight operations in a small yard with sidings that serve a few light industrial clients. 

A key influence for this layout is Lance Mindheim, an expert on building small switching layouts (among other things). Mindheim gave the builder of the West Toronto Junction a mental “framework” for his layout.

As I’ve said before, if I ever build another layout it will likely be a switching layout like the West Toronto Junction—something with a few industries and a small yard.

The double-deck CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota Sub., which fills a 17 by 21 foot room, satisfied my desire to build a large layout. I can’t ever see myself building anything that large again.

The West Toronto Junction is a great Canadian model railroad because of the thoughtfulness the builder has brought to the enterprise. Even though it's nowhere near finished, it's possible to see the potential in the design and construction. 

As for the builder, he says this about his effort: "As I make a re-entry into the MR world, I hope to build on the skills I learned years ago while acquiring new ones. 

"As I learn, my hope is that you will too. I’m sure to make mistakes, and do things that will make for plenty of  eye-rolling from other model railroaders. 

"This layout is a journey and this blog will allow readers to make it with me."

You can follow progress on the West Toronto Junction by visiting its blog.  It’s a great source of information about how to model a prototype location in a small space, along with various tips and ideas. 

Hypnotizing Helixes, Spellbinding Spirals and Captivating Curves

Someone had a lot of time on their hands . . . enough time to build this amazing eight-loop helix-style track arrangement out of Bachman EZ track, add 141 cars and nine locomotives, and then make a video of it.

I don't know about you, but I find the whole thing sort of mesmerizing. And admirable, in a way; unlike building a layout, this set up is temporary. That's a lot of work for something that had to be dismantled later!

According to the builder, James Risner, the radius of the curves are 15, 18, 22, 26, 28, 33 and 35 inches.

If clicking on the photo above doesn't work for you, click here to watch the video. If you want a engineer's eye view of the set up, click here. Warning! It may cause dizziness. (It made me feel a little unsteady.)

But that's not the only unique track arrangement James created; nine months earlier he made this unique dogbone-style layout and ran three locomotives and 144 cars on it. He used Knex pieces to create the supports.

Again, if the video doesn't open for you above, click here.

He also ran a 206 car train on a different track arrangement; click here to see that set up.

And he made a four-loop spiral with 126 cars.

When I was a kid, I set up my Lionel and later my Tri-Ang trains on the living room floor of my childhood home; never in a million years could I have dreamed of something like this.