Happy 50th Anniversary CPR SD40s

CP Rail 5500 arrives in Revelstoke.

Fifty years ago, in July, 1966, Canadian Pacific Railway took possession of its first 32 SD40s (5500-5531).

That first order was followed by a second order of 33 units. (5532-5564)

5500 in maroon & grey.

Today those units are probably all retired, sold or scrapped. But one remains—the class engine, 5500, at the Revelstoke, B.C. Railway Museum.

As the Museum notes on its website, the SD40 was significant in that it was the harbinger of the kind of power that would carry the CPR into the latter part of the previous century.

In Action Red

For a long time, the SD40 and the SD40-2 was the mainstay of the CPR (later CP Rail) locomotive fleet (from the 1960s to 1990s).

The units were found across the country, but were especially useful in the mountains—which is why 5500 has found a home at Revelstoke. It arrived in 2011.

The plan is for the Museum to return the unit to its original maroon and grey livery with script lettering.

Since the CP Rail M & M Sub. is set in the early 1990s, there are a lot of SD40 variants on the roster in various liveries: Multimark, no Multimark, Twin Flags and other schemes.

Being delivered to Revelstoke. Doug MacKenzie photo.

New Video of the Thompson River Canyon N Scale Layout

Now that the Thompson River Canyon layout is done, it’s time for a video.

Click here to see the just-finished side. (The more desert-like part of the canyon.)

Click here to see the other side, which is steeper and features a rock/snow shed.

And click here to see a series of photos about the construction of the first side of the layout, from bare door to running trains.

Thompson River Canyon N Scale Layout: Done!

And so it is done—the Thompson River canyon memorial layout is finished.

It took a year to finish both sides. I thought I would get it done quicker but, you know—life.

Actually, I’m sort of sorry it is finished now. Unfinished, it gave me comfort—it was always there, waiting for me to do some work on it.

But with it now done, and my HO layout long done (after tearing down a third of it and starting over), I don’t have any new model railroad projects. I feel undone, to be honest.

But it was a fun project while it lasted. And meaningful, as through the construction I recalled my brother-in-law Ken Epp, who died in 2014.

As I noted in earlier posts about this project, after building a great four-level HO scale layout (the Cougar River Sub.) Ken had downsized and moved to a condo. 

His next goal was to build an N scale version of his favourite railfanning area: The Thompson River canyon.

Unfortunately, cancer took him at age 59 before he could complete that dream. Instead, I received the N scale stuff he had accumulated from his family and built it for him, and in his memory.

It’s not big—just a 2 by 7 on a hollow core door. But I hope it catches the spirit of the canyon that he loved. (And where his ashes are scattered—by the railway tracks—at his request.)

One side of the small layout features the steep, rugged part of the canyon where snow and rock sheds are needed to protect the trains.

The steeper side.

The other side features the less steep and more arid part of the canyon.

The more arid side, with my HO scale
layout in the background.

As I noted in my earlier posts about the most recently-completed part of the layout, I mixed grey, various shades of brown, tan, black and white craft paints to achieve the colourations.

The trick to this kind of believable scenery (as on the other side), is to vary the colours, making sure to blend them together near the edges.

Everything on the layout is extruded Styrofoam or cardstock (for the tunnel portals and rock sheds). This includes the boulders, which are cut to shape.

What it looked like earlier.

To cover holes and cracks, I glued pieces of foliage between the boulders and places where it was too hard to paint near the backdrop (which is just a one-inch piece of Styrofoam spray painted blue). I was careful not to use too much, since this is a dry area.

The ballast is my own special blend of grey, cinders and buff. This prevents it from looking too uniform. I also painted the track brown.

The water is a mix of deep river green and black green—the lighter colour indicating where the river is shallower near the edge. I used matt medium to make it glossy.

And that’s it—a simple but, I hope, convincing representation of an area that was close to Ken’s heart. The completed layout will be formally unveiled at the Sept. 24-25 Manitoba Mega Train show.

For some, it may be too simple: Just a train going around in a loop. But I actually find it very relaxing, sort of like watching fish in an aquarium. 

And it was a lot of fun to build. R.I. P., Ken Epp.

Click here to see all the posts about building this layout, including two videos.

Great Canadian Model Railroad: The CN Joliette Sub.

The CN Joliette Sub. is a Great Canadian Model Railroad created by Stephane Loyer of Repentigny, Québec.

The HO scale layout, which is its own 16 by 20 foot building, represents Canadian National in Quebec in 1985.

Why that place and year? That’s where Stephane grew up and where he watched trains as a young boy.

“When I was young we lived near the station at L'Assomption, Québec, and was always at the station,” he says. “I am modelling my good memories of that time.”

Although centred on a real Canadian location, the layout is proto-freelanced. Stephane does use real town names and train numbers.

The point-to-point layout has helix on the center peninsula, which takes trains down to a ten-track staging yard representing Montreal to the west and Garneau to the east. There is also two tracks representing a branchline to Riviere des Prairies.

Track is Atlas code 100; the turnouts are from Peco and Shinohara. DCC control is provided by NCE.

Industries on the layout include a cement plant, co-op grain elevator, lumber distributor, propane dealer, warehouse and team tracks. There is also an interchange with CP Rail.

Stephane’s scenery is made from red rosin paper and cardboard strips (a method promoted by Howard Zane). He also uses extruded Styrofoam and floral Styrofoam. Ground cover is sculptamold covered by various kinds of static grass and ground foam.

The backdrops come from King Mills and Realistic Backgrounds, together with one made by his wife by using panoramic photos from the area.

She stitches them together using Photoshop, prints them on a 52-inch laser printer and adheres then to vinyl before placing the backdrops on the layout.

Stephane’s roads are inspired by Mike Confalone; he screens rock dust into a bucket, then applies it to the road and fixes it with a mixture of white glue and water. After it dries, he smooths the surface with sandpaper (120 grit) and paints it with acrylic craft paint from Walmart. When dry, he adds lines and then weathering.

His deciduous trees are from scenic express. He paints the trunks camouflage brown and uses ground foam for the leaves. His evergreens are hand-made from 18-gauge wire and twisted rope.

As for his favorite scenes, he thinks it is the cement plant—it’s nine feet long—and the co-op grain elevator.

Oh, and the layout also features a model of his actual house, although the couple goodbye in the driveway are not him and his wife. (And the man peeing behind a tree isn’t anyone he knows, either.)

This fall he plans to begin operating sessions with friends. The sessions will be helped by another friend who was a CN engineer on the real-life Joliette Sub. “He will be able to tell me me all the train movements and car consists of this time period,” Stephane says.

Stephane has been a model railroader for almost 45 years, and a railroader for the last 30 years, working for CN and for VIA Rail. “I think trains are in my blood,” he says.

Stephane credits friends Michel Lapointe and Michel Bonin for inspiration and assistance with the layout, along with great model railroaders like Mike Confalone (Allagash Railway), Bob Fallowfield (CP Rail Galt Sub.) and John Parker (BNSF Fall River division) for tips and ideas.

With help from them, and with his own skills, Stephane has created a Great Canadian Model Railroad of his own.

All photos by Stephane.

What Lies Beneath

As model railroaders, we spend a lot of time fussing about what goes on top of the layout—the trains, the track, buildings, scenery, ballast, etc.

We might spend less time worrying about what lies beneath us, on the floor.

At least, that was true for me. The floor in my layout room is painted concrete, covered with leftover carpet pieces and throw rugs. Basically, anything that ceased to be useful in the upstairs part of the house.

But all that changed recently when my wife as at a dollar store and found interlocking foam for floors at $3 for a 2 x 2 piece.

This a huge saving from the foam floor mats one finds at home renovation stores. Here in Canada they run $30 for a 4 x 4 piece.

She grabbed a bunch and brought them home. Out went the old throw rugs and scrap carpet pieces and down went the foam floor mats—in a pleasing design, I might add (all her work).

So now I have a very comfortable floor to walk on (and keep me warm in winter). And not only that, it looks great, too.

Now I just have to do something to fix those saggy curtains . . . .