March 2010

A new start

          The old mill in Hudson’s Mill had been quiet for a long time.  Weeds and tall grass had found a fertile home along the concrete foundations and the fence that once kept people safely out of harms way all but returned to nature.  Some smaller, fast growing trees had pushed through ballast that once supported rusting rails.  But that was about to change.  New ownership, and a mini-building boom, had made it necessary to store and cut lumber and plywood right here in town.  This was good news for the community, good news for the railroad, and good news for me.

So, when a few weeks back, Less Frost called from the mill to asked for advice and some professional help to restore the partly buried spur, I had dropped over with a team.  We looked around, asked some questions about the load and had it ready before the end of the week.

          The brick building had sat ‘vacant’ on the layout in Hudson’s Mills for about eight years.  The components were made down on the coast (Vancouver?) by a company now gone out of business but I had other priorities and so it sat there supporting the light that was my sunset - and nothing else.  A gift and the desire for a new story line got me started on the river and the falls (See the last update) and soon the naked two-story structure next door began to look real lonely.

            The windows were detailed and the roof received a huge old air conditioning unit made of sheet aluminum and junk diesel parts.  Downspouts and various exterior do-dads were added and lights were made and installed over the freight doors.  I made an old fence because I’m not fussy enough to make a new one and then covered it with local weeds and Woodland Scenics.

            The first lumber was coming in today and I felt the need to be handy for the shipper, a new supplier and a new customer.  CN of course was old hat at this but it was their first load on this spur for some time.  Clearances had been checked but you never know about these things.  Gorman Brothers supplied the load and reps arrived from the Okanagan to see their 1st consignment delivered.  Less and his staff of one were all excited and ready to get down to business.

            There were customers lined up for this shipment – and the next – so the general feeling around here was that this was a great new enterprise.  It looked like everyone would be a winner.   I would be starting again too but as s a single railroader 24/7 I didn’t feel like a winner just yet.

          I still had one big blank wall to deal with so I dug through some of my mid to late 70’s Roughrider programs that were stored in a box down here and found an appropriate poster.  I cut it into 3-foot wide sections and rolled it on the wall leaving the hint of some poor joints. Some ground cover and the old place came to life pretty quick.  The spur it’s self was only two cars long but that’s plenty for this town and this operation.  It’s also front and center with respect to the viewer while the main line runs out of sight behind the large brick building. .

            Shortly after lunch CN arrived with a pair of bright newGP38-2W’s at the head end of thirty mixed loads.  The first car behind the power was ours.  It was a CPRail bulkhead flat out of Kelowna via Salmon Arm and Kamloops.  Left with very little room to work the old mill’s spur, the crew eased to a stop just across the bridge spotting our shipment alone on this side of the river.  While the engineer and I exchanged greetings and directions the brakeman wandered back behind the load and broke the train in two.  

            One of the things that continues to irritate me, having chosen to go with code 332 very early on in the project (because I was too cheap to buy the good stuff) is the toy-like colour and profile of the Aristocraft and LGB rail.  During the first few years of construction and finishing I simply looked away but it always jumped out at me in pictures.  Now I spray paint every new scene just to cut down the glare.  An inexpensive rattle can of undercoat will work well. Where I live the rail is as close to black as brown can get but in this case the paint had a red colour that outperformed the brown.  I may just buy a different product and go over this scene again.  You can never really tell from looking at the lid.

            All of the day’s self-anointed dignitaries had gathered in the parking lot by the power plant.  The place was cleaned up for the occasion and Less had arranged to have coffee and Tim’s on site but as a ‘plain old fashioned’ guy myself there was nothing much for me.  The press was there with a camera guy and much grinning and gripping went on while the CN crew pulled in behind the scene and prepared to set the switch into the ‘new’ Old Mill.  Then Less, the team from Gormans and myself as a spokesman for the Winter Valley all wondered over and put a hand on the switch stand for one of those silly publicity shots. 

            Always on the lookout for local authenticity in a multinational world I spied a pretty special HO scale train at a show a few years back. All of the bulkhead flats were loaded with wrapped shipments from various local producers throughout BC and Western Alberta.  The guy was selling these loads for next to nothing.  After all, they were simply a block of wood wrapped in a well-made photocopy.

            Ok.  He did this in 1/87th scale.  Could he do it three times larger and would it still come out clear and sharp when folks were up close enough to read it?  Well, it was worth a try. We talked price – for two loads – and the deed was done.  Gorman Brothers is about 6 km up the road from our house and my brother has been working there for 20 years so it was a natural choice. 

            Right on schedule and looking proud and powerful 5604 came to life with an uncharacteristic show of smoke and hot air.  A quick ‘toot’ and with the bell ringing all the way she eased into the turnout and put some weight on rails that had been resting unused for a dozen years.   Yes, there was going to have to be a little more brush clearing on the left side but I guess I was the only one who noticed that.

            I’ve already posted some details regarding the construction of the GP38-2Ws that often burble around in Winter Valley country.  As I only run USAT products the introduction of the –2 was all the incentive I needed.  Of course my first choice was to have someone out there offer a finished Safety Cab in 1/29th scale and some of us even went as far as asking a leading HO scale manufacturer to build one.  It didn’t happen.

            So this cab is built from 1/29th-scale plans and is put together piece by piece using styrene and a little bit of filler.  Perhaps I took on too much but I made it so the roof is removable and/or the whole cab is removable.  That’s because I may have to change the lights.  Next time I would rewire the headlights from below rather than reroute them through the cab as they had done at USA Trains.

            Less ran ahead of the parade of on-lookers and stood in the freight door looking seriously in charge and directing traffic while his shipment was eased into position.  Landon, his number 1, had found himself a comfortable seat on a gen-set and had been watching the whole event from afar but now with the boss back on duty it looked like quiet time was over.  He’d soon be riding a forklift and that ride wouldn’t be over until the car was empty.  And as a new guy to all this it just might take all night.

            Anyone who has visited the layout knows I’m not thrilled with the offering of 1/29th-scale figures.  Aristocraft figures are just not good enough for me (I won’t go into all the reasons) and I can’t make them good enough myself so I pretty much stick with Preiser products even though the size/scale is off by about 10%. 

            A new and very effective source for me is the plastic model car industry.  Their figures are modern, North American and come with common poses and everyday dress.  Just what a 1970’s railway needs.   Both of these figures are from the plastic car scene and they fit right in.

            The flat car is a garden variety Aristo product with that odd looking brake wheel still attached but I’ve installed steel wheels and Kadee 930 couplers just as I have on all my rolling stock. 

             Back at the power plant I spoke to the crew for a few minutes while they loaded left over donuts into a paper bag.  They’d be in Colder by mid afternoon.  There was lots of work up there so by the time they got into Winter Valley they would probably be ready to tie up for the night.   I challenged them to darts down at the Legion and I’d be buying.   I was back to a life with ‘the boys’ and I knew I wasn’t going to like it.

            Those building flats back there are made by SceniKing.  I love them.  I was introduced to the product when I needed realistic backdrops for the HO group down at the local museum.  Those ones, a 1950’s light urban scene, drew such great comments I decided to try them down here. I settled on the 1950’s small, individual urban structures and used them in three locations. 

            John Green at http://www.narwy.ca/ has installed LED lighting in all my dicast vehicles bringing some sense of life to the layout.  This is particularly effective when the room lighting is subdued.  John has done the same for about 100 HO scale vehicles as well. 

            Till the next time.

See you all at www.mylargescale.com