Rio Grande Southern: Stock Train

Moving stock on western railroads has always been big business and no less on the narrow gauge. When a large block was to be moved off the Rio Grande Southern to market the RGS and the D&RGW worked to move the stock with in the time set by law. Law was animals could not be in the cars for more than 24 hours, the shipper could make 30 hours at his risk. When the move was to be made the railroads had it set up so the cars would go from loading to trans-shipping point in this time.

A block of stock cars loaded at Rico would moved to Ridgeway. The train would have right of way over all other trains. At Ridgeway the cars would be turned over to the D&RGW and the cars would be moved to Montrose. From there they would be moved to Gunnison and from there to Salida. From there in a day or two off to market on the standard gauge.

The loading and moving to Salida was done with in the time set out as know one wanted to pay the extra cost of off loading feed and reloading on route.

It was fun producing this feature on Bill Scobie's Sn3 Layout.  Enjoy

Bill Scobie painted my Shay

Bill Scobie, is an Sn3 Modeller.  Lela and I operate his Rio Grande Southern on a regular basis.  I have had the pleasure of painting some backdrops on his layout.  I always liked the way Bill painted his Narrow Gauge  Locomotives.  As a favour, I asked him to paint, letter and weather my HO scale 3 truck Shay as LVN No.4.  This will be displayed on my modules at the upcoming Ottawa Train Expo.  Thanks again Bill for an incredible artistry and taste in this project.  Enjoy the photos.

I took the pictures outdoors in the natural sunlight.  Imagine..over 20 degrees Celsius and it is the last day of winter.

The Shay is on a small diorama I built for SLD MR 101.  The rock face is Celluclay with dirt and woodland scenics ground foam applied.  The trees are Spirea bush with dip and spin white glue as well as woodland scenics ground foam..  The ballast is pulverised granite. 

The backdrop is a 2x4 painting on Masonite.  I painted it at one of my hands on Backdrop painting clinics. 

This shot makes you feel like your on a mountain slope watching the shay go through a cut.

Roof on the Sierra West Boiler Repair

I had a great week to work on the Sierra West Boiler Repair Shop.  After gluing the sides together, I had a chance to add the rood, venting and smoke stacks.  Here are pictures of the four sides.  I changed the roofing material from tar paper to Bar mills Shingles. the burner stack is a separate item and will be glued on the module in place.

I took the photos outside in the natural light.  The doors are metal castings and the building sides are board on board over card stock.  The windows are peel and stick while the frames are board on board.  I used the Monster Nailer for all the nail holes. There  will be a porch with roof over the front entrance scene above.

 This side will eventually have doodads around it and that should liven it up quite a bit

 I used almond Krylon spray bomb on the brick part of the burner to highlight the mortar.  Then I dry brushed brown on the bricks.  Next I lightly sprayed Krylon rust primer.  Then dry brushed some rust Bragdons on it.  The door was done with smoke and black brown Vallejo paint and while wet I dabbed on some dark Bragdon rust powder and blew off the excess.

There will be tracks going into the building at the big double doors.  There will also be an overhead crane to lift heavy metal parts and supplies off the flat cars that service this business.

Lyon Valley Northern published

I am pleased to announced that the cover and article on the Lyon Valley Northern has been published in the latest release of Canadian Railway Modeller.

Ron Newby at the Throttle

My buddy Ron Newby demonstrates how to operate a locomotive at prototypical speed.  He does some interesting yard switching and mainline running on Michel Boucher's Adirondack branch of the D&H during our recent FNG visit.

D&H Passenger Train Action

The Friday Night Group was operating Michel Boucher's D&H.  We had a blast.  After Chris and I finished our yard work in Corinth, I had a chance to video some of the action.  Chris Savage was put on a few passenger trains and this video highlights the Alco's running through Michel's superbly sceniced layout.

More Progress on the Kit

This update shows the completion and install of the windows.  the metal casted doors are painted and set in place.  next I will glue them in place, detail them a bit more and put some shades in the windows.  Then there are some other metal casting consisting of vents and pipes.  I think I am put some bracing in and stiffen the structure before assembly. 

Sierra West Boiler and Welding Shop

 This was the final kit that is part of the Sierra West Railroad Camp.  This is fun construction method.  After staining the boards you apply 2X10s horizontally onto laser cut card stock.  Then I added 1x4 frames for the windows and 6x6 around the rail car doors.  Instead of using the Sierra West Shingles I used Bar Mills.  I used the Jimmy Simmon's Monster Nailer for the nail holes and then weathered the sides.  This photo is the front wall.

 This is the left wall.  It was fun separating the Annex from the main building using the 2X12 and other horizontal boards.  The weathering is done with Bragdon Powders, A/I and MicroMark Weather it.

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 This is the right wall.  I am going to put rusted corrugated siding between the vertical boards as there is a large incinerator that goes there.

 This is the annex rear wall. 

 This is the Annex left wall.

This is the main building rear wall.  You will notice that I pooched the card stock as I first started to apply siding to the wrong side.  Lucky for me I was able to peel it off with the hobby knife.  This will not be seen when the building is assembled as it is an interior support frame.

Module Progress

The first scene is the Carpentry Shop.  They manufacture tables and chairs.  The roofs are removable and so I plan to detain the inside with machinery and manufacturing stuff.  Lots of garbage outside and maybe a wagon bringing in new wood.

Here is the warehouse and tool shed in place on the passing siding.

 The ballast was made from crushed granite sifted to scale size.

 Sift your dirt with pantihose.  It makes all the difference.

Here you can see Duluth's installed just down the track from the warehouse.  These are all Sierra West Kits.

Looking the other way the truck repair facility will go in way down in the end.

The roads have some acrylic modelling paste added to the dirt and paint to maintain flexibility and prevent cracking.

More Canadian Northern Action

The following two videos highlight operations and yard aaction on Tommy Hood's Canadian northern HO Scale Railroad.  Enjoy.

Tommy Hood's Canadian Northern

Please sit back and enjoy Tommy Hood's Canadian Northern.  This HO Scale Model Railroad is located in Ottawa.  Tommy has a rich history in the hobby.  He was the co-founder of CDS Lettering which was the mainstay for all of us when we wanted to paint and decal our locomotives and rolling stock.  His railroad is big and features hand layed track and long mainline running.  Lots of Scratch built tunnels and fantastic tunnel vistas.   I will be posting more videos of Tommy's layout in the near future