SW1200RS Project Revisited: Cab-end Details

I shot hundreds of photos during the year-long build of my two CP SW1200RS models in HO. I’ve gone through some photos and arranged them to show the progress of the cab-end of the locomotives, from resin to rolling.

These are the first photos of the rear of the locomotives. It shows the models still in bare resin. The pilots and GMD cowcatcher are attached, as are the side handrails, bottom step etchings, and lift hooks on the sides of the hoods.

Neat photo of the etchings that form the footboards and pockets for the M.U. hoses.

Slightly out of focus, this photo shows the footboard/M.U. cable pockets added. Both models have been sprayed with primer at this point.

Both models shot with CP Action Red. The cab roof is temporarily in place. The roof would end up being the last part to be attached.

Both models with a fresh coat of black on the rear of the cab and from the walkways down.

Stripes applied to the rear of both cabs.

Both models with the rear headlight details and all of the decals applied.

Handrails and grab irons around the rear door applied. The cab interior and roof are temporarily in place for this shot.

 

All of the handrails on these models were bent by hand.

More handrails, drop step, M.U. hoses, coupler lift bar, and train line details added.

Rear handrails and two stanchions applied.

All rear pilot details applied and painted.

 

Both models with all end details applied and painted.

Window frames and glazing added to the cab.

All-weather cab window on engineer’s side added and painted.

Roof details added: antennae and air horns.

Finished. I don’t keep trip pins on couplers for equipment that runs on my home layout, where I shot this image. These models run on the WRMRC layout so, for now at least, the pins stay.

Both models, in service on the WRMRC.

Hogs & Hay on the Leamington & St. Clair Railway

My crawl space will soon be occupied by a series of turn-back loops to get trains into and out of staging on my layout, so I’ve been going through a round of purging some of the stuff that’s been stored under there. Along with a nice set of TH&B employee timetables from the 1970s, I found some old waybills and other assorted documentation. I’m not even sure where I got this stuff.

Here are a couple of neat pieces documenting the loading hogs and hay at Blytheswood Ontario, on the Leamington & St. Clair Railway, in January of 1889.

 

Brags: RMC, New Blogs

It’s been a busy time for me over the past few weeks, so this brag post comes a bit late. I’m excited that two of my photos and an article that I wrote have been published in Railroad Model Craftsman. I’ve been quietly published in the past, but this is particularly exciting for me because it’s the first time I’ve had my photos and a humble article about model railroading in print. I encourage you to buy the January RMC because… I’m in it!

Next piece of news: I’ve started a new blog to clarify the confusion between the title of this blog and the content. When I started writing Ontario In HO Scale, I was primarily modelling at the WRMRC layout. Last year, I started building a layout in my house. Writing about my home layout has come to dominate the content of this blog, and it was obvious to me long ago that I would eventually have to change things. To that end, I’ve created The Niagara Branch. I’ll keep Ontario In HO Scale up and running, populated with posts about projects that are relevant to the WRMRC. There’s a third piece of news about my CP Sudbury Division content, but that will have to wait.

 

 

Structures Update

I made some progress on the layout over the holidays, so I’ll post a few updates to bring things up date. Check out the photo for some details.

In this scene, you’ll see two structures that have replaced stand-in shells. In the centre of the image, the concrete building is the powerhouse. It’s not finished, but it took a great number of hours to get it to this point. I feel that it’s far enough along to give a good impression of how this scene will proceed. This is the powerhouse building, loosely approximated from aerial photos of the plant. It is currently sporting the base colour that use for approximating concrete structures. It’s entirely scratch built, except for the shed building in front of it in grey primer. That building uses a Tichy kit for the side wall. I’ll scratch build the end wall and roof. This will be the enclosed building into which hopper cars are spotted for unloading of coal into the storage silo.

Behind that building is a concrete structure with brick curtain walls. This is the end of a building in the area of the paper machine, where bulk solids are delivered by boxcar. This building is finished except for the final details and clutter. Here’s a photo featuring this structure.

The building to the right is a mock-up/core of the next structure on my to-do list. Also in this photo, you’ll see that I’ve painted the facia. Next time, I’ll post more details about the facia and valance.

Just off the workbench: PC 9633

The newest addition to my small collection of locomotives to operate at the paper plant on my layout is this Atlas S2. It’s a sound-equipped model that I painted, lettered, and weathered with acrylics, powders, and graphite pencil. I made an attempt to model the paint chipping along the frame, revealing white frame stripe that was part of its former NYC paint scheme. Also of note is the non-standard application of the corporate logo: the words Penn Central do not appear on the locomotive hood, and the numerals were applied using old NYC stencils.

The above photo represents the most accurate depiction of the prototype that I can muster with my collection. The prototype locomotive and caboose were both assigned at North Tonawanda yard. In the photo below, 9633 pulls a cut of boxcars across the switch to the bulk coal storage area.