Doubleheaders Layout Tour – Saturday, 25 March 2023

Posted on February 26, 2023 by admin

The Doubleheaders Layout Tour is back!

On Saturday, 25 March 2023, our club’s CP Sudbury Division layout will be open to the public in participation with the annual Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge-Guelph and area tour, organized by the Doubleheaders Model Railway Club. This is a self-guided tour of a large number of club and private home layouts in the area.

Though there were a couple of virtual Doubleheaders tours held during the pandemic, this will be the first actual, in-person layout tour since 2019.

If you are new to the Doubleheaders tour there are over 30 different layouts you can visit, varying from large club setups to small N-scale pikes, and you can see everything from tinplate trains to scratch-built prototype models. However the layouts are spread over a large area, which makes it difficult to see them all in a day. So you should prepare for a full day of layout touring, and also maybe consider making this an annual, or at least semi-annual event to frequent over the years.

For more details and ticket information please visit the Doubleheaders Model Railway Club web site.

Please note: Though some layouts on the tour are open later, the WRMRC will only be open from 9 am to 5 pm.

The camaraderie among modellers and sharing of information are always the best parts of our hobby. We hope to see you on March 25th.

Genesis of the Action Red Era (Part 1)

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Ted Kocyla

This article was originally published in the Canadian Pacific Historical Association’s *CP Tracks* magazine (Vol 10 – No 4). It has been reproduced here to chronicle what was a massive corporate image change for the CPR, and as a guide for hobbyists who wish to model in the Action Red era.

If there were one word that could best describe the year 1968, it would have to be radical. This of course was the year which saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the fabled ‘Prague Spring’ and resulting crackdown by the USSR, the rioting at the Democratic National Convention, the full horror of Vietnam was in everyone’s living room, and the resulting demonstrations which culminated in the shootings at Kent State. On a lighter note, it was also the height of the ‘British Invasion’ of popular music, a dramatic year for NASA’s moonshot ‘Apollo’ program, and the beginning of ‘Trudeau-mania’; undeniably all radical events in their own ways.

Those feelings of radical change even seemed to spill into the railway industry as this was the year of the mega-mergers, and saw the beginnings of Seaboard Coast Line, Penn Central and Burlington Northern. On top of this, there were several proposed mergers including; Chesapeake & Ohio with N&W, Illinois Central with the Gulf Mobile & Ohio, UP versus CNW for the Rock Island, and CNW with the Milwaukee Road. Fortunately the collapse of PC put all mergers into question and only the IC-GM&O proposal went through.

With all these radical events unfolding throughout 1968, it’s easy to forget that the management within Canadian Pacific decided to undergo a radical change of corporate identity themselves. Whether it was due to the attitudes of the times, or just to counter Canadian National’s dramatic image change of 1960, the decision to scrap the ages old CP beaver shield along with the traditional maroon and grey colours was final. The only question was what to replace it with?

Geometric layout of the CP Multimark logo.

It should be noted that this was a change of corporate image, not simply a new paint scheme for the railway’s locomotives. The new image would be applied to all aspects of Canadian Pacific Limited, from airplanes, to ships, to trucks, to hotels, to real estate, and to the railway. For this purpose, CP turned to the noted New York advertising agency of Lippincott & Margulies, known in the railway circles for coming up with the ‘Big Sky Blue’ imagery of the Great Northern, and later the corporate logo and colours of the new Burlington Northern. The final product was a drastic departure from CP’s traditionally conservative imagery.

To begin, the name Canadian Pacific was discarded, and new CP acronyms were created for each corporate division; CP Air, CP Ships, CP Express, CP Transport, CP Hotels, and of course CP Rail. The lettering style chosen for these new acronyms was that modernistic ’60s font; Helvetica. Holding company Canadian Pacific Limited was represented in plain Helvetica font, but all CP divisions featured it bolded and italicized. Also, the old beaver shield was shed and replaced by a new corporate logo, coined the Multimark. This geometric symbol was a simple rectangle overshadowed by a white half-circle, with a triangle on-edge piercing the ensemble.

The image may seem simplistic and almost childlike to many railway buffs, but it was meant to convey a variety of universal connotations to the casual viewer. The rectangle denoted stability and longevity, while the circle represented the globe and CP’s multinational nature. Officially the triangle signified the companies progressiveness and motion, however it also instilled the imagery that it was about to encircle the globe, a reminder of CP’s old corporate slogan “Spans the World”.

Each division of Canadian Pacific in turn received their own colours for their equipment to wear; green for CP Ships, orange for CP Air, blue for CP Express and CP Transport, and red for CP Rail. The red chosen for the railway was a vibrant shade mixing orange and red (similar to vermilion), and was coined ‘Action Red’ by Lippincott & Margulies.

Though ‘Action Red’ was chosen for the railway division, not all equipment was to be painted red. Lippincott & Margulies envisioned that different car types would each have their own colour, and painted a number of O-scale models to demonstrate the concept.

Though red was chosen as the dominant colour for the railway, not all equipment was to be painted red, and various car types would feature their own colours. Red would be used for general service cars, green for newsprint service, yellow for insulated cars, silver for mechanical refrigeration, black for bulk commodities, and yellow for the caboose. Indeed, an almost forgotten fact was that the original recommendation from Lippincott & Margulies was to paint CP Rail’s locomotives black, with a white and red multimark – yes the same way their hoppers were painted. An O-scale GP35 locomotive was even so painted by the ad agency to demonstrate the scheme.

Ad agency Lippincott & Margulies painted this O-scale GP35 as part of their advertising pitch for the new CP Rail image. The original idea was black locomotives, with a white and red Multimark. Thankfully the CPR president wasn’t impressed, and ordered they change it to red.

Apparently CP president Norris R. Crump was not happy with their choice of colours, and was reported to have mumbled something to the effect of ‘paying thousands of dollars for these units, so we’re not going to paint them black’ (reportedly profanity was also involved). Upon his insistence, the scheme was quickly changed to red, with a white and black Multimark, matching the colours chosen for boxcars. On a personal note, I thank Mr. Crump to this day for his attention to imagery and his choice of red. Can anyone envision what CP’s locomotives would have looked like if they stuck with black, especially after they dropped the Multimark in the late ’80s? It would have made Norfolk Southern’s diesels look elaborate.

While the thought, creativity and marketing behind this imagery was certainly ingenious and innovative, it must also be viewed in a historical context as a failure. Despite its use on the sides of everything from boxcars, containers, aircraft and hotel entrances around the world, most people off the street would identify the symbol as ‘Pacman’. Indeed many railfans now incorrectly identify CP’s 1968 adopted Multimark, as this Atari video game character created in 1979. Contrast this with CN’s effective yet simple ‘Wet Noodle’, voted recently as one of the top-50 international corporate logos of all time. Show that CN noodle to anyone from Gander to Prince Rupert and they will correctly think of Canadian National and trains. Could the same be said of the CPR if you showed them the Multimark? Sadly, the only surprise from CP dropping the ‘Multi’ as their logo in 1987, was that it was not done sooner.

The Multimark appeared on everything Canadian Pacific owned; on trains, airplanes, ships, trucks, overseas containers, hotels, and resorts. You could even buy a lunchbox with new CP Rail trains and airplanes featured on them. Sadly, when shown the logo now, most Canadians would probably identify it as Atari’s video game character ‘Pacman’.

The first locomotive painted in the new Action Red CP Rail scheme was C-424 #4242, with sister #4239 following right behind in September of 1968. They were soon accompanied by nine different freight cars, each painted in their appropriate action colours; a green 50’ newsprint boxcar, a silver mechanical reefer, a black cylindrical hopper, a yellow insulated-heated boxcar, a 50-foot 202000-series double door boxcar, a 40’ NSC boxcar, a 53’ mill gondola, and 53’ flatcar all painted in general-service action red. There was also a yellow caboose numbered CP 438850, which was former streamlined cupola van #437450, freshly rebuilt by Angus with a new wide-vision cupola. This was the first of a long line of new ‘saddle-back’ vans constructed by the CPR.

The new colours were officially unveiled in Montreal on 03 October, 1968. Shortly thereafter the 4242 and 4239 were enlisted to pull this diminutive nine-car train across the system to display the new image to the nation. Most readers have probably seen the famous Nicholas Morant publicity shot of 4242 and 4239 pulling this train through the spiral tunnels in Yoho, BC. This picture was posed, and the train was split to give the appearance that the freight was coiled inside the tunnel and crossing underneath itself, but there were in fact only nine cars.

CP new image display train posed at the spiral tunnels in Yoho, BC. Despite it appearing to loop around itself, the display train was only nine cars long.

The initial CP Rail locomotive scheme is exemplified by Nicholas Morant’s publicity shots of 4242 and 4239. From the frame down, the locomotive was black, while the entire hood and cab sections were action red. The Multimark was positioned on the extreme rear of the engine, and was painted the full height of the unit. In this way the new action red scheme shared a similar trait as the old maroon and grey, both were direction dependant. For example, on locomotives that were set for long-hood forward operation such as an RS-3 or RS-10, the Multi was painted on the short-hood.

The CP Rail logo and cab numbers were painted white, in italicized bold Helvetica font. The CP Rail name was placed over the engine access doors, as forward as they possibly allowed towards the cab. They were also placed as high as the hood doors allowed. These features identified all early painted units, as over time it was found that lettering over hinges, louvers and handles was a pain. The CP Rail logo was soon lowered or moved over to avoid obstructions depending on the locomotive type.

Anyone operating with MS Windows and wanting to create their own CP Rail heralds or decals may be tempted to use Arial font. Microsoft developed this as a Helvetica-based font to avoid paying royalties. It is close, but in a side-by-side comparison you can see the differences.

On the front of the unit, alternating 5” wide white and red angled stripes were placed over the entire nose, cab face and battery box fronts. When viewed head-on the striping lined up to give them a continuous flow. Painting the entire face of the unit in this narrow striping gave the locomotive a busy look, and it was quickly coined the ‘candy-stripe’ scheme by modellers and railfans alike.

On the rear of the unit, alternating 5” white and black (continuing the black from the triangle of the Multimark) striping was applied, and strictly to the hood section. On “DRF” class units (road freight) lacking numberboards on the rear hood, a white letter panel was painted near the centre with black road numbers applied inside.

All handrail stanchions were painted red, while the handrails themselves and all grabirons around the unit were black. On 4242 and 4239 the handrail runners up the access stairs of the units were red below the frame, and black above it. Later for safety reasons these runners were simply re-painted white, and all additional locomotives received this same treatment.

The first locomotive to be painted Action Red was MLW C-424 #4242, released from Angus shops in September 1968. Sister C-424 #4239 followed immediately after, and both powered the official CP Rail display train across Canada though October 1968. Photo courtesy cprdieselroster.

Over the course of the action red era, many of these features changed. Not only the position of the CP Rail, but Multimark sizes, striping thickness and application, rear number panel colours all changed. Finally, the Multimark was dropped in 1987, and action red was abandoned altogether in 1993; replaced by the deeper SOO Line instituted ‘System Red’ and the unimaginative dual-flag CP Rail System logo. By 1996, CP came to their senses and renamed the railway back to Canadian Pacific, and resurrected a new golden beaver shield. You can say what you want about the application of this scheme, but few would argue that Canadian Pacific currently has the classiest railroad logo in the industry.

Part two continues here: The Action Red Era (Part 2) – Locomotive Paint Scheme Variations

January Operating Session: Saturday Jan 14, 2023

Posted on January 5, 2023 by admin

We hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday season, and that the new year brings you peace, joy and good health.

Speaking of the 2023, our first operating session of the year will be held this upcoming Saturday, January 14th 2023, from 12:00 until about 6:30PM.

If you are interested in attending the operating session as a guest, please contact us via our Facebook page or send us e-mail so we know how many people to expect.

(Note: we will do our best to accommodate visiting operators, however this is dependent on session attendance numbers and available operating positions.)

For a full list of club events in 2023, please see our calendar page.

Kitbashing Basics – Upgrade a ScaleTrains ‘Kit Classics’ Havelock Shops Gondola

Posted on January 2, 2023 by Ted Kocyla

We published a blog post a number of years ago about resuscitating old kits, in the hope it would inspire more hobbyists to kitbash and upgrade older models. However it wasn’t really a representative ‘how-to’ guide as the core kit came with separate detail parts, so that upgrade was just a case of adding finer details, matching the paint, and weathering to finish. So this article was written to assist any new modellers who might be apprehensive about taking a hobby knife to a plastic model.

Aside from showing some basic techniques, this article is also an attempt to answer the griping that happens on a lot of model railroad forums about the prices of today’s exquisite ready-to-run (R-T-R) pre-assembled models. If you are a newcomer to the hobby and/or on a budget, there are some manufacturers who are trying to help you by producing classic ‘shake-the-box’ model kits. The big one a good number of rail modellers seem to forget about is Accurail, who’ve been producing an extensive line of easy to build freight car kits for over 30 years now.

Now recently ScaleTrains have entered the field, (yes, the same company who are better known for producing those museum-quality R-T-R models that the price-gripers like complaining about) by introducing their more affordable ‘Kit Classics’ line of easy-to-build rolling stock kits. The following is a step-by-step guide to updating their Havelock Shops gondola.

Here is the base body of the Scale Trains Havelock Shops gondola as it comes out of the box. Paint and lettering is crisp, and the moulding is fine too. If you simply assemble and weather the model as is, it would look good. But by replacing the moulded-on details, adding a few extra parts and decals, and then finishing with a good weathering job, you will create a model that really pops.

Before we begin, an explanation may be in order as to why the CP Sudbury Division would require a Chicago Burlington & Quincy gondola. Well, we do model a portion of the CPR transcon line across Canada, and though the majority of the traffic we’d see is domestic, there are always a few interlopers from south of the border in any manifest freight. Of those US companies, the Burlington Northern (the 1970 merger that swallowed the CB&Q along with three other railroads) was a large and friendly interchange partner. To top it off, the WRMRC has two photos in our archive which show BN gondolas in Sudbury yard. We have not figured out why, but clearly having some BN and predecessor company gondolas on the club roster was warranted. Furthermore, this particular gondola is a good one, as these were signature BN cars home-built by the Burlington’s Havelock Shops (located outside Lincoln, Nebraska), so kits painted for BN and original CB&Q were acquired for the Sudbury Division roster.

The first step is to carefully scrape away the moulded-on grab irons. Though most modellers use X-Acto knives for this, the author was a former biology student and prefers scalpels.

The kitbashing begins with the removal of all moulded-on grab irons from the gondola sides. X-Acto knives are the traditional tools for this in model railroading, but I highly recommend scalpels. I learned to use them many years ago as a biology undergrad, and just like the feel of them when doing precision cutting. Frankly, nothing beats a fresh #10 scalpel blade for cutting styrene plastic, however I urge basic caution. These blades were obviously designed for cutting flesh, so always cut away from your hand. Also you should wear eye protection. Plastic is tougher than flesh, and you can break the blade if you force and bend it too much, causing the business-end to go flying. Nevertheless you may want to give them a try, and most better hobby shops carry the handles and various sized blades. You can actually sense the undulations and unevenness in the plastic with each pass, which helps as you scrape away the offending moulded-on details from your models.

On the gondola ends, a smaller #15 scalpel blade was used to carve out the ladder rungs while keeping the upright side-rails intact. This photo shows what a difference this makes between the left and (as yet) unmodified right ladders.

To help the appearance of the car ends, the ladder rungs were cut away using a smaller number 15 scalpel blade. The method is to cut on small diagonals in each direction, and eventually chip away each ladder rung while maintaining the ‘rolling pin’ pattern of the Dreadnought ends. Be advised that even after sanding with a small sanding block, you will never achieve a perfect ‘unhacked’ finish. But that doesn’t matter as weathering done to the car will help hide any imperfections the cutting leaves behind.

I had considered removing all traces of the ladders by cutting out the side-rails as well. However that would be almost as much work as cutting off the ends entirely, and rebuilding with old boxcar Dreadnought-ends I have laying around in my spare parts collection (yes, I considered that too). The later option would provide a clean car end, and would be the way to go if building a contest model. I quickly realized that either option would require a lot more effort than I was willing to spend on this project, and replacing the rungs alone was enough to help give the ladder depth and greatly improve the appearance.

After scraping away as much as possible, drill #79 holes for the new grab irons by using the shadows of the old moulded-on details. Sanding is done afterwards to remove any scratching or imperfections left behind. Sanding first would make positioning the drill locations more difficult.

The next step is to use a pin vice to drill #79 holes for the new wire grab irons, using the shadows of the old ones as your placement guide. It is easier doing this now, before any sanding that will widen those shadows. You can shave and sand away any remaining imperfections once all the holes are drilled.

I utilized Tichy Train 18″ phosphor bronze drop grab irons for my car, but any manufacturer’s scale 18″ wire grab irons (Detail Associates, A-Line, etc) will work just the same. Tichy calls for drilling #80 holes for their product, but I prefer a slightly larger hole to take into account the cyanoacrylate superglue that the grabs will be dipped in prior to positioning. Aside from making it easier to slide the wire in, I also have a habit of breaking #80 bits with little effort on my part. So I stand a much better chance at drilling all 32 holes required using a #79 without breaking another drill bit.

New scale-18″ grab irons are installed by cutting back the wire ends to about 6 scale inches (to keep them from protruding inside the gondola) and then dipping each end in a puddle of cyanoacrylate (otherwise known as CA ‘superglue’) prior to installation. Note that the very top grabiron is positioned upside-down in relation to the other three.

I also cut down each grab iron end to about 6 scale inches, and with Tichy using phosphor bronze wire, cutting them back is easy. This way the grab irons will stick out about three scale inches from the carbody (as they should) without the wires protruding inside the gondola body. After installation, sand the gondola insides around those holes to remove the imperfections as best you can. Between the sanding, gap-filling CA superglue, and rust painting/weathering that will be done later, those grab iron holes should pretty much disappear by the end.

Now for the gondola ends the process is much easier. I simply glued pieces of 0.1″ styrene rod across the side-rails to replace each ladder rung. You can use either CA superglue or any MEK-based plastic weld for this. Once the glue is dry, you can trim and sand down any rod sticking out past the side-rails. Admittedly, I employed a quick and ad hoc method of ladder replacement, but it’s easy and effective. This is a big improvement in appearance with minimal effort, and after painting and weathering it will be difficult for the layout observer to tell that the end-ladders are not a separate detail part.

Ladder rung replacement was done simply by gluing lengths of 0.1″ styrene rod. It’s a quick and ad hoc method, but it accomplishes the task with minimal effort.

After all the grab irons and ladder rungs are replaced, the next step is to add some super-detail parts to the gondola, specifically coupler cut-levers and brake-line hoses to the gondola ends. Since all the new details still need to be painted, I leave the already coloured black brake hoses to the very end before I weather the car. There are many different pre-bent coupler cut-levers offered by many manufacturers, but I had none in my collection that worked. So being a ~~cheap~~ frugal modeller, I elected to simply bend my own using 0.1″ phosphor bronze wire with a fine pair of needle-nose pliers. To attach them, a #79 hole was drilled into the bottom-left side sill of each gondola end, and eye bolts glued in place (see photo below). Then slide the cut-lever in through the eye bolt, and fasten the wire against the bottom of the coupler with CA superglue. If you ever need to service the car in the future it’s easy enough to break this bond, and then just re-glue the cut-lever and touch-up the paint.

Coupler cut-levers were fabricated by bending 0.1″ phosphor bronze wire, and attached using brass eye bolts fixed to the bottom-left side sills of the gondola ends.

The next step is to repaint all the detail parts, and the resulting damage caused from kitbashing the gondola. I use an airbrush for this, but the number of great quality acrylic hobby paints available these days makes it easy to brush paint too. The only hard part is picking a red that’s a close match to the original gondola colour. ScaleTrains recommends Tru-Color TCP-086 Burlington Red, but this is a solvent-based paint and I’ve long ago switched to airbrushing with water-based acrylics.

The CB&Q was famous for their Chinese Red painted equipment, which was a very vibrant shade of red. Now being a 1970s CP Rail modeller, I have lots of CP Action Red in stock, but there is too much orange in that shade of red. So I tried my luck by opening a bottle of TrueLine Trains (long out of production) post-’90s CP ‘Bright’ Red, which is the same colour as 1970-80s era Soo Line ‘Full Signal’ Red. Looking inside the bottle it looked pretty close to me, so I loaded it up in my airbrush and was pleasantly surprised that I could not see any difference. I got lucky here. If you also prefer a current production acrylic paint, all I can suggest is try to find a Chinese Red shade as close as possible. Also, maybe reach out to CB&Q modellers on-line as to what they recommend.

After masking the end reporting marks with small pieces of green painters tape, and wrapping some tape around the couplers, all the worked-on areas of the car were airbrushed to match the original CB&Q Red. I got lucky that old TrueLine Trains CP/SOO ‘Bright’ Red was an exact match. A piece of paper was simply held while airbrushing to protect the lettering along the gondola sides.

Turning to the inside of the gondola, the top was masked to protect from overspray, then airbrushed with a coat of Mission Models ‘Standard Rust’ as a base. If the name is new to you, they are a US company that make wonderful acrylic hobby paints. They are well known to military modellers, but they do have a weathering line that rail modellers should learn about. Getting back to painting, this rust coat is just a base as weathering will be completed with various powders and stains. If you don’t own an airbrush, then Mission Models paints can also be brush painted. So with both the exterior paint repaired and interior now given a rust coat, the gondola is ready for weathering.

The inside of the gondola was airbrushed with Mission Models MMW-005 ‘Standard Rust’ as a base. This will be further weathered with various stains and powders.

It should be noted that before you begin any upgrades or kitbashing, it is highly recommended that you try to find some photographs of the prototype to assist you. Not only does it help you with detailing, but they will also show if any extra decals need to be applied, and they also aid with weathering. In my case, I was lucky enough to find a photo on RRPictureArchives.net of the exact gondola; CB&Q 83453.

When kitbashing, finding prototype photos beforehand is always highly recommended. A 1980s photo of the real CB&Q 83453 showed where additional COTS stencil, ACI label, and white frame stripe decals needed to be applied. For weathering, it also shows where dirt tends to accumulate.

This was a photo taken in the 1980s by Chuck Zeiler, and it shows the gondola with new ladders added on the car sides, versus the as-built separate grab irons. I have come to learn that Burlington Northern was gradually replacing these on all the old Havelock shops gondolas over time. However in our modelling period of the 1970s this gondola would be under 10 years old, and probably still had the separate grab irons. As mentioned earlier, I purchased a BN painted model too, and I will probably add ladders to that gondola when the time comes. This actually makes it easier to kitbash, as a ladder is much easier to glue on versus installing all those wire grabs. A final note about the proto-photo, you will notice there are also some very recently spray-bombed grey lines painted along the tops of the car. However for my purposes, that’s a fairly recent detail I didn’t need to duplicate.

Another thing this photo helped determine was where the COTS stencil and the ACI label were located (this differs from car to car) so I could duplicate this exactly by adding decals (Microscale, if anyone was wondering) in the appropriate locations. There were also white frame stripes which the CB&Q applied to the gon as built, but which ScaleTrains failed to add. These were also applied to my model by using scraps of white decal remnants I hold on to for just such an occasion. After the addition decals were added the gondola was sprayed with a flat coat to protect and seal everything, and was now ready for weathering.

Though gondolas are among the most abused pieces of freight equipment in the industry, these Havelock gons would have still been in decent shape in our club’s modelling period. In their first years they were initially equipped with covers and used to haul concentrate ores, which is a fancy term for sand. It was not until the mid-70s that BN began using these cars in general service, which is when these gondolas could potentially begin showing up on the Sudbury Division. So my weathering treatment was limited to just adding grime and rust.

Photos showed the majority of the dirt tended to collect along the exterior posts of the gondola. That heavy reinforcement bottom sill plate also collected dirt too, along with the area around the grab irons. The gondola ends also collect serious road grime. All of this can be reproduced with hobby weathering powders and a good angled paint brush.

Studying prototype photos, I concluded that the majority of the grime would collect along the sides of the exterior posts. Interestingly the posts themselves stay relatively clean, and it’s the area around them that mainly collects dirt. Road grime would also collect around the heavy reinforcement sill plate that runs between the bolsters, and of course some serious filth would also build up on the gondola ends. The area around the grab irons would get grimy too, thanks to employee’s greasy gloves. All of this can be reproduced with weathering powders. There are plenty of great products out there to try; AIM weathering powders, Vallejo effects, AK Interactive pigments, or PanPastel artists pastels are just a few of the wonderful brands that can help you age your models. Don’t be afraid of mixing various pigments, because dirt isn’t all the same colour and texture in reality.

After spreading multiple rust powders and general soot to the interior, Tamiya panel line accent (shown here drying) was applied to highlight the separate boards of the gondola floor. A little more rust powder was then added to blend any irregularities, and all was sealed with flat finish.

Turning to the gondola interior, the first step was to apply multiple grades of rust and general soot coloured weathering pigments. Afterwards, I applied black Tamiya panel line accent to bring out the detail of the separate boards on the gondola floor. To finish, some more rust powder was added here and there to blend any irregularities, and then everything was sealed with a spray of flat coat to protect the weathering.

It should be noted some modellers supplement their interior weathering even further by gluing small piles of real crushed rust flakes inside their gondolas. While I encourage this, I avoided doing it myself as this gondola will be hauling multiple inserted loads on our club layout, and these rust piles have a habit of interfering with how the loads sit. But otherwise, it is an excellent way to further enhance the realism of your weathering.

Weathering around the gondola ends was also done with powders. The grime usually accumulates around ladders, in between protruding ribs, and on top of the crossover platform. Aside from enhancing realism, adding dirt really brings out the ladder rung replacement efforts too.

Turning to the gondola ends these get particularly filthy, for that matter this is true for most rail cars. The reason is that dirt is kicked up from the trucks, in addition to employees causing grime to accumulate around the end-ladders and on the crossover platforms. Also, much like the exterior posts on the sides, the areas between any protruding ribs seem to collect more road grime. Again, all of this was duplicated using weathering pigments. As a bonus, and with the efforts from the earlier ladder rung replacement, the weathering pigments collecting around the end-ladders help give the appearance they are separate from the carbody. And as mentioned earlier, the weathering also help conceal any scrapes or scratches left over after sanding.

Photo showing the finished weathering on the main body, but with the trucks yet to be completed. This helps illustrate that even the best weathering efforts are unconvincing if the trucks are left in their kit-supplied shiny plastic and metal state.

With the main weathering completed, I then airbrushed a light spray of Mission Models MMP-123 ‘Rail Tie Brown’ to the underbody to help highlight the brake details. The beauty of this being a ScaleTrains kit, the underbody brake details are a one-piece separate detail complete with brake rods and levers. All the weathering efforts were then protected by spraying the gondola body with Tamiya flat coat, right from a rattle can. If you’re still using Dullcoat, give Tamiya a try. You’re welcome!

Wheel treads were masked with green painters tape, then airbrushed with MMP-105 ‘Worn Black’.

Aside from the brake detail, ScaleTrains also supply these kits with their excellent 100-ton trucks, including their high-quality free-rolling metal wheelsets. Which brings up a pet peeve of mine; going to the trouble of aging and weathering a model, then leaving the trucks unweathered. Even the best weathering efforts are thoroughly unconvincing if the trucks are left in their kit-supplied shiny plastic and metal state. And it’s relatively easy to do, I just masked off the wheel treads and airbrushed the trucks with Mission Models MMP-105 ‘Worn Black,’ though any dark grey-camouflage colour will work. You can go further by painting the wheel faces and insides a rusty colour, but with trucks being in the shadows anyhow, I find these extra efforts are lost on most casual layout observers. As long as the trucks are grimy, that’s good enough for a layout model. And with the trucks weathered, the gondola is ready to enter revenue service.

The finished gondola, ready to enter revenue service on the CP Sudbury Division layout.

In conclusion, the techniques high-lighted here were once common practices in the hobby, before all the expensive R-T-R models arrived. So I encourage anyone new to the hobby, or those sitting on an armchair for years, to invest a bit in the tools required and to begin hacking up any inexpensive, shake-the-box kits that tickle your fancy. Yes, there’s a trial and error period at the beginning, but you learn more by messing up and fixing your mistakes. There is also the satisfaction of upgrading and owning a unique model for your layout. So if you’re inspired to try, these inexpensive ScaleTrains ‘Kit Classics’ are a great place to start. Then try an Accurail model. Personally, I find upgrading kits to be one of the most satisfying aspects of the hobby, and I hope more modellers will discover this too.

B&O F-Units in Twilight

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Ted Kocyla

Part 3 of That ’70s Rent-a-Wreck Fleet

Introduction was: That ’70s Rent-a-Wreck Fleet
Part 2 was: The Saga of the Bellequip Geeps

By the time Canadian Pacific had fully dieselized their system in the early spring of 1960, a recession had hit the North American markets. Additionally, the CPR was realizing all the efficiencies that a 100% diesel roster provided, and was beginning to unlock their fleet’s full potential. These factors caused the CPR to cancelled purchase orders with General Motors Diesel for more GP9 and SW1200RS locos which were scheduled for delivery later in 1960-61, and it doomed all remaining stored steam power for good. It also created a stable four-year period between 1960-64 for the CPR’s motive power needs, where they rostered sufficient locomotives to meet all traffic demands. From 1964 right up to the present day, the Canadian Pacific Railway would never again have such a time.

A great illustration of what a colourful time the 1970s were for CP Rail. Here we see script-lettered GP9 8676 coupled with B&O F7A 4517 (one of few leasers to wear the early ’60s *Sunburst* scheme) as they assemble freight #912 at S.S.Marie ON on 18 March 1973. (Ted Ellis photo)

Over the winter of 1964 the CPR entered the wonderful world of locomotive leasing. Forced into it by a sharp traffic upturn, their short-term solution was to lease several A-B-A sets of Union Pacific Alco-built FA-1 and FB-1 locomotives. These 1600hp cab units were early diesels built after the war in the late 1940s, and they were never a favourite of the UP who tended to run them hard with deferred maintenance. In fact the UP had tied-up this fleet earlier in 1963, and then re-activated them specifically for the CPR to lease. When they were returned later in 1964, the UP promptly retired them all and used them for trade-in for credits on new EMD locomotives. They literally ran their last miles over the CPR.

After dipping their toes into leasing with the cantankerous UP FA-1/FB-1 fleet, Canadian Pacific refined their rental practices throughout the late 1960s into a useful and effective strategy. Future leases included diesels from such diverse owners as the Bessemer and Lake Erie, Boston and Maine, Bangor and Aroostock, and the Chicago Great Western. All of these leasers proved to be of much greater reliability, and held a number of assignments over this time. Though they operated mainly in the CP Eastern Region, it was not unheard of for leasers to reach as far west as Calgary. Leasing numbers were highest over the winter months when traffic levels hit their peak, and coincidentally when CP’s own locomotive reliability stats suffered from the legendary cold Canadian climate.

Locomotive leasing really peaked in the early 1970s, as CP Rail began running robot coal trains to the new Roberts Bank Superport, and the Canadian government had inked large grain export contracts with both the Soviet Union and China. By January 1972, CP Rail already had over 75 leased units in service, primarily from locomotive leasing pioneer Precision National Corp. But by February the motive power crunch hit a critical point, and CP was forced to take anything that was available. Enter the Baltimore & Ohio F-unit lease fleet.

Travelling between Sudbury and Smiths Falls over the Chalk River line, B&O 4487 leads GP9 8493, M-636 4731 and FA-1 4015 on train #974 through Carleton Place ON on 27 February 1973. This photo helps illustrate two points; that B&O F7As could and did lead while leased to the CPR, and that the motive power bureau wasn’t too picky about diesel arrangements when lashing locomotives together during the 1970s. (Bruce Chapman photo)

The once mighty B&O F-unit fleet had become a shadow of its former self by the early 1970s. Back in the day they were a staple of mainline operations, featuring 155 F7A and 104 F7B units. There were also older F3 models (some upgraded to F7 standards) along with second-hand F7’s purchased from the Bessemer & Lake Erie, and a number of 7000-series F7A’s transferred from the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O had acquired controlling interest in the B&O in 1962). However by 1972 the B&O F7-fleet was significantly diminished through attrition, and were being used as trade-in bate towards new EMD GP38 and GP40 locomotives. The surviving F-units were holding down secondary freight and local coal mine shunting assignments. To put it bluntly, they were in rough shape.

Entering its second winter season on lease to CP Rail, venerable B&O F7B 5529 is seen here sandwiched between sister B&O F7A 4587 and CP C-424 4243 at Smiths Falls ON on 26Dec72. (Bruce Chapman photo)

The B&O began transferring the F-units from Detroit MI on 08 February 1972, and all the leasers were initially inspected at CP’s Windsor Yard before entering service. In a foreshadowing of their decayed state of maintenance, five of the first leaser locomotives to arrive were judged to be mechanically unsound and were returned to the B&O. Another five units would arrive later to comply with the lease contract. (See roster below for details.)

The CPR was in such desperate shape for power that the first three units accepted for lease (F7A 4622 & 4646, F7B 5498) were almost immediately placed on local manifest freight #74, and left Windsor ON for CP’s Agincourt Yard in Toronto on February 10th, 1972. After arrival the trio were promptly placed on train #955 to travel north up the MacTier Sub to Sudbury ON, and eventually wound up in Chapleau ON the following day.

Ultimately a total of 28 F7A, F7B and even a pair of FP7 diesels would be leased to the CPR over the 1972 traffic crunch. Most wore the spartan post-B&O/C&O merger Enchantment Blue scheme, but at least two F7A locos (4487 & 4499) and an F7B (5477) were still sporting the classic late-50s B&O double blue / yellow pinstripe scheme. Another trio of F7A units (4517, 4622 and 4645) wore the remains of B&O’s famous, albeit short-lived early 1960s ‘Sunburst’ scheme, though all their noses had been repainted and lost their attractive sun rays in the process. As if that wasn’t enough variety, all the 7000-series F7A locos transferred from parent Chesapeake & Ohio were wearing hastily patched C&O paint in various states of degradation.

The former identity of B&O F7A 7054 is hard to miss as she leads CP RS-3 8431 and SW1200RS 8161 on an eastbound at Smiths Falls ON on 18 February 1972. All the B&O’s ex-C&O cab units on lease to CP were in various states of paint decay as such. (Bruce Chapman photo)

As one would expect, this combination of B&O paint variations coupled with CP’s own radical corporate image change, plus the riot of colours available in the leased ‘rent-a-wreck’ fleet, resulted in a particularly vibrant period of CPR motive power lash-ups. Possibly the wildest incident involving B&O leasers (recounted by a credible source) was of a CPR employee (and closet railfan) who proceeded to chase northbound train 955 from Toronto up the MacTier Sub into a blinding snowstorm. The reason? On the point was a perfect A-B-A consist of B&O 4487, 5477 and 4499, all adorned in the old late-’50s double blue / yellow pinstripe scheme.

B&O 5498 is the trailing unit on train #911 at Nairn ON on the WRMRC’s CP Sudbury Division layout. Model was completed by the author from a powered Intermountain F7B, with Polyscale paints and Microscale decals. The unique B&O spark arrestors were scratchbuilt from styrene.

Whether it came down to duct-tape, bailing wire and ball-peen hammers to keep these weary beasts rolling, the CPR shop crews faithfully maintained these F-units until the initial lease ended in August of 1972. But only four short months later a number of these original leased units would return again, along with a few new numbers, to help out with the ’72-’73 winter season. All B&O F-units went off lease and were returned to home rails by the end of April 1973.

However it would not be the end of spotting leased ‘Chessie’ power on the CPR, as they and successor Chessie System (the official merger of B&O / C&O and Western Maryland) seemed to have forged a rental relationship that resulted in leased C&O GP30 and GP35 units operating through 1979-1980, and again between 1984-1989 with B&O GP38 and GP40 locos. But as Canadian Pacific began amassing their own large fleet of SD40-2 locomotives throughout the 1970s, that signalled the end of a particularly evocative and polychromatic era of locomotive leasing, and the B&O F’s were operating right in the middle of it all.

On a final note, the Baltimore & Ohio F-unit rental experience did somewhat emulate the Union Pacific’s FA-/FB-1 fleet from almost a decade earlier, as many of these F’s were placed into storage after their return to home rails. A good number also soldiered on for a while, but eventually all would be used for trade-in credits towards new Chessie System GP38-2 and GP40-2 diesels from General Motors. Just as before, there were rent-a-wrecks operating their last revenue miles on the CPR.

All-time Roster of B&O F-Units Leased to CP Rail Between 1972-73

Road No.	Model	Paint Scheme	Notes
4472	F3A	B&O Solid blue	Replacement unit from B&O – Feb 72
4477	F7A	B&O Solid blue	Failed inspection & returned – Feb 72
4487	F7A	’50s Double blue
4499	F7A	’50s Double blue
4502	F7A	B&O Solid blue
4503	F7A	B&O Solid blue	Replacement unit from B&O – Feb 72
4517	F7A	B&O ‘Sunburst’
4575	F7A	B&O Solid blue
4576	F7A	Not confirmed
4577	F7A	B&O Solid blue
4580	F7A	B&O Solid blue
4586	F7A	B&O Solid blue
4587	F7A	B&O Solid blue
4589	F7A	B&O Solid blue	Replacement unit from B&O – Feb 72
4622	F7A	B&O ‘Sunburst’
4630	F7A	B&O Solid blue	Failed inspection & returned – Feb 72
4645	F7A	B&O ‘Sunburst’	ex-B&LE acquired 1962
4646	F7A	B&O Solid blue	ex-B&LE acquired 1962
4648	F7A	B&O Solid blue	ex-B&LE acquired 1962
5420	F7B	B&O Solid blue
5424	F7B	Not confirmed
5429	F7B	B&O Solid blue
5447	F7B	B&O Solid blue	Replacement unit from B&O – Feb 72
5448	F7B	B&O Solid blue
5477	F7B	’50s Double blue
5495	F7B	B&O Solid blue	Failed inspection & returned – Feb 72
5498	F7B	B&O Solid blue
5515	F7B	B&O Solid blue
5529	F7B	B&O Solid blue	ex-B&LE acquired 1962
5533	F7B	B&O Solid blue	Failed inspection & returned – Feb 72 / ex-B&LE acquired 1962
7039	F7A	Patched C&O	ex-C&O, transferred to B&O 1962
7052	F7A	Patched C&O	Failed inspection & returned – Feb 72 / ex-C&O, transferred to B&O 1962
7054	F7A	Patched C&O	ex-C&O, transferred to B&O 1962
7081	F7A	Patched C&O	ex-C&O, transferred to B&O 1962
8009	FP7	B&O Solid blue
8011	FP7	B&O Solid blue	Replacement unit from B&O – Feb 72

Additional notes:-

Units were leased Feb 1972 to July 1972, and from Dec 1972 to April 1973.
All units received by CP at Windsor ON via C&O’s Rougemere Yard / Detroit MI.
Initially 28 units were listed by Extra2200South magazine – March 1972.
The fleet was down to 10 units by end of Feb ’73 (X2200S, no numbers listed).
All returned by May 1973, a number were stored after return. All retired by parent Chessie System by 1975.

References: Extra2200South, Bruce Chapman, Bruce Mercer and Greg McDonnell.

The Sudbury Ore Car Fleet

Posted on October 17, 2022 by Chris van der Heide

It was during the construction of the CPR during the 1880s that copper ore was discovered and sparked a flurry of mineral exploration and mining claims. Since then, Sudbury has been known as a major mining and smelting centre, producing not just copper but becoming a world leader in the production of nickel. As the new railway opened up accessibility to the mineral resources in the area, many mining and smelting companies were incorporated such as The Canadian Copper Company, Mond Nickel, British America Nickle Co. (BANC), Dominion Nickel, International Nickel Co. (INCO), and Falconbridge Nickel.(The first four would later be absorbed by INCO to become the major player on the Sudbury scene.)

Much of this ore would be moved between the mines and the smelters by rail, so transport of both ores and finished products is a major part of the rail scene in the Sudbury area. The mining companies had their own private railways connecting some of the mines, and other mines were served by the “common carrier” railways: Canadian Pacific, Algoma Eastern (later part of CP), and Canadian Northern (later Canadian National).

Sometime around 1910, the Hart-Otis Car Company of Montreal patented a drop-bottom gondola design, whereby doors in the floor of the car could be operated by geared handles on the ends of the car to discharge its load to the sides of the track, which would quickly become popular across Canadian railways with short steel versions of these cars being adopted as the standard car for shipping raw ore for INCO in the Sudbury region.

The Pre-1920 CC&F Cars

CP 370094 was built in 1916 as part of the AE 2801-2925 series and renumbered to CP around 1932. John Brown photo (WRMRC collection), 1970.

The early Hart-Otis design cars used by INCO were a 22’5″ interior length car with 4 drop-bottom doors on each side. Interior bracing give the cars a nice smooth-sided appearance. Canadian Pacific, Canadian Northern (later Canadian National), Algoma Eastern, and INCO themselves all rostered cars to this basic design and size. (When CP went to a larger car size as we will see below, CN and INCO continued to also use cars of this smaller size at some of their operations.)

The CP cars were built (probably by Canadian Car & Foundry in Montreal) in three batches totaling 200 cars between 1914 and 1919. Another 125 were built for the Algoma Eastern, which would later be transferred to CP in the early 1930s after CP leased the AER and absorbed its operations. An unknown number of identical cars were also owned by INCO.

By the 1970s only a tiny handful of these older cars would still survive.

Series	#Cars	IL	Builder	Date	Note
CP 370000-370124	125	22’5″	CC&F	1916	ex-AE 2801-2925 /32
CP 371200-371239	40	22’5″	CC&F?	1914
CP 371240-371259	20	22’5″	CC&F?	1916
CP 371260-371399	140	22’5″	CC&F?	1919

The 1926-1930 CC&F Cars

CP 376650, built in 1929 by CC&F, at Sudbury yard. Jim Parker photo, sometime in the 1970s.

Between 1926 and 1930 Canadian Car & Foundry (CC&F) built 350 cars (in three batches) for Canadian Pacific to a larger size of 25’11” interior length. The extra 3’6″ of interior length provided an increase of approximately 200 cubic feet over the previous cars and would become the standard ore car size for all new deliveries going forward.

The buttressed ends and riveted Z-shaped side bracing give these cars a rather distinctive appearance among the CP ore car fleet.

In the early 1940s, a number of the cars from this group were rebuilt with side extensions to raise the internal height and add another approximately 300 cubic feet of capacity for service hauling crushed quartz out of INCO’s Lawson Quarry, which began production in January 1942. Other cars from this group were rebuilt in the mid 1970s to convert them from drop bottom to solid bottom cars, which will be mentioned again later further down in this article. A few remained in more or less original condition until retired in the early 1980s.

CP 376809, built in 1930 and rebuilt with side extensions in the 1940s for quartzite service. Jim Parker photo, April 1973.

Series	#Cars	IL	Builder	Date
CP 376500-376599	100	25’11”	CC&F	12/1925-1/1926
CP 376600-376699	100	25’11”	CC&F	9-10/1929
CP 376700-376849	150	25’11”	CC&F	6-7/1930

The 1942 NSC Cars

CP 376469, built 1/1943 by National Steel Car. Jim Parker photo, sometime in the 1970s.

The next batch of new cars acquired by CP were built by National Steel Car (NSC) of Hamilton, Ontario in late 1942, replacing cars that had been transferred to quartzite service (see above). Similar in overall size specifications to the previous 25’11” cars built by CC&F, interior bracing gave these cars a smooth sided appearance similar to the early pre-1920 22’5″ CC&F cars, but unique among the larger 25’11” cars.

While delivered many years before the Canadian Pacific “script” logo and paint scheme was debuted, the smooth sides lent themselves nicely to repainting with this lettering, and by the 1970s it seems most photos of these cars show them repainted in the 1960s script.

Series	#Cars	IL	Builder	Date	Note
CP 376350-376499	150	25’11”	11/1942-1/1943	NSC

The 1956-1967 CCF/ECC Cars

CP 376231, built 1967 by Hawker-Siddeley Transportation. Jurgen Kleylein photo, late 1990s.

In the late 1950s, CP expanded their ore car fleet again, with orders in 1956 and 1957 to CC&F and Eastern Car Co. (ECC) of Trenton, NS for 2 virtually identical groups of 100 cars from each builder. Another 60 identical cars from Hawker-Siddeley Transportation (HST), ECC’s successor company, were added on in 1967. These groups of cars were numbered above and below the existing number series for the 1926-1942 cars.

These cars feature riveted body construction with heavier external bracing compared to older cars. The 1967 order would have been the first (and only) ore gondolas to be delivered in script lettering from the factory. The 1956-57 built cars would have been almost identical construction, but painted in the block lettering scheme.

Series	#Cars	IL	Builder	Date
CP 376190-376249	60	25’11”	HST	8/1967
CP 376250-376349	100	25’11”	ECC	10/1957
CP 376900-376999	100	25’11”	CC&F	11/1956

The 1970 HST Cars

CP 375692 built in 1970 by Hawker-Siddeley. Jacques Richard photo.

CP’s last order of ore gondolas was this 200 car group built by Hawker-Siddeley in November 1970. While extremely similar to the previous cars built by ECC/HST, these are distinguished by being the only all-welded ore cars (the previous cars being of all riveted construction), and the only group of cars to be painted in the CP Rail “Action Red” paint scheme with the iconic “MultiMark”.

Sylvan Scale Models made a resin kit for this car.

Series	#Cars	IL	Builder	Date	Note
CP 375500-375699	200	25’11”	HST	/1970

The “Tight-Bottoms”

In the mid-1970s, INCO installed a rotary car dumper at their smelter facility in Copper Cliff, converting to rotary rather than bottom dumping. Some 200 cars originally built between 1926-1942 were rebuilt between 1973 and 1979 to remove the bottom doors and replace them with a solid steel floor. These rebuilt cars were selected and renumbered rather at random into the 375800-375999 series and colloquially known as “tight bottom” ore cars.

Many of the newer cars built after 1956 would later simply have their bottom doors welded shut and door operating levers removed to convert them to “tight-bottom” cars and retain their original numbers, which can actually be seen in the photo of CP 376231 above, which lacks its door operating levers, the doors having been welded shut.

Series	#Cars	IL	Builder	Date	Note
CP 375700-375799	0	25’11”	n/a	n/a	planned but never filled; shows in some 1970s ORERs
CP 375800-375899	100	25’11”	var.	1926-1942	ex 376350-376499 & 376500-376849 /73-/77
CP 375900-375999	100	25’11”	var.	1926-1942	ex 376350-376499 & 376500-376849 /77-/79

The Falconbridge Slurry Cars

CP 381930, built 1969 by Davie Shipbuilding. Bill Grandin collection photo.

Last but not least, we leave INCO behind and head over to competitor Falconbridge Nickel for something completely different. In the late 1960s, Falconbridge decided to ship concentrated ore as a slurry (finely crushed and mixed with water) between their mine and mill near Levack to their smelter at Falconbridge to the east of Sudbury. To ship this ore slurry, CP acquired a group of very unique cylindrical hopper cars that were dedicated to this service between Levack and Falconbridge. These distinctive cars were built in two separate batches in 1967 (delivered in script paint) and 1969 (delivered in Multimark paint) by Davie Shipbuilding. Since rainwater mixing with the slurry wasn’t considered an issue, the openings at the top of the car did not have covers.

The ore slurry was abrasive to the interior of the cars, and with the cars wearing out in the late 1980s Falconbridge switched to shipping by truck and the slurry cars were retired. A few survived however, being used as scale test cars by CP.

Sylvan Scale Models made a resin kit for this car.

Series	#Cars	IL	Builder	Date	Note
CP 381900-381919	20	19’5″	Davie	12/1967
CP 381920-381959	40	19’5″	Davie	9-10/1969

WRMRC Fall Open House – Saturday 15 October 2022

Posted on September 25, 2022 by admin

On Saturday, 15 October 2022, the Waterloo Region Model Railway Club cordially invites you to our Fall Open House to visit the CP Sudbury Division layout. This is the first time our club will be open to the general public since the COVID pandemic.

The layout be open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Feel free to invite any friends or family members interested in model railways, and plan on staying a while to see what’s new.

For maps and more information visit our WRMRC website, or our Facebook page.

Extra 5025 East rolls under the LaSalle Blvd bridge on the CP Sudbury Division Layout.

Admission:

Adults: $5.00
Seniors and Students: $3.00
Children (12 and under) are FREE, but must be supervised by an adult

2022 Virtual Tour Video

Posted on June 17, 2022 by admin

For your viewing entertainment, our club is sharing what we hope will be our last ever virtual layout tour video.

To give some background, this was prepared as our submission for the 2022 Doubleheaders Tour last March, and features absolutely no (zero / nil / nada) trains operating. This was because every past video we’ve produced shows practically nothing other than trains running, and we wished to do something more instructive and completely different this time around. So sit back, grab a beverage, and listen as WRMRC VP Ted Kocyla ~~bores~~ enlightens you for 23 minutes about what the club has accomplished over two years of pandemic restrictions.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eNgZkcBe98r-EzmWHKptGvwZUZB4Xkxw/view?usp=sharing

If nothing else, this video helps us advertise all the new things you can see at our upcoming Fall Open House, where we hope everyone can visit us in person again. Stay tuned for more information about that. But for now, this video will have to do.

Virtual Doubleheaders Tour 2022

Posted on March 24, 2022 by admin

This weekend, from 9am Saturday March 26th to 9pm Sunday March 27th 2022, the Doubleheaders will be hosting a free, online Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge-Guelph model railway tour. The tour features a number of great home and club layouts from the area that you’re sure to enjoy.

The CP Sudbury Division Modellers will be participating again this year, with a new video featuring the recently added structures, new scenery and CTC signalling progress that the WRMRC has made through the COVID pandemic.

This year the presentations will be posted as YouTube video links available on the Doubleheaders Facebook page, in addition to their main website.

With all videos being available throughout the weekend, this virtual experience will be more like the traditional home/club tour where you are able to view the layouts according to your personal schedule, and in any order.

For further information, please email:

dhtour at gmail.com (all together, replacing at with @)

2021 Open House Cancelled

Posted on September 30, 2021 by admin

Due to Ontario being stuck in phase-3 of COVID reopening, it is with reluctance that the WRMRC executive has decided to cancel our 2021 Fall Open House which was scheduled for October 16^th this year.

We had been procrastinating and hoping for better news from the province, but with the occupancy conditions currently in place our club could not reasonably hold a public event.

Phase-3 conditions require us to cap the capacity within our Quonset hut to 25 people, which would have to include the ten or so members volunteering to guide visitors and operate trains. Despite any limit our aisle-ways would prevent proper social distancing, and that cap would obviously cause line-ups before entry. There was also the matter of Ontario’s new vaccine passport system, something we would need to enforce and that none of us wish to police.

In closing, our club recommends you protect yourself and others by following the medical advice of your doctor, and to be vaccinated if you are able to. It is the only way forward for society to return to normal, and for train shows to happen again.

We are hopeful this will all be resolved by the end of March for our club to participate again in the 2022 Doubleheaders Layout Tour, and of course we fully expect to hold our Fall Open House again next October.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

The Doubleheaders Layout Tour is back!

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Part 3 of That ’70s Rent-a-Wreck Fleet

Additional notes:-

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The Pre-1920 CC&F Cars

The 1926-1930 CC&F Cars

The 1942 NSC Cars

The 1956-1967 CCF/ECC Cars

The 1970 HST Cars

The “Tight-Bottoms”

The Falconbridge Slurry Cars

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