Surplus Tuesday
Long before the Maker movement. Long before the Raspberry Pi. Long before the Internet and Amazon and shopping online… there was ACTIVE Surplus. After 30 years on Queen Street West in Toronto, ACTIVE is closing its doors this month. Rumour is that it’s moving and not closing but still, it’s a sad day.
ACTIVE was my fun store, and for 25 years (at least) I’ve been walking into ACTIVE to get a needed plug, part, cable, whatever. Sometimes I would just browse and marvel at all the stuff (new and used) and get inspired. Yellow Flipping Shape for 25 cents each, sure! I bought things that I had no idea what they did just because they looked cool and the price was right.
As a number of posters on blogTO have commented, ACTIVE was the place where generations of high school students would go to make LED-based true or false quizzes for their science fair Bristol boards and ACTIVE was also the kind of place where when you’d go and ‘there was always someone buying parts for his time machine or Transmogrifier or both.’
I need places like ACTIVE to inspire me and fuel my imagination. ACTIVE is exactly the kind of store that brings out the best in a modeler. It’s a ‘what if ‘ kind of place. What if I use that mirror, or what if I built that blinking circuit. What if…
Professor Banana, until we meet again, you’ll be missed.
SW(eet) 1500
Prototype Monday 3
Ahhh… the EMD SW1500. It’s my favourite engine. There’s just something about it…
The EMD SW1500 was constructed directly after the SW1200 and was the builder’s second model to employ its upgraded model 645 prime mover. As with the SW1000 (which was the first to use the 645 engine), the SW1500 featured a bulkier carbody and was a bit heavier from earlier models although its intended use remained the same, working light branch lines or in industrial settings. With the horsepower rating, weight, and top speed the switcher was essentially a road switcher (it offered nearly the same ratings as the GP7 released a decade earlier). Once again railroads found the SW1500 to their liking and many Class Is purchased the model, very likely due to its extra horsepower allowing it to be used in numerous applications. Today, SW1500s remain quite common doing the tasks they were originally intended for on large and small railroads around the country. from: http://www.american-rails.com/emd-sw1500.html
According to rrpicturearchives.net the Quebec Gatineau Railway (QGRY) has or had seven SW1500s:
| Unit # | History | Model | Serial# | |
| QGRY 1500 | ex-PC 9534 | SW1500 | 7355-25 | |
| QGRY 1501 | Ex CR Exx PC 9508 SW 1500 | SW1500 | 37066 | |
| QGRY 1502 | Ex-PC 9580 | SW1500 | 73622-21 | |
| QGRY 1504 | ex-PC 9509 | SW1500 | 37067 | |
| QGRY 1505 | ex-PC 9538 | SW1500 | 7355-29 | |
| QGRY 1506 | ex-PC 9554 | SW1500 | 7355-45 | |
| QGRY 1507 | ex-PC 9519 | SW1500 | 7355-10 |
On my layout I have one custom painted QGRY SW1500 numbered 1504 (see pics above). For additional switching, I’ll also have some help from two Genesee & Wyoming Atlas HO Silver Series EMD MP15-DCs. The MP15DC replaced the SW1500 in EMD’s catalog, and is superficially very similar to the predecessor model, using the same engine (a V12 EMD 645-series powerplant) in a similar design of hood and bodywork. The primary difference is the MP15’s standard Blomberg B trucks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_MP15DC
All three units have Soundtraxx Tsunami DCC sound decoders installed.
Sunday Funday with Minions and Poutine
Shoutout Sunday 2
There are a lot of great modelers out there that inspire me to be better and do better. Today I want to share two instances that reminded me how much fun this hobby can be.
The first is from the Port Rowan in 1:64 blog by the ever inspiring Trevor Marshall. Trevor inspired me for years when he co-hosted The Model Railway Show, a podcast about the hobby. Recently his Keeping the Minions under control blog post featured some hilarious photos of some (not-so) prototypical railroad employees. Thank you Trevor for the inspiration and the laugh. Sometimes this hobby gets so overwhelming intense that it’s great to remember to how much fun it really is…. or should be!
And on the topic of fun… The second shoutout goes to GERN Industries, which has been a longtime favourite of mine.
I found doctorwayne’s GERN Industries Gibson Works when I was on a mrr.trains.com forum searching for ideas of prototypical industries that I could model. I hadn’t thought to model whimsical (oddball) industries until I saw GERN and immediately loved the idea of a unique (and fun) industry that only existed in my 1:87 world.
GERN was the inspiration for Poutine Quebec (PQ)* – a fictional industry that I plan to model on my layout. Inbound will be cheese curds in reefers, potatoes in boxcars and light brown gravy powder in hopper cars along with packaging and other assorted supplies. Once a week there would be a tank car shipment called the ‘gravy train’ that would bring in a heavier grade of gravy for storage in onsite tanks. Outbound would be the finished Poutine Quebec product to market.
I think that I read somewhere that GERN produces an industrial FLUX food additive. I wonder if GERN is still in existence producing FLUX nowadays and if the Quebec Poutine Works could be a customer?
* For those who may be from other parts… this is poutine.
Moose, deer, bears, even wolves…but no beavers?
Scenery Saturday 2
‘Why doesn’t anyone make a HO scale beaver?’, I wondered.
I googled… nothing. I found moose, deer, bears, even wolves, but no beavers. The beaver is iconic. A Canadian symbol. The beaver (and it’s pelt) lured the explorers to this land. Hell, the beaver is so important it’s even on the shield of the Canadian Pacific Railway. So… I wondered, ‘Why no HO scale model beaver figures?’
This post isn’t really about beavers; at least not yet. The reason that I was looking for a 1:87 size beaver in the first place is what I want to explore. I wanted to practice my scenery skills and specifically, pouring Envirotex epoxy resin to make a water feature. I had watched the YouTube videos, read the MR articles and seen images on blog posts and now it was time to play. I grabbed a piece of scrap foam board, a bottle of glue and some ground foam and went to town. As you can see the results turned out pretty well. I was happy with my little test project. But one thing was missing… you guessed it.
So what to do if no one makes a 1:87 size beaver. Happily in this day-and-age of 3D printing almost anything is possible and if you can’t find it – you can make it. And that’s exactly what I did with the help of Autodesk 123D Design‘s free app and Shapeways.com.
P.S. Comment, email, tweet or drop me a line if you’d like some 3D printed HO scale beavers for your layout.
Freight Car Friday 2
Today’s freight car is the Cylindrical Covered Hopper – and you’ll find a lot of them on my layout.
QGRY provides rail services to both the Ports of Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City and both Ports have large elevator facilities for grain. At Trois-Rivieres it’s Les Élévateurs des Trois-Rivières Ltée with a storage capacity of 110 000 tonnes of grain, 78 000 tonnes of alumina and 20 000 tonnes of coke. The elevator handles a throughput of about 1 200 000 tonnes per year, evenly divided between grain and other commodities. The elevator can receive grain by ocean ship, laker, rail, or truck. It serves as a grain distribution facility to supply feed grains to the local Quebec market. It also receives local grain by truck for export.
In Quebec City, it is the massive Bunge silos with a capacity of 225,000 metric tonnes of storage space, used to store wheat, barley, corn and soybeans. Over 3.4 million tonnes of grain are handled annually, with a capability of loading up to 5,000 tonnes an hour.
From Eric Gagnon’s excellent blog Trackside Treasure: Cylindrical grain cars are one of Canada’s best-known contributions to the North American railcar network. Over 19,000 government covered hoppers, built by Hawker-Siddeley, National Steel Car and Marine Industries have been carrying Canadian grain on rails since 1972.
Also, there is an excellent post on the history and specifics of cylindrical covered hoppers at trains.com
Happily, HO scale Cylindrical Hoppers are pretty easy to find and I have a bunch of the excellent Intermountain Cylindrical Covered Hoppers – Trough Hatch Version. Now on to the fun stuff – graffiti and weathering them. But that is a post for a future Workbench Wednesday…
Video Thursday 2
Hi Maintenance
Workbench Wednesday 2
MOW equipment and HiRail vehicles add a level of operating interest to a layout. I always thought that it would be fun to run something on the layout in addition to locomotives. You never know when some maintenance issues will crop up and a team may need to go out into the field. Recently I purchased a Bachmann DCC HiRail vehicle and my goal is to customize it to create a QGRY vehicle.
Happily I was able to get Microscale Genesse & Wyoming (GW) Canada Region Shortlines and Operators – Waterslide Decal – N Scale Part#:60-1501 and some red and white safety stripes.
Using this prototype HiRail truck photo that I took in the QGRY Sainte-Thérèse (Montreal) yard in October 2013 I plan to detail the truck. So… that’s what’s on my workbench this week.
It’s Much Bigger on the Inside
This past weekend in Toronto was Fan Expo. ‘What does a comic, sci-fi, anime, horror, gaming convention have to do with model railroading?”, I guess you’re thinking. Well, short answer is, nothing. But I took my 9 year old who is really into the above mentioned comic, sci-fi, anime, horror, gaming scene – and it was amazing. Fan Expo Toronto draws over 120,000 visitors over four days and has to be experienced to be believed. If you think that us train folks are obsessed/creative/crazy then you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Part of the fun of the layout has always been to add in pop culture elements that make the layout FUN. I’ve always planned to include hidden ‘easter eggs’ for the kids to find. My 9 year old is a dedicated Dr. Who fan and always wanted a TARDIS on the layout. Well thank you Fan Expo for a perfect 1/87 scale TARDIS keychain that will be making a appearance as soon as I figure out how to wire up a pulsating LED beacon on top. Proving yet again, that you never know where you will find the next item for the layout.
Oh, and one last thing, if you don’t know what cosplay is…look it up. Next year we’re going, and we’re dressing up!
Prototype Monday 2
Prototype Monday is not just for motive power – it’s also about things and places from the prototype that inspire my layout. I have decided to feature the Port of Trois-Rivières as the main focus of my layout. Reason for this was three-fold (1) QGRY has the sole rights to service the Port (2) there are a lot of rail-served commodities and facilities to model and finally, (3) it sets the layout firmly in a time and place.
It’s really amazing the information that you can find online and research is yet another of the facets of the hobby that I find so enjoyable. The Port of Trois-Rivières has an excellent downloadable brochure online that will serve to inspire my modeling efforts.
Shoutout Sunday
Today I want to write a special thank you. That’s what Shoutout Sunday is all about; recognizing someone (or something) that has had an impact on my journey in the hobby.
The first person to help me along in the hobby was Luc Sabourin. I first met Luc in October 2013 at a local trainshow and he directed me to his excellent online image posts of QGRY locomotives at http://www.rrpicturearchives.net. I was planning a railfanning trip to scope out the QGRY route from Montreal to Quebec City and Luc had done this trip back in 2009.
I really appreciated his encouragement and Luc was the first person in the hobby to share his enthusiasm and knowledge with me. He suggested that I visit Van Horne Hobbies in Montreal (111 Blvd St Martin East (450) 669-4175). Somewhere I probably would never have found without his tip.
In the last two years, Luc has introduced me to some great model railroaders and I look forward to seeing him at the shows each year. So a special Shoutout Sunday to you Luc! Thanks for starting me off in this great hobby!
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