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The Wabash Railroad
in Southern Ontario, circa 1951
ABOUT MY RAILROAD... Until the Autumn of 2008 I was building a layout based on the Canadian National Railway’s branch line hub in Palmerston, Ontario. Then, I had the opportunity to visit Bill Darnaby’s well-known HO scale model railroad, The Maumee Route. The experience had a profound effect on me and caused me to rethink everything I was attempting to do in my train room. After some careful thinking about options for the space, I settled upon modeling something that was in my own backyard. The Wabash Railroad had a significant operation across Southern Ontario that just begs to be modeled. The Buffalo Division was primarily a single-track bridge line established to reduce shipping times between Buffalo, New York, and Detroit, Michigan.I am building a double-decked layout featuring selected towns and signature scenes on the Wabash Railroad’s 240-mile Buffalo Division. My layout models the segment between Aylmer and Cayuga, Ontario. This 60-mile stretch of the Wabash includes a number of online customers typical of small-town Ontario, as well as a section of the mainline shared with the Canadian National Railways’s Hagersville Sub. Since I am modeling 1951 it will be neat to see the little CNR 2-6-0s sharing the rails with the paired F7A units used on the Wabash Red Ball freights. I’ll be posting regular updates and photos of my progress on this blog.Please visit often. |
THE LATEST BLOG POST...
Wandering down Tulare Ave, Part 2May 19th, 2019 I couldn't determine at the outset if the road surface was concrete or asphalt, so I made an assumption that it's concrete, knowing that having said that someone will come along and prove to me that it's asphalt. The starting point was determining how to deal with the stretch of road that had trackage down the middle. I decided to use 0.060" styrene as the road surface, which matches the code 70 rail I use nicely, leaving the rail head just proud of the road surface, so I can clean rails without removing paint from the road. The stretch of track under the road was given 1/2 the number ties as I would normally use.    I use the handle of an old file to hold the rail in place as I move along down the length of the rail.    I carefully made a paper rubbing of the curve and traced it onto the styrene. A little bit of fiddling and sanding was required but both the outside and inside bits I got right the first time. Huzza!   Everything is 2 layers of 0.060" styrene. The actual crossings will be wood, but those are last after all the road work is done.    2/3 Vallejo Deck Tan and 1/3 Vallejo Medium grey. It's a close match to the Scalecoat "aged concrete". Wasn't about to spray that much Scalecoat in the house. Divorce would ensue.  Using Pan Pastels, black and various greys the road surface was "dirtied". I had some odd blotches at first, not sure why, but soon I had a process that was giving me the desired results. I will likely revisit/repaint the blotchy areas in another couple of days, I need to look at it again.  But first I have to get ready for the New England RPM in less than 2 weeks. Maybe we'll see you there. |