Elgin Car Shops - The Wabash Railroad in Southern Ontario, circa 1951

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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...

2nd time's a charm!

May 20th, 2018

The test area for ground cover colours is done.
And I'm delighted with the results.

The first attempt didn't quite go as I'd hoped,

I used Scenic Express's fine dirt as a texture base, which I'd sifted in place over a coat of brushed on white glue, I then scattered yellow and burnt grass ground foam over top and secured it in place by wetting it down and then dribbling thinned white glue.
The dirt absorbed the glue and went darker than I'd hoped it would, so either a rethink or remedial action was called for.
So I thought perhaps sealing the fine dirt would help the absorption issue, so I airbrushed the area along with a freshly applied patch of dirt. I used Tamiya tan and light grey to lighten the base colour and try and get the ground closer to the tones seen in this image of Clovis.

And then I reapplied the 2 ground foam colours and glued them down. This time the base tones stayed the way I wanted them.
I added a few scrubby plants,

And then out came the static grass.
Lots of tall yellow grasses.

I mixed a small amount of green to prevent a monotone effect and I'll be alternating between the Noch yellow grasses and the Silflor autumn colour and yellow 4mm and 6mm lengths.
Touch up the ballast edges and we're good to go.
Now it's time to build some turnouts!

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