Some photos from my recent trips...

Hi again...I thought I would take a small break from layout updates and show some of my photos from 'workin on the railroad'...The shot above is from Fort Edmonton Park, with a 1920s - era 'Prairie' type 2-6-2 steam locomotive pulling a short train around the park.


I was the engineer on a 'distributed power' train, hauling 18,000 tons of phosphate rock (originating at Kapuskasing Ontario) to the Agrium Redwater fertilizer plant. This is not far from Fort Saskatchewan, AB. We were waiting for local switcher assignment 512 to come off the spur and wye as it proceeded to Scotford Yard from the Agrium plant. Here we see a pair of SD40-2's on the point, with the leader actually designated as a SD40u rebuild.


Sitting at Scotford on a westbound to Edmonton's Walker Yard. We are awaiting the arrival of assignment 514 from the Beamer Spur. Interesting shot, given the Sun was setting and the being very dusty with harvesting and combining in full swing last Autumn. The Dow Canada (Fort Saskatchewan) plant cooling towers (just above the locomotives) sort of add to the shot...


Enroute to Biggar, Saskatchewan with an eastbound doublestack train. This CP intermodal train was enroute from Edmonton, thru Hardisty AB and Wilkie SK to Saskatoon or points east. Nice to see they don't skimp on power! Note the unusual bridge design...maybe the deck truss was too short and they had to fill the gap with a very short trestle! Just west of Unity SK...


Let's carry on with sunsets. SD40-2(w) 5296 on the point of the Wabamun Turn at Wabamun AB. This is close to the location of the derailment I was involved with in August of 2005.


I am currently on assignment 442, which runs three times a week from Edmonton to a crew change point and small yard at Mirror AB. The train performs some switching at Mirror, then continues to Calgary's CN Sarcee Yard with a fresh crew. Here we see a pair of GP40-2L's and a WC GP38-2 on the point of a late 442 arriving at Mirror last winter. It was probably -35 Celsius or colder that night...



After close to 12 hours since we were called in Edmonton, we have train 713 ready for loading at the Ram River sulphur loading facility, 224 rail miles southwest of Edmonton. The plant crew will load over 10,000 tons of bulk sulphur destined for North Vancouver to be shipped to Japan. Note the full moon over the nose of the locomotive...


Another shot at Ram River showing the loading tipple...power was a GMDD SD75I and a BCOL Dash 8-40CW...


Final shot shows yours truly climbing back on the headend of train 516 from Whitecourt to Edmonton. We had just finished setting out SD38-2 1651 in the elevator track at St. Albert (my home town)...

Thanks for looking!

Ken.

May layout progress on the Kootenay Western

Hi again...I have been cruising along with scenery on my layout. I plan on having the layout ready for display during the upcoming NMRA Pacific Northwest Region meet in mid-September. Lots to do before then!

Some photos for your viewing pleasure...


These two photos are an overview of the completed scenery to date.New scenery base to the right of the bridges, including an access road and small parking lot...perhaps for some rafters to enjoy the white water of the river...fairly mild current, given it is mid-September on the layout...


Trackside view approaching Winfield siding from the south. Should look real good with more trees and various plant life...


Looks like those pesky beavers have migrated from Chris Lyon's layout to the Kootenay Western. Engineering forces may have to consider destroying the dam, before the water washes out the mainline!


Another view of the beaver pond. After the Kootenay Western roadmaster spoke with the animal control officials, it was decided to open up a small area of the dam to enable partial drainage of the backed-up creek...now to trap those beavers and to send them back to the Lyon Valley Northern! (freshly poured acrylic gloss medium...makes for the milky look)


The creek has collected into a small pond a bit downstream from the beaver dam. Here we see a culvert with a small brook draining into the pond...The water level is significantly lower than where it should be...gonna need a few more pours of acrylic gloss medium...sure like how the pond bottom detail shows!

Another view of the pond. I used actual water to trace the contour for the streams and the pond, then poked a hole in the bottom of the plaster to drain the water...worked like a champ! I then marked the 'high water mark' around the pond ( a lighter ground shade marks where the water was in the springtime...)


Freshly applied acrylic gel medium to simulate frothy, turbulent water at the base of the outflow creek. This will dry and cure (overnight) into being semi-transparent.

That's all for now! Hope you enjoyed this post!

First post of 2009...Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap!

Hi to all...I must get on here and post more often! As the title alludes to, I have started to work on the scenery component for the layout. Some photos to show what I've been up to (with the help of our round-robin 'FRED' mini-group members...)

This is a 'before' photo of the Winfield (British Columbia) area. As you can see, I have done some more backdrop painting.

Some close-up photos of the backdrop...I might tone down some of the autumn colors, especially to the left of the log cabin in the 3rd photo...just a little too 'bright'!



A 'before' photo of the river mini-scene. I wasn't happy with the arch bridge, so I decided to remove it and place a through truss bridge in its place...


This helps to fill in the corner of the room. A modest tunnel with a swift outflow creek (with rapids, cascading water and a waterfall or two), draining into a small pond, which in turn will drain into the mountain river. This is plaster cloth on top of chicken wire, with another coat of plaster painted with a sandy 'dirt' color. I determined the creek flow and pond contour by pouring real water (with blue tint) down the creek and into the pond. Worked like a champ...


A closer shot of the outfall creek. Note the rock 'castings', made out of scrap drywall mud chunks!


I tried to do some moderate rock outcrops with SculptaMold, carved to look like rock strata (foded and mangled), with a diluted wash of India Ink. I would say the result is satisfactory!

The river scene looks good...at least the one bank does! I went and did some more plaster carving with a dental pick, along with another shot of india ink wash, to bring out more rock relief around the tunnel portal. The wing abutment was scratchbuilt, with 1/8" FoamCore board, with a thin coat of drywall mud and stained with the india ink wash.
An overall 'chopper' view of the project to date. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Ken.

More layout photos...

I'm awake on a Sunday afternoon after a long night building DP (distributed power) trains. Both 301 and 303 must have been close to 200 cars and at least 18,000 tons. Head end power for both trains was 2200 series ES44DC's leading, with a 2400 series Dash8-40 CM trailing. We placed the remote about two-thirds back, using single EMDI 8800 series SD70M-2 single locos.

Anyways, enough of that...Let's continue with my update of the layout.

We left off with viewing the shops at Kelowna. Here is another look. The CN is currently represented with an ex-NAR SD38-2 and a venerable GP9. One gets a good look at the elevated thru staging yard at Kalamalka. Soon there will be a SD40-2w patrolling the KW line, from Kamloops as well...

Kootenay Western has acquired 2 ex-ATSF F45's for service between Kelowna and Fort Steele on Jack Slimmon's Kootenay Southern. As you can see, these units are due for a trip to the paint shop. The new scheme will be very similar to the mechanical reefer behind the trailing unit and the caboose at Kalamalka.

Eventually, Kalamalka will be partially hidden by a view block, depicting Kelowna's skyline.


The two photos above show recent work at the Winfield turnback loop. The two industries on the switchback spur ("Pasture Prime Meats" and "Ashland Chemicals") will be interesting to work, given that cars spotted to the Hiram Walker distillery would have to be moved out of the way beforehand. One can see the backdrop has been started. I was using the scrap piece of foamcore board for my pallette, and I've kept it in order to match colors for the trees.

The white styro board is temporary, and will be replaced with the distillery and some of downtown Winfield.

Two more shots of Winfield loop, showing the progress on the scenery to date. This is aluminum 1" chicken wire. I thought I would try it and it seems to work great guns so far. Very good at holding its shape. Figured this would be a good place for a campground - right next to the tracks! There will be a small ranch or farm on the hill, named after Old Man Murphy - and individual I have had the misfortune of meeting from time to time!




A closer look at my backdrop painting. In the second photo, I'm not certain about the uniform slope to the left. I might alter that. Hoping the grove of evergreens on the scenery blends OK with those on the backdrop. I'm quite pleased with how the distant mountains came out on the upper right.

Well, that's it for this time. Keep posted for future updates!

Ken.

I'm back after a long time :-)

Boy...It's been a long time since I posted here! Something like a year and a half...Needless to say, I've been busy 'workin on the railroad'.

The layout is 90% operational. I just have to install the 'Nicole Street' spur, across the mainline from the shop track, wire up the shop track complex and some new spurs. I have begun painting the backdrop and installing the chicken wire for the scenery base. So far, so good. Some photos for your viewing pleasure...

This is the 'Kelsey Bay' lumbermill complex. The boxcar spot to the right will have a loading shed for loading plywood and lumber, plus unloading mill supplies. To the left is the chip loader. Past the boxcar spot is the lumber loading area for the bulkhead flats. The distant spur to the right will be for Monashee Manufacturing (steel fabricator). My oldest daughter's great uncle owned this facility in Kelowna. Unload coil steel and supplies, load steel products and scrap metal. To the far left is the car barge. More on this later...


This is the car barge, which will service Penticton. The barge might even serve the car barge apron at Trepanier Creek (near Peachland) for the Brenda Mines copper concentrator.



An overview of the Kelsey Bay area. This will be interesting to switch, especially when the Kelowna 'city' yard job makes a long pull out of the yard and blocks the Kelsey Bay 'Laker' tramp job. Oh...and did I mention the common 4-car runaround shared by the city job AND the Laker tramp job??
An overview of the Kelowna shop complex. Note the 'leased' CEFX AC4400CW in Track 1. This is a Kato, with DCC and sound. To the right is the caboose track. This will also serve as a stores delivery track, for OCS materials, like track and ties and so on. Next is the fuel and sand delivery spur. This may also see the 'RIP' (repair) track incorporated with it.Then we have Shop 1, and shop 2 for layover power and local power storage. Above the yard, one can see Kalamalka, which will be the thru staging yard, once the stub staging yard is built. Another sound equipped unit, this a Broadway SD40-2. Needs a trip to the paint shop, since being acquired from the Rock Island Line.

I just got called to work, so I'll have to cut this short. I'll do another post before the weekend is over...

Ken.

More work in the layout room

Well, here we are...my first post of 2007!

Still plugging away in the layout room. I have the walls painted (with a few small blemishes to fix). Now to prepare for the installation of the suspended ceiling.

Some photos...


Overall view of the room. I have placed banner paper on the floor to aid in track planning. The 'doughnut' sort of looks like a 'boomerang' at present...

A closer look at some ideas for the carferry / lumbermill area. This is 24" wide by 8'8" long. Doing this allows me to use full scale templates or actual turnouts and track to get some idea of what will work (hopefully!)

The second photo is a freehand sketch of the shelving unit that I will build to under the carferry / lumbermill area.

Just imagine the 36" duckunder / swingout section at 52" above the floor. I did this to see if there would be access problems. Doesn't look like it!


This is where the (planning) magic happens! Note how the drafting table is located next to the beer fridge! Don't know if you can see the scale room mockup on the fridge, but you might be able to see 'Kenny' (from 'South Park') located inside the layout room! Geez...how many empties are in that red bag, Ken??

Needless to say, the adjacent wall unit will have to be moved before benchwork construction begins...
Next big task will be installing drywall around the cold and hot air plenum ducts, so the suspended ceiling can be installed. I will need a couple of guys with strong backs to help...some of the guys will be here tonight to help with this...

An overall view of the long wall, where Kelowna yard will go. Gotta get that wall unit out of the way!! I'm quite happy with how the two-tone paint worked out. The guys in my group (the "FRED's') are looking forward to sitting on the futon running trains, with a Digitrax throttle (using the UR90 infrared receivers) in one hand and a beer in the other. Good thing I put the fridge right next to the futon!

That's all for now...Ken.