Coal Car Control Quandary Continues

At Friday’s modelling night, I collared Rob Kirkham for a discussion about the coal car brakes. He is a bit of a kindred spirit in that he models a time before the transition era, and he’s a bit of a stickler for details. I shared my concern that the outboard position of the brake cylinder […]

Revised Coal Car

With two weeks away from the modelling desk, hobby time went virtual. Rather than try to modify the first version of the coal car, I started from scratch to build a car that is more hopper-like, with the brake cylinder mounted beneath the side sill. Wooden hoppers had their stakes spaced closer together where the […]

The Canada Atlantic Railway Modellers Historical and Technical Society

I’m often asked why I model the Canada Atlantic while living in BC, thousands of kilometres away. The truth is, I grew up in Ottawa, the centre of the system, albeit some 70 years after the flag fell. My mum, sister and brother are still in town, and I spent the last two weeks visiting […]

Arts and Crafts at OVAR

I’ve come to Ottawa to visit my mum and take her to a show. So, I reached out to my old friend, Bill Scobie, to see if I could get myself invited for an ops session (I can), and he reminded me that the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders would be meeting this evening. Well, I’ve […]

Painting Wheels and Assembling Trucks

With the perfect weather for model railroading this weekend, the coal car trucks have cleared the workbench. Some loco-building supplies have arrived, and I’m going to return to locomotive work for the next little while – except for a couple of weeks of travel that are coming up this month. With the success of the […]

Painting Trucks

Uncharacteristically for me, the scissor-like contraption I designed for holding and masking trucks worked on the first try. Being made from exactly the same 3D model as the trucks themselves, it was all-but guaranteed to fit. However, there are many questions of tolerance when it comes to the FDM printer. The key question was the […]

Coal Car Trucks Ready to Paint

After redesigning the trucks with inside brakes, I printed a test copy. It worked fine the first time, but I noticed the axles could be a little tighter in the bearings. This should assist with getting the ride height of the cars correct. A pair of .005″ shims inserted after the wheels seems to keep […]

An Unusual View

While working on a derailment at the Lee Manufacturing spur, I grabbed this photo to see what was going on with the alignment. There is no way to get your eyeballs in to see this view, but I must say, I really like the way this scene is coming together over the past two or […]

The Wrong Coal Cars?

Have I been drawing the wrong coal cars? This is a question that has been bothering me for some time. Basically, ever since I couldn’t get the side stakes to match the varying spacing on the lone photo I have of Canada Atlantic coal cars. This spacing could indicate the presence of slope sheets, meaning […]

Coal Car Brakes Revisited

“Oh Bother,” Said Pooh, as he examined once again the lone photo of Canada Atlantic coal cars. The photo is barely worth looking at, they’re so distant, but comparing to other cars nearby, Pooh was pretty sure they had brake beams slung from the truck transoms, rather than slung from the underframe outside the trucks. […]