Muskrat River is Nearly Flat

I had truly expected to be finished that first pass on the scenery by the weekend. However, getting the Muskrat River to lose its semblance to plywood has taken more work than I had anticipated. We’re now at two layers of primer and two layers of paint, filling and sanding between each coat, as well […]

Roundhouse Sheathing

I’m starting to think about modelling the roundhouse, with a view to taking it to the PNR regional meet in Salmon Arm in a month and a half (!). From Del Rosamond’s notes, we know that it had “Colonial Siding,” which was apparently similar to clapboard siding, but with full-thickness boards. Clapboards are tapered. Now […]

Pembroke Potato Fields

One of the benefits of modelling a prototype location is that you don’t have to make it up. Until David Estabrooks’s recent posting to Facebook, I was expecting that the land to the south of Alfred Street was bush. However, we can clearly see that there was a field of vegetables, and from the spacing, potatoes seem […]

Colour of the steam age

My cousin Tracey is a fascinating individual. Endlessly curious, inventive and energetic, she is a trove of ideas and discoveries. Knowing that I am interested in the turn of the century, she once mentioned that she had discovered a book of colour photographs taken of Russia before the First World War. Sadly, she couldn’t recall anything […]

Game Face

My friend, Scott Calvert emailed some photos that he took of last month’s operating session on his Boundary Sub. I was struck by the studied concentration on Chuck, Bill and Colin’s faces as they switch the yard at Nelson above. I especially love this one of Brian Pate, assuming his classic pose while running the […]

Pembroke South Stacked

Pembroke starts to peter out as we move further south. By the time we get to Lee Manufacturing at the south extremity of the layout, houses have disappeared, to be replaced by potato fields and pastures. Aside from the factory and a cattle pen, the only structures belong to the roundhouse. The Mary Street bridge, […]

Ghost Buildings Come to Pembroke

Last night I put the last of the roofs on what model railroaders call building mockups. I think architects would call these white foam core boxes “massing models.” As with an architect, they enable me to study the shapes from various angles. I may colour them with soft pastels at some point, but right now […]

Wither Proto:87?

A couple of weeks ago, Chris Mears pointed out a couple of Proto:87 threads and stories about Proto:87. Of course that really perked my ears up, but unfortunately, between work and other things I really haven’t had time to respond. One of the threads that Chris pointed out was on rmweb, and related to the […]

The book on #10

In light of recent posts about #10, it’s a bit ironic that the book has finally become available through Model Railroad Hobbyist. It’s been in the works for something like 18 months now. Despite my decision that I really need to go back and rebuild the chassis, there is still plenty to learn from this […]

North Section of Pembroke Stacked

How hard can it be? I’ve seen countless people stack layers of extruded polystyrene to rough in the contours of their layouts. Yeah, yeah, I figured out that the inside corners of the steps dictate the slope, not the edges that will get smoothed off. It looks easy! Well, to quote Michelangelo, “I am still […]