Pembroke on the tour

I’ve signed Pembroke up to be on the tour for the Railway Modellers’ Meet on May 22. This year. Last time I displayed Pembroke, it was a motionless diorama as #10 had just tied itself in knots. I’m resolved to have a running layout this time, which means the pressure is on to complete not […]

The Century of Canada…

As I wrote before, Pembroke could tell two very different stories. On the one hand, it could represent the sleepy end of a branch line, a second entrant into a market barely big enough for one. On the other, it could demonstrate the unbridled optimism of the age of progress and of small towns like […]

Sunken boiler

I was just about to start sheathing the boiler. It’s important to get the wagon top over the firebox right if the boiler is to fit the front of the cab at all. So, I had the Cricut cut out a template for the formers. It was then that i discovered the boiler was too […]

Really tiny LED

Somewhere between here and the other Vancouver, a package of gubbins from NGineering has been waiting for almost a month. The package contains some solder strippable magnet wire, the recommended flux and a handy-looking tool for holding the wire together with the tiny surface-mount LEDs that are available today. Tim Anderson of NGineering sent the […]

Cab roof for 622

More styrene has found its way into 622 with the addition of the cab roof. I formed this by heating some .015″ styrene in boiling water and fixing it to the outside of a can of Green Giant Niblets with rubber bands and some scraps of card. The Cricut made the carlines (the transverse members […]

Cab insulation

As with every other part of 622, the cab needs to be electrically split down the middle. So, the front and back of the cab are made of two layers – the inner phosphor bronze and the outer styrene. Before I could add the styrene, I had to correct the cab sides, however. The etching […]

Potion from Embro, Ontario

I think I have finally found my replacement for Mek Pak. I became addicted to that styrene cement whilst living in Henley on Thames (Nine miles from Reading for ardent CBC fans). “Addicted” in the sense of strong preference as opposed to plastic-bag-solvent-abuse-self-harm. Unfortunately, my stockpile has run out or evaporated, and I’ve been chasing […]

Tender tank details

I’m way out of practice, but even so, the evening and morning spent assembling the tool boxes and other details that adorn the tender tank was the most fun I’ve had in a while. I actually do have what normal people call “a life,” but normal people don’t understand how forgiving and quick it is […]

Lowering the carriage factory

Rob Kirkham suggested getting a boxcar into the scene to compare with the carriage factory. The cars in the prototype photo look like 36 footers, and I don’t have any that large. I did have a 34′ V&PL car at hand, and dropping it into the scene, we can see that the 80′ factory is […]

Balancing the carriage factory

The temporary massing models have lasted much longer than I expected, and I’ve always felt the carriage factory was too small and the station looked too tall. So, with a little spare time and foam core, I built a new carriage factory, and with my knife I lopped off four feet from the bottom of […]