Hilton’s Art

From the moment James Hilton announced his latest book, “The Art of Railway Modelling,” I knew a copy would take up residence on my bookshelf. In the buying frenzy of Black Friday, my mouse blundered onto the Titfield Thunderbolt page, and before I knew what was happening, it had completed checkout without any input from […]

622 all the photos

716 Mary Street Gets a Roof

Difficult as it may be to believe, I do not have to make everything myself. Once you get started, though, it feels easier to make stuff than it is to look for an appropriate product. So, I was thinking I would be making my own shingles for the little half-a-house that I’m calling 716 Mary […]

The more we made it boring…

In Hindsight 20/20 this morning, Matthieu Lachance, who presented an entertaining and of course beautiful clinic about his group’s modelling journey, dropped this amazing juxtaposition: “The more we made it boring, the more it stood out.” He went on to elaborate that people were excited by the mundane because they recognized it. This thought meshes […]

Coal Dock Done

The coal piles managed to find their way onto the dock, and on the right side of the dock, too. I’m declaring this model done and ready for installation on the layout. Unlike most of my models, I finished this one before it finished me!

The Pembroke Water Tower

Like the coal dock, we have precious little information about Pembroke’s water tower beyond a mention in the 1908 Grand Trunk Railway Bridges & Buildings book. Here we find that the town waterworks fed a 20,000 gallon tank that measured 13 feet by 12.5 feet in diameter. It had a 6″ drop pipe, a discharge […]

Coal bin almost binned

That was close! I almost made the coal piles on the wrong side of the coal dock.

Fencing the Coal Dock

At what point does a coal dock become a coal bunker? Do the sides have to be higher, or does a bunker imply a less manual approach to moving the coal around? Regardless, these coal docks, at least those I’ve found information about all have at least three raised sides. My primary reference has four, […]

Coal Dock Decked

The sticks to finish the rest of the coal dock decking arrived on Monday, and I wasted no time staining, chopping and gluing them in place. I impressed myself not only by estimating the number of boards exactly, but by doing the arithmetic in my head! The India ink I have used thus far came […]

Progressing the Coal Dock at VTEX

I had an opportunity to demonstrate at the Craftsman’s Corner of Vancouver Train Expo yesterday. Despite having organized the predecessor of this meet for several years in my twenties, I’m not really into train shows. Sure, I love seeing all my hobby friends, but there is little to buy from the trade tables here at […]