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 […]

110 Posts for the Coal Dock

The laser-cut base for the Coal Dock made the alignment of all 110 posts a diddle. I made the holes so that the base held them, but not too snugly. So, each post slipped into its hole with a minimal fuss, and there was a little room to allow for straightening if required, but also […]

Coal Dock Base

For the most part, the coal dock is a simple model. The tricky bit is going to be getting the legs all evenly spaced and plumb. To help with that, I decided to cut a base with the laser. This, in turn necessitated a rough 3D design, which took an evening to put together. I […]

Little Sister

My post about the engine lead buildings prompted me to pull #10 out of the roundhouse, where it’s been languishing since giving up its decoder to #622 some years ago. This was the first time I’d ever seen #10 next to #1120, and the difference in size was so stark, I wanted to share it. […]