Fleet Friday - Ontario Northland Angus Van

     Hobby shops are stocked with Rapido's latest run of Angus vans (AKA a caboose).  I don't model Ontario Northland (except the Northlander passenger train that goes in and out of Union Station), but I really like the Ontario Northland.  ONT 122 was one of eight vans built between 1979 and 1980 for Ontario Northland.  Once Ontario Northland found it no longer needed their fleet of vans, they placed many of them up for sale.  This caboose was sold and is now being used as an Airbnb somewhere in Ontario.  

    My plan is to model the move from Ontario Northland trackage to its private owner in southern Ontario.  It may not appear on the layout often, but it won't just remain in its box.  

    I have a couple more Angus vans on preorder at my local hobby shop and will pick those up soon.

On the Layout - Squirrels

      I placed an order with Miniprints a few months ago.  I ordered squirrels for some of my trees.  I finally got around to painting them and placed one of them in a tree.  I'll install the other ones as I work on scenery on different parts of the layout.  This squirrel may end up getting a friend in the same tree, but I wanted to wait until the canopy glue dried.

Workbench Wednesday - Trackside Details

     This week I got a large shipment of trackside details from Details West.  These are all white metal castings were some great details but require some time cleaning and filing.  

I've spent the last couple of days putting everything together.  The next stop for these castings is the paint booth and then onto the layout around Union Station.  More to come....

Not pictured are the 15 switch motors that are still in their packaging but don't require assembly.  They will get painted along with all of these.

Layout Tour #7 - Oshawa, Ontario

     Oshawa is to the east of Toronto.  It is home to the largest manufacturer on the layout, the General Motors Oshawa Plant.  This takes up most of the backdrop on this side of the layout.  The facility includes a sheltered loading track, plastic pellet unloading track, and two auto rack tracks to load brand new GM automobiles.  

    Oshawa also has a small yard to spot cars coming from or going to the GM plant.  This yard has a dedicated switching locomotive that also does CN's switching at the GM plant.  

    GO Transit and VIA Rail has a station in Oshawa.  The commuter station platforms and crossover bridge are from a Custom Model Railroad kit.  It's one of my favorite structures on the layout.  The main station is a Walthers kit and the parking garage is a Faller kit.  I'm beginning to develop plans for a third track to house GO trains waiting to return to Toronto or that will stay at this facility overnight.

    East of the station you'll see Canadian Pacific's track leading into the Oshawa GM plant.  East of the bridge you'll see a small slice of Highway 401 that connects Toronto to Montreal.  This highway is known as the Highway of Heros.

    Oshawa has a lot going on in it.  I tried to add some open space in this area of the layout, too.  There are some open fields and forested areas as we transition out of Oshawa and head east toward Port Hope.