On the Layout - Pointe-Saint-Charles Shops

 The tracks in front to the former CN Pointe St. Charles (PSC) shops needed some work.  I ballasted the track with dirt and added scenery material.  I also put some empty barrels, tires, and a few cinderblocks into the scene to show that the area pretty much goes unused.

The PSC shops played an important role in the history of Canadian National.  One chapter of note in its history is the creation of the PSC vans (caboose), seen in the background of this photo.  In late 2008 or early 2009, the PSC shops, although mostly empty, suffered a fire.  Alstom was the owner of the structures at the time.  The AMT's (now EXO) parent organization now occupy newly built structures on the grounds.  The PSC neighborhood continues to add to the railway story of Montreal.

On the Layout: Changes at Brockville Station

     I've often talked about buildings I've wanted on the layout.  Brockville seems to be the location for so many of these buildings.  I added one more to this railroad town.  Years ago, I bought an already-built Faller train station on Ebay.  I had planned on having it be the Dorval train station, but Dorval never came to fruition the way I had envisioned.  The station has been in storage since I bought it.

    In 2009 VIA Rail released images and plans of the station that was going to be built in Brockville.

It was a very different looking station than what has been in town since 1872.  The residents were not happy about destroying the old station.  VIA Rail decided to scrap the idea of building something new and instead rebuilt the old station in 2014 with a new brick facade.

    The curved roof of the station VIA wanted to build in Brockville reminded me of the Faller stations, and so I decided to play What If on my layout.  What If VIA had gone ahead and built something similar to their 2009 plan?  What might it look like?  I dug out the Faller station and started to see if it could fir the space.  I thought it fit the space better than the station I was currently using.  The model was going to need a little work to be ready to use on the layout.

    One of the things that attracted me to this Faller station was the large windows.  When I bought the model, it has a sticker with the station's name on it.  Having a station with the name Seebruck on it when it was going to be placed in Brockville.  I removed the name sticker and then tried to remove the sticker adhesive that stayed on the plastic window with Goo-Gone.  Sadly, Goo-Gone should not have been used on this type of plastic.  The warning on the back cautioned me on this, and if I had read the warning before applying it instead of after it probably would have been useful information.  I ruined the window, it started to fog, craze, and melt in a matter of seconds.  

    I almost abandoned the project, but decided to see if I had some clear styrene in my supply.  I didn't find any, but I had some overhead transparencies.  I traced and cut one of the transparencies and then scribed the window lines the original window had.  I thought it turned out good enough to install back into the station.

    The next problem I needed to deal with was a lack of room for the two rectangular buildings on each side of the main hall.  I only had room for one.  I thought about using only one of the wings and scratch building a smaller second wing, but it still didn't seem to look good enough to use.  

I decided to use only one wing and to window the open gap on the street side of the station.  To hide the spot below the window with unfinished plastic, I built a landscaping island with tall shrubs.

    I painted some of the window trim and added a safety ladder to get to the roof.  The fence line in the back has some landscaping.  The final detail I wanted to add was a new station sign.  I printed a new Brockville sign on another transparency and cut it to fit the space on the main hall's window.  Figures and station seats still need to be added, but it's good enough to add to the layout.

    The final step in the project was to add some details to the interior of the station.  I printed a tile floor pattern and applied it to a thin piece of styrene.  I also ordered some passenger station seats on Etsy and added a few passengers waiting for a train.

In the future, I'll add some people waiting on the platform and maybe a few more baggage details.  I'd also like to add some VIA Rail banners and signage to decorate the station.  I'm pleased with how the station turned out and think it's a great addition to the layout.

Workbench Wednesday: Painting People

    Painting people is something that I always decided is an activity for another day.  I guess that day finally arrived.  It was actually a few hot days this past summer.  I painted people for my CN Tower 360 Restaurant, rail crews, Brockville station passengers, and a Mountie.  I used several different acrylic paints and my smallest paint brush to get the job done.  Most of the paints were Vallejo Model Color paints.  I did a lot of color mixing so that each person did not have the same color clothing or hair.  

    Around 30 years ago, I bought several unpainted seated people for a Ferris wheel I had on my first layout.  I never did paint the figures or put them on the Ferris wheel, but a number of them survived many moves and some ended up finally getting painted and installed.  The other figures in this painting project are from Miniprints.  

    

Fleet Friday: Class One Modelworks - TTX Well Car

    I've heard a lot about this new company's first HO scale well cars since the start of 2023.  I first saw Class One Model Work's 48' well cars at the Springfield show back in January.  They looked really impressive at the show.  I decided to order one this summer when I saw them on a hobby shop's website.  The details did not disappointed.  They have weight to them which helps to avoid derailments.  I went with a late model TTX car, and I'm not opposed to ordering more in the future.

On the Layout: Central Station Viaduct

 The viaduct heading to Central Station in Montreal was looking a little too plain for a railroad right of way.  Pictures I took leaving Central Station show several wires and a gas line running parallel to the tracks.

I tried to replicate the scene using cable brackets from Fos Scale Models and black wire.  The yellow gas line is 3/16" styrene.   The junction boxes are from Walthers and the gas line signs are from the photo above and fit to scale.  This was a project done in just a couple hours and adds a lot to the area.

 Before

After

Fleet Friday: Amfleet Coach Cars

    I bought a couple Walthers Amtrak Amfleet coaches to replace a few cars that have proven unreliable.  The layout sees Amtrak service using Amfleet cars in both Montreal (The Adirondack) and Toronto (The Maple Leaf).  These cars come unnumbered but there is a sheet of decals in each box.  I numbered them 82500 and 82611.

On the Layout: Port of Montreal Grade Crossing

     One of the things I wanted to accomplish as part of finishing the Port of Montreal was to install crossing signals for the grade crossing.  I went with NJ International's Griswold Crossings.  I went with these signals because they are not the norm, also because they just look really cool.  Although the Port of Montreal doesn't use Griswold crossings, their crossing signals are not the typical looking signals either.  Griswold signals have a rotating stop sign that face traffic when the crossing activates. I'm going to keep these stationary, much like the stop sign on the bottom of the post in this picture.  

A screenshot of a Port of Montreal crossing signal from a Port of Montreal Youtube Video.  Notice the lights appear to be horizontally mounted red traffic lights (it's not your vision; the image is blurry).  

    The control system is from Logic Rail Technologies, just like all the other crossings on the layout.  It is an easy system to understand and install.  Most of installation work was done on my workbench.  I then moved to under the layout to solder wire from the crossing signals to the board.  

I wired everything I could on the workbench before heading under the layout.  I installed the speaker, but that was a just in case thought.  I'm glad I did it, because I ended up installing a bell module.

    This crossing is activated using a switch on the fascia instead of automatic sensors.  There were a number of reasons why I decided to do this.  My primary one was that the track work in this area is pretty complicated.  I wanted to keep it simple since there is another crossing just about a foot away.  I had debated just extending the sensors on the Rue Courcelle crossing to the far side of the Port crossing, but in the end, I decided that the switch was the easiest way to go. 

Everything is mounted under the layout.  I color coded all of the wires, so I knew what went where.  I saved a lot of time when I needed to connect everything.

    Everything is up and running.  It works really well.  I need to order a new bell module for this crossing.  I installed a speaker but wasn't sure if I wanted sound since the Rue Courcelle crossing already has a bell.  I learned quickly though that if I don't have a bell on the Port crossing, I forget that it is on.  I had bell module for another crossing that hasn't been installed.  I "borrowed" it so I have something for the time being.  It is the same bell sound as the Rue Courcelle crossing, so there's a lot of mechanical bell sounds in this part of the layout right now.  I'll order a fast bell sound module for the Rue Courcelle crossing since that is more prototypical for that crossing.  I also need to print some Canadian crossbucks to replace the American crossbucks.  

Working crossing signals to protect the 4 tracks crossing the Rue Vieu entrance at the Port of Montreal.