Trains @ Station Studios

At long last, I’ve decided to move the train pages from an old Frontpage-based system to WordPress.  Please update your bookmarks if you are arriving from www.stationstudios.ca/pmtco or www.stationstudios.ca/gardenrwy.

I’ve taken the opportunity to update many of the research pages on the prototype Key Valley Railway. You can find all the posts on the KVR here.

If you are looking for posts on my moth-balled On3/On30 Pakesley Mill and Timber Company, please use this link.

If you are looking for posts on our first (and also moth-balled) garden railway, the Lost Hollow Railway, please use this link.

There are a few videos of the Trillium Railway on the web. The following two videos from 2005 show Trillium Railway Engine #110 working the Canal Spur north of Dain City towards St Catherines. While they are not of the southern part of the PCHR, they do give a good flavour of the line circa 2005. The last two minutes of Part II show #110 crossing the liftbridge on the Canal Spur just east of Forks Junction.

Trillium Railway Part I (2005)

Trillium Railway Part II (2005)

The next two videos show trains shows trains moving strings of covered hoppers from Port Colborne. Unfortunately the video quality is not very high but you can see the types of covered hoppers used in the area. The first video highlights engines #108 and #168 while the second is engine #1859:

Trillium Railway #108 and #168 on Park Avenue, Port Colborne (2008)

Trillium Railway #1859 on Park Avenue, Port Colborne (2011?)

I’m a big fan of Lance Mindheim‘s modern-era modelling. If you haven’t had an opportunity to check out his website featuring his HO scale East Rail and Downtown Spur layouts, please take a few minutes to do so.

I’ve looked at a couple different prototypes over the years for such a layout. The Port Terminal Railroad Association in Houston has several scenes that would fit the bill. The CSX Sarnia Subdivision is another, with the advantage that I actually worked at one of the industries served by the line for several years. In the end, both are a little too large in scope for a small layout.

Then, I found the Trillium Railway in Port Colborne, Ontario. Cobbled together from several railway lines in the Niagara region, this section of the Trillium Railway (called the Port Colborne Harbour Railway) was tailor-made for the Mindheim approach.

Paul Duncan’s Niagara Rails website contains a wealth of information on the PCHR including its history, its current state and a large number of photographs. Trillium Railway‘s own website contains a great amount of detail on its locomotives, current customers and current trackage. In addition, there are numerous photographs and videos floating around railway photo websites and Youtube. The southern part of the PCHR has the highest concentration of industries so I will concentrate on documenting it first.

Don’t worry; I haven’t abandoned garden railroading. The Pen y Fan is in the plans to scratch my “narrow gauge live steam” itch, while the PCHR will allow me to explore the “operations prototype-modeling” arena. I currently don’t have room for either, so I’m just collecting information and equipment for both right now.

I was fortunate this weekend to surf over to the SE Lounge website and caught sight of a “for sale” announcement for a 7/8″ scale live steam locomotive and some rolling stock. The seller was Canadian and so I made contact and made arrangements to purchase it all. The photo above shows the engine, a 7/8″ scale kit on a Accucraft Eldrig chassis.

I also got three slate wagons as part of the deal:

So, the Pen y Fan Quarry Railway is now officially begun!

Here’s another great video of Welsh slate railways, this time the Ffestiniog. This video focuses on the equipment used for hauling slate.

Here’s a very well-done video of the Talyllyn Railway in Wales:

Certainly makes the desire to build a slate railway for my next garden railway even stronger.

So I didn’t jump on buying the Roundhouse Katie back a year ago. Rather today I made a purchase of the 7/8″ scale Davenport made by Back to Bay 6 in the UK. I follow the SE Lounge Forum rather religiously and have always been impressed by the size and quality of the 7/8″ scale model presented there. I don’t have too much invested in 1:20.3 rolling stock at the moment and several people have kitbashed Regner Konrads into 7/8″ scale. Here’s one example done by Rob Bennett:

I’m thinking of adding to my live steam collection in the new year. Keeping with the small size of the rolling stock I already have for the Lost Hollow Railway, I was thinking that the Roundhouse Katie would be a good addition. I’m definitely considering the radio control option this time around. Black or green? That is the question.

My original concept for the Lost Hollow Railway was to base it on a logging theme. However, the more I learn about the narrow gauge slate railways of Wales like the Talyllyn and Ffestiniog Railways, the more I’d like to model them. I rode the Ffestiniog back about 20 years ago but would certainly like to get back to the area again and ride more of them.

I’ve found some slate wagon drawings on the Internet and they look easy enough to scratchbuild in 1:20.3 scale.

While surfing around the blog entries on the Model Railroad Hobbyist website, I came across a link to the Upper Canada and Algonquin Railway group, who are building an On30 modular layout based on the Free-Mo standard. Unlike other modular systems like Ntrak, Free-Mo sets some basic requirements, particularly around the module height and the module-to-module interface, and then lets the module designer a great deal of latitude on all other aspects. Prototype modelers have taken to the standard very quickly as it allows them to reproduce real track patterns very accurately. It also allows a lot more creativity removing the “slot-car” look of other older module systems.

I’ve always liked the Free-Mo concept especially now that I don’t have room for a full layout. I could build a couple of modules and participate when I’m around and store the modules away when I’m in the Netherlands. In addition, with Bachmann’s recent releases of On30 locomotives including Shays, Climaxes, 2-6-0′s, 2-8-0′s and 4-4-0′s, there are a lot of possibilities to mimic the Key Valley’s locomotive roster in On30.

I’ve been in touch with the UC&A group and am looking to add the Pakesley Mill and Timber Company to the consortium of companies making up the UC&A.