CP Rail 8625 East at Campbellville…but wait, what is that second unit??? Yes, yes it is one of the few remaining SD40-2’s on the CPR! What a lucky catch. And on top of that, the train has a welded rail unit in it transporting long lengths of welded rail to be installed somewhere. The SD40-2 No 5936 is still wearing very weather beaten “Two Flags” CP Rail System paint. As these locomotives are being retired, who knows, this may be the last one I catch, or maybe not, time will tell.
Last weekend I had the big can of sky blue paint out for the “Blank Canvas” to paint the newly built backdrop. While it was out, I took the opportunity to touch up the backdrop on the layout. In a few spots where track is close to it, and where the roads meet it, I have made a mess with airbrush over-spray or remnants of drywall compound road material. It took less than 5 minutes to take a brush and go around the layout and fix all the obvious ugly spots. They will probably need more touchups before things are said and done, but it makes a huge difference in a few spots to get rid of ugly marks on what should be my neutral sky.
Is this a project that makes the layout? No, but its one of those little things that took no time or effort really, and which makes me feel better when I’ve walked into the room and don’t go “ugh those marks are terrible, I was so sloppy painting/installing the roads”. Like I said, sometimes its the little things that go a long way on a big project like building a layout.
VIA Rail Train 40 rounds the curve into the station at Port Hope on April 4, 2021. It doesn’t stop at Port Hope, it is the express Toronto to Ottawa morning train, stopping only at Guildwood, Kingston and Fallowfield en route to Ottawa. It is lead by F40ph-2d 6417 with a mixed bag of 4 LRC coaches in different paint schemes.
Before the long weekend, I quickly posted about a “Blank Canvas” ready for something to happen. That canvas is not so blank anymore…
I don’t really need to be building another diorama, but, while I have been making great progress on the layout, other aspects of scenery and building models have needed to be scratched, so I have gone ahead with the “I Blame Mears” project of a mini diorama of a short stretch of the CPR Galt Subdivision in Milton, why? Why not?
I will write about this in more detail in the near future, but this is the first time I have used a “Hot Wire” tool, a new acquisition for my toolkit to sculpt foam. I will say this much, it is so much less messy than cutting foam with a regular knife, one might even say life altering. My Version 1 attempts at the land-forms are in this picture. They may end up as the final ones, I don’t know yet, I do know that I am learning with every cut that I make to get better.
And a 5 day long weekend to work on it. No, this won’t be a diorama in a weekend project, I’m not that mad and we have other things we want to do over Easter like go for a drive in the country as it appears the announcement of a Lock-Down of some sort is coming in Ontario tomorrow, but off we go, hopefully by Monday evening I’ll feel that I’ve achieved enough to warrant posting a status update.
Kitchener 2006. The Goderich and Exeter’s mixed bag of power heading eastwards torward Toronto at the Kitchener VIA Station (No Go Trains yet back in 2006!). 3835 is a GP38AC, 4019 is a GP40, 2236 is a GP38-2 2246 is a GP40-2, and 4096 is a GP40.
Two more shots below of the back half of the four units on the train, and the two hiding in behind of the shot above (2210 is a GP38 and 2211 is a GP35).
Most of these are all still out there, though none on the Goderich and Exeter anymore!
