As we are still unpacking and setting up our new house, I did want to do some modelling, since I haven’t touched a model since mid-April with packing for the move. For the Liberty Village layout, because of the space, I won’t be including the very large Massey-Harris or Inglis plants. They would generate too much bulk traffic or loads/flows that don’t make sense given the amount of space I have. That doesn’t mean I can’t have some carloads that are coming or going from them that show up every now and then, as a “nuisance” to the operator where it was marshaled between cars that needed to come into Liberty Village and rather than shunting it in the yard, it just comes along for the ride.
I bought two packs of Walthers Scenemaster tractors a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure how many would fit on the flatcar. Looks like I can buy another pair and load 6 on.
The car I am using for this load is an old Life-like Proto 2000 flat car in Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo paint. I bought four tractors (they come in 2-packs), as I wasn’t sure how many would fit, and didn’t want to have too many. Now that I’ve got them out, I like the look of four on the car, but it almost feels underloaded. I was looking at my friend Trevor Marshall’s post about his tractor load on his S-Scale Port Rowan layout, and he has 6 on the same length car, and the AAR (American Association of Railroads) directions from the 1940’s for loading tractors!
Painting extra detail onto the basic looking Walthers tractors to make them look more like Canadian built Massey-Harris equipment.
As I want the tractors to look like they are Massey-Harris built at the plant in Toronto, I am painting the wheels yellow, as Massey-Harris tractors had bright yellow wheels when new. I suspect the Walthers tractors are a nominally a John Deere or International Harvester (they also come in green), so they are not an exact match for what was built-in Toronto, but with yellow wheels and some details like the exhaust picked out in silver, they will make a passable load of Massey-Harris equipment.
Starting to look at cutting pieces for the blocking. This is confirming I really need to go out and buy a new strip cutter. Mine is done for and I can’t get clean consistent and square cuts from it anymore! NorthWest Shortline Chopper 2 here I come!
This probably won’t be a project I finish quickly given the need to buy more tractors, and I can’t seem to find my fine scale chain (though I may wind up using super fine wire as it’s easier to work with than the chain is to tie them down, But it was nice to sit down at my new desk for an hour and actually work on a model again. Who knows, maybe whenever I start preparing load cards and waybills for operation, I’ll tag this cars eventual destination as Port Rowan on Trevor’s current layout!
Musings on my Model Railroading Addiction 
Ah – excellent! I see you found the post, and I see that I included the page about proper tractor blocking. The blocking looks great. I look forward to seeing a report on the finished flat car.
If you’re shopping for more tractors, find another flat car too – it doesn’t have to be the same number, or even the same road – and model an “empty” car, with just the blocks and chains, lying on the deck. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for my own layout. Between sessions, I’ll simply swap the cars.
Cheers!
– Trevor (Port Rowan in 1:64)