The RailLink. Mississippi Valley Associated Railroaders M.V.A.R. Carleton Place, Ontario Canada Our 24th Year April 2011

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1 The RailLink Mississippi Valley Associated Railroaders M.V.A.R. Carleton Place, Ontario Canada Our 24th Year April 2011 Adding a bit of colour... (Photo courtesy of John Soehner, jol*) Check out the M.V.A.R. web site for the latest club updates: and mvar

2 David Biggs The President s Message for December 2010 The May elections are just around the corner and I would ask all of you to consider being part of the executive. To that end I have served as President for the last year, Unfortunately circumstances changed for me early on in the presidency with a new job. With the scheduling I have it has proved very difficult to attend and serve to my best ability in the role of President. Therefore I will be stepping down from this role come May. This doesn t preclude being President in the future, but at this time it s not practical. I hope one of you will step up to the plate to represent our club for the following year. Not a great deal to report currently. I don t have as much free time as I have had over the last couple of years to get into the train room or to go visiting but I am hoping to find some time to do both with the better weather arriving. It s always nice to get out and about and find some inspiration for landscape ideas on the layout and to see older buildings around eastern Ontario. Happy Easter! David Larry Skinner Public Relations and Programs Each Saturday morning members, friends, and guests come out to the Gourmet Restaurant for breakfast and railroad social time. This is a great place to get and share ideas for building your railroad. We start arriving about 07:00h and we eat at 08:00h. We socialize until 09:00h. On Wednesday mornings 6 to 8 members come out to Tim Horton s in Almonte for café and our Railroad Social hour. We start arriving about 09:30h and we meet until about 10:30h. Saddened by the winter close up of David McCurdy s Rio Grande Southern and locking of the shed door to keep winter away from Bob Summer s Innisville Southern, just in time it s Christmas time and our spirits get up and go again. Call another club member this week and get together for a house visit and see what they are doing with their layout or maybe make some suggestions... WANTED - Model Railroad Articles for the RailLink 2

3 David Biggs, President and MVAR Librarian We have a Growing Video and Book library that is Not being used as much as it could. The library is taken to every meeting and you can sign out what you want and return it next meeting or our Saturday morning breakfast. dbiggs@biggsworld.com Ben Sanders, Treasurer bsanders@ucalgary.ca. David McCurdy, Membership Get to know your fellow MVAR members! Take time on Saturday mornings for the MVAR breakfast at the Gourmet in Carleton Place and/or plan to join the Wednesday morning coffee sessions at Tim Hortons in Almonte. Regular monthly meetings are at the Carleton Place Arena on the fourth Thursday of each month during the club year (except Dec.) and our Dinner meetings (Sept., Jan. and May) are at Christ Church in Ashton. The T-Trak Sub meets at the Carleton Place Arena on the second Thursday each month. dmccurdy@sympatico.ca Rod Goodwin, Webmaster To all members who have web pages; You can have your link posted on our website. TO ALL MEMBERS CHECKOUT THE WEB SITE FOR ACTIVITIES THAT THE MEMBERS WILL BE HOSTING. wingood@sympatico.ca Ron Legge, Secretary/Archivist leggerh@sympatico.ca Larry Skinner, Public Relations, Programs and RailLink Editor Please remember that this is YOUR club and if YOU want to make it exciting and active it is up to YOU to do so. My part is simple take over a fully developed newsletter model and put your inputs into it. This year promises to be a busy one with many new programs and events already in the works or in the planning stages. Please send your thoughts, pictures and articles to me for RailLink. This is an important way to really make MVAR you railroad club! lskinner@storm.ca 3

4 Scratch Build N Scale Coaling Tower Still working on the theory that because my railroad is non-prototypical, I figure I can make a nonprototypical coaling tower. I had been looking for a suitable coaling tower kit, without much luck, but then I found an article on an old Model Railroader magazine written by Victor D. Heywood who had kitbashed a coaling tower suitable to his needs from a HO kit. I liked what I saw in the article, but soon learned that even with scaling his example down; it would not fit where I wanted to place it on my layout. So, I decided to scratch build it with modifications suitable to my needs. After all, I guess being the CEO of my railroad gives me some say. The first step in building the coaling tower was to create the sides of the outside cribbing. Figure 1 In order to make the sides, I would need a template (Figure 1). I drew out the sides on a piece of computer paper and covered it with wax paper so the glue would not stick to the paper. The next step (Figure 2) was cutting and laying down the cribbing. Like my last project, I used pine lumber I obtained through Bob Summers and lumber mill on the Innisville Southern Railroad I will really have to get more lumber when this project is completed. Figure 2 The structure is now starting to take shape (Figure 3), what you see here is the outside framing (or cribbing) that provides the strength for the coal bin. The bin will be made from clap board textured styrene. I was a little worried at this point though, as my structure looked to be a little high. A quick check of coaling tower information on the internet indicated that they averaged roughly 72 feet high in N scale this is 139mm. At this point my tower is 140mm without the cupola for the hoist equipment housing. I think it will do. Figure 3 4

5 Figure 4 shows the floor, back and sides of the bin in place. Figure 4 Figure 5 show the bin floor braces installed. I have also installed the structural supports for the front of the bin, and the front piece. Figure 5 With the sub roof on in Figure 6, the basic structure has now been completed. On to the hoist shaft and the hoist machinery cupola. Figure 6 Figure 7 This picture (figure 7); although a little hard to see, shows the hoist shaft in place and the cupola for the hoist equipment started. Once I have the roof on, it will be time to add the grey primer paint before starting on the detailing. 5

6 So, I got a little ahead of myself. Not only did I prime the structure, but I painted it a barn red (almost CP colours). I also did the detailing and forgot to take pictures of the process. In Figure 8, the front of the structure is on the left. I constructed a shute for loading coal into the tenders, and although it is not really clear, there is a pull chain for opening the shute. At the bottom of the hoist tower there is a coal bin for loading the coal into the hoist. On the back there are stairs and ladders for service access to the cupola. While this was a fun project, I am not really happy with it. The tower seems to be a little high (over 70 feet in N Scale). The proof will be in the pudding though when I try to fit it into my layout. Figure 8 Editor s Note: Unfortunately, the photos in this article could not be rotated but I thought they were too good to miss. RR from the Web... Here is a quick update on the local NMRA group, the SLD. This group is currently building a small portable layout that they will raffle off this fall at Railfare to benefit CHEO. This year s NMRA project is a great follow on to the MR 101 program that SLD ran in Ottawa. To see some pictures of their activity and lots of smiles, check out the Railroad Lines Forum: They will be posting more pictures as the project progresses. Once again, Well done SLD NMRA! Editor 6

7 My Trip to United States March 2011 Exploring Model Railroads By John Morin March 24 to , I had traveled to the United States to visit family in Pennsylvania. Of coarse with my camera in hand, I always try to capture unique stuff while there both model and the real stuff. Part of my venture was a visit to Hagerstown Maryland, which was a very short trip from my location to visit the Roundhouse Museum. March Personal Layout Tour at this Museum located in the Former Western Maryland Steam Testing Building. To Right was the former Roundhouse The Roundhouse Museum is in a former Western Maryland steam testing building and today is part of the CSX complex which took over the Western Maryland Railway when the WM went under in I really enjoy visiting this facility, being there about 2 years ago. Not only does the Museum have many memorabilia of US railroads of the past, for instance having a steel banner plate from a Big Boy steamer 4001 to the brass bell, but its members build these fantastic model railroads. This visit I captured three model railroads, one in HO scale and two in O scale, which I will introduce in a two part series here in RailLink. Of the two O scales layouts only one was open to the public for viewing while the other was a Christmas scene which a Museum member allowed me to take exclusive photos as it was closed to the public. They also have modeled many model railroads for children to have hand on operations. I ll begin the first part of my article with the HO scale layout as it seems to be the most popular interest of the MVAR club. The layout represents nine different divisional points within the area of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York State which just boggles one s mind to remember them all. At any given time, there is an average of 4 trains running around this layout. The details on the layout are fantastic to see. I hope this will be conveyed in my photo presentation. From 1914 to 1999, Hagerstown had a huge Roundhouse, pictured above just near the Museum site, which was the biggest engine repair facility for the Western Maryland Railway. Unfortunately it was torn down in 1999, but a close replica of this fantastic building is being modeled on this layout. 7

8 This is a very small close replica of the Roundhouse as it would have been on the site when the Western Maryland was in operation, modelled on this HO scale Railway system Adjacent to the huge Roundhouse is this small engine single stall with some Western Maryland F-Units waiting for their next assignments Awe strikes you as you walk around this layout. You see the most beautiful structures and bridges and tunnels. The following picture sequence will show you the level of detailing that this model railroad group takes. Many railroad units of road power can be seen on this layout - Western Maryland F Units, BNSF, Chessie System, CSX, Norfolk Southern, CNR, Conrail, and even Canadian Pacific. The layout is equipped for walk around command plug-in which I assume is for member operations in private time. Members sit inside the layout with the command centre. The level of detail and workmanship on these trestles just made the model railroad come alive. 8

9 The attention that went into integrating many scenes is displayed in this elevated section On the day I was visiting this layout, no Norfolk Southern nor CSX were running in the area just BNSF, Chessie System and NW lines as there was only one operator. The Museum is currently offseason opening only from 1 to 5pm each day. Here a local headed by a BNSF unit roars by the B & O Point of Rocks Station I hope you have enjoyed this journey into the Model railroading HO Scale layout located at The Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum. Pictured to the left are scenes which happen when the Museum is fully opened. I thought I would pass these along as a bonus. It takes 9 hours to get there so it's not an after breakfast day trip. Editors Note: Have a look at the Haggerstown Roundhouse Museum s website: 9 John, thanks for the great article!

10 RR from the Web... Firkin Scale Converter This month RR from the Web features a real little gem The Firkin Scale Converter. This software utility is not only a great model railroad tool but also is home grown by none other than our own Rod Goodwin! Rod seems to have thought of every conversion situation any of us might come up against and then he made them all easy! Make sure you have a look at this one: The following categories of conversion are affered: Linear Measure/Distance Area Volume Scale Gradient Quoting from the HOME page for this utility: This site consists of a number of pages, one per type of conversion. Some are straight converters, while some are more like calculators. Select the type of conversion in the drop-down box above. If the selected page is a simple converter, enter your original value in the appropriate box, and click the button. The other input boxes on the page will then be set to the converted values. If the selected page is a calculator, there will be instructions on the page. Most input boxes accept simple numeric values, with a few exceptions. Input boxes for foot-inch-fraction require a specific format of numeric values separated by dashes, e.g /16 for 7 feet, 8 and 3/16 inches. Input boxes for inch-fraction are the same, except without the value for foot. Select the desired places of decimal and nearest fraction from the appropriate drop-down box above. These boxes appear on every page, and may be changed at will. NOTE: Selecting a large number of decimal places will probably show rounding errors, due to the limited number of significant digits in the source data used. Editor s comment: Definitely a goodie from an oldie! 10

11 More from the WW&P Shed A bit of scenic work done in the shed today. Some green latex paint laid down, blue work towelling laid on top, then a second coat of green latex. This is followed by some scenic material to blend in with the season of the backdrop! To the right of the Riesen Bread factory the ground cover will be of a slighter greener hue. Green Latex paint liberally slathered on the site. Blue shop towelling laid down then covered with more gooy latex paint. More of the ground scenic material distributed on the wet latex. To get the material to cover the area, soft puffs through a straw to spread the scenic material in spots where the mere dropping of said material did not materialize all that well! I am quite pleased with the backdrop and the ground cover abutting the area. Using the relatively low backdrop it gives a "far away" impression of what is actually found the opposite side of Farren Lake from the cottage! I will have to scenic the area in front of the tracks and behind the fascia with some more latex paint and perhaps use a greener variety of scenic material. As well, the Ballast Worktrain might be running in this area of the WW & P tomorrow, especially if rain continues to fall! 11

12 New Stimulus Plan for the WW&P The New Stimulus Plan is underway in the WW&P Shed. After settling into the Cottage some progress is being made in the Shed. The New Stimulus Plan was incorporated after a former Ottawa Bureaucrat visited the Shed and pronounced the area a disaster scene! With a little help from Peter Delroy, a few tools were gathered together and the first of the Spring Projects was started. The hardware for the Display Shelving was found and fasteners found. With charged batteries in the drill/driver the Shelving Project was underway. The Display Shelves are of three types. The Bottom Shelf is 8 inches wide with a four inch raised insert at the back. This will allow four lines of engines to be displayed with the back two lines slightly elevated by the width of a shelf. The Middle Shelf is 12 inches wide while the Top Shelf is 8 inches wide. The Shelving is designed to hold 204 HO Diesel Engines! (or 134 Steam Engines and Tenders). I really have no idea of how many engines I have! Today with some a few scattered showers during the mid-day I got around to gluing the backdrop material into place. During the triumphant Curling Victory of Team Canada over Scotland the previous evening, I had been busy scissoring 8 x 12 photos of across the lake to make ready for their application to the Masonite wallboard. 12

13 Contact Cement was used to apply the "seasonally adjusted" photos along most of the east and south walls of the shed. Some vegetation and numerous "seasonally adjusted" grape trees, floral trees from my dollar purchases at the Floral Wholesale Markets in Malton need to be added here and there, perhaps throw my cottage and shed into the back corner near the Reisen Bread backdrop building and complete some ballast work before the clean up of the shed can be undertaken! Boy I do like the flatblack paint that was applied by brother Mark the other year or years ago around the top of the shed. It surely draws the eyes to what is on the wall, and for the moment away from the clutter below! Picaso was cleaning a roller brush to give the swoops to the Masonite. You hardly notice the swoops with the Flatblack paint above! I guess a few clouds can be added to break avante garde art! John Soehner Coming Events Apr28 - MVAR Meeting Night Movie night - Trains May 26 MVAR Dinner Meeting Awards Night 1 st Presentation of Reg Bilodeau Award - MVAR Executive Election Sat, June 25 Annual MVAR BBQ Mark your calendars for this one! 13

14 Some of the M.V.A.R. members Railway Patches M.V.A.R. David McCurdy Dennis MacTavish Jim Davis David Biggs Bob Summers John Soehner Eric Halpin John Morin T_TRAK Sub W.G.H. You re Logo Here You re Logo Here You re Logo Here You re Logo Here You re Logo Here Check out the M.V.A.R. web site for the latest club updates: and mvar MVAR Executives for The Year. President: David Biggs Secretary/Archivist Ron Legge Treasurer: Ben Sanders Membership: David McCurdy Program & PR Larry Skinner Library: David Biggs Newsletter: Larry Skinner Webmaster: Rod Goodwin Web Site: 14