I recently impetuously indicated interest in importing two of several Algoma Central (AC) gondolas being offered by Nick Acciavatti. Nick's story is an interesting one. He's relocating, not only changing houses but also modelled locales, switching from AC in Northern Ontario to CP on Vancouver Island. So he'll be keeping CP stuff, but not AC stuff. I've also seen some AC Geeps after their rehoming on others' layouts. It's a win-win! Here are the two gons I selected, now at home on my Hanley Spur layout:
I've previously blogged about the prototype fleet of AC gons. I caught up with one at Kingston's Counter Street team track, albeit after absorption into CN's rolling stock fleet with the sale of Wisconsin Central - some renumbering involved - published as the travels of WC 201178.
The only buyer's remorse I had after initiating the transaction with Nick was whether these long gons would traverse a sharp curve on my CN (and CP interchange) trackage near my Davis Tannery. (It turns out they traverse the trackage just fine). These first four photos show the cars posed at the interchange, at which CN is in the foreground and CP in the background.
Tagged by 'Nick' smiley face!
Here's my only former AC rolling stock. A Lima 50-foot gondola that I'd decalled decades ago with C-D-S Lettering dry transfers:
A comparison of the old and new. The problem with leaving scrap glued into corners of the gons to replicate the prototype means sometimes drop-in loads don't sit flat!
I liked the extended ends of the Walthers cars, but decided I needed them higher. I added two pieces of Plastruct square styrene, then wood-scribed thin styrene on the inside of the ends. I also added just over two rungs of end ladders. Will I add end reporting marks? I did add ACI labels, chalk marks, and X2F couplers. The cars came with metal wheel sets.
I needed drop-in loads for my two newest cars. A quick trip to the balsa box! I white-glued two base thicknesses, adding a third for a sheet steel load, and a few single strips for structural steel load. I've since found some wooden I-beams to add to the top layer in future. I wanted to add strip wood to replicate the prototype spacers along the interior of the car sides, but found that scale lumber didn't have enough room to fit inside the gon. So, I replaced it with tan-coloured cardstock. The only visible portions of the spacers are the tops, above the sides of the guns.
Walthers webpage listing:
- the Walthers model: 61 vs. 65-feet
- sample gon AC 1377
Also recently re-homed was a second Rapido Trains Inc. CN RS-18, NIB. CN 3830 is in the green/yellow scheme. It's already been broken-in and is now switching CN customers on the Hanley Spur! This, and the redevelopment of my CP station yard will likely result in the backdating of my modelled era from 'circa 1970' to pre-1966, when that yard was remade into Confederation Park.
Running extra...
A Moncton developer and former owner of a rail equipment company owes the province of New Brunswick almost $5 million as a result of a failed effort to refurbish rolling stock for VIA Rail Canada. Developer Richard Carpenter has “no discernible defence” against paying a $3 million personal guarantee Carpenter made to the province in 2008 for a $12.5 million loan guarantee to his company Industrial Rail Services Inc. IRSI held contracts with VIA to refurbish Bombardier LRC passenger cars, retrofit British-built Renaissance cars to meet accessibility requirements, and rehabilitate six RDCs. Ouch.
Tuesday this week marked the first day of a new VIA Corridor equipment rotation, featuring two J-trained Venture sets on VIA trains 60/50 and 62/52. (Video capture of No 60/50 through a winter wonderland scene at the Mi 179.6 with Venture Sets 15/12 - below). This new rotation repositions Venture sets that were operating west of Toronto, and makes two (four) trains per day east out of Toronto that are not subject to crossing speed reductions imposed by CN. Interestingly, on Wednesday and Friday, No 50 was NOT a Venture!
A huge social media flap erupted this week when the politically-incorrect hosts of A Modeler's Life podcast assessed the current social media director of the National Model Railroad Association. Was Lionel Strang 'the ugly American' on the panel? (he may actually be 'an ugly Canadian'). He has been needlessly vocal in the past. I don't listen to or watch podcasts (watching a podcast, isn't that watching a video?) but social media commenters are swimming away from the sinking ship that is AML. Rapido was roundly applauded:
