Sacco Steel on the Green Mountain Lines

I'm phoning it in this week. Activity is hot and heavy on my Trains and Grains project. So I sent the company photographer down to the basement to snag some photos of some recent developments on my Green Mountain Lines. Crossing improvements and town layout of St Johnsbury, VT produced the above vignette. 

Sacco Steel, formerly Coastal Steel (when the layout was sited in Vancouver) and Manitoba Rolling Mills (Winnipeg) is now a slightly down-at-the-heels steel wholesaler with a new-found focus on scrap handling. CP switches (above) alley view and gon-spotting (below):

This building has since been re-sided:

A vintage Matchbox truck has received Sacco blue:

And a worker tries to walk while also trying to camouflage his clear acetate baseplate:

Overhead B&W view:

Vigilant switchman:

I made a bunch of dumpsters for scrap collection:

Credit the inimitable Bob Fallowfield with inspirationally elevating layout photography to a new level of scenic detail and even newer photo angles that promote realism. Watch for an upcoming Trackside Treasure post where I finally scenick the final few square inches that remain unscenicked on the Green Mountain Lines. The greening will be complete. Feelin' scrappy:

I'm so glad there is in-camera photo enhancement, photo-editing and no more need for flashbulbs for layout photography. We are lifting the lid on previously-held philosophy of layout photography:

Over at the St Johnsbury shop track, a startling example of my short attention span (bird!!) While I envy modellers who produce a complete potash unit train, coal consist or grain drag of identical cars, I can scarcely decorate both sides of the same car. To wit:

On one side, it's heading for the scrap yard, authorized for scrapping (above) and on the other side, it's a Service car (below)! Two cars for the price of one minibox! Or, thinking outside the minibox.

That True Line Trains van is so sweet that it needs little work. Maybe I'll drill in the marker lamps some day! But just on one side. CP set out two minibox Service cars in the St J yard. CP was always keen to sweat the assets prototypically, such as using former revenue cars for Service use.

Also to wit...Portage la Prairie, 1978:

Running extra...It's all about the connections!

Prince Street Terminal blog partner Chris Mears sent the above supporting evidence, employing Chris' X2F-based saying that Randy O'Brien and I then memed. Randy also sent unique birthday greetings this week. Randy is the bearded Legoman and I am the one with the notepad!

Fellow passenger train enthusiast Bill Staiger sent this link to Amtrak's report card on its freight railroad partners. Comforting to know that CN gets an 'F' from Amtrak as it would from VIA! Consistent!

Drew Makepeace (he knows what Fatties and Fakies are) sent this photo of me at Bayview Junction on our epic Bayview Railfanathon in 1981. Rapido is about to announce its production of CN's iconic Tempo trains, don't you know? Surprisingly, View by Category on the Rapido Trains' website reveals Zombie Products but no Tempo Trains category. I think the project will be gathering tempo and becoming un-dead soon! Who doesn't want Governor-General cars, after all! Play the Bee Gees, roll the G-G's! It's Canada, so GG1 is not an electric locomotive.

And if my Dad knew that Charles Bohi was a book contributor to Trains and Grains, he would not believe it. Bohi's seminal volumes on CN and CP Western Depots were simply the standard by which other Canadian railway books were measured. Complete, photographically-rich and unassailably accurate. It's Chuck's contributions that I'm working on now. How do 25 depot and 50 grain elevator photos sound, with supporting text and captions. I'm honoured to have these in Trains and Grains!

Breaking News...since you read this far, if you're at all interested in being one of the 10 people who will buy this book, I expect the material for the TRAINS volume to go to my graphic designer on Easter weekend.