Model Railroading during a Pandemic

A week ago, I was seasonally sequestered at a cabin reading about railroading. Wednesday into Thursday, the COVID-19 pandemic got real and everything started changing and closing up. My prescient post in 2018 about revenue-neutral modelling came to mind, as did this year's Model and Railfan Local. I won't reiterate the past week, but just as we can reset certain fiscal and social norms during the pandemic, we should definitely re-examine our modelling, railfanning and expenditures made on both. It's not always black and white (top photo).

So I've continued not only my trend of working on the layout for 45 minutes a day, when possible (between the CBS Evening News headlines and Jeopardy!) but also finishing up projects already on my under-layout shelves and post-its. By that, I mean post-it notes I stick on my layout fascia when I become aware of something that needs doing. Kind of like a job jar.

The first one was a conundrum about what to do with these two cars. CN refrigerator car and CV paper car, both of which are Tyco cars that I renumbered and painted/decalled, respectively. They ran like crap. The Talgo X2F couplers pushed these underweight cars off the track at turnouts and during reverse movements, but I liked the look of them and didn't want to self-isolate them right off the layout! I had a couple of surplus Athearn cars - 50-foot CP script refrigerator car and newsprint car. So, I took out the complete underframe from each, which included roller-bearing trucks and couplers that I wanted. Out came the Dremel, shaving a bit off the ends and sides of the floor, and voila, it dropped right into the Tyco cars. Secured with glue, we were ready to go. Saved!

In the other half of my layout room, my wife is working on her greeting cards. She uses tape-runners which give out  a steady stream of adhesive. And a steady pile of empty runners. I took a look at them and found they included some geared wheel thingies that I thought would make interesting gondola loads. I'm finding ways to use these on the layout (as I am black Sharpies. Watch for an upcoming post!) Here's a geared wheel thingie in foreground, with glued-together and painted thingies in the car:

The load is secured with styrene sprues in the bottom of the car and can be lifted out easily:

Surplus ink stampers are another reusable - I glued them end to end, and glued small wheel thingies from the tape runners, painted rust for another type of load:

Two empty tape runners (plus one in the foreground) glued together and painted. This will be a gondola or depressed-centre flat car load originating at Canadian Locomotive Co.

After building my Bailey Broom factory, I decided to back-date it so that it's still the Queen City Oil Co. dealership. That meant horizontal oil tanks. I used the ends of the rubber stampers, gluing them onto three (also glued-together) empty plastic label rolls to form the tanks, perching them on some supports from the scrap box. I'll be further detailing the unloading equipment. As you can see, I've only got room for a couple, not the five tanks on the prototype. A view from the North Street bridge towards Cataraqui Street crossing:

 A Rideau Street view:

I finally covered this limestone rock cut (facing a papier-mache 2x4) with something better than ground foam. To cover this subtle scenery block between CN (foreground) and CP trackage (background), I used grass mats from Michael's craft store, cheaper and easier than static grass - just lightly white-glued in a few spots because I'm likely to change my mind!

Looking from the other end - I worked in a perpendicular rock cut where one 2x4 ended. It's printer-paper picture of limestone copied, cut and pasted. Literally.

Every work session ends with an operating session. This keeps the junk off the tracks and keeps the layout functioning regularly. This is what all the work is for. That's the difference between model-building and model railroading. Last night,  CP was in town, while CN headed toward the mainline in this Cataraqui Street crossing view:

A view across the interchange tracks and CN's line to CP, where the Weldwood warehouse is being switched:

A black & white view of CN switching the Place d'Armes freight shed:

Almost a year later and again locked down, I was still at it. Let's call this post Part 2.
Running extra...

After blog partner Steve Boyko showed his bookshelf in a recent post, I noticed all four Trackside with VIA books, in some very good company. It turns out this is a case of bidirectional bibliophily...

...with Steve's book dead-centre among mine. I don't think that happens on too many bookshelves!

Ten things we can appreciate about the pandemic:

1. Partisan politicians need to work together more.
2. Cruises, pro sports and excessive air travel are frills.
3. Education begins at home.
4. Real information matters. Fake news is itself fake.
5. Certain jobs can't be done from home.
6. Social distancing reduces mass shootings.
7. Every day is like Sunday used to be - special.
8. Enjoy what you have - stop looking for more, more, more!
9. Healthcare workers always face real challenges.
10.Each morning gives us a chance to re-evaluate everything we will do.

CNN's own Sanjay and CBS's Steven Colbert have provided valuable information! Meanwhile...