Caribou Southern

Hang on, this post is all over the place.  That is to say, the road is winding, with turns aplenty.  

Periodically I search eBay for a particular car; a card side refrigerator car that fits into a series of custom printed road names.  These often turn up in lots of old cars needing refurbishment, the sort of treasures you'd find buried in the junk box at a train show.  During one of these scans I stumbled across two cars that caught my fancy.  The first was indeed a reefer and appears to be hand painted:

It should go without saying, but I can't find anything about this car's origins either.

The second I almost didn't buy:

I had no connection to this car apart from my interest in collecting and preserving lost and forgotten private road names.  That is, until I began cataloguing John Allen's rolling stock.  While there has been plenty of interest in the private roads that appeared on the famous Gorre & Daphetid Railroad, no comprehensive list has been made of the plain ordinary rolling stock; the cars based on actual prototypes.  I set to this task when I was sick and couch-bound for a week.

During my research I dug back through the archives of the G&D discussion group.  There on a partial list of cars that appeared on the G&D was an entry for a gondola - a Caribou Southern gondola, number 55.  Hey...I know that name from somewhere.  About the same time a new set of slide images from the G&D was posted on the group and there it was, the CS gondola, on the RIP track near the Great Divide engine house.

From a photo by Jerry Drake.  Click here for the original.

Okay!  Now we're getting somewhere.  But let's take a step back...what about this Caribou Southern?  Whose road was it?  Where was it located?  How did John Allen come to have one on his railroad?  The Model Railroader archive has NO mention of it, though there's another fascinating Caribou-named model railroad with a car ferry that moved on a track in actual water.  Google turns up nothing.  It seemed to be a dead end.

Well, let's just say the road doesn't go much further but I can now answer two of those questions.  During a totally unrelated search as I rifled through my collection of model railroad passes I found this:

Yup.  There 'tis.  Ken Vere, Supt.  Vancouver, B.C.  And Google did turn up a little on Ken, with a mention in the Pacific Great Eastern newsletter from the 90s.  PGE?  Oh, you know, that Canadian road with the Caribou Head logo...

Tired Tropes or Tried and True?

Do you ever think about those tired hobby tropes?  You know the ones, "We've got to get kids interested in the hobby! (or it will wither and die)" or "A layout is never finished" (though if that were true custom layout builders might never get paid).  Recently I was perusing the 1941 Varney catalog, as one does*, and I came across this passage:

    "Did you ever stop to ask yourself why the small boy never had a chance to play with his electric trains on Christmas day?  I say it was because it took his "old man" just about that long to put it together, make it run, and get tired of it.  It is too easy."
    "At some risk of frightening a newcomer, I would like to say that, a MODEL RAILROAD is no pushover.  If it were, the children would have it, and it would fail to hold the adult interest."

SP drew it, never made it, but Varney did!

The bug will bite a kid from time to time and due to their disposition or an early start with some tools and paint they may turn into model builders sooner than later.  But I suspect they're the rare case, not the average person who may have a mild interest early on that lays dormant until much later when time and funds become available to pursue the hobby in earnest.  I'd say Varney was making a statement in direct contrast to those "toy train" manufacturers that so often depicted kids on the floor, grinning from ear to ear as their grinding metal beasts clanked around the Christmas tree and the family looked on, beaming with pride.

The passage in the catalog continues:

    "A model railroad has yet to be built and finished.  That is one of the nicest things about it.  It's never done.  Virtually every model railroader who starts a layout, tears it up and starts over again almost before he has the bugs out of his first loop of track.  There are thousands of model railroaders who have temporary 'layouts,' or systems which are in effect only test tracks for the equipment which is being modeled.  The real layout floats nebulously in his mind like a mirage in the desert, to be reached some day, somehow."

The first commemorative car offered by Varney in 1948.

Keep in mind these quotes are from a Varney catalog, a company that sells trains, not structures, scenery, track or anything else for your layout.**  They also extol the virtues of how well their equipment runs and complies with NMRA standards so of course it was in their interest to encourage modelers to build something on which to run these trains.  But I think the quote above is for those folks whose layout doesn't look like more than a test track on a table top.  Perhaps it is also aimed at the person who resists buying more equipment because they don't have room for it.  Keeping the dream of "some day, somehow" alive creates a convenient justification in the mind of the buyer.

I suppose I resemble that remark.  Currently I have a small model railroad by most standards.  But that doesn't stop me from buying more trains.  Some day, somehow I'll have that big space for long trains.***  But I'm also that weird kid that got bit early and never let college, girls, career, etc. get in the way of spending some time at a workbench with a model train or structure kit.  Maybe you are too.  These tropes exist for a reason and sometimes they're even true.

The other commemorative offering, Varney, 1948.

*This post was prompted by a recent purchase.  Varney is not a sponsor, (LOL), but I do appreciate their contributions to the hobby and think their early card-side equipment is really cool.

**Varney does recommend you build a layout, and they even offer the barest of suggestions on how to do it.  I did find it particularly interesting that while no track or transformer brands were mentioned, they did exclusively recommend Ideal structures!

***Back in the real world, I do have an actual plan to build a nice storage system that not only protects my investment in rolling stock but makes them easily available to put on and take off the railroad.  I have already shown in this post here that it is possible and even fun to simulate a larger railroad's operations on a small pike.

Mocked-up Market

The early planning stages of my National Model Railroad Build Off diorama involve laying out the critical elements; roads, track, and major structures.  This year's mountain setting makes that even more critical as the land forms take up more room.  Realistic slopes push elements apart unless I rely on the mountain modeler's crutch, miles and miles of retaining walls.  I don't like that look personally so I need to plan for space accordingly.  

To do that I need to know the size of things ahead of time.  I've completed enough of the bridge work to know how tall and long that will be.  There will be three structures on the diorama and one is already mocked-up from a different layout a few years back.  It is small and will have no trouble fitting in the space allocated for it.  The major structure that needs the most consideration is the corner market.  I'm basing my structure on one I found in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Belmont Market.

This is clearly an old home that was once expanded then turned into a corner market.  This is just dripping with character and begs to be modeled, don't you think?  For my structure I'm starting with an RDA stone mill building and will be adding scratchbuilt elements for the extension and storefront.  Here's my mockup:

After reviewing the images I collected from Google Earth, I realized I needed to make the storefront wall extend above the roof, or rather, to keep the roof behind the wall.  This is an important element in telling the story of this structure.  The main roof also needs an eave.  The "original" house on the model is stone while the upstairs extension is wood, likely clapboard, and the storefront will be brick.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to include the external freezer addition...that'll depend on how it looks in the scene.  

Next to the structure will be a gravel parking lot on the opposite side of the old house entry.  And next to that will be this gem:

I found this near one of our favorite restaurants down in Hopland, California.  (The Golden Pig, by the way, and if, like my wife, you need Gluten Free food, this is the place.  ALL the deserts are GF.)  Again another structure with an interesting past.  On the broad side I'll paint an advertisement of some sort, perhaps for a county fair or local event.  Slightly faded, but not a ghost sign.  Not going to mock-up this one as it is pretty easy to visualize and the size can vary as needed.  Sheds are like that.

Stand-ins Part 2

Behold, the Ocala Springs Chero-Cola bottling plant.

I decided to sneak in a quick palate cleansing project between the sidelined Drug Store and the beginning of the National Model Railroad Build Off 2024 diorama project.  I had already photocopied the walls from my Walthers Greatland Sugar Refinery as they seemed a good match for the brick style of the prototype Chero-Cola bottler in Ocala.  All I had to do was heat up the glue gun, pull out some foam core board and get building.

Glue stick for minor changes; 3M Super 77 adheres the paper to the foam core.

In truth I've never done a mock-up with a foam core base, but it really was easy and fun and as usual, quite instructive.  I discovered two major changes I'd need to make before cutting the actual plastic.  The first was choosing to reduce the height of the back wall by cutting away the top row of windows with the more decorative double window instead of the middle row of plain windows.  Otherwise these special windows would be hidden by the loading dock building.  No need to let them go to waste; I'd move them and the back double-door around the side.

Replacing the decorative double window row with a plain single row.

The second was moving a spare large door to the main large building along the spur side.  I had already reduced the loading building by one bay to fit the space on the layout.  I decided to include that big door on the main building in order to create a receiving door as well as a loading door.  Now switch crews can spot inbound carloads of bagged sugar or bottles at the main building and empty cars for shipping out finished soda at the other.

A car spotted at the receiving door.

This is as far as the structure will go now that March has arrived and work will soon begin on the NMRBO24 diorama.  But this is enough to tell me I really like this structure in this spot.  It has the right mass for the scene, visually anchoring the near-center of the layout area.  The building is large enough to be feasible as an industry capable of receiving carloads of supplies and shipping out a carload of soda.  This will be a fun kitbash when the time comes!

Drug Store Saga, Part V

This is the final Drug Store Saga post for the present until the NMRBO24 diorama has been constructed, and perhaps long after that.  I did recently have to resist the urge to throw the uncompleted structure.  It has become time to set it aside, not only due to the impending diorama construction period (March 1 - July 1) but also for reasons to do with the structure itself.

Even if I had not decided to modify the thing into a different shape I can say with some certainty I'd have still struggled at this point.  The problem lies with the storefront entrance and windows.  I thought I was doing a good thing when I made this jig:

The notch on the corner holds the doorway in position so the windows can be glued to it - glued on a thin sliver of metal at a sharp angle.  I used gel superglue for its gap-filling properties but still the dadgum assemblage managed to break loose twice.  

And once I got it all to hold together, even tenuously, and could offer it up to the building, I realized that the entryway, though at a 45 degree angle, did not match the corner bay window.  Not even close. To add insult to injury, the walls adjacent to the windows weren't long enough, by about 1/8th of an inch.  

I can make new walls; there's plenty of wall texture card.  I can make a new jig and reinforce the weak joint and get the thing to align with the tower.  All of these problems have solutions.  But right now I'm not going to.  I'm stepping away.  As I'm writing this the kit parts have been back in the box for a few days and the structure sits in place on the layout, propped up by a bit of sidewalk because the metal castings on the facade make it tip over without its entry door and windows there to support it.

Sometimes just walking away from a project is the right thing to do.

Drug Store Saga, Part IV

I began adding color to the trim using a palate similar to what I used on the Queen Anne Cottage for the NMRBO22.  In fact, the colors are identical - Black Cherry, Almond and Butter Cream (doesn't that sound delicious) but the placement is not.  Whereas on the Queen Anne the windows were Butter Cream, here the windows are Black Cherry, though they look more like Cranberry.  See, I was going to make them white, so I primed them gray and applied the white paint sprayed from above allowing the gray to make an artificial shadow (aka, the zenithal highlight technique).  Then I changed my mind and decided to airbrush them Black Cherry.

Oh I was so happy with how well my new compressor worked, how I was able to dial in the pressure and thin the paint just right to achieve a smooth even coat.  Yes, craft paint can be airbrushed as long as it is thinned and strained and sprayed using a higher pressure than say, oils or inks, but not so high as to spatter.  The appropriate thinner, in my case I used Liquitex Acrylic Airbrush Medium, will allow the paint to lay down and spread out before drying instead of going on all speckly.  It all looked so good.

The windows have been "washed" but still appear slightly brighter than the other parts.

But then I compared the Black Cherry on the windows to the Black Cherry on the other details, the ones I had only primed gray.  Reds are usually translucent (relatively) and this red was no exception.  Over the white primed windows I had a brilliant sanguine glow and on the gray primed parts, a dull purple.  Ugh.  So to fix this I've been slopping on a thinned mix of Black Cherry, black ink wash and brown ink wash to fill the recesses.  I like the brighter red on the raised areas so I'll keep it while darkening the shadows and filtering the whole paint job overall slightly darker.  On the gray-primed Black Cherry bits I'll simply dry brush highlight with a lighter shade of Black Cherry.  Fingers crossed.

Still needs paint (and roofing material).

I rolled a little snake of Miliput to create a fillet behind the parapet wall castings.  They weren't really deep enough to cover the thickness of the wall itself.  This repair looks realistic, like something masons would do to cap off a wall and tie in the ornate front detail.  I also began painting that detail, opting for a simple Butter Cream background and Black Cherry on the raised bits.  In studying actual Victorian paint schemes, I found that most original schemes were not as ornate as we've painted them since.  What we think of as "Victorian" color schemes today are really quite gaudy and complex compared to what was often done originally.

I also added the quoins to the corners between the upper and lower trim.  Let me tell you...that was the easy part.  Fitting the parapet trim was challenging, but not terrible.  Fitting the lower trim where the bay window section must be made from three pieces took some forethought and engineering.  Fortunately I could follow the example of the upper detail and miter the corners to match.  I think it looks pretty good.

Up next?  Who knows.  This project has been all over the place in terms of any logical sequence or lack thereof.  I've got the floor/base cut to fit.  Maybe LEDs.  We'll see.  Plenty of painting to do and some details still to make.  I'm going to try applying dry transfer letters to clear styrene for the big storefront windows.  Still shooting for a March 1 completion in order to begin work on the NMRBO24 diorama at the starting line.

The Italians Get It.

Well, at least this fellow.  By "get it" I mean grasping the crucial concepts that make a model railroad bridge the gap between strict prototype adherence and playing with toy trains.  I've discussed some of these concepts before on this blog and they're my opinions, naturally, but I believe they have value for anyone seeking to better enjoy the hobby by understanding their own motives and how they derive pleasure from this activity.  Take this railroad, for example:

When I view some non-English-language videos on my laptop I can see the captions automatically translated.  This is especially helpful in this case as it allows me to understand what's being said as the videographer interviews the layout builder.  The modeler describes some of his rationale in creating a pastiche of scenes from his past, all tied together by a track plan that allows him to run a variety of equipment including a narrow gauge section and streetcar.

But even if you can't understand what's being said, the video itself does a pretty good job of showing what's there.  There's a connection to what must be a staging yard somewhere.  There's a large visible yard with facilities for servicing (displaying) locomotives.  There's a Parade Route for watching those trains glide along a graceful curve.  There seems to be a desire to strike a balance between track and scenery, though there's plenty of track.  There's no divider on the peninsula; this grants an unobstructed view across a deep scene allowing the distant section of railroad to provide a natural backdrop, tying the visible railroad together as a whole.

There is another side to this coin, however.  The shelves of locomotives lining the walls illustrate a common "problem" I suspect many model railroaders have; we're collectors and we end up with more equipment than our layouts can hold.  I'd be curious to know if the layout builder in the video runs this equipment or if they're simply on display.  Even so, this type of layout does a good job of managing many trains, cycling them on and off the visible portion of the railroad and offering each a chance to make an appearance or do some work.