Post by morey2001 on Mar 5, 2015 9:19:21 GMT -5
Hi-
Reading the new thread about Project X and it's locale made me want to post a bit of history regarding my railroad. Hope it's not too long and wordy and I haven't figured out how to update the images of my route map and some 'Paint Shop' loco schemes that are embedded in my copy.....
Chris Morey
Thunder Bay Northern, the concept and some musings……
The journeys of a model railroader….starting with the Lionel set …deciding at the tender age of 12 to convert to HO and anxiously await my mail ordered $3.99 HiFi Athearn Warbonnet F from AHC, along with some $ .99 cars….influenced by living in GTW territory north of Detroit. It must have been a factor, but actual train encounters were pretty rare. We lived in the country, and the horns were a commonly heard reminder, but to be in town (Richmond) when a train showed up…..wow, that was some luck and pretty rare. Our church was only a couple of blocks from the tracks, and once in a while a freight would show around the 11:00 mass time…
The Thunder Bay Northern has existed in one form or another for over thirty years. Having grown up in SE Michigan I am a GTW fan at heart. I had painted some equipment back in the black and red noodle era to reflect what I saw in the real world even though my real interest was the older scheme. I no longer have my first kitbash, built in the 70’s, a GTW SD40, following an old Tom Busack article, but the memory is still there, with the observation of very few CN or GTW decorated models in the marketplace (except some brass available across the river in Windsor) along with the phobia about painting the first generation paint scheme if this was to be my modeled railroad. So the thought of an easier to paint freelanced version of the maple leaf era GTW began to take hold, perhaps fueled by the V&O series and other could-have-been model railroads starting to be shown in the model railroad press around that time. Many moves about the country in my younger years tended to keep those concepts unrealized, and maybe that was a good thing, since it has evolved over time. Time flies and suddenly I was in my forties and more settled when the ‘threat to build a layout’ started to come together. Funny how one little hang-up can really steer the direction a notion can take.
The concept currently is teetering with a partially fictional place with its enhanced reality-type setting and geography on one side of the equation and the proto-freelanced CN subsidiary side with the copied hardware on the other. The Thunder Bay Northern has evolved into some sort of mash up with elements of GTW and now DWP set in a fictionalized, ruggedized Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There is an un-modeled division in Lower Michigan connected by a Great Lakes car ferry; that division has a direct connection with the GTW (as well as a line to the Thunder Bay/Alpena area for the RR name justification). The TBN taps natural resources of the UP and serves as a bridge route between the DWP and GTW. The time frame is the early 60’s, I thought about 1960-62 as absolute cut off, with some sort of rationale that since GTW ran some steam on the Detroit sub in 1959-60 the TBN could be some sort of hand me down cousin that ran steam even later. Further research and reading point in the opposite direction though; the smaller family roads, i.e. the DW&P and the CV, both dieselized earlier. Probably their smaller size and limited steam rosters where a big part of this. I wanted both first generation diesels and some steam. Even with current thinking placing increased emphasis on prototype modeling and using real places and routes for one’s fictional railroad, I felt to place the TBN in the real world modeling real places, would be a less interesting model. The real UP has lots of hills, trees, and swamps…but nothing as dramatic as I envisioned. There is a stretch of 4 % grade on the old DSSA line over the hill down into L’Anse, but I wanted more scenic verticality than the Porcupine or Huron Mountains could offer. So in my mind the UP became less eroded, with those stumps of ranges we see now rising another thousand feet further into the sky. I didn’t want anything like John Allen’s Akinback’s but something with a little more topographic relief than the reality. And it is now nice to see a recent Armstrong layout plan published in MR echoing some of my UP geography desires. Early 1960’s as a time period also works when I expanded my model universe to include a couple of fictional roads to interchange with, like the “Mineral Range” road, loosely patterned after the LS&I, and a home for the ore jimmies I seem to be accumulating, as well as a feeder line for the TBN with some shared trackage. The early 60’s, the ending of steam, first generation just starting to give way to newer diesels and corporate images, yes this would be an easy choice logically, but of course it was emotionally right also, that time is when those images were first really imprinted on my young mind. Maybe with more funds and time I can develop several time periods of rolling stock and power and go more modern as well. When I started 1960 was only a decade or so in the past…..now it feels sometimes like an ancient era and long ago…and of course, era creep can be harmful to your mental health as well as your wallet.
TBN Steam is modeled after GTW and other family lines. Three or so USRA light Mikes, a couple of Bachmann Consols. Along with a couple of USRA Light Mountains I added when Bachmann released theirs, since GTW used USRA or close copies for much of their steam power. I have modified one steam engine to date, an Athearn Mike, with an Elesco FW and number boards. I thought it looked pretty good until I saw the article by Don Janes in RMC and his GT Mikado. So maybe some more mods, like the handrails down to the pilot deck , the top mount injector, and the box covering the steam turret, now are must have family traits that were overlooked previously. I have two Proto 2000 0-6-0’s and an 0-8-0 in GT, GTW, and CN paint. Since there seemed to be a lot of swapping around of motive power in general I am using that rationale to justify their presence on the TBN. The 0-6-0’s have the number board from the factory, and I can overlook the headlight visors for now, so they would be good to go. I am relocating the headlight and adding the number boards to the CN 0-8-0, it may get re-heralded as well.
The TBN will also see other CN lines diesels on the layout as well, using the same rationale about swapping power. It certainly makes it easier to get more finished units on the layout. ‘Visiting’ power includes GTW F’s (Genesis) and Geeps, along with a GTW S2 and RS1, and including some CNR, and a CV and DWP units. These are either factory or my paint, and I am trying to have appropriate matching cabooses for them as well. (I do have a mental image of these in a display case with their matching cabooses). Mostly first generation paint, although the noodle is sneaking in with a Genesis GTW set of F units , a GP9 4553, and some other F units (P1K and Athearn), and (another) SD40 painted but unlettered. Going the other way in time I am torn about getting (as if money were no object), the Intermountain GTW F’s in their as delivered scheme of green and gold, they look great but were around painted like that a mere moment in time. And on the issue of era expansion, I have not been happy with my attempts at turning the TBN initials into the noodle logo for post 1961 use. Much like the model railroad setting itself, it falls between the continuous ligature of the CN, CV and GT, and the stand alone letters of the DW&P. I recently completed a TBN P1K F unit with the 1961 scheme, a major holdup was the lettering on the nose. I ended up using some dry transfer letters but am not entirely satisfied with neither the font nor the size of lettering. And it is a problem both of mechanics, of generating artwork suitable and easily re-producible, and a problem of incorporating a more recent time into the TBN history and mythos.
Deciding what models to dieselize with was also fairly easy, Geeps and F units for road power, just like the Trunk. The geeps were easy to justify and relatively easy to model and paint, purchased in later 50’s as replacements for steam, but the F units I wanted were more problematic, and not just because of my fear of painting them. If they were ex-GTW or even some sort of piggyback purchase with the GTW’s order, they were there too early; GTW bought theirs in the late 40’s and hung onto them until the late 60’s, and if they were purchased new by TBN (like circa 1950), steam would have been pretty much finished by 1960. But the F units are, with the one exception, presently only a block of numbers on a spreadsheet….that first generation scheme is still just too daunting to paint myself. That roster spot may start to get filled however, I recently did just purchase two green and yellow GTW genesis shells that I may attempt to re-letter TBN. And then there is the whole issue of dynamic brakes, the Trunk didn’t need them, but the TBN with its stiffer grades did, and so the deviations start; and who even wants to start contemplating 6 axle vs. 4 for the hills.
I worry the TBN is too small a road not to have dieselized en masse. Trying to integrate steam and diesel on a smallish road is an issue, but hints are out there. Reading through “Evening Before the Diesel” and the “GTW in Color” books showed the GTW dieselized essentially one subdivision at a time, with the Holly sub being one of the last, along with the branch lines radiating from it. GTW even placed small orders of diesels for a specific job or run. An obvious solution would be to model a division point yard, with one sub dieselized and the other a steam hold out; if I only had the room. In the end, the real solution will probably become a transition to diesel only, for the same reasons as the real railroads, less maintenance of the locos themselves and easier on the track (or really, less finicky about the trackwork). The diesels seem to multiply, even in their undecorated state, much faster than the steamers.
How to number my nascent roster was long a contentious matter, I liked how the CV kept their own numbering scheme for steam and cabooses, only to acquiesce with the diesels. So TBN kept their own numbering scheme, all motive power, steam and diesel, were to have 2 or 3 digit numbers, all rolling stock to have only 4. I have blocks of 10’s or 20’s set aside for the different motive power classes and blocks of 100’s or so for the different freight car series. Now with more units, both motive power as well as rolling stock, being done, I am afraid I made the span of numbers too small. I have not run out of room in any of the series yet, but there may be issues if more rolling stock and power in the new image is decided upon. For better or worse, though, it turned a bit cute when I started to number the TBN motive power with popular car engine displacements. The GP9’s have numbers like 389, 396, etc., with the earlier F units are penciled in the ‘small block’ series 305, 327 etc….but at least I would stop it there… numbering my switchers (one SW900 completed, so far)# 76, right in where the numbers GTW originally used on their SC’s…and, oh yeah, my Mike is #283.....
My original intent on the diesel scheme was to substitute black for the green of the 1st generation GTW…. Keep the family resemblance yet a bit of independence. I did up a couple of Geeps in the black scheme when a friend commented that ‘ you’re using the switcher black and yellow scheme for the road power as well?’ At the moment I was tickled that I could at least pull off the mechanics of the geep paint scheme pretty well, but that comment popped my bubble and caused some rethinking along with gnashing of teeth. New units will receive the green color instead. Although I do believe it would be easier to use my original two colors and avoid those darn pinstripes as color separation, i.e. on those yet to be done F units. A couple of the first geeps were done cutting tape masks for the bibs, chevrons and lozenge, and the results were just ok or acceptable but not as good as I wanted. When the AccuCal and later Microscale sets became available they were used and robbed for the yellow bits, the only thing was that the road name had to be cut and placed inside the yellow lozenge using individual letters.
The geeps are modeled with the older P2K and Front Range offerings. I did model a TBN passenger geep to fit in with the GTW and CV’s use of them on passenger trains, and it’s black and yellow paint now poses the problem of not matching any Maple Leaf passenger cars. I have thoughts of substituting a black and yellow scheme as TBN’s 1954 Maple Leaf versions of the passenger cars as well, but it may be a moot point, don’t know how much passenger service the TBN will even offer, but the thought of pulling some sleepers off the car ferry to continue their trans-continental journey sounds intriguing and the Rapido CNR/GTW equipment could be used for that.
I bit the bullet a few years back, soon after placing individual decal letters inside the Maple Leaf of my first TBN piece of rolling stock, a Juneco CN wood caboose kit, so I had the wafer herald made by Rail Graphics in white, black, and Dulux gold in several sizes to (hopefully) cover correctly, rolling stock, inside maple leafs, the tender heralds, and maybe under the windows of the passenger cars. I use a red, black, or green Microscale trim film to add the background color where appropriate. I was torn for bit in whether to use the silver/white wafer on the freight steam locos ala GTW, but no, the red and dulux gold with matching lettering gives a spot more color. I use the Microscale and old Accucals CN lines sets for the numbers and other data.
After a few more ‘letter jungle’ forays using individual letters I purchased custom road name and reporting mark sets for my rolling stock from Don Manlick. These follow the steam era CN lines format and look good on, for instance, the Accurail OB 40’ boxcars, nice that so much of the older equipment has no herald. Of course I bought these in white, so when I decided I need some covered hoppers, out came the letter jungle sets again, in red this time, to letter those….(at least I can use the CDS red color dimensional data dry transfer sets). For the black and white data I cannibalize the Champ and Walthers decal sets I have stashed away, and of course some of that dimensional data is just a generic sheet and not really accurate. Consequently TBN has a decent amount of ‘home road’ rolling stock and non-revenue done up.
Mineral Range and Saint Marys
Not content with just one freelance road, my universe needed to have several. While recently re-perusing Dorin’s “The Lake Superior Iron Ore Railroads”, one of my first book acquisitions, I realized this was another seed that was planted a long while back and has grown over time…maybe a bit stunted compared to the TBN, but grown and actualized to an extent. The Mineral Range seems to have evolved from having more information about the railroads of the upper peninsula, past and present. The name is a bow to the past and the real Mineral Range that served copper mines in their era of production, and to the present LS&I by essentially copying their paint scheme and raison d’etre. Starting from a foray into a Tucson hobby shop and impulsively purchasing some used yellow box SP-ized SD35s in the mid-80's, the thinking must have been get them for their being six axle power as not much six axle was on the market at the time. The shells were pulled and SD24 shells were gathered to backdate them to fit the timeline (barely) along with a decision to turn them into low hood power. Some Tyco GP20 shells were also purchased and the bashing began, following an old MR article turning these same SD’s into the ATSF low nose versions. The results were pretty good, and I like their looks after spraying with Tuscan paint and lettering them with Dulux Gold colors using a horsepower based number scheme. Later, when Atlas’ RSD’s came out, a realization came of these being the type of power I really wanted. Did I mention I had lived in Utah and my exposure to the Utah Railroad? So the Mineral Range changed focus and I concentrated on building up an Alco roster, both RS and RSD, and these look so close to the LS&I’s RS3’s. Some Stewart RS3 were purchased on closeout, some RSD’s were bartered from a follow modeler and voila. Ore jennies slowly accumulated, mainly from the MDC 3-in-1 kits (along with their anachronistic arch bars)…but progress was made, these being modified into 3 car sets with close coupling via rigidly mounted Kadee 4’s and drawbars. They were matched to the slightly stretched spacing of the newly released Walthers DMIR ore cars, with several sets of those also being purchased. Some of the rib side MDC cars were modified to have sloped end bracing, ala some of the Soo and DSSA 50 ton cars. Most cars are in paint, although none have been lettered yet. the original intent was to have both TBN and MNR pooling ore cars for use. I would use old Varney bay window cabooses to finish, the rationale to fit under the loading pockets and because I liked their looks and initially found some inexpensively. But these are not yet modified neither painted nor lettered. There is currently no other lettered ‘general’ rolling stock for the Mineral Range, or even any sketched out roster with numbering ranges, or even a paint scheme and lettering scheme developed beyond the motive powers’. B
The Saint Marys came about for several reasons, first wanting a short line using different power, GE 70T’ers and others in this case. Maybe another was to pay some sort of homage to my patient and understanding wife, Mary. The tie (very loosely) is the Sault Sainte Marie gateway in the UP. Currently the Saint Marys doesn’t come close to the SOO, but is envisioned as some sort of lakefront short line. Loosely copying the lines that run up to Big Bay and over to Munising in the real world. Several Bachmann two motor 70T’s are painted and lettered in the traction inspired orange and black (wonder if they will fit over the new mechanisms?) But as with the MNR, the rest of the roster remains undeveloped, except for caboose #7, a Walthers 4 window model with an added baggage door for mixed service… but maybe more in
keeping with a shortline , they will own very little of their own rolling stock…
Adding a couple of images of paint scheme and map
the map
