Bililboad~ MODEL C R a F T 5 M A

BilILBOAD~ MODEL c R A F T 5 M A 7189647803I Visiting the Ontario & Eastern R.R. An exceptional HO sectional layout/Brian Dickey he Ontario & Eastern group con- layout at public shows in the mid Beamsville aboard. It was actually sists of six model railroaders, in- 1980's. He used his small layout to John Mellow's two straight sections Tcluding myself, who have con- showcase his outstanding collection of with the Napanee Station area that structed a sectional HO scale display kitbashed Mantua locomotives. Having were built first and started off our pub- layout which depicts the railway scene a portable layout to take to shows real- lic displays in 1990. Several sections in Southern Ontario between 1949 and ly intrigued me, and I started to dis- were added each year, until we had 1959. One of the primary goals of the cuss this with John Spring, a Hamil- completed the "loop" in the spring of group was to bring a high standard of ton-area modeler who had just 1994. detail and realism to this portable lay- dismantled a large home layout be- Our policy has been to display only out concept. cause of a move. So, late in 1987 John layout sections which have completed and I started on the benchwork for the scenery (even if it's a grassy field History present layout. Once we got this fin- which eventually turns into a business The idea for this layout took flight ished, we knew we'd need more help district or some houses), so it took a when I used to help the late Bill Miller with the project, so we brought John while to get the whole layout together. of Toronto, Ontario, with a small shelf Mellow of Toronto and Jim Ellis of Along the way, we picked up another 60 FEBRUARY 1998 The Ontario & Eastern is a sectional railroad that represents familiar scenes in Southern Ontario. The interlocking tower is a model Of CPR's Milton Tower, while the bridge at right is typical of the sights in the region. Only completed sections of the layout are shown at public exhibitions. two members (or "stakeholders" as we call them), Tony Van Klink of George- town and Richard Chrysler of Hamil- ton. Our group may be somewhat unusu- al in that there is currently almost no club or jointly owned material. The layout sections are individually owned, and in the case of three of us, our sec- set up is for group maintenance). Most quate display without the group of tions are our only home layouts. All of the members are long time or ac- friends which volunteer to help us at motive power and rolling stock are in- quaintances, but as a group we had the shows. They perform as crew for dividually owned as well. It wasn't un- similar ideas of what we wanted to operating sessions and provide specific til 1997 that we opened a bank account model. That, combined with the small rolling stock for some of the trains we (a consequence of the first public show size of our group, helps to keep politics want to run. we ran ourselves). to a minimum. Due to the wide geographic area we It must also be noted that although Design and operation concepts are spread over, the layout only gets our core set of stakeholders is small, We believe that an essential compo- set up three to four times a year (one we could not begin to put on an ade- nent of a good model railway is a RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 61 Visiting the Ontario & Eastern R.R. strong focus on a particular time and a cover the beginnings of the diesel era layout, we mounted signs near some Ac place. We have chosen the steam to in Canada, in practice our operating structures which provide a history of oU tioi diesel transition era, 1949 to 1959, and sessions have developed a definite bias the prototype and a few comments on tra the location is Southern Ontario. towards steam. This has come about in the model itself. tra These criteria have proven to be flexi- part from strong lobbying by some of Although a sectional layout imposes O-E ble enough to accommodate the varied our younger helpers! strict space limitations on design, a bit diE interests of our members. From an op- The buildings and locales depicted of creativity can often recreate the feel cls erational standpoint, we have decided on our layout are more diverse. There of a particular prototype area. It's 10 to work towards recreating some of the are accurate, scratchbuilt replicas of proven to be a pleasant challenge. train movements which once occurred the CNR's Napanee Station, express We've worked to ensure that our on the CNR's Oakville Subdivision. building and freight shed, the CPR's scenery blends well from section to sec- "8' This stretch of track (from Hamilton to Milton leverman's tower, a CNR wood- tion as each one's been added, so that dE Toronto) hosted trains and equipment en road overpass and a cut stone CNR the layout has a consistant appearance. ly from the CNR, CPR, TH&B and NYC viaduct. There's also a condensed ver- The basic benchwork consists of 1" x th in the 1950's. It is a good place and sion of CNR's Palmers ton Roundhouse, 4" pine framing with llz" plywood (t1 time for our group's interests since we and of the Bridge/Viaduct which car- decking (a "soft" plywood, such as er were modeling these roads before the ries the CNR over the Napanee River. spruce or poplar is recommended-fir sc group started. Although in theory we To help viewers better appreciate the is just too hard for track spikes). The ar 62 FEBRUARY 1998 RI • , ""3 •••••" __ A coal yard, boiler house, scrap dealer and other industries are located at Port Junc- . tion (above and right). NYC passenger trains come through here, sharing the tracks with an occasional CNR class P-Sc 0-8-0 switcher. Steam is serviced alongside diesels at the Palmerville engine terminal; a class H-6g Ten Wheeler and an aging E- 10a Mogul are under the coaling dock. Our backdrops, or skyboards, are Most of the sections are self support- "straight" sections are 48" long by 30" fairly tall at 14" above grade. These ing with a folding leg assembly, which deep and the corners are approximate- consist of l/S" thick fiberboard panels helps to reduce the number of pieces ly 72" long by 36". Track height from with a strong wooden framework, to we have to haul around. Transporta- the floor is 40". Three of the sections support the inevitable leaning on and tion of the layout is one of our major (two corners and a straight) have high- over by the operators. The artwork on challenges. Over the years we've used er end framing, which drops the all of the backdrops was done by one of an assortment of minivans, pickup scenery base about four inches lower our helpers, Dan Notley, of St. trucks and rented trailers. Since the and permits a lot of scenery relief. Catharines. different parts of the layout are spread RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 63 I~_~ __ ~ •• Visiting the Ontario & Eastern R.R. The Ontario & Eastern Railway Not to scale over such a large amount of country, ing a glued matrix of corrugated card- ple coats (seven or eight minimum) of using a single truck or large trailer for .board strips. This is covered with pa- high gloss varnish, over paint. the whole thing would take a very long per towels (the heavy duty kind with a time to load. grid of reinforcing threads) soaked in Trackwork and control After a couple of false starts with Hydrocal. Since it is a portable layout, Roadbed is l/S" thick cork strips carriage bolts, then "C" clamps to join we add extra layers of the towels and glued to the plywood. The track is al- the sections together, we are now using plaster for additional strength. Basic most all made by Shinohara. This was three standard door hinges per joint to ground cover consists of various colors chosen because at the time we started, hold the layout together (one vertical and textures of Woodland Scenics they offered the widest selection of on each side and one mounted horizon- products over earth colored latex paint. turnouts for code 83, which is our tally, centered on the underside of the The trees are a mixture of homemade mainline standard (this scales out very joint). and built up kits. The water on the lay- closely to the prototype rail size we The hills and valleys are built up us- out is either Envirotex resin, or multi- wanted). There is some code 70 on back 64 FEBRUARY 1998 walkaround units, which perform very well), plus three local cabs which oper- ate in their yard areas only. Virtually every block on the layout is equipped with a rotary selection switch which can bring in power from either of the two mainline cabs or a local cab. Hav- ing this kind of capability required one heck of a lot of wiring work originally, but it's paying big dividends now in op- erational flexibility. If we were starting out with a new layout now, we'd seriously consider digital command control (DCC), which probably would give us greater flexibility with a lot less wire. However, we've got a good block system in operation now, so we won't be changing it on this layout.

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