N scale model of Slocan Lake Rail barge operation on the Columbia and Western Model Railroad, showing operation of train over slips at Slocan City and Rosebery
Have been interested in the rail,and barge operations a very long time. I model further east of Nelson and Kootenay lake operations, as well as Windermere Canal Flats areas as well. I really enjoy all of your videos, especially the Kraft switcher series, as of late.Your work is an inspiration to us all,and it captures a fast disappearing piece of our BC heritage. Keep up the excellent work Mark. I thank you!:)
Thank you very much "subwayfx". I visited your Youtbe and Flikr sites and the level of detail in your urban modeling is fantastic! Beautifully done. I have been interested in street running since an old MR article in the 70's on the Severna Park club's Baltimore scene.
thank you for the kind compliments...the backdrops are painted from real notable settings in a few places (Kettle river, Shields creek) but are mostly representative. The index table uses ball latches riding against greased aluminum plates on the underside of the table. The plates have small holes drilled in them at precise intervals and the balls snap into the holes. The table also uses pulleys which cause the ends to run parrallel.
Wow Mark. Just Wow. what an amazing layout, truly inspiring! your command of construction and scenery is fabulous. Are your backdrops based off of pictures or painted freestyle? I had seen another indexing drawer in an article many years ago and have always wanted to build one when my layout becomes permanent, what type of drawer guides did you use? What do you use to index it? I have considered both a pin/drilled plate setup or rare earth magnets. Thanks again for the great videos!
Nice to hear from you KVR. Your layout idea sounds interesting but then of course I am biased. :) The CPR woodchip gons are a made from an old kit from Pacific Scale Western built up on ConCor 50' gondolas. I have about 30 cars and as far as I am aware I have the last of the PSR kits and ConCor scraped together the last of the gondolas for my order as well. md
Hi Kvr3005...I have two barges. They are cut from 5/8" hardwood and wrapped in thin styrene sheet. The rails are Peco code 55 which is code 80 with 25 thou of sub-rail which is pressed into slots cut into the deck. The slots were cut on an indexing grinder fitted with a saw blade just wide enough to take the rail base. The grinder table allowed each slot to be cut in one pass and the indexing held the rail gauge and track to track spacing precisely. thx for asking md
I really like your layout. I am to building a layout based on the CPRS railway lines in southern bc. I am more focusing on the kettle valley division then the boundary division. It take place in the lines around Merritt .
@superjono2: nope, I hadn't considered it. If I were to do it I would probably use packing foam but the transfer isn't as delicate as it looks. If I put my fingers across the ends of the tracks when lifting the barge this prevents any cars rolling off the barge and the loco weight secures half of them anyway. Of course these are likely "famous last words". Also the loco I use on the run, 8727, is my favorite for many reasons and dropping her would be a true disaster. thx for the idea. md
Markdance, my layout takes place in the late 1970s. The main commody shiped on my layout is packeged lumber and woodchips. My layout takes place shortly after the Fairbanks morse era, so I will mainly have gp38s and gp9s. Also where did you get all of those cp rail wood chip hoppers???
@PRR5406 I believe there is a picture of this locomotive on page 56 of the Doeksens' "Railways of the West Kootenay, Part 1" . And apparently a remote sub also took photos of it but I haven't seen them. There is a youtube video of box cars in the lake at Silverton however. md
@tonynischo ... the C&W is in MRP 2012 which some people have received. I haven't yet so can't comment on the finished article though I was happy with an intermediate proof I saw. The layout was also in the Layout Design Journal a few years ago. And we are preparing photos and text for a couple of other pieces. Authoring isn't my main focus however so these things may well take a while. md
The Slocan prototype steel barge (which still exists to the best of my knowledge) is 224' long according to the drawing in Gerry and Corwin Doeksen's excellent reference book. My N scale model(s) are 16 3/4" long which scale to 224'. So if your eBay model is N scale then it is slightly long for the Slocan prototype....but not wildly so. md
Mark Dance Thanks for the reply! I don't think mine is based off any prototype (I think somebody got bored and had a 2 foot long piece of 2'x4' laying around) so Its close enough for me
The Slocan barge operation deserves to be modeled, and you've done a fine job!
That barge is something else! Love the contact idea on the barges themselves,and traveling to a new location!!!! Very nice!
Have been interested in the rail,and barge operations a very long time. I model further east of Nelson and Kootenay lake operations, as well as Windermere Canal Flats areas as well. I really enjoy all of your videos, especially the Kraft switcher series, as of late.Your work is an inspiration to us all,and it captures a fast disappearing piece of our BC heritage. Keep up the excellent work Mark. I thank you!:)
Thank you very much "subwayfx". I visited your Youtbe and Flikr sites and the level of detail in your urban modeling is fantastic! Beautifully done. I have been interested in street running since an old MR article in the 70's on the Severna Park club's Baltimore scene.
thank you for the kind compliments...the backdrops are painted from real notable settings in a few places (Kettle river, Shields creek) but are mostly representative.
The index table uses ball latches riding against greased aluminum plates on the underside of the table. The plates have small holes drilled in them at precise intervals and the balls snap into the holes. The table also uses pulleys which cause the ends to run parrallel.
that is so slick awesome idea
instead of making a long grade or a helix to get from one level to another
Wow Mark. Just Wow. what an amazing layout, truly inspiring! your command of construction and scenery is fabulous. Are your backdrops based off of pictures or painted freestyle? I had seen another indexing drawer in an article many years ago and have always wanted to build one when my layout becomes permanent, what type of drawer guides did you use? What do you use to index it? I have considered both a pin/drilled plate setup or rare earth magnets.
Thanks again for the great videos!
Nice to hear from you KVR. Your layout idea sounds interesting but then of course I am biased. :)
The CPR woodchip gons are a made from an old kit from Pacific Scale Western built up on ConCor 50' gondolas. I have about 30 cars and as far as I am aware I have the last of the PSR kits and ConCor scraped together the last of the gondolas for my order as well.
md
Hi Kvr3005...I have two barges.
They are cut from 5/8" hardwood and wrapped in thin styrene sheet. The rails are Peco code 55 which is code 80 with 25 thou of sub-rail which is pressed into slots cut into the deck. The slots were cut on an indexing grinder fitted with a saw blade just wide enough to take the rail base. The grinder table allowed each slot to be cut in one pass and the indexing held the rail gauge and track to track spacing precisely.
thx for asking
md
Really nice project, very well done!!
I really like your layout. I am to building a layout based on the CPRS railway lines in southern bc. I am more focusing on the kettle valley division then the boundary division. It take place in the lines around Merritt .
thx...it is featured in the Nakusp wayfreight video as well which is much more up to date and the camera work is better.
@superjono2: nope, I hadn't considered it. If I were to do it I would probably use packing foam but the transfer isn't as delicate as it looks. If I put my fingers across the ends of the tracks when lifting the barge this prevents any cars rolling off the barge and the loco weight secures half of them anyway. Of course these are likely "famous last words". Also the loco I use on the run, 8727, is my favorite for many reasons and dropping her would be a true disaster. thx for the idea. md
Markdance, my layout takes place in the late 1970s. The main commody shiped on my layout is packeged lumber and woodchips. My layout takes place shortly after the Fairbanks morse era, so I will mainly have gp38s and gp9s. Also where did you get all of those cp rail wood chip hoppers???
This is pretty neat!
Is the layout in British Columbia? Your layout is a very accurate depiction of BC.
Thank you. Yes it is in BC.
@PRR5406 I believe there is a picture of this locomotive on page 56 of the Doeksens' "Railways of the West Kootenay, Part 1" .
And apparently a remote sub also took photos of it but I haven't seen them.
There is a youtube video of box cars in the lake at Silverton however.
md
Is this peco c55? Really neat layout, I am going back and watching all the videos, Thanks.
Yep, all Peco code 55. the switches are electrofrog
Awesome, thank you.
@tonynischo ... the C&W is in MRP 2012 which some people have received. I haven't yet so can't comment on the finished article though I was happy with an intermediate proof I saw.
The layout was also in the Layout Design Journal a few years ago. And we are preparing photos and text for a couple of other pieces.
Authoring isn't my main focus however so these things may well take a while.
md
Did they make any wood chip gondolas in ho scale??????
I don't think so but I can check. One of the owners/founders is in the C&W operating groups.
md
You should ask model railroader magizene to put your layout in their magizene when it is finished.
What did you use to make your rail barge?
How long is your barge? I just bought a rail barge on eBay and its 2 feet (60.96 centimeters) Is that close to prototypical?
The Slocan prototype steel barge (which still exists to the best of my knowledge) is 224' long according to the drawing in Gerry and Corwin Doeksen's excellent reference book. My N scale model(s) are 16 3/4" long which scale to 224'.
So if your eBay model is N scale then it is slightly long for the Slocan prototype....but not wildly so.
md
Mark Dance
Thanks for the reply! I don't think mine is based off any prototype (I think somebody got bored and had a 2 foot long piece of 2'x4' laying around) so Its close enough for me
Would kaslo shops resign kits produce them????
@tonynischo Hi Tony...the H Liners are Kaslo kits built and painted by Jeff Briggs.
They are my MRR'ing pride and joy.
md
I just checked with PSR and they only produced N scale kits for the CPR chip gons.
md
Does anyone have copies of the images taken of the CPR 3512, the steam locomotive 600 feet down in Slocan Lake?
@Kvr3005 ...thx for the compliment. I would love to hear moer about your layout.
md
I guess I will have to kit bash some wood chip gondolas):
It would be interesting if you used real water, so buoyancy would be simulated.