Modelling the National Grocers Warehouse

At what I call 'Ground Zero' of the Hanley Spur, at Cataraqui and Rideau Streets, stands the National Grocers warehouse. This venerable building holds down a prominent location as one drives down Cataraqui Street toward the Inner Harbour. On one side, the Bailey broom factory and on the other, the Woolen Mill and right there, the rights-of-way of CN and CP waterfront trackage. If the Bailey was the building I built last for my HO scale layout, I guess this is the absolute last. I thinnk part of the reason for that is that it's still there. Intimidating in its immediacy. But, press on! I traced out the footprint available on the layout (top photo). 

A trip to the Frontenac Mall's Antique and Artisan Marketplace netted a Walthers Cornerstone Brook Hill Farm dairy kit for a whole eight bucks! Deciding this would be the feedstock for my kitsmash, I cut the walls of the sprues (above) then decided where I'd cut out the large windows. I bisected the fourth wall to add to the two long walls paralleling the tracks:

The openings cut out, with smaller windows and some doors added from the kit - I was ready to paint. Interestingly, the brick surface of the dairy kit was unwanted on this voyage. The National Grocers building had a patchy, stucco look to it. So, I turned the walls inside out, with the brick now on the interior. Some of the small windows are filled in as on the prototype.

That patchy exterior also has a patchy paint job. I used three different colours to paint the patches:

Patchy paint, and varying pilaster spacing due to the window openings. Oh, also, the prototype has seven pilasters, not six. 

For the large windows, I printed off a paper backdrop from the Internet showing multi-pane windows which I reformatted, printed and cut out, gluing to styrene backing to fill in the spaces. Adding some signs created with Microsoft Word and Paint.

Look up, look way up!

A piece or two of styrene for the roof, though the fourth wall remains invisible until I add the Whig-Standard paper warehouse later.

Time to get downstairs. Here is National Grocers placed on my HO scale Ground Zero. More scenicking and detail should follow. In the distance is the Woolen Mill:

 And just to the left, the Bailey broom factory, with Cataraqui Street in between.

 Colour version:

Trying some roof details. It's covered with a pavement printed piece of paper. Note those multi-coloured multi-pane windows!

 Another look down Cataraqui Street:

The Limestone City and Centennial Park Steam Railway Company

I'd never heard of the title railway. In fact, the clue that got me searching for it was a photo of "Swain, Mayor Fray and R. Smith" (see below) in a CPR business car. Another photo on the steps of the car showed two of the men looking at one of the shares (top photo) in the Railway Company. A fund-raising plan to pay for the placement of Canadian Locomotive Co. CPR 1095 near the ex-CP passenger station on Ontario Street, in conjunction with the Centennial project of re-developing of the park between City Hall and Confederation Basin.

Bill of Sale - Shares

A non-negotiable instrument made in Kingston this day of April, 1965,

The Limestone City and Centennial Park Steam Railway Company

and the KINGSTON JAYCEES hereinafter called the Bargainor of the First Part, and

.......................................................hereinafter called the Bargainee of the Second Part 

Witnesseth:

THAT in consideration of the sum of one dollar per share, now being paid by the bargainee of the second part to the bargainor of the first part, the bargainor of the first part doth hereby grant, assign and transfer to the bargainee of the second part a 10 LB per share interest, being an undivided 10/259,000th of gross weight of CPR Engine No 1095 known as The Spirit of Sir John A. Title to the said engine to remain vested in the LC&CP Steam Railway Company, the City of Kingston and the Kingston Jaycees. Share purchase also entitles the bargainee the right to ride the engine as Engineer NO. .........and as such gives him title to all rights, services and privileges of the railway. In witness whereof the LC&CP Steam Railway Company has caused this certificate to be signed by its duly authorized agents in that behalf. 

   R.W. Clark                                                            R.A. Fray

President of Kingston Jaycees                              Mayor of the Corporation of the City of Kingston

Valorie Swain went on to become Mayor of Kingston. Bob Clark became well-known as the owner of St. Lawrence Cruise Line.

(Whig-Standard fonds, Queen's University Archives)

Canadian Dredge & Dock Logos

I was stymied in finding useable logos for Canadian Dredge & Dock for vessels, equipment, signage etc. Somewhat surprisingly, Google was not my friend, as it is often purported to be! So, if you are in the same boat, pun intended, and attempting to model this marine service industry, I'm here to help.

Here are some logos from CD&D publications to copy, paste, format, print for your use:

 

City Directory, 1929

On the eve of the Great Depression, the city directory for Kingston was nonetheless printed, listing inhabitants, organizations and businesses of the city. I find the most interesting parts of these directories, notwithstanding the interesting information they contain, to be the advertisements used to fill pages.

I intend to use some of these on my Hanley Spur layout - as advertising pasted to buildings or free-standing signs. They could still be present, years or decades after they were created.

Improving Sowards Coal Piles

I spent some time working on the Sowards Coal dealership on my HO scale layout. It started with my piles. Coal piles, that is. ARK Hanley Spur project group member Greg had mentioned that the angle-of-repose didn't appear correct. And of course, he was right! See top photo - I called them ziggurats because they were so pointed! So, I re-shaped them:

I'd thought originally it would be a good idea to use plastic container lids as the basis for the piles. That was part of the problem. So I removed them from under the modelling clay ziggurats:

After re-shaping, I used black acrylic paint to coat the piles, then sprinkled black-coloured dollar store sand on them while wet:

I added board-fence sections that had an interesting back-story! I 'piled' the coal right up the fence bases:

I also built a Sowards office/shop building from a structure (earlier ready-mix cement, before that self-carwash) that I'd previously scratch-built. You'll have to crane your neck a little:

Putting details back in place - foliage and signage:

Some vintage-look photos:

 The Sowards Office sign is from a vintage photo of the original!

And as the local passes by, I feel much better about the dealership and my piles. Coal piles, that is!

Vessel TRINA winters in Kingston harbour

Over the winter of 1963-64, a notable vessel made Kingston harbour its home - the TRINA. Newsworthy, but I wondered why. Well, it was controversial and and made the news when it broke loose from its moorings at the Kingston Shipyards around January 26, making it out into ice-choked harbour before being rustled back into place. While in Kingston, she wore the Lakes Ocean stack markings of a circled-L, though she had several previous 'identities.' The 'TEXACO' letters on her side could be seen painted-out. Below is some background on this vessel, from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society Facebook page, beginning at 1959 in the vessel's history:

The 1959 sailing season, a major change came to both the The Texas Company and the MICHIGAN. The Texas Company, popularly known as Texaco by the public was adopted as the official name of the company in 1959. With the name change occurring, the MICHIGAN quickly followed with the new name TEXACO MICHIGAN appearing on the side of the vessel. Close to four short years had passed on the TEXACO MICHIGAN was sold to Lakes Ocean, Inc. with the fourth name change to the vessel, now known simply as TRINA. Once the change in ownership was official, the new owners urgently attempted to get their new investment off the lakes before closure of the Seaway would take place. The new owners attempted to take 200,000 bushels of corn bound for a port in the Gulf of Mexico. Timing was not on the side of the new owners and the Seaway closed, stranding the TRINA in Kingston for the 1963 – 1964 winter layup. 

The cargo was removed and sent via Montreal. The stranding caused a strenuous financial burden on Lakes Ocean, Inc. The TRINA was eventually sold for $36,500, well below its value, by the Exchequer Court of Canada. A public auction in Kingston took place on August 18, 1964 and William Brooks of Corpus Christi, TX paid cash as the high bidder. Before leaving Kingston, the vessel was scheduled for an 10-day overhaul at the Kingston Shipyards. Renamed CORPUS CHRISTI, she left Kingston flagged for Panama. A 20-man crew, mostly from Trinidad, arrived after the sale and remained aboard until her departure.

The TRINA was sold to William Brooks for $36,500 who in turn resold the newly named CORPUS CHRISTI to the Panamanian based company known as  Panama-Florida Shipping Co. The fate of the vessel was last known as sailing as a tank barge after conversion to a tank barge took place in Houston, Texas in 1967 for the West Indies Transportation Co., Ltd. located in the British West Indies. The last known date for the vessel was 1970 when the barge was purchased by the West Indies Transportation Co., Ltd. It is not known if the barge is still sailing the Caribbean or if scrapping has taken place. 

West Indies Transportation Co. also bought the former Cape Transport (formerly Northcliffe Hall then Wittransport II) which was a laker-turned-eyesore at the LaSalle Causeway in the 1980s.

A complete lineage of the TRINA:

U.S. Transportation Company  (1902 – 1911)

Great Lakes Steamship Company (1911 – 1939)

Merritt, Chapman & Scott Corp. (1939 – 1941)

Marinette-Escanaba Transportation Co. (1941 – 1941)

The Texas Co.  (1941 – 1959)

Texaco, Inc.  (1959 – 1963)

Lakes Ocean, Inc.  (1963 – 1964) ***Sold off Lakes***

William Brooks  (1964 – 1966)

Panama-Florida Shipping Co. (1966 – 1966) ***Panama***

Texas Coastal & International, Inc. (1966 – 1966) ***Panama***

Pullman Bank & Trust Co.   (1966 – 1970) ***Panama***

West Indies Transportation Co., Ltd. (1970 – Unknown) ***British West Indies***

Length: 370.00

Width: 48.16

Depth: 24.00

Gross Tonnage: 3860.00

Net Tonnage: 3057.00

Hull Material: Steel 

Built: 1902

Rebuilt: 1915

Drink, Eat and Get Gas!

Beer, bread, donuts, Coke and gasoline. Three Hanley Spur-related changes in Kingston business news this week, and one more in November, 2021 (see update below)

• Weston Bakeries closing. Warehouse to remain open, but outdated bakery equipment affects 35 jobs. (Global Kingston photo)
  
• Cataraqui Street Beer Store closing. Neighbourhood beer drinkers will have to travel 2 km to Princess & University or buy pricey beer at the downtown LCBO. Just as KT bus fare has increased to $3.25 and can you even take any quantities of beer onto a city bus? (Whig-Standard photo) 
  
• Shell (and Tim Hortons) being removed from the Ontario Street Wolfe Island ferry dock redevelopment area. (Whig-Standard photo)
  

The trains may be gone, and another layer of post-railway history gets lacquered onto the Hanley Spur. Perhaps papered over. Paved paradise and put up a parking lot!

NOVEMBER 2021 UPDATE:

Coca-Cola on Railway Street makes a 'job-neutral' move of 80 jobs to a gigantic new distribution centre at 800 Innovation Drive, near the John Machin Soccer Park in Kingston East as of May, 2022. (Global News photo, viewed November, 2021). In October, 2023 the vacant building became the area distribution centre for Amazon drivers and packages.

Layout Industry List

This week I added yet another spur to my HO scale Hanley Spur layout. On the prototype, spurs could be as short as one car. So, I don't feel any apprehension about putting in extremely short spurs. Such was the spur I installed to serve the Bailey boom factory property, nominally Queen City Oil Co.

It also seemed like a good time to update my list of layout industries. Each is shown, whether served by CN or CP, with inbound and outbound commodities and car types. Of course, subject to change as additional prototype information dictates.

Whig Up, Enginehouse Down

It's November, 1963 and this frame appears to show the demolition - two bulldozers and the rubble being hauled away by a dumptruck - of the limestone enginehouse located behind Kingston's Outer Station on Montreal Street.

This is from the first box of the Kingston Whig-Standard fonds at the Queen's University Archives. Having completed an interesting trip through the George Lilley Fonds - all 51 boxes of them - these 127 boxes(!) are next.

Less well-captioned but at least dated, and just as engrossing, if this initial frame is any indication, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Modelling a Gravel Pit or Brownfield

Sometimes we over-reach in our modelling. We do big bridges, vast vistas, giant structures and huge freight yards. But there are simple scenes, quiet corners and other layout spaces where the exception proves the rule - where a little scene makes the big scenes. Such was my thinking when facing this 'dead space' between the CN (foreground) and CP (coal dock). It's well known that Kingston's waterfront was dotted with contaminated industrial operations, now called brownfields! 

My first inclination was to use some leftover limestone-rock cut-paper to represent a gravel pit. Or perhaps a failed or delayed construction site. Or a 'Clean Fill Wanted' site that I don't see much anymore. The space was flat, so I had to build it up vertically to provide the rock face that had been excavated. I sliced a block of modelling clay latitudinally, tacking the rounded rock face onto the opposite side. Leftover modelling clay was used to form 'dumptruck loads' (top photo) then added the paper to the rock face and actual limestone around it:

I also added some 'Super Trees' and low foliage. Another before-and-after set from the opposite side, now with CP in foreground and in background:

The scenicked rock face, dump truck loads and stuck-in pieces of limestone into the modelling clay. It's easier to stick things into than plywood, that's for sure!

I've been working on the railroad. And so is this guy - toiling in the brownfield from layout-level!