CP-Served Industry Structure Flats

On a limited-space layout, I've found that structure flats can be used to effectively portray an industry. The key is making them not 'look like' structure flats by blending colours into printed backdrops, sky and nearby buildings. One of the last I had to build is the Weldwood Canada warehouse at the east end of Railway Street. The prototype is still there, and I really like the 1950's look of the loading dock. Mine is a three-sided structure flat, as are the other two that CP served along Railway Street.

Two photos of the prototype in use as a furniture outlet in 2019 (above) and Gamble-Robinson (with trucks lettered for Snoboy and Standby in 1952 (below - George Lilley photo/Queen's Archives). In building my flat, I really wanted to feature the loading dock, so flipped the building 90 degrees but left off the covered garage section.

Next up the spur was the MacCosham Van Lines warehouse. This flat started its life as a McCain Foods structure on a previous layout iteration. It's no longer Orange! and Grey, instead painted a grey colour to blend with the blue-painted wall to make its lack of depth less noticeable:

Though these spurs were all served by reasonably long, curving spurs off the CP Kingston Subdivision (lead) between Elliott Avenue and Railway Street, on my layout they line the wall to which the lead is parallel and the spurs necessarily short. Same flat, with cars spotted. In all cases, cars that I spot here have the same lading - household effects.

Next up is Weston's Bakeries. A bit of a question-mark here...though I believe the bakery only received flour in bags, I have a surfeit of cylindricals and can justify a few on this spur. Also, probably no big silos, though these two are from a previous iteration feed mill so are doing the job for now! Employees always wear white coveralls when dealing with flour.

Along the Inner Harbour, the Hield Bros. woolen mill is represented by this flat made of Revell roundhouse walls, an actual printed photo of the upper storeys and a cool Sylvan Models brick square chimney purchased from ARK member Bob Farquhar at the November 2019 Railfair. I enjoyed painting the stack to represent aged brick. Boxcars are loaded with 'garments'.

At the northern end of the CP trackage, there is this Non-Descript 1.0 flat. A tranche of the office of the Walthers O.L King Coal Co., I added it to some printed backdrops to represent any number of such buildings in the area.

Nearby is Presland Iron & Steel, here served by CP (Soo Line gon) and CN (BN boxcar) since both railways served joint trackage here.

Let's lose the colour! Black & white hides some sins. Weldwood:

Lead at left, MacCosham and Weston's at right:

Weldwood, MacCosham and Weston's, viewed from the opposite end of this wall.

Presland, from the CP end of the joint trackage:

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.