Outer Station Backdrop Eliminates the Great White Wall

A particularly unsightly corner of my Hanley Spur layout is the point at which the Outer Station yard 'runs into' my wife's craft storage cabinet. This stub-end yard technically carries on east of Montreal Street. I've long wanted to 'complete' the layout with a suitable backdrop extension. Not only for more fulfilling photography, but also to make viewing the layout more believable. Before photo (above) in which I've tried to minimize the view of the cabinet - its large expanse of Great White Wall and the gap between the cabinet and the room wall are just visible. During photo (below). 

You can't miss Peter Macdonald's photo of a CNR steam excursion stopped at the Outer Station in the mid-60's - taped there half as inspiration and half as protest! I've covered the end of the cabinet with three sheets of appropriately-coloured, taped-together blue cardstock out of another craft cabinet located nearby! The shade closely approximated the painted room wall colour. I gently curved the left-handmost piece to cover the gap. It'll still be 'in the dark' but more believable. I printed a couple of track photo backgrounds and test-fitted them:

Most often, there will be cars spotted here in the yard, so the track background will not be that visible. I trimmed around the foliage in the printed photos:

Every backdrop has a silver lining - once I add some cloud stickers, anyway. This will heighten the illusion of a distance and sky.

Some more trimming has taken place to visually soften and link the backdrop the the stick-on lichen at left:

Finished, for now, with foreground cars removed for visibility. The Great White Wall is no more! The Athearn Geep is sitting on what would be the north main track, though on my layout it's an electrically-isolated locomotive track. Flick of a light switch and it's off to do some switching, like returning those cars that the 0-5-0 switcher has just moved out of the way!

More prototype inspiration. A platform view looking east, taken by my Dad in the summer of 1970. Notice the generally flat topography in the distance. This itself would have made an excellent backdrop if I'd just removed that westbound passenger train! Notice how many telegraph and power poles are in the photo....hmmmm....as we know, one's layout is never truly finished!

Aerial View of Outer Station - Prototype vs. Model

Now that I've added several key structures to my Outer Station area, I decided to compare my layout with the prototype. If it is not anatomically correct, I wanted to assess whether I was at least incorporating these structures that 'make' the scene?

To do so, I stood on a chair, camera in hand, producing a composite photo of that two-foot-wide section of the layout turning it into black & white. I labelled a similar black & white 1970 aerial view from the Snapshot Kingston page with letters to represent the following that you might compare and contrast:

• Outer Station (A)
• CN Express (B)
• MoW garage (C)
• CN Telegraph repeater station (D)
• Montreal Street (E)
• Hanley Spur trackage (F)
• Presland Steel/station area industry (G)
• and the Yard 
Based on the space constraints I face, I'm not representing the exact layout, but at least I've been able to incorporate the important elements. It's unlikely I'll include the stock pens or Cassidy Street houses, but I am working now on the background of the Kingston Sub trackage to the east of Montreal Street. Watch for an upcoming post.

Muddle in the Middle of Montreal Street

I have a corner of my anatomically-incorrect Hanley Spur layout that will be a little bit of Division Street and a little bit of Montreal Street. And Railway Street and Rideau Street? So I'm attempting for represent some more signature industries. This fine Don Helsby 1986 aerial view from Cataraqui Street, up Rideau to the Outer Station shows some of them:

 I zoomed in on some industries - C.E.Macpherson on Rideau just before Montreal Street:

 Rosen Fuels, scrap yard(!) on Cataraqui Street and woolen mill:

I'd like to include Gus Marker Cement and K-D in this corner. I have some previous ready-mix cement plant structures I can incorporate.

K-D had characteristically rounded rooflines:

From a 1937 city directory:

Speaking of Montreal Street, Andre Gerow shared these aerial views of the Montreal Street-CN subway. Mid-60's to 70's with the zig-zag subway under the CN Kingston Sub::

 And after the realignment of the Kingston Sub, no longer a bendy road:

The Diorama-Layout Matrix

Last night, our Associated Railroaders of Kingston meeting was held for the first time since pandemic limitations were put in place. It was a Zoom meeting. Those who wished could show their layouts or photos thereof. Tom was showing his electronic wizardry by creating scenes including action, and he said they "weren't all prototypical". That quote stuck with me for the rest of the meeting. Why?

So much of model railroading is suspending disbelief. We stress over tiny decal lettering and handlaid track. But we have to remind others that these are not real trains, this is not real track, and this is not the real world. So why do we worry if not absolutely everything on the layout is prototypical? 

As I viewed each modeller's efforts, there were several members who said that doing scenery scared the whatever out of them. Well, wiring scares the whatever out of me. So we each have our own preferences and realities in model form. Several of us were using the pandemic to build a layout, structures, or work on rolling stock. I often wonder if my own layout is too much of a static diorama.

Then I began thinking of the world during the pandemic. In the model world and the real world, we have scenery and we have action. I created the Diorama-Layout Matrix (see top photo). In the real world there is 100% scenery and 100% action.  (That's where the P is located on the matrix, above. Considering my own Hanley Spur layout, there is nearly 100% scenery but the train is the only action. (That's where the STAR is located on the matrix, above.) A diorama would be 100% scenery and 0% action.

On Tom's layout, there are workers welding, depicted by fibre-optic lighting, cranes working with arduinos, and police lights flashing added to a higher percentage of action!

Do we honestly think our model world is prototypical when the only thing moving is the occasional train? The cars don't move. The people don't move.

Then I looked out my window down my street. The cars don't move. The people don't move because they're inside. So at this point, my layout best represents the real world right now. The scenery is pretty well complete, but the train is still the only action. I'm having a hard time suspending my disbelief in the real world right now.

Where is your current currently located on the matrix? And where will it be six months or six years from now?

CCGS Kenoki at Kingston

Occasionally, unusual vessels that have visited Kingston become a topic of interest on this blog. One such unusual vessel was the CCGS Kenoki. Built at Erieau Shipbuilding in 1964, the buoy barge was 310 gross tons, 109x36x6 feet and made 12 knots. Legs that could be lowered while working buoys in shallow, fast-moving water were removed in 1973, and a new bow fitted. At the same time, two 5-ton pedestal cranes were replaced by a single 10-ton derrick, at Canadian Dredge & Dock. She visited Kingston in September, 1964 after christening at Prescott the month before:

CCGS Kenoki christened at Prescott, excerpted from News on the DOT Sept/Oct 1964:

A new marine agency tender of unique design, capable of literally ‘standing on its own legs’, was christened in a ceremony at the Prescott Marine Agency on August 15 (1964). Sponsor of the ship was Mrs. J.S. Barrick, wife of the department’s district marine agent for the Prescott Agency.

CCGS ‘Kenoki’ will operate on Lakes Erie and Ontario and in the Detroit and Upper St. Lawrence Rivers. Because her work at times will be in shallow waters and strong current, such as in parts of the Detroit River where it will be difficult to maintain a fixed position by use of engines and anchors, the ship is equipped with ‘spuds’ which can be lowered like giant legs to the bed of the channel. Thus she will provide a rigid working platform when operations require it.

The ship’s name is Indian meaning ‘long-legged crane’ and is an unusually apt one in view of the peculiar capabilities of the ‘Kenoki’. She was designed by Alex C Campbell & Son of Montreal to the requirements of the department’s shipbuilding and marine operations branches, and conforms to the requirements of the Canadian Board of Steamship Inspection and Lloyd’s Classification Society.

Capt John T Bennett is master of the new vessel with John J McOrmond as chief engineer.

In service, before the "spuds" were removed, a boom and winch installed on the deck, and she got something of a "bow". A little bit of a pig of a ship when the weather kicked up on the lakes, but she did the job. Here's Kenoki working buoys in Kingston on April 16, 1969 (Queen's University Archives photo):

In service (above) then photographed by Stefan Nybom during the refit in 1973

Kenoki was decommissioned in 1992 and sold in 1999.

Imperial Oil Tanker Photo Surfaces

What we overlook. Stefan Nybom climbed on a dredge and an oil tank along Kingston harbour circa 1973 to snap some detailed photos of Canadian Dredge & Dock's drydock on Anglin Bay here in Kingston. These have been posted liberally locally, in this case on the Vintage Kingston group on Facebook. But at one point, Stefan turned around the pointed his camera down at this Imperial Oil tanker that was unloading right under his nose. His photos were not both taken on the same day - the Coast Guard vessel in one photo is floating, in the other it is in drydock. But nobody has seen fit to share this one, and I think it's the most interesting. 

This photo is just as interesting as the other two panoramic photos. Consider the numerous lines used to secure the tanker, the crewman onboard, the minimal freeboard these Imperial Oil vessels, and the concept that these little vessels regularly called on Kingston. They were under-photographed. The water is high, lapping at the fenced government property at right.  And I've searched high and low for photos like this. The photographer was high, but he pointed his camera low!

Modelling Sowards Coal Trestle - A Second Time

The amount of coal that was handled on Kingston's waterfront was significant. So, it's not surprising that I have at least four industries that receive carloads of black diamonds. Sowards Coal on Anglin Bay had a coal unloading trestle that I'd previously blogged about modelling. But frankly, I was never really happy with that structure. But one of the reasons was that I didn't have really good prototype photos. So the model was tailored to the available space on the layout and the Walthers trestle I was using. Until now. My sketch (above) shows the office and covered trestle.

I decided to deconstruct the structure. I'd left one side open so the cars on the trestle. But in practice, that side is only visible when entering the layout. While a fellow modeller and engineer was visiting the layout, I was embarrassed that this structure was clearly wrongly-engineered. It would probably fall down! See the end of this post for some prototype photos. The prototype had two distinct sections. Perhaps because it was decided to cover more of it, at some point in the past. The peaked roof was nearest the bay, and the flat roof nearest Ontario Street. So I decided to remove the peaked roof. The original flat-topped shed had been used in at least three iterations on my layout - grain elevator, flour mill, feed mill, and now to cover coal!

I added 3.5 inches of styrene to the front of the shed, including the characteristic braced corners under which cars ascended the trestle. I covered these surfaces, and the now-covered side where the legs had previously been exposed, with cut pieces of grey cardstock. This represents the prototype - were those 4x8-foot sheets of plywood??

The angled side extensions are barely modelled. I don't have a lot of real estate. I snugged the office up to the shed (above) trying to get a good fit. This will determine future scenicking.

I decided that a good substitute for keeping the side open to see the car(s) within was to move the shed a little farther down the trestle from the car bumper. This would allow me to see a car in there, especially with the additional length (and resultant darkness!) that I'd added:

This also mirrors the prototype, which shows that the trestle extended almost to the water! End view:

Archival prototype photos. Trust me, these are cropped and zoomed in from photos showing other things. Nobody was too interested in photographing this coal shed! It ain't City Hall! This shows Sowards' office at left, and the fenced compound. The covered trestle is at centre. Notice the two halves, with the flat-roof longer section at left. The trestle can clearly be seen here extending beyond, right to the water's edge:

Take a look at the height of the coal piles. Seemingly higher than the shed! I'm not sure if this photo actually shows dores on the shed. The office is at left, the water at right:

Slightly different angle, with Fort Frontenac in foreground:

This photo actually purportedly showed construction at Fort Frontenac. But it is the best view of the side of the covered trestle. See what might be sheets of plywood? The sloping side sheds seem to be covered with tarpaper.

Where the trestle meets the bay:

Modelling the Outer Station Scene

A couple of projects that I recently completed help to 'paint the picture' of everyday CN operations around Kingston's Outer Station. One is for piggyback loading, the other is a maintenance-of-way (MoW) vehicle garage. Piggyback loading across from the station was circus-style, with wooden walkways lining both sides of both tracks and a ramp at the timetable east end. While I don't have space for this entire ramp, I do have room for the walkways.

I sliced a couple of strips of basswood from a plank, and glued them end-to-end. Then I glued craft sticks along both sides underneath, leaving room for posts made from the same material. Strips of cardstock, roughly the same colour, were glued as diagonal braces.

Then I painted the walkways a variety of greyish shades, because that's the overall colour that weathered wood appears. In the background is the MoW garage. This garage was located across from the station, even farther away than the piggyback ramp. Since I only had one inch of space, I only made the building one inch deep, out of scrap styrene. Another upcoming project will be camouflaging that gap behind the craft cupboard!

 Final scenicking remains to be done, but here's a piggyback flat car and trailer:

 In later years, MoW cars were stored at the ramps when they were no longer in use.

Canadian Army armoured personnel carriers being winched off flatcars at the ramp, and winched onto a truck in October, 1964 (below) with the station at left and MoW garage at right. Notice the lighting on the walkways, and unloading ramp near the garage. Looks like I need to add some smokejacks!

Here's a photo taken in July, 1971 during the final fantrips of CNR 6218, showing the piggyback ramps at Belleville:

Another detail will be the Mileage 173 three-sided concrete milepost visible from the station platform. I filed the end of a sturdy piece of balsa, being sure to represent the angled, water-shedding top surface. I wrote the numerals on the two track-facing (not the north) sides. My first draft is shown with the prototype, featured on the rear cover of Gordon Smithson's At the Bend in the Road - Kingston: