Modelling Some CLC RBT's

When Kingston's Canadian Locomotive Company was running short on locomotive orders, the plant diversified into construction equipment and other non-railway products for construction, mining and other industries. I call all these "RBT's" = Really Big Things. They are prototypically correct for my modelled era and I featured a two-post series among the first posts on this blog. In my main railway blog  there are RBT's among interesting car loads. However, to model these in HO scale, I don't attempt to build RBT's from photos.

Instead, I am continually on the lookout for RBT parts. These could be any plastic part I come across around the house and go in a designated box. A recent gold-mine has been in toys for our grandsons. As you may know, no toy just pops out of a box anymore. Instead, they're wired and constrained such that any trip to Toys R Us ends up with a 15-minute unboxing period before the kids can enjoy the toys. But these clever and tamper-proof security features make neat RBT parts! The car in the top photo also employs some wooden end-bracing from my recent Sowards coal shed extension. I painted them with light-brown hobby paint to represent individual boards nailed together to support the RBT.

I made these two RBT's this week from a collection of thread spools, tape-runner parts from my wife's craft-room castaways, a three-prong plug cover from an electrical appliance, a car wheel from a toy antique auto, window-blind brackets and a few choice other parts I've been saving.for awhile, including laboratory disposable test cuvettes. Like an old house, an RBT made of such parts glued together looks good with a coat of paint. In this case, grey dollar-store craft paint. Here are constituent parts, some of which require pre-painting before assembly due to the numerous interior nooks and crannies:

The only requirement for my RBT's is that they can fit inside a gondola or flat car, they are drop-in, and that they resemble actual loads like driers and classifiers built at CLC. In fact, the chances that anyone will say these RBT's somehow aren't correct will likely never realize that such interesting loads were made right here in Kingston! Built in the sunroom, ready for the layout, these two CLC'ers are checking out their latest shipment: