Modelling Presland - a Structural Flat

The Reliance Moulding building on Maple Street is presently operated by Presland Iron and Steel. On my HO-scale Kingston's Hanley Spur layout, I have a spur serving the property used by both CN and CP. It's a rambling structure, and I wanted to increase its profile as a structural flat. The finished product (top photo) and I'll describe the build and the prototype in this post.

The north side of the property as seen from John Counter Boulevard:

There was always a railway spur to this property, initially built by the CP but later jointly-served by CN once CP's alignment into Kingston changed. The spur was likely used for inbound and outbound loads for the various companies that occupied the property. In my modelled era of 1970, marking the start of Presland's use of the property, it's likely steel loads were received in gondola cars and handled by the overhead travelling crane.

Travelling from the north side of the property (above) to the south side (below), I only model a small portion of the crane. This is the third structural flat I've placed here. The first was a holdover from my Vancouver Wharves layout. The second was a cardstock/paper flat with a Gould Battery sign on the roof.

My first step was to rummage through my structure parts drawer to find some likely components. I found a side wall of the Walthers Municipal Pier Terminal kit (below-at left) and some other components with prototype photo printed off:

I decided I wanted nearly two full storeys, and selected this wall component before removing some height at bottom. With this done, it would line up with the travelling crane better:

Now to fill in some holes, to give the building a modified-over-the-years look. I used two brick wall sections, another at top right, a grey sliding door from the Walthers kit, and added one platform:

Colours are hard to distinguish from black & white photos, but I went with an overall cream colour:

Then some dilute black craft paint to add a patina of age:

Before and after. The previous cardstock/paper Gould Battery flat (above) and my finished structural flat (below), both showing the travelling crane in foreground. Note how the existing paper backdrop fits in to add depth.

Before and after, opposite end view. I would end up adding a garage door, a paper access door, small railing and platform at the left side of the structural flat, as well as a ledge to separate the two storeys. Due to the minimal car clearance here, any larger platform was a no-go. I also added acetate to the second storey windows then some printed factory windows in behind. The yawning opening at right will be filled with some interior details and/or a moveable door to add depth to the structure.

I think this completed third structural flat presents a more imposing facade and the look of a larger building extending beyond the backdrop.

Revising Outer Station Yard Operations

Every so often, I decide to revise the way in which some part of my HO scale Hanley Spur layout functions. In this case, it's the five-track yard at Kingston's Outer Station. 

Previously, I'd just bring cars from the mainline interchange at 'Queens' and push them into whichever of the yard tracks were emptiest. When it was time to make up one of the three CN switching runs that serve  in rotation the Outer Station area, Rideau Street area or Wellington Street area, I'd just pull out one trackful of cars at a time, cherry-picking the cars I needed and placing them on the run-around track before adding a caboose. That was really boring and I decided there was a better way.

(Though I've never seen photos of the prototype Outer Station yard anywhere near full of cars, I'm sure there was some system of organization therein. Most cars for area customers seemed to arrive from the mainline before being taken away be spotted, then put on a mainline eastbound or westbound freight as soon as they were brought back to the yard.)

So, I proceeded to designate one yard track for each of the above-mentioned runs, with a fourth track for overflow - if more cars are brought from interchange than fit in the track. The fifth track is used for company service cars, cabooses, or hold cars for Northern Telecom.

The tracks I designated (top to bottom):

• Outer Station (marked C)
• Rideau Street
• Wellington Street
• Overflow
• OCS/cabooses

I decided to put cars in the first 'Outer Station' track, even though that's needed for switching Frontenac Floor & Wall Tile and Presland Steel. I figured that the cars on that track would be the ones to be switched, meaning that track would be clear when needed for switching moves.

This revised system has worked well in practice. I've made up about five switching runs since its implementation. It's also a very easy way of seeing which runs/customers need more cars, since that track will now be empty.

"The Last Run" of CP Trains 612/613

When I visited the Queen's University Archives in April, 2019 my first exposure to their collection was viewing some of the digitized images of the George E.O. Lilley fonds. These included a very interesting series of photos taken aboard a CP mixed-train operating out of Kingston. Frustratingly, though I took some grainy 'redneck-screenshots' (pointing my digital camera at the computer terminal screen, with the accompanying annoying lines on the image), by the time I reached the negative envelope of those digitized images in August while making my way through the 51 packed boxes of the Lilley fonds, the negatives in box 38 were not present. I suspected they'd been withdrawn for digitizing. 

Eureka! According to the Queen's University Archives website, as part of the Archives' digitization project, 36 photos taken by George E.O. Lilley dated June 15, 1957 are titled "Last Run of [CP] Trains 612 and 613 from Kingston to Sharbot Lake", (V25.5-38-29-1 to 29-34). These photos centre on a steam-powered mixed-train run making its way north from Kingston, through Harrowsmith, Verona and Sharbot Lake. Added to the 1,100+ digital images available to website visitors, these were added on February 28, 2023 by Digital & Private Records Archivist Jeremy Heil. Since the website is not always the easiest to navigate, and because I believe these photos constitute an amazing record of a sample mixed-train run, albeit latter-day, I've included them in this post.  

The photos appeared as part of a Saturday, June 15, 1957 Kingston Whig-Standard news story written by staff reporter E.C. Beer. It seems photographer Lilley rode and documented the train north from Kingston to Sharbot Lake behind CPR D4g 485 on Tuesday, June 11. He then photographed a subsequent southbound run behind CPR 417 as it arrived in Kingston. Whig reporter Cliff Knapp rode and photographed the Saturday, June 15 "last daytime run" which was in turn published in the Monday, June 17 edition of the Whig. The night train would continue hauling passengers and freight but no mail as of Monday, June 17 departing Kingston at 8:30 p.m.

I've added some captions, since the negatives do not include captions, and some details from the Whig article. The train heads under the Highway 401 overpass under construction (near the current Highway 38 - top photo) as Conductor George Giff of Smiths Falls, an 11-year veteran of the run, sits at his 'desk' in the mail/express car reviewing paperwork with his grip on the opposite seat (above). The rattan-covered seats in the gas-lit coach:

The reporter noted that no 'bona fide passengers' were aboard, likely accounting for the discontinuance of the run that was now largely paralleled by a more modern, more convenient highway. Only a couple of 'sentimental observers' who came along to take notes and pictures were aboard, plus the six-man crew shown in the photos, listed below with their years of CP service. A Whig clipping published June 17 shows the crew posing with CP 485, left to right: 

• Mail car clerk Joe Lawless
• Baggageman Gerald Harris
• Trainman Ernest DeGracey
• Engineer Glen White (13 years)
• Conductor George Giff (17 years)
• Fireman Clifford Orr (11 years)

At Harrowsmith, there's a pause to re-line the switch after the CP train has gained the joint track section with the CN Smiths Falls Subdivision (receding to left beyond semaphores). The switches were normally kept lined for CN movements though CN was the 'junior partner' at this junction, albeit operating more trains than CP. The foundation of the former interlocking tower appears to be at right:

Conductor Giff steps down on the platform at Harrowsmith:

Harrowsmith and Sydenham mail courier Mrs. Arthur Harker exchanges mail bags with mail car clerk Joe Lawless:

Holding down the typical baggageman position in mail/express car CP 3450's wooden chair with California oranges, meat and auto parts for Verona, mattresses for Elginburg, a Deluxe Lawn Cruiser power lawnmower for Flinton, shoes and live chicks for Kaladar:

Lunch time in the mail/express car. This is likely baggageman Gerald Harris:

Elginburg-bound mattresses manhandled off the mail/express car. Could this be Hartington? Note the grass-choked siding and no platform:

Mail and express handled at the mail hook-equipped door:

Express shipments and cream can at Verona:

The local merchandise car, interestingly stencilled for CP's International of Maine Division to Saint John, NB handles consignments for Verona, Tichborne and Sharbot Lake. Transfer by hand-cart directly into the freight shed section of Verona station:

Typical views along the line, from bucolic farmland scenes to a hillside and rock-cut, taken from the front and rear vestibules of the coach. Could this be the rock-cut north of Murvale Creek that the train-crew (and my father-in-law) described as difficult at various times of the year due to falling caterpillars and falling leaves making the rails slippery?

The train's consist on this run comprised three empty cars, two gondola cars of scrap metal for Beauharnois, QC, a car of mining equipment for a uranium mine in Spragge, ON (near Sault Ste. Marie) all for Tichborne, and another empty for Peterborough via Sharbot Lake. Add the local merchandise car, mail express car and coach, and we have an exhaust-worthy job for little 485.

I can't be sure, but the above photo is either taken in Kingston as the freight cars are added to the mixed-train consist, or perhaps they're being cut off in Tichborne. Finally, CP 485 with passenger cars, plus 417 backing two boxcars and two passenger cars into the Ontario Street ex-K&P station across from City Hall:

Comparing the photos that George Lilley took with what was published in the Whig, well, there is no comparison. Only one of the above photos, cropped, was included in the article featuring the June 11 ride, published on June 15 (click on image for larger, readable version)...

...another June 15 ride was published on June 17:

Modelling Rideau Street School/King's Town School

At 66 Rideau Street stands a building that has gone full circle. Originally built as      it found more pedestrian uses before again returning to its original calling. Read more about its history in this post. It's where three family members spend their days as teacher and students at King's Town School (KTS). So while spending time in the layout room with the two KTS students recently, telling them about some of the buildings I've modelled that are still near the school, it dawned on me that I should model this long-lived Swamp Ward structure as it still stands in the neighbourhood it was originally built to serve. Looking at photos of it, I realized that I would have to go all-in and actually cut window holes and use doors and windows and all those other fiddly bits and pieces of limestone construction to try and make it look right!

I decided to use a Pola HO scale brewery that I'd picked up at a train show for a paltry six bucks as feedstock. I didn't have a lot of room on the layout, and though I realize the current incarnation of the building has extensive additions now used as classrooms, I kept it to the original shape for the available footprint on the layout. I want to be able to show it as King's Town School when I decide to backdate it to a more industrial/commercial use it had during my 1970 modelled era. Feedstock pieces and photo inspiration (above) and windows for the school front (below). I duct-taped the windows to make it easier to paint them. I had a lot of them, even if the pane-count is off. Made the build pain-free!

 

The Pola brewery with roof already used for another project. This is one reason why I love coming across inexpensive structures at train shows!

I printed off this stone image to format, print and paste onto the structure as limestone:

Window holes cut, limestone paper applied to areas that would be visible upon completion.  (Back of building will have an addition that will cover it.) I tried to measure/guess the height to make both parts' roof peaks equal height. I came close!

Windows, soldier-corners and front height adjustment added. Rear addition built and roof added, ready to accept front part's roof (below). Dremel made quick work of the window and door openings (front door was one of the last things added!), with paper lintels and Vallejo plastic putty added after 'limestone'.

The rear addition is two sides of a trainshow-find house laid flat, with styrene ends I cut to match. Rear roof formerly used on my Sowards coal shed before it was rebuilt. Finally a chance to use those circular windows! The end windows reflect being bricked over, or the original windows removed and newer windows installed:

I'm quite bad at taking in-progress photos. Well, who really wants to read this if it's "Oh look, I added a window!" Not you, I'm sure. Front and north side, with size-reduced current wood-finished addition with that never-fixed eavestrough I heard of! The end roof-supports are from Belmont Hotel window shades Dremel'd, hand trimmed and painted black:

Rear/south with really big chimney. Perhaps too big, but its mounting-slot is cut right into the roof for strength!

North side/rear:

Front/south side (below). Door and front windows have current King's Town School appearance, with hanging sign over left window still to be added:

Prototype and outdoor-photographed model:

After I positioned a couple of vehicles on the layout with the school building, to snap some on-layout photos, a plumbing call at the school included an Ubdegrove van! (Photo via Caitlin Barton)

Life imitates art!

I cannot write this stuff! The cause of the plumbing issue was several [vintage and possibly by now biohazard] Coke bottles in an outflow pipe. Had they been there since the building was a Coca-Cola bottling facility? If so, persistent plumbing problems have hopefully now been paused. You know...Coke, the pause that reflushes!