The Hanley Spur's Namesakes

Although I've entitled this blog and my layout 'Kingston's Hanley Spur', where did the name come from? (In both those contexts, I refer to the parallel CN and CP lines reaching our waterfront as the Hanley Spur, though that was only an official title of the CN 'branchline'.) The spur was named in honour of several men of the Hanley family. (I could use the terms eponyms or namesakes interchangeably.) The Hanley family the operated what we would today call a travel agency, namely the train/ship ticket office that was later known as Kingston's Inner Station, or the Hanley Station.

THE GTR BRANCHLINE COMPLETED

The Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) Montreal-Toronto mainline officially opened in October, 1856. Soon there were efforts underway locally to build a branchline to the waterfront. The GTR bought land bounded by William, Ontario and Johnson Streets on the waterfront in November, 1856. The branchline opened on November 2, 1860. The branchline was extended to the locomotive plant in September, 1864.

THE HANLEY TICKET AGENCY 

With the completion of the branchline, Thomas Hanley and Frederick Bolger opened a ticket agency in 1871. It was located at the foot of Brock Street in the old Forsythe Building. Later, Thomas Hanley moved the ticket office into part of the Anglo-American Hotel, on the kitty-corner to the Inner Station. An 1882 Whig ad (below). Needing a more permanent presence, the Hanleys had a 43x45-foot ticket office built, known as the Grand Trunk Railway General Ticket Agency and GTR Passenger Depot (top photo, superimposed over today's condos!)

GTR’s 1886 Inner Station was designed by William Newlands as was the K&P’s station, just one block away, also on the south side of Ontario Street. Located at the prominent corner of Ontario and Johnson Streets, the GTR station was topped by a three-sided mansard roof. The sales office on the corner was flanked by waiting rooms along both streets.

Built of red brick, with yellow accents, hand-painted period advertising proclaimed the worldliness of this little GTR outpost. “Passenger Trains for All Directions Leave from Here”; “Short Line East-West”, “Allan Line-Royal Mail Steamship Office”; ”Tourist Tickets”; “Office Montreal and Dominion Telegraph” and “Remember This is the Only Line Running Pullman Class”. Names of distant cities were also spelled out: “St John[sic]-Halifax-Montreal-Boston-Detroit-Windsor”: 

A letterhead proclaimed 'Hanley's General Ticket Agency for all Railways, Steamships and other Transportation Lines.' Thomas Hanley was General Manager, T.A. Hanley was Chief Clerk, J.P. Hanley was Secretary and Treasurer, and James Hanley as Outside Agent. The GTR operated a wharf and freight station at the same location.

An 1898 harvest excursion ad (above) albeit to the Midwestern U.S., not Canada. GTR then CN Suburban service linking the Inner and Outer Stations operated from 1885 until January 4, 1930. The end of the Suburban service meant that the Hanleys closed their Ontario and Johnson Street office, relocating to the CN-leased office at Princess and Bagot Streets in the Mowat Building on October 1, 1930. They were now CN's City Passenger and Ticket Agents. V.C. Hanley was Passenger Agent, J.S. Hanley was Ticket Agent, and Thomas Percy the Ticket Clerk. Interestingly, their telephone #99 remained the same as the first telephone installed in the Inner Station office over 30 years ago. A 1930 ad: 

THEN A RESTAURANT...

CN sold its Ontario and Johnson Street property to the Canadian Locomotive Company in 1945, except for the former Inner Station site that was sold to Marion McNevin. It was leased to a variety of clients in the ensuing years: a motorcycle shop, ladies' hair boutique then restaurant.

The Hanley's Station Dining Room Restaurant operated in the former Inner Station circa 1983-88 (1984 Whig ad, above). Undergoing an interior redesign imder new ownership that began in September, 1985. In the winter of 1984-85, a new logo was designed by David Stone and Associates, a local graphic design firm. Ironically, it included a charging Canadian Pacific Selkirk steamer (below). Other eateries in the building included Joe College in 1988, Mexicali Rosa's, Frankie Pestos, Paddy J Murphy's, and others.

THE HANLEY FAMILY

Thomas Hanley and his wife Sarah McCauley had three sons: Cleary Vincent, Frank A. and James P. and three sisters. Joseph P. Hanley was born on March 2, 1863. he began his career at the GTR freight office in the Napanee station as Clerk, under his uncle J.P. Hanley. he transferred to the Kingston freight depot in 1882, joining his father Thomas at the GTR ticket agency in 1884, then succeeding his father upon his father's death in 1896. He married Katie Reid, daughter of the late James Reid in 1888, though she died in 1891. The couple had one son, James S. Hanley.

Joseph was known as a "most efficient and well-informed railway man" in the local press. Joseph P. Hanley died at his 67 Earl Street home on January 8, 1930.

Molly Aldridge called herself the sole surviving member of the Hanley Family in a 1985 Whig interview, a daughter of Cleary Hanley. 

CONNECTIONS

I received a comment on my Trackside Treasure blog in 2015 from Laura (Hanley) Roobol, great-granddaughter of J.P. Hanley who didn't know that the spur was named after the Hanleys. She referred to the ticket office as Hanley Station. In 2016, also on Trackside Treasure, a comment from Joseph Peter Hanley of Ottawa, a great-grandson of J.P. Hanley. After publishing this post, Joseph Peter Hanley commented and emailed: "I grew up in Kingston and was always aware of the GTR connection, and of course, the location of the station as it was only a couple of blocks from where I was raised at 85 Wellington St.  The Hanley home was at 67 Earl St. (at Wellington St) and is designated a historical building. The coal and sand docks where the Delta Hotel by Marriott is now located were also a part of the Hanley history as they owned the dock. The dock came into my sister and my hands briefly (inheritance) when my father, Joseph L Hanley passed away (car accident) in 1959.  Prior to that, lakers tied up there for the winter."

RESOURCES

The late Gordon Smithson wrote an article 'The Hanleys of Kingston' in the January 1992, Volume 40 edition of the Kingston Historical Society's Historic Kingston.

Sunset Drone View of 'Ground Zero'

SkEye Stream posted this colourful sunset image of what I've termed 'Ground Zero' - Cataraqui near Rideau Streets. That's where the National Grocers building, Bailey broom factory, and Woolen Mill still stand. It is perhaps the best-preserved piece of Kingston waterfront industry in continuously-occupied buildings, and I've modelled all of them on my Hanley Spur layout.

It's often so difficult to relate what I'm doing to others. Are all these buildings still standing? Well, no. Well that's a bummer. But it's okay, because on the layout, they are still standing. When David from SkEye Stream captured this image, most people who view it see 'sunset'. I see 'structures'. 

With SkEye Stream's usual generosity, I've done some photo editing to bring out the elements in the top photo that I really like.

The Whig-Standard warehouse that reached the CN Hanley Spur, but didn't reach Rideau Street. It's only accessible by a laneway. The NGB main warehouse and attached trackside extensions, then the diminutive 'Broom Factory', now office and performance space. The former Harold's Demolition scrapyard has been replaced by what was the Dave Broadfoot Parking Lot:

Some differences from this 1951 archival aerial are evident:

Just the Woolen Mill. Imagine the wooden beams that were used to build that roof!

It's always impressive to see all the windows that brought the outside in, especially important in visually inspecting the products on the looms inside during production:

Freight Yard Junk

Freight Yard Junk...this is not Up Town Funk. There's a right way and a wrong way to model junk. Industrial bric-a-brac. Freight-yard detritus. When you see 'the right way' you'll know it. It's not about placing a 45-gallon drum here, and one here, and one here like some sort of HO-scale Bob Ross painting full of happy little trees. This stuff builds up over time, gets pushed out of the way for...more stuff to build up. It's layers of someday stuff that gradually gets forgotten, as long as the vehicles and trains can travel through it, sometimes in close quarters. 

The most precise modelling technique to reproduce this effectively would employ surgical precision with forceps placement and gluing of each piece, perhaps using a square-foot-by-square-foot grid approach to get the judicious junk juxtaposition of the prototype.

This video shows a 1969 Chrysler Newport chasing a 1973 Triumph Spitfire. Before the video even starts, you just know that the stolen Spitfire is going to win. Spoiler alert - a Seaboard Coast Line train gets between the two cars (speeded-up video keeps it safe!) and the Smokeys apprehend the Chrysler's outsmarted occupants. The location may be around Columbia, South Carolina, and the timeframe is five years past my circa 1970 modelled prototype.

Here are some faded screenshots presented as aides-memoires for me, next time I fill in a vacant part of the layout with model junk.

Hanley Spur in Print: CN Lines and Kingston Life

Thanks to the kind invitation of Al Lill, Chairman of the Canadian National Railways Historical Association and Kevin Holland, Editor of the CNRHA magazine CN Lines, I was pleased to contribute an article to the latest edition of this fine magazine. After all, as a minor terminal on a major subdivision bearing its name, Kingston's CNR and Grand Trunk Railway connections did much to link the city to the rest of Canada. Many readers will know about the Montreal Street Outer Station, the Counter Street Station, and even our long-gone locomotive manufacturer, the Canadian Locomotive Company. But how many readers would otherwise know of the existence of the diminutive Hanley Spur?

Kevin did the article justice; it runs ten pages with photos and maps. Kevin included colour images of CLC's contributions to the CN motive power roster, and my article is bracketed by other interesting articles on CN steam, ACI labels on CN, Automobile Transporters and much, much more!

It's unlikely that my Dad would have thought that our city streetmap, a decades-long denizen of our family-car glove compartment, would have ever made it into print! It's a folding fan o' fun showing streets and tracks. I have found no better map, and no easier way to orient readers to the convoluted and congested CN Hanley Spur and CP trackage that once wandered its way along our waterfront:

While anticipating the publication of the above article, I had an enjoyable Zoom interview with Kirsteen MacLeod for an upcoming issue of Kingston Life magazine. I was mightily impressed that Kirsteen led with the term 'railfan' early in our conversation! It's sometimes difficult to orient a non-railfan to why we do what we do, or why some of us build model railways. But Kirsteen seemed to understand, and I'm looking forward to more column-inches describing Kingston's waterfront industrial heritage, whether it's in 1:1 or 1:87 scale.

Photographer Rob Whelan visited the layout on January 24. We spent an enjoyable hour talking about the Hanley Spur, and finding the angles and lighting that achieved the shots Rob wanted. He put our old kitchen stepstool/chair to good use, getting some high angles that I know will show the layout to advantage!

 

Fort Frontenac - History

Partie Un - THE FRENCH 

In 1673, Count Frontenac had a fort built at the confluence of the Cataraqui River and Lake Ontario. The French intent was to control access to the fur-trading territory of the Great Lakes and Canadian Shield. Beaver fut, especially the shorter, inner layer for making of many styles of hats in Europe. Indigenous peoples had worn beaver robes and used them for sleeping. Beaver pelts would be the key to Fort Frontenac and moreover to Kingston. Despite King Louis XIV's belief that finances should be expended within Quebec, De Courcelles and Frontenac advanced the construction of a trading post here, funding it independently. The wooden fort was built within a week of Frontenac meeting the local Iroquois on July 12, 1673, commanded by Commandant LaSalle following Frontenac's departure. LaSalle had the fort rebuilt as a masonry building reinforced with three limestone walls, square bastions and a wooden palisade in 1675. Several outbuildings and civilian settlements were established around it. 

The fort would be the base of LaSalle's explorations, as well as a French outpost against the English and the Iroquois. Treachery against the indigenous people by Denonville and a subsequent 1687 siege against the French was followed by explosive charges being set in the walls with short-burning fuses. Frontenac had the fort rebuilt of stone again in 1695, after six years of abandonment and threatened further demolition, arriving with a garrison of 300. The fort was guarded by a smaller garrison by the French until 1745, with its use latterly as a warehouse for furs and supplies. With British ambitions of greater expansion becoming evident, a garrison of 70 men was stationed there in 1753, the fortifications reinforced, and Montcalm visited the fort.  Even 1,600 British prisoners, taken at the battle of Fort Oswego, were brought to the fort. When British ships appeared offshore in August of 1758, the small French force under Captain Noyan opted for surrender, as it was outnumbered, with 110 French facing 3,000 British!

Part Two - THE ENGLISH

Captured by the British under Colonel Bradstreet in 1758, the fort was burned at once, the walls pushed over, and Bradstreet departed. (Bradstreet was unusual due to Canada being his birthplace, unlike most British officers - he was born at Annapolis Royal, NS in 1714.) Following the defeat of the French at Quebec in 1759, the site came under British control. Major Robert Rogers, of Rogers' Rangers, camped there in September, 1760 on the way to take over western posts from the French after the capitulation of Montreal. The fort sat deserted for 25 years, until barracks for 450, named Tete-du-Pont were built in 1783 by Major Ross, British commander at Oswego. This was subsequent to Carleton Island, a major British river base, became American territory. The British garrison he now commanded would be a stepping-off point for United Empire Loyalist settlement into the Cataraqui region.

In November, 1812 the HMS Royal George was chased into Kingston by Commodore Chanuncey. Major John Vincent rallied the militia and shore batteries that drove off the American ships.  York was captured by the Americans in 1813. The fort was deemed obsolete in 1814. The resurgence of Kingston as a location of strategic military importance resulted in the construction of the LaSalle and De Noyan blocks in 1827 and the Vincent block in 1847. These improved Kingston's land defences, as did the building of Royal Artillery Park, an advance battery on Fort Henry hill, and the 1837 reopening of the Royal Navy Dockyard that had closed in two years before. 

And Then - THE CANADIANS

Despite nearly a century of occupation, little evidence of the French presence remained after the British conquest. However, it marked the first stage of continuous European settlement in Kingston. Once all British troops had returned home following Confederation, Canada manned the abandoned forts by establishing 'A', and and then 'B', battery of Garrison Artillery. These were the first units of a Canadian Permanent Active Militia under Militia General Order No. 24 issued October 20, 1871. In 1901, they were redesignated the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. The site was declared a National Historic Site in 1923. The Ross Block and Heating Plant were constructed in 1936, followed by the Courcelles and Bradstreet Blocks, rather hurriedly in 1941 during World War II. The RCHA had been mobilized for overseas duty in 1939. The Ross Block had been named the Royal Canadian Artillery School and Brigade Building, becoming an important recruiting and dispatch centre during the war. The complex was once again named 'Fort Frontenac' in 1938. A Public Archives of Canada aerial view taken in 1920 shows the location of the fort between Ontario Street and its CN/CP joint trackage, and the causeway: 

The Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff College were established on the site in 1947. Troops have been mustered behind its walls for every Canadian campaign. A 1964 aerial photo for comparison (Queen's University Archives, Kingston Whig-Standard Fonds , V142.1-45):

Lots o' links:

• 3D renderings of Fort Frontenac
• from another source

including one image that helps orient the original fort into the current streetscape of Ontario Street at Place d'Armes:

Since I'm unlikely to ever be granted access to the grounds, here's a Parks Canada Agency 1995 photo showing the remnants of the southern walls within the fort property (below). Remnants were discovered and exposed during a 1982 archeological study. Vestiges of the north and west curtain walls are incorporated within a traffic circle on the north side of Ontario Street, redesigned in 1984 by the city of Kingston.

I walked the northern wall of the fort on July, 2022, with the remnants of the original bastion just visible at right (below). 

The 1820-built gate to the Tete du Pont Barracks, once extended 16 feet into the roadway, creating a bottleneck and  hazard for autos.  In early 1930, the city Board of Works asked the Department of National Defence to rebuild the gate. Whig clipping published May 15, 1930 (below). Within a year, the 'introverted' gate now made Ontario Street 18 feet wider, and the work was speedily completed by December of that year! Each stone in the gate had removed, numbered, and replaced in the same position. All of this was done for the grand sum of $2,500. The city paid one-third. The work done was by unemployed men under the auspices of a government  Depression  unemployment scheme and Bews and Friendship Construction. guard was no longer stationed at the newly-oriented gate!

Detailed views of the site showing heritage designations: Green = recognized and Pink = classified.

De

Designations and former uses of constituent buildings:

Inner Harbour Hulks

(W)oolen Mill - (C)anadian Dredge & Dock - (N)ormandy Hall

KINGSTON'S INNER HARBOUR

The slow-moving waters of the Cataraqui River made it a natural aquatic avenue for transportation, travel and trade. The Inner Harbour is considered an embayment of Lake Ontario, extending nearly five miles north to Highway 401. The Cataraqui River is one of two distinct river systems comprising the Rideau Canal connecting Kingston to Ottawa. It drains 930 square kilometres of rural, Canadian Shield bedrock drainage into Lake Ontario via the Inner Harbour. As a mixing region typical of an estuary, sediment from upstream tributaries mix with sediments from the inlet to Lake Ontario. 

NORMANDY HALL EXCAVATION - 1953

Wooden remains of four vessels were unearthed during the construction of Normandy Hall, a training facility being built across Ontario Street at the western end of the LaSalle Causeway, in 1953. At first thought to be French vessels destroyed by the English, during the capture of Fort Frontenac in 1758, this was not the case. Based on their construction and location, it was determined that they were four barges abandoned in shallow water north of the Tete-du-Pont Barracks. 

Calls for the removal of said barges were made as early as 1861. The use of wonderfully-Victorian terms like "Asiatic cholera" and "malarious exhalation" to describe the dangerous of waterborne disease belied the view of Kingstonians of the time that these eyesores were seen by some merely as a source of firewood, at least above the waterline.

INNER HARBOUR BONEYARD

Throughout the late 19th-century, other hulks began to accumulate in the Inner Harbour near the Cotton Mill, such as the schooner Belle. During the 'coal famine' caused by striking coalminers in 1902, eight hulks were hauled up on shore near the Cotton Mill (later known as the Woolen Mill). Firewood was harvested from their exposed vertical ribs and planking. These included the steamer Indian and the former sidewheel-steamer turned-barge City of Kingston.

The Kingston & Pembroke built two pile-wharves (also known as spile-docks) out into the harbour, to facilitate the transfer of minerals from mines located on its northern end, to ships. These pile-wharves had become derelict by the turn of the century. Though there was no formal Kingston ship graveyard, some were scuttled in Lake Ontario off Amherst Island and near Nine-Mile Point. Still others could not make that journey, and made it only as far as the Inner Harbour. By 1910, numerous skiffs, yachts and steamers were abandoned there, many near the pile-wharves, and most up to 50 years old. 

A FOOT-OF-THE-LAKES TERMINAL PROPOSED

In 1911, the idea of a Foot-of-the-Lakes Terminal was floated. Kingston was not exactly possessed of a great harbour. The Outer Harbour had been dredged to 18 feet, but only to provide a channel to the Montreal Transportation Co. and Richardson elevators, as shown on a 1920 hydrographic chart. Elsewhere, depths ranged from seven to 16 feet. A small portion of the Inner Harbour, just north of the causeway bridge, was dredged to a depth of 14 feet.

Kingston’s ambitious bid to become just such a terminal relied on the Inner Harbour. The only way to achieve an equal footing with major lake ports Midland, Port Arthur and Toronto would be substantial government funding. The city requested dredging of the Inner Harbour to a depth of 22 feet, connection of Belle Island to the mainland with the dredged sludge, and replacement of the old Cataraqui Penny Bridge. This would open up the Inner Harbour to lake shipping. Water in the Inner Harbour was only six to eight feet deep, for the most part.

The Department of Public Works submitted a $1.8 million plan to the city in 1912. The plan included a new rolling-lift bridge with 125-foot vertical clearance and dredging ($157,000) to open up the Inner Harbour via a new Lasalle Causeway. The Causeway’s bridge, 950 feet of dock and 1,700 feet of roadway ($230,000) were the initial steps in a grandiose plan to make the Inner Harbour a true Great Lakes Terminal! Further funds would be required for the envisioned five million-bushel grain elevator ($1,224,690) with further expansion to forty million bushels and fifty-car long loading tracks, coal-handling plant, docks, freight shed and a 500-car freight yard! The proposed Inner Harbour basin, its 53 acres dredged to 25 feet, would host 600 x 60-foot freight sheds adjacent to Belle Island. Wintering facilities for lake vessels would also be built.

A 1921 chart showed six steamers and three barges near the pile-wharves, now part of Canadian Pacific Railway following its 1913 acquisition of the Kingston & Pembroke. The vessels had been made surplus due to a post-war depression and fleet modernization, or simply old age. Steamers Rickarton, Nicaragua, Sarnor, Stormount, Maplegreen, Maplegeorge, Mapleglen (the last four belonging to Canada Steamship Lines); coal schooner Abbie L. Andrews; and Montreal Transportation Co. barges Chicago and Glengarry.

Some of these derelict vessels could be towed away, but most would have to be exploded and dredged-out. Then there were the difficulties of establishing ownership, performing the work, and absorbing the cost. 

City Council heard in 1923 that there were as many as 40 hulks to be dealt with before the ambitious terminal project could proceed. It never did.

DEALING WITH THE BONEYARD

The CPR agreed to remove the pile-wharves in 1929. The work was supervised by W.J. Gates, 85 years old at the time! It was hoped that this action, and the removal of nearby hulks, would make the Inner Harbour at least a prime winter lay-up site for lake vessels. Throughout the 1920's and 1930's, some of the vessels were towed by Donnelly and Sincennes-McNaughton salvage tugs to the lake graveyards and sunk. The Three CSL Maple vessels were so removed in 1925. Otherwise, they were susceptible to arson if they remained.

Several smaller hulks remained near shore, in locations unlikely to pose a threat to navigation. Their wooden skeletons slowly rotted away in the silty harbour water. Their intended purpose and placement may have been to act as pier extensions or breakwaters for docks. 

In the 1950's, several newer floating hulks accumulated near Canadian Dredge & Dock. Examples were the coal barge Theresa T., government tender Concretia, and a CD&D barge now known as C.D.110, formerly the steamer Rapids Queen.

The construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway made CD&D a beehive of activity as dredges and scows went out to work in the shipping lane. After the Seaway's completion, Kingston's standing as a port all but sank. CD&D's now-surplus fleet rapidly became an eyesore in itself.

THE BONEYARD STUDIED

A 1994 archaeological and historical study, funded by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, was conducted by Jonathan Moore and managed by Maurice Smith. The results were published in the catch-up issue of FreshWater - A Journal of Great Lakes Marine History, published by the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, 1995-96, and in which the two charts in this post were presented. The study charted the extant remains of 14 vessels. All faced east-west, were upright, and submerged or partially-submerged. Wooden-hulled except for one with steel plating, the method of propulsion could not be reliably ascertained due to their advanced state of decay. One was screw-propelled, and at least three had been unpropelled scows. 

The identity of only three of the 14 vessels can be known. All three are 100-200 metres off Doug Fluhrer Park, at the end of Wellington Street. These are:

• barge Glengarry (1873/1915)
• barge Chicago (1872/1915)
• coal-schooner Abbie L. Andrews (1873/1920).

Dates in brackets are (Date Built/Date Arrived in Inner Harbour or register entry closed). Other vessels that were known to have entered the boneyard but not known to have exited: 

• schooners Belle (1857/1885); N.H. Ferry (1867/1913); Mary A. Daryaw (1866/1927)
• steamers Indian (1853/1882); City of Kingston (1874/1901)
• pinflat Adele (1893/1908)

THE BONEYARD TODAY

Weed growth, landfill, sediment and shallow depths make many of the remaining hulks' locations inaccessible, therefore invisible. Knowledgeable boaters and rowers are aware of areas to avoid. 

Going back in time when the hulks were visible, they were seen as eyesores and hazards. Today they are barely visible, viewed with intrigue, curiosity and as mysterious melancholy reminders of Kingston's marine history.

SLC 232 at Quattrocchi's

Even though I wouldn't consider this a model railway blog, it is definitely a blog about a model railway. So a specific model build, while unusual, is certainly within the scope of what you might find published herein. 

Bearing that in mind, it all began on a sunny Saturday in April, 1979. My Dad and I were making the morning rounds downtown, hoping to snag the CP Smiths Falls switcher without luck. Heading down Montreal Street, the lighting and the timing must have been right for me to snap San Luis Central refrigerator car 232 spotted at Quattrocchi's. Based on the tackboard signs, as well as a CN switchlist fading and found that May 5, SLC 232 was loaded with spuds a week earlier in Bath, NB for furtherance to Quattrocchi via CP and CN. Kris Seaboyer kindly shared this: Bath, NB, on the CPR Shogomoc Subdivision extending from McAdam to Aroostook. Typical motive power in those days were RS18s, RS10s, and the remaining RS3s. It later would be served by RS23s.

I didn't know as I pressed the button on my Kodak Hawkeye 110-format camera that this would be my one-and-only Hanley Spur photo. In the back of my mind, it's one I've thought of recreating ever since:

With a gravy-covered serving of synchronicity, Montreal's Mark Charlebois kindly gifted me with Walthers Railway Express Agency REX 7847, nearly two years ago. Once it arrived in Kingston, the pickle-green present spent a lot of time languishing in the railway room. Here it is still in Mark's collection:

It's exaclty the same type of car that ended up on the prototype SLC once the railway express business went largely to trucks in the U.S. While not needed for refrigerated lading, these cars were ideal for temperature-dependent loads like potatoes. San Luis Central rostered at least 350 of them. I had no proper decals, and a quick online search showed K4 Decals' set, which with shipping and exchange would probably cost $20! Way above my price point.

Fortunately, in my decal box, I found an ample set of Walthers black decal lettering that matched that of the SLC. Perhaps I'd bought them decades ago for just this project! I broke out the hobby paint and got to work, brush painting the car with grey primer then orange sides, black roof and ends. Now the fun began - probably the most protracted, prolonged and technically painful decalling job I'd ever done. The decals were splintering from age, and had to be applied individually. I had a lot on my plate, literally:

That looks like a ransom note (above)! I was a prisoner of positioning, convicted of consecutiveness, an in-line inmate. But I persevered:

Paint touch-up, application of an ACI label, and light weathering completed the job. Or so I thought. The track-level photo (top) made it obvious that I still need to add some door stencilling and right-side dimensional data. That's the value of looking at layout views with a critical eye. 

I owe Mark many a merci for enabling this project. Coming full circle, bringing a teenager's snapshot that had become a distant memory to life, in scale!