West Pickering, Craig's Canadian project

[Craig Watson]

Having had most of the week off work I have been able to get some work done with the layout.

 

Thanks to donny4472 I picked up enough MDF to allow the boards to be started, a trip to B&Q was made to buy the timber needed and so far I have 3 4'x2' boards made.

 

Until I get my garage sorted out I have been putting the boards together in my drive, due to the poor weather over the last few days I was allowed by SWMBO to bring a board into the house to work out whether my intended trackplan would work, after fitting two boards with C&L finescale dowels I was able to make a start on laying some track too.

 

I've decided that the loose setting for the layout will be to the east of Toronto, the scenic break at the city end to try and disguise the curves to the fiddle yard being a 6 lane freeway similar to Don Valley Parkway.

 

The supports for the freeway have been build using pine stripwood, as has the section of station platform on the second board, the freeway will have an mdf deck.

 

My limit for having the layout up and running in the garage is 16', The station platform will be 6' long, this will allow me to run 6 coach GO trains, there may be scope to build another board to extend the station by 4' but this will be a future project.

 

I already had the Walthers Amtrak station building but having put it on the layout I think its a bit too big so it may go under the knife soon, the platform is an island which will be accessed from the station by an underpass similar to Ajax, there will also be a bus interchange, for this I will need to pick up a few more buses, the only one I have so far is the Northcord Alexander GO double decker.

 

Just before I put the boards back in the garage I put some stock on to get some pics, I put some vehicles on the freeway bridge to see how it looks too!

 

Looking towards the city end of the layout with a GO train ready to depart and an eastbound freight heading towards the camera, the left hand platform track is bi directional to allow terminating GO services to head back towards the city, my assistant looks on!

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[BR60103]

Craig:

informational/nit-picky detail

The locomotive is usually on the east end of GO trains.

15 years ago (or so) GO added wheelchair access cars to the trains. This was the 3rd or 4th (I forget which) car from the loco. To help with this, a ramp was built on the platform to come up to floor height. Ramp was opposite the west door of the accessible car. The ramp was just long enough to fit between the neighbouring doors. The 2300 series cars are accessible; 2499 was a prototype for future accessible and non-accessible cars but the body is distinctive from the original cars. There is a long (4-5 feet?) ramp which the trainman has to put out to cover the gap.

If you need it. I could measure the platform ramp in Brampton. I haven't used the GO regularly for about 8 years.

[peach james]

A little further- if you used Pickering as the basis for the station, then it has 3 tracks that are used. (and I can tell the joke about Ajax- would YOU live in a town named after a toilet bowl cleaner ???)

 

The Station building @ Pickering is quite like the one you have, and is seperate from the east/west tracks. The 3rd track is right behind the station, quite similar to how you have it set up. I am unsure if the siding is double ended, but the train reguarly terminated there (~6 years ago...) when I was last in Ontario, rather than continuing east to Ajax/Oshawa. If the train was a through, it would be on track 1/2, which are purpose built from Pickering east to Oshawa. From memory, the remaining stations east towards Union are all unique, as they have existed from when CN & CP ran commuter rail in the Toronto area (~1940's/early 50's). The layout of the older stations is different at each one.

 

There is also the issue of the bluffs, and how the rail line holds quite close to them until entering into the city of Toronto.

 

Suggestion for a backdrop if you are going to model Oshawa/Ajax/Pickering is a multi lane highway. On the north side, is the 401. Last I remember, it was ~12 lanes @ Pickering, but see when I was last there.

 

I'm old enough to have traveled in single level cars on GO. Not sure if it was still F units hauling them, that much I don't remember. (~5 at the time). We used to go from Toronto to Oakville to see some of the model engineers in 1980 & 81. A lot has changed in 30 years. Heck, enough has changed since my dad bought his house in Pickering in ~1986. I lived backing onto the Lakeshore lines at Danforth for a little while in 1982, watched a lot of stuff coming into/out of the yard at Danforth as it was winding its way down. (There was still active car repair based out of there then. It seems to me to have mostly been bi-level auto racks)

 

I don't live anywhere near to be able to measure anything now though- better to ask Adrian or the other Ontario people on here for help modeling 'round there. My sad island has a daily RDC & 2 freights/week...

 

James

[peach james]

One other thing about GO trains: they run like they have 3 power settings. Accelerate as fast as possible. Coast. Brake hard. Except going into Platform 3 at Pickering, where there is a quite restrictive speed limit on approach (~20 km/h, as a guess). They don't futz around with part openings, its all the power the engine can muster to get up to line speed, then cruise at line speed, then brake to a stop. Quite abrupt compared with most NA trains, which seem to take forever to get up to speed. It helped that with the shorter daytime trains that I've been on, there has always been lots of HP/ton to get going with. The Hawker-Siddley (Bombardier makes skidoos...) cars are quite light in comparison to a freight train, so there was lots of go.

[Adrian Wintle]

Craig:

informational/nit-picky detail

The locomotive is always on the east end of GO trains.

 

That is as it passes through Union Station.

 

 

15 years ago (or so) GO added wheelchair access cars to the trains. This was the 3rd or 4th (I forget which) car from the loco. To help with this, a ramp was built on the platform to come up to floor height. Ramp was opposite the west door of the accessible car. The ramp was just long enough to fit between the neighbouring doors. The 2300 series cars are accessible; 2499 was a prototype for future accessible and non-accessible cars but the body is distinctive from the original cars. There is a long (4-5 feet?) ramp which the trainman has to put out to cover the gap.

If you need it. I could measure the platform ramp in Brampton. I haven't used the GO regularly for about 8 years.

 

It is the west door of the fifth car from the loco (or east end of the train), so the 10th door of the train. It is a raised platform section with wheelchair ramps up to it from both directions - parallel to the platform face but set back since access to the 9th and 11th doors of the train is from in front of the ramps. The accessible platform is the yellow-edged area in the picture http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=876+Clancey+Crescent,+Newmarket,+York+Regional+Municipality,+Ontario+L3Y+8H2&ll=44.077213,-79.455102&spn=0.000712,0.001203&t=h&z=20

 

Adrian

[Adrian Wintle]

One other thing about GO trains: they run like they have 3 power settings. Accelerate as fast as possible. Coast. Brake hard. Except going into Platform 3 at Pickering, where there is a quite restrictive speed limit on approach (~20 km/h, as a guess). They don't futz around with part openings, its all the power the engine can muster to get up to line speed, then cruise at line speed, then brake to a stop. Quite abrupt compared with most NA trains, which seem to take forever to get up to speed. It helped that with the shorter daytime trains that I've been on, there has always been lots of HP/ton to get going with. The Hawker-Siddley (Bombardier makes skidoos...) cars are quite light in comparison to a freight train, so there was lots of go.

 

That is certainly true on the Lakeshore line, but is less true on some of the other lines (my experience is mainly on the Barrie line) due to the track layout and conditions. The newer cars are built by Bombardier (they were originally built by Hawker-Siddley), and the general term for them is Bombardier cars. Bombardier makes trains and planes while BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products) is the company that builds Skidoos/Seadoos. BRP is still owned by the Bombardier family and was spun off from Bombardier in 2003.

 

Adrian

[BR60103]

Adrian: I haven't been up early enough to see the GO for years!

James: GO Trains were never hauled by F units. All the Fs were dummies; the engines were used to power the passenger car lights and temps.

GO started with Geeps with hotel power then got a deal on some second hand freight units. To keep the lights on, they added the F units with no motors. An FA also could be used instead of a cab car. Some longer trains ran with 2 geeps and a B unit. One GO official said that that was one of the worst decisions they made because Toronto Terminal Railways (Union Station) charged them by the axle and those trains had 8 extra axles. (Trains with 2 Geeps had one at each end.)

[Craig Watson]

Thanks for all the replies and info guys!

 

I had been planning on modelling the access ramp, just need to find some pics of them now.

 

I'm off work today so hopefully should get some more work done!

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[Adrian Wintle]

Thanks for all the replies and info guys!

 

I had been planning on modelling the access ramp, just need to find some pics of them now.

 

I'm off work today so hopefully should get some more work done!

 

Cheers

 

Craig

 

Give me a couple of days and I can probably shoot a few.

 

Alternatively, there are some pictures here http://www.gotransit.com/public/en/docs/publications/AccessibilityGuide_2010.pdf and here http://www.getongo.info/public/en/docs/publications/GO_Accessibility_A_Guide_for_Riders.pdf

 

 

Adrian

[Craig Watson]

Give me a couple of days and I can probably shoot a few.

 

Alternatively, there are some pictures here http://www.gotransit...yGuide_2010.pdf and here http://www.getongo.i..._for_Riders.pdf

 

 

Adrian

 

Thanks for the links Adrian, they show good detail of how the ramps are built.

 

Some further pictures would be great and much appreciated, but I'm not in any great hurry for them so don't go out of your way to get them!

 

I've so far found a few galleries including,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wikisauga/with/1767116895/ and http://picasaweb.google.com/38HighlandCreek/GOTransit#

 

One of the things I'm looking for is pictures of signage at the stations, there's some good pics in the above galleries but more would be welcome but again I'm in no real hurry for them!

 

Thanks for helping me on this.

 

Craig

[Adrian Wintle]

I took a few pictures at East Gwillimbury station, which is one of the newest stations on the Newmarket line.

 

Here is the station building, taken from the drop-off area of the parking lot.

 

To the left along the fence are a couple of the standard bicycle sheds - note how the GO logo is incorporated into the bicycle motif on the roof

 

Further to the left is the bus bay, with a standard noticeboard and waiting shelter behind

 

At the front of the station is a ticket machine. These are not available at all stations, depending on whether there is any anticipated traffic when the ticket booth is not manned. Also note the standard garbage/recycling bin beside it.

 

On the platform side of the building is an example of the standard platform seating

 

Also there is a fixture of all stations - a line of newspaper boxes

 

Going towards the plaform, every platform entrance will have at leat one of these ticket cancelling machines, used to timestamp 2-ride or 10-ride tickets

 

All platform entrances will have this sign. The blue lamp in the background is on a walking trail on the other side of the station. The green bin is used to hold salt (grit) for de-icing the platform.

 

There is also a standard format station nameboard

 

The newer stations have a relatively standard form of platform shelter - also note the standard black chain link fence that is used to denote the edge of the 'fare paid' area. The seats in the shelter are similar to the one pictured above, but are backless.

 

Moving now a fair way to the right of the station building, here is the platform access that leads onto the accessibility ramp. This can be seen in the background of the shot of the newspaper boxes. Note that the geography of this station allowed direct access to the ramp - this is not usually the case

 

The normal access to the ramp would be along the platform

 

And looking further down the platform from the ramp

 

I hope this helps

Adrian

[Craig Watson]

Hi Adrian,

 

The pics are great, thank you very much for taking the time to get them, they will be a great help to me.

 

Thanks again,

 

Craig

[Craig Watson]

Finally been spurred on to get this project going again, the reason being that I've just spent 18 days in the area:-)

 

Stayed with my Aunt in Ajax and used the GO trains to get downtown, we also spent a few days in Niagara, my son & I got there on one of the weekend Go services, a good trip which took just over 2 hours from Union and cost about $35cad for us both from Ajax to Niagara, we came back midweek by car though.

 

Took loads of detail pics to help with the layout as well as quite a few general ones too, we went shopping to Oshawa one day so my son & I went to the station and waited around for a few hours before getting the GO back to Ajax:-)

 

Here are some of our pics,

 

First up a couple at Ajax

 

 

One take outside the door of George's Trains in Markham

 

A few quick grabs through the window en route to Niagara Falls

 

Outside the Southern Ontario Railway shed at Hamilton Yard

 

Our GO train at Niagara with a VIA Rail train waiting to form a later Toronto bound service.

 

Oshawa

 

 

Toronto Union with the stock for Ontario Northland's Northlander service, this was while we were on our way to Niagara Falls, GO staff on the concourse were directing Niagara Falls passengers to this platform, many boarded this train with their bikes etc, we however knew it should be a GO train so went back to ask, we were told the info they'd gave out was wrong so we pointed out that many had boarded this train believing it was the Niagara one hence a mad rush by them to get everyone back off and across to platform 12:-)

 

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[Craig Watson]

One of my next projects with the three Kato locos from the original post in this thread is the replacement of the wobbly original handrails, while on holiday in Canada I visited Crossbuck Hobbies in Pickering, my Aunt had phoned to check they were open as they were only 5 mins from us, the owner replied that they were closed as it was Monday but that he was going to be around all day so feel free to head over and give him a call when we were outside, so we took him up on his offer and while there he showed me a few Kato models which he was working on at the time, he was using the original plastic stanchions with holes drilled in them for brass wire for the actual rails, it made a massive difference to the look of the locos too, I'm planning on starting this in the next few weeks so will update on here as I go.

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[Craig Watson]

Now that fellow club member Donny4472's New Westminster layout is appearing at our show in October I've started to get some stock fitted with decoders and get some minor weathering done, I've also dug out an unfinished project to try and finish off a CN safety cab SD40, the conversion was started about 6 months ago and had got as far as primer and a quick brush coat of red, the plan is to dust down the airbrush and finish off the paint this weekend, at the same time the body is being dealt with the chassis will be fitted with a hardwired decoder, the original model being an Athearn blue box one which I handily had to hand for chopping up!

 

Here's a pic of progress so far taken today on New Westminster,

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[Adrian Wintle]

while on holiday in Canada I visited Crossbuck Hobbies in Pickering,

 

I'm glad you got in there. The owner is a really nice guy and a PRR fan.

 

Adrian

[Craig Watson]

 

I'm glad you got in there. The owner is a really nice guy and a PRR fan.

 

Adrian

 

Thanks, the owner couldn't have been more helpful, opening the shop especially to let us have a look around (and make a purchase or two to make it worth his while!!)

 

Craig

[Craig Watson]

Having now taken the safety cab SD40 as far as I can until it's decals arrive I bought some brass wire to start the handrail upgrade on my three Kato AC4400's.

 

I made a start on one this morning having been woken at silly o'clock by the kids, both sides of the first loco were done in around an hour!

 

First up the brass wire was measured and bent to shape alongside the original.

 

The original handrails were cut to allow the stanchions to be reused, these were drilled out at the top to allow the brass to be threaded through, as can be seen in the second pic the vertical handrail is a seperate part so was retained.

 

The handrails were then refitted to the loco, stanchions straightened up and a spot of cyano added to the tops to hold it all in place.

 

The other side was a bit trickier as can be seen from the pic below, the two sections were soldered together.

 

I'm pretty pleased with the result, just paint needed now to finish this one and another two locos to complete!

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[Jon Gwinnett]

How tricky was it to drill out the stanchion tops? I've one of these on order to pair up with my Athearn CP AC4400CW and also some Atlas gensets that could do with wire handrails.

[Craig Watson]

How tricky was it to drill out the stanchion tops? I've one of these on order to pair up with my Athearn CP AC4400CW and also some Atlas gensets that could do with wire handrails.

 

Hi Jon

 

A 0.3mm drill in a pin vice as close to the centre as possible first then a slightly larger one to open the hole out, plus lots of patience and a steady hand!

 

The original Kato handrails on the AC4400 aren't the best, they are a very soft plastic, I have a few of their SD40's and the handrails on those are far sturdier, hopefully the new release AC's will have the same!

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[Jon Gwinnett]

Cheers Craig. I'll have to have a try on one of the Gensets (got two more on order so one can be a guinea pig)

 

Handrails seem to cause lots of companies difficulty - the ones on my Athearn SD70Aces are very soft and wobbly - almost too fine I think. The Atlas ones are the opposite, although at least being overscale means I'm not worried about breaking them.

 

Are you going to be at Bonnybridge show?

[Craig Watson]

Cheers Craig. I'll have to have a try on one of the Gensets (got two more on order so one can be a guinea pig)

 

Handrails seem to cause lots of companies difficulty - the ones on my Athearn SD70Aces are very soft and wobbly - almost too fine I think. The Atlas ones are the opposite, although at least being overscale means I'm not worried about breaking them.

 

Are you going to be at Bonnybridge show?

 

Yes I'll be at Bonnybridge, the loco's will be running on donny4472's New Westminster layout.

[Donny4472]

Handrails looking good Craig. I have SOO Line Red paint, which should be the correct colour for them. Even if it doesn't match the stantions exactly, a wee weather will blend it in.

[Scottish Modeller]

Hi Donny,

 

I'll bring along some SOO stock (and ex-SOO) for a day out.....

 

Thanks

[Donny4472]

Hi Donny,

 

I'll bring along some SOO stock (and ex-SOO) for a day out.....

 

Thanks

 

Nice one Phil. Should add a bit variety.

 

Cheers.

 

Sonny.