Canadian Pacific 1970s

[jamessolomon]

Picked up this book on my travels to events recently and has some interesting photos within the Canadian section to look at or model the loads

 

[jamessolomon]

Been considering a name for the layout without much success but i saw model junction and gaugemaster do wheel sets so my question is what type and size do i need for my 2 Thrall door box cars i own and anywhere in the UK to get decals.

[jamessolomon]

I have decided to turn it into a preserved working line that way i can run some of my other locos on the layout instead of them collecting dust but have stipulated that it will mostly be Canadian with the odd piece of american stock or locos. I also intend to keep the 1970s theme and do some early 1980s as well apart from the 2 non era american locos which with occasionally be run. So my question is besides CP who else was around in the 70/80s excluding CN and via around CP territory

[jamessolomon]

Picked these 2 new additions to the rolling stock fleet today at a local transport show another thrall door boxcar this time sporting the CANFOR livery and a white multimark CP Rail boxcar in white. Can anyone explain why its painted white is there a reason or some kind of special purpose perhaps

[dibber25]

Well, I photographed one of those Thrall cars in Canfor livery just exactly like your model, on the CP mainline on Vancouver Island, probably 1981. The island line was 150 miles of single track, several nice little stations on the way, lots of halts, and a major logging railway which crossed it on a flat crossing at Ladysmith. A depot, yard and ferry terminal at Nanaimo. In short almost everything you could want for 1970s CPR.

Here are some shots of the passenger service in 1976 when most of the halts were flagstops (request stops). The Budd RDC is available in HO from Rapido Trains or there are much older versions available secondhand by Walthers and Athearn (be warned the Athearn one has rubber-band drive, it's so old).

Edited September 17, 2018 by dibber25

[jamessolomon]

Well, I photographed one of those Thrall cars in Canfor livery just exactly like your model, on the CP mainline on Vancouver Island, probably 1981. The island line was 150 miles of single track, several nice little stations on the way, lots of halts, and a major logging railway which crossed it on a flat crossing at Ladysmith. A depot, yard and ferry terminal at Nanaimo. In short almost everything you could want for 1970s CPR.

Here are some shots of the passenger service in 1976 when most of the halts were flagstops (request stops). The Budd RDC is available in HO from Rapido Trains or there are much older versions available secondhand by Walthers and Athearn (be warned the Athearn one has rubber-band drive, it's so old).

Interesting pics you have there Dibber I did bid on a RDC a while back took it to £60 quid bidding on eBay then the same guy bid again and took it from £60 quid to £110 so ive not seen one super cheap to bid on like that one at its tempting low low starting bid price. I do keep a watch on eBay to find another as there a neat looking machine to have on the layout to do maybe a cameo like your first pic flagging the train down to stop

[jamessolomon]

Did some rust job on some wheels today as a test for the Thrall all door boxcars plus touched up paint work on the brown one

[jamessolomon]

I have read the question in Model Railroader about grain in boxcars. I have a question what’s the best material to use for the wooden planks on the doorway as I have a Southern Pacific boxcar that has a sliding door that opens I am considering using for this project to go alongside the cylindrical hoppers on the layout. It would make a nice addition to a consist on the layout it this was seen as the proper ones came into service

[Regularity]

Whatever material you wish to use. Fine-grained Wood, carefully painted ABS, polystyrene, card or even metal.

 

Entirely your choice.

[jamie92208]

Whatever material you wish to use. Fine-grained Wood, carefully painted ABS, polystyrene, card or even metal.

 

Entirely your choice.

Coffee stirrers from whatever chain you frequent.

 

Jamie

[doctor quinn]

Hi James, you might want to check this old Railmodel Journal article on Train Life http://original.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/97/6948/september-1992-page-6

 

It also shows the more modern (60s onward) paper doors, you could model those using brown paper.

 

All the best

 

Nick

Edited October 11, 2018 by doctor quinn

[mikjd]

You can't beat this film for a bit of atmosphere and an idea of the Canadian grain business in the 70's, boxcars and all. Enjoy .....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGqZn5s_q_Y

 

Also worth a look for the history up to the 2000's

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X9R5iwQuXA

 

Enjoy.

Edited October 12, 2018 by mikjd

[jamessolomon]

Another Bachmann cylindrical grain hopper arrived today in the form of the CP black multimark scheme

 

It was then shunted by Canadian Pacific 4800 to join the rest of the consist for onward travel

 

A 49 Mercury awaits to cross as the consist heads out

 

And some run by shots of the new hopper

[jamie92208]

Nice to see progress.   There is some potential good news from here in that I have finally got my scanner set up and have started digitising my slides.   These include many from CP in 1978 and 1979 so once I get to that part of the collection I'll post some for you.

 

Jamie

[jamessolomon]

Nice to see progress.   There is some potential good news from here in that I have finally got my scanner set up and have started digitising my slides.   These include many from CP in 1978 and 1979 so once I get to that part of the collection I'll post some for you.

 

Jamie

Cheers for that looking forward to seeing your slides

[jamie92208]

Cheers for that looking forward to seeing your slides

 

So far I've got the scanner working and the first box of 350 contains the slides for my 1978 trip as far as the Oregon area and I'm getting on well with that box though managing the scanner has been an interesting learning curve.  So far lots of BN, UP and SP plus early Amtrak locos have appeared.  Once I get onto box 2 I'll get to the CP ones.

 

Jamie

[jamessolomon]

Been fixing some broken items on the donor grain car getting it ready to create the grain door on it today but onto my question. I saw this video on YouTube and was wondering saw within the consist the slab sided grain hopper anyone got much info on them and my 2nd question is why would there be a B unit generator car within the consist as i could technically have my F7B unit in a consist

 

[jamie92208]

I can answer that one for you James.   They are Locotrol cars the predecessor's of DPU technology so that they had the rear helpers under remote control.   The livery is distinctive.   It looks as if some B units were converted as well as boxcars.   I've got a good slide of one of them at Divide creek at the top of Kicking Horse pass.   They also had some form of brake control function I think so that would explain the one in the centre of the consist, that would make sense as then the train got brake pipe reductions from 5 places so more even braking resulted.   I'm progressing with my scans and actually reached Seattle tis evening.  My trip along the CP starts in the next few batches. 

 

Jamie

[pH]

The car in front of the mid-train units at about 1:25 in the video is a Locotrol car, as Jamie says. It's one converted from a B-unit, possibly Robot-7 (#1007) - the definition of the video on my computer isn't good enough to be sure. Here's photos of all the CP Robot cars, with a description of what they were converted from - http://www.mountainrailway.com/CP%201000%20Page%203.htm

 

The "slab sided grain hopper" at about 1:05 is a 70-ton covered hopper, built by National Steel Car for CP. At the time of the video, it was at least 20 years old, and that type of car had generally been superseded by the 100-ton cylindrical hoppers that form most of the rest of the train. Here's a good summary of these cars - http://www.truelinetrains.ca/freight-cars/slab-side-hoppers . It looks as if the one in the video is an "8 round hatch, open sill" version as described in that site.

 

I've seen that video before, and I really like what you see at the end, from about 2:40 onwards. Try running that at an exhibition! Also, shades of Buster Keaton - 

[doctor quinn]

There's also a Flat topped cylindrical hopper at 2.13 which is nearly as old as the road sided one (Black with white script lettering)

 

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp383202&o=cprail

 

Here's a slab side, 8 hatch, open side covered hopper

 

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp381306&o=cprail

 

And some robot cars

 

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp1016&o=cprail

 

http://rr-fallenflags.org/cp/cp1029bgC.jpg

 

http://rr-fallenflags.org/cp/cp1013bga.jpg

 

 

http://rr-fallenflags.org/cp/cp1007bgC.jpg

 

All the best

 

Nick

[jamessolomon]

Cheers for the information i do plan to get one of those slab sided hoppers to add to the consist. On a side note i have decided to pair the christmas cracker event in Manchester on the weekend with the Manchester Model Railway Show on the same weekend and have a few to look out for or project items at the railway show and have a few questions listed below

 

1) Did any Caboose run in the maroon and grey livery as google has thrown up either this http://yourrailwaypictures.com/Cabooses/Windsor_Hantsport_Cabooses-feb18b.jpg or this http://www.whippanyrailwaymuseum.net/images/stories/equipment/elc372/stripes.jpg within my time frame of 1790s to early 80s

2) if above applies what are the closest colours for the scheme in the uk

3) thinking of this scheme maybe https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b3/b4/0e/b3b40ea630fdd697b58c043af442702c.jpg but is there a closest match for the red in the uk

4) What would you recommend for a CP multimark shunter or smallish loco for the time period

[doctor quinn]

Hi James,

 

The only Canadian Pacific paint schemes for cabooses ("vans") that I know of are;

 

Red oxide with bright red end on the cupola & body - mostly local service vans http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp436995&o=cprail

 

Bright red body with Bright yellow end on the cupola & body - pooled vans used for main line run-through trains http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp438583&o=cprail

 

Action yellow all over - all vans repainted after about September 1968 http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp434016&o=cprail  http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp434122&o=cprail

 

As to paints I've used in the past

 

Bright Red - Tamiya X7, Humbrol Signal red, Vallejo Model Color 70-909 Vermillion

Action Yellow - Taniya TS47 Chrome Yellow

Red Oxide - Tamiya Hull Red XF9, Automotive Red Oxide primer, BR freight Stock brown

 

As to which small switcher - for RTR take your pick from

Alco/MLW - S1,S2,S3,S4 all modelled by Atlas, Life Like P2K or Bachmann they all run nicely

EMD - SW8, SW900 (Single Exhaust), SW9 (Twin Exhaust) Life Like P2K or Athearn (Life-like is the better runner but Athearn isn't too shabby),

SW100RS - Rapido (v nice)

Baldwin DS-4-4-100 - Bowser or Athearn (as for the EMDs)

 

Take a browse through the CPR Roster here  to see what I mean http://www.mountainrailway.com/Diesel%20Roster%20Page.htm

 

This is a kitbash of a Roundhouse wood sided van that I did years ago, I filled in a couple of unwanted windows with scribed plastic sheet, fitted a curved roof to replace the pitched roof* and added brass ladders on the ends. 

 

 

 

* Roundhouse also do a version with a curved roof - I'd have been better to start with that one!

 

 

All the best

 

Nick

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by doctor quinn

[jamessolomon]

Cheers for the info quinn didn't see much American at the show but I know Crewe Heritage Center have a show or 2 i need to research that may yield project items. On a side note been doing a lot of research over the Xmas break for projects one I decided to start a spreadsheet to keep track of the rolling stock and locos and what i want/need but I wondered within my time period would there have been other road names in CP consists to look out for

[jamessolomon]

Just seen these on Peters spares site for Athern but will these fit into my F7 i own https://www.petersspares.com/flushglaze-windows-se98-athearn-usa-f7-diesel-a-b-b-a-set-ho-gauge.ir

[AndrewC]

Just to throw my 2 bits worth in. 

 

That is Robot-07. Converted from a CLC B unit (DFB16-4) and not a GM built F7B. These were the first implementions of Locotrol. Back then they took up a whole box car sized space. These days it is fully integrated into the loco.

One of my dad's last duties at Ogden Shops in Calgary was to officially write off 2 of the SD40-2s that were involved in this Robot runaway failure: http://www.okthepk.ca/dataCprSiding/articles/201206/month00.htm

 

As for CP caboose (cabeese?) the only ones painted fully in yellow were originally for run through. All local ones retained the original oxide livery but with CP Rail branding without the multi-mark. These were generally older and as they were retired and fewer cabooses needed the yellow ones were cascaded down to local use.