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West Pickering, Craig's Canadian project


Craig Watson

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Hi all,

 

Now in Ajax still drying off after taking the Toronto FC match last night!!

 

Saw quite a few GO cars in the new livery as well as a few of the UP express units working the new airport service.

 

Arrived to a parcel which I'd ordered last week containing 4 Rapido VIA LRC coaches, will be going round some stores in the next few weeks too, these will give me a second VIA consist for the layout.

 

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Might get out and do a bit of train watching today as we've nothing much planned and the CN main line is only a 10 min walk away!

 

Cheers

 

Craig

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Hi all,

 

Now in Ajax still drying off after taking the Toronto FC match last night!!

 

Saw quite a few GO cars in the new livery as well as a few of the UP express units working the new airport service.

 

Arrived to a parcel which I'd ordered last week containing 4 Rapido VIA LRC coaches, will be going round some stores in the next few weeks too, these will give me a second VIA consist for the layout.

 

attachicon.gifIMG_20150628_120857.jpg

 

Might get out and do a bit of train watching today as we've nothing much planned and the CN main line is only a 10 min walk away!

 

Cheers

 

Craig

 

You poor soggy fool!!! Travelling all the way to Canada to get rained on watching my much loved and never better than terrible TFC!!!  I could have gotten any number of my friends seasons tickets to join you as pretty much everyone i know bailed with the weather.  We've been rained on so many times over the years people won't go now even with a half-way compitent team to watch!

 

If you are looking for more LRC coaches, the Toronto Railway Museum has coaches (and a few F40's/LRC Locos) in stock and you'd be supporting our restoration efforts of one of the remaining LRC locos 6917.

 

If you do make a Saturday visit to the TRM, let me know and i can try to be there that day to say hi and show you around.

 

Hope you enjoy your trip and get some quality railfanning in whatever you are up to!

 

Stephen

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Haha, was actually a good game, massive improvement on the team we saw last time (2011).

 

We are planning a visit to the museum so will look at making it a Saturday and let you know, would love to look around, last time we were there was when the Railway Children show was in town.

 

Visited Dailey Hobbies in Whitby yesterday as it's only 10 mins from my aunt's house, so have a few more goodies to bring home now!!

 

Cheers

Craig

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If you do make a Saturday visit to the TRM, let me know and i can try to be there that day to say hi and show you around.

 

Hope you enjoy your trip and get some quality railfanning in whatever you are up to!

 

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

 

It looks like we'll be in downtown Toronto on Saturday the 11th of July, we leave for home the following Saturday, if you're going to be there it would be great to meet up and have a look around, the roundhouse has always fascinated me since my first visit in the mid 80's when I was a kid!

 

Craig

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Hi Stephen,

 

It looks like we'll be in downtown Toronto on Saturday the 11th of July, we leave for home the following Saturday, if you're going to be there it would be great to meet up and have a look around, the roundhouse has always fascinated me since my first visit in the mid 80's when I was a kid!

 

Craig

 

Hi Craig,  That saturday i am 50/50.  If the weather is good, i'll be out at Mosport for the United Sportscar series races, if the weather is iffy, i'll likely be down at the museum, but even if we can't meet up there will be plenty on the go around the museum.

 

We can reconnect late next week and see what the weather is doing.

 

Stephen

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Thanks Stephen, William, I'm not sure if we'll manage to get to Stratford but thanks for the offer!

 

Have just spent an enjoyable morning with Mark and Brian from the Pine Ridge Model Railroaders club in Oshawa getting to see their clubroom and their under construction HO layout, the guys let me try my new VIA P42 and LRC coaches too.

 

Will definitely be following their progress on their website now.

 

I'll upload a few pics when I get some time later.

 

Craig.

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A new transfer caboose and some pics of my visit to the Pine Ridge Model Railroaders clubroom and their under construction HO layout, my new passenger consist for my layout got a good few runs on the main track.

 

The pics are from my phone, I forgot to lift my camera when we left the house!!

 

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Cheers

 

Craig

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Thanks Stephen, William, I'm not sure if we'll manage to get to Stratford but thanks for the offer!

 

Have just spent an enjoyable morning with Mark and Brian from the Pine Ridge Model Railroaders club in Oshawa getting to see their clubroom and their under construction HO layout, the guys let me try my new VIA P42 and LRC coaches too.

 

Will definitely be following their progress on their website now.

 

I'll upload a few pics when I get some time later.

 

Craig.

 

Looks like you had a good time running your new equipment!

 

Unfortunately, with the weather forecast being great, i will be trackside at mosport tomorrow, so i'll miss you if you do make it down to the museum.  I'm sure you will have a great visit anyways if you do make it.

 

Cheers

 

Stephen

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Looks like you had a good time running your new equipment!

 

Unfortunately, with the weather forecast being great, i will be trackside at mosport tomorrow, so i'll miss you if you do make it down to the museum.  I'm sure you will have a great visit anyways if you do make it.

 

Cheers

 

Stephen

Yes, it was good!

 

Enjoy your day trackside, we're heading downtown early to do the CN tower then visit the railway museum, heading to Niagara on Sunday morning on the GO weekend service with James, staying the night then driving back with the rest of the family on Monday, stopping off at Credit Valley on the way back too ☺

 

Cheers

 

Craig

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Off topic... But how was I not aware this existed??? CVRCO just got more dangerous!!

Off topic... But how was I not aware this existed??? CVRCO just got more dangerous!!

Across the street and a couple of driveways to the left.

 

You really need to listen to A Little Breath of Scotland.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Back home now, been trying out a few of my holiday purchases on the layout, really pleased with the LRC coaches, they run great, even on my tighter curves.

 

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George's Trains Athearn P42 with the Rapido LRC coaches.

 

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The new VIA consist passing a waiting eastbound GO service.

 

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Original Athearn P42 version 919 with latest run 920

 

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I've been looking for another GO MP40 for a while without success but noticed Credit Valley had a MP36 in MBTA livery at a really good price, there are a few external differences but nothing that will take too much to sort out, it'll then be finished in the new GO livery as below.

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Test run before entering the works.

 

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Another new loco, Atlas dash 8 with CN 15 years logo, another sale item from Credit Valley.

 

Also picked up lots of detail items for the layout, more on them soon!

 

Cheers

Craig

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One of the things I mentioned earlier in the thread was the lack of a modern transit bus model in HO, I recently read of a new resin kit by Small Wonders of a 40' transit bus, very similar to the Durham Region Transit buses which serve the area my layout depicts.

 

On my visit to George's Trains earlier this month I noticed they had one on the shelf so had to get it!

 

I've made a start on it, the chassis is nearly complete so I placed the body on loosely to see how it was going to look, it's not sitting properly in the pic but does look good, it shouldn't take too long to complete as it's a pretty simple livery, I have the logo to hand for some home made decals too.

 

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attachicon.gifIMG_20150721_224449.jpg

I've been looking for another GO MP40 for a while without success but noticed Credit Valley had a MP36 in MBTA livery at a really good price, there are a few external differences but nothing that will take too much to sort out, it'll then be finished in the new GO livery as below.

attachicon.gifIMG_20150721_224344.jpg

 

 

Also picked up lots of detail items for the layout, more on them soon!

 

Cheers

Craig

 

Nooo Not Baby Vomit and Baby Poop two tone green :P

 

Actually, that's probably a good paint scheme for painting, it at least has clean lines and should be easy to mask and spray once you strip/prime and detail the MBTA shell and get a nice white base coat down.

 

Glad you had a good trip from the sounds of it, sorry we weren't able to connect, but maybe next time you are this way or whenever i am back in the UK if i'm in your neck of the country we can try again!

 

Stephen

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Nooo Not Baby Vomit and Baby Poop two tone green :P

 

I keep hoping that Metrolinx will stop meddling with GO Transit and give up on the new colours, but apparently Ontario Green and White* is on its way out. I will admit that the new colours look pretty good on the buses (with the light green on top), but the trains look like somebody picked the two cheapest greens they could find and said 'lets use these to put a '70s airliner colour scheme on the GO trains'.

 

*picked to match the standard Ontrio highway signage.

 

Adrian

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Some more pics before serious wiring and scenic work gets underway in the next few weeks, until then I'm having some fun just running trains!!

 

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The George's Trains Rapido caboose next to an earlier special run graffiti one.

 

More views,

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The joggers don't seem to mind the switching going on alongside them!

 

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Cheers

Craig

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Across the street and a couple of driveways to the left.

 

You really need to listen to A Little Breath of Scotland.

I was in CVRCO and the British Grocer today, my wife was much happier with the stop at Credit Valley on our Sunday drive when i told her there was a british grocer across the road :P

 

Nice photos Craig, what wiring work are you doing, i'm sure its in the thread somewhere, but are you running DC or DCC for your layout?

 

Stephen

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Thanks Stephen,

 

I'm running DCC, the basic track feeds are there but I've not installed any point motors as yet, I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to have any problems with the track layout before fitting them, especially with the westbound GO set which is propelled from the rear and my tighter curves to allow the layout to run in my garage, it's pretty much all good now so it's time to move on.

 

Cheers

Craig

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Another model which found its way back with me was a Kato P42 in Amtrak livery with tsunami sound, not for me though as I'd been asked to keep my eye open for one by a fellow club member (gridwatcher on here) :-)

 

As he was coming to pick it up yesterday and I had the afternoon off work I got the model out to give it a test and have another running session!

 

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The Amtrak P42 borrowed for an eastbound VIA service, platform detailing is another job on the list!

 

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Switching the west end yard as a westbound GO service departs.

 

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an eastbound service arrives.

 

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followed by an eastbound double stack.

 

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then another freight.

 

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With switching complete at the west end the loco's now run past an eastbound GO in the station to pick up two boxcars from the works at the east end as a connecting bus service arrives.

 

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Switching done, the loco's and two boxcars head back down to the connection to the main track to await a path back to the fiddle yard.

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Pity your setting is on the east side of Toronto - on the west side you could justify an Amtrak P42 and 5 Amfleet cars on the Maple Leaf service to NYC. You can run eastbound VIA trains in J formation, though (joined Montreal and Ottawa sections: loco-coaches-loco-coaches).

 

Adrian

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I know, I did think about that!!

 

I got some good pics of the Maple Leaf leaving Union on the morning we took the GO to Niagara, it left half an hour before our train so we popped round to the bottom of the CN tower to see it depart.

 

Saw a few of the joined trains at Ajax and Oshawa too.

 

Craig

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