HBR History and Layout Background

A little background on the prototype:

The Hudson Bay Railway (HBR), owned by Omnitrax, took over Canadian National’s lines to Flin Flon (Flin Flon Subdivision), Lynn Lake, Thompson and Churchill Manitoba in 1997. These lines were built to access northern Manitoba’s mineral wealth and forest products. The Flin Flon Subdivision was completed in 1928, the line to the Port of Churchill in 1929, Lynn Lake in 1953 and Thompson in 1958. Another line to Snow Lake was built in 1960 and abandoned in the late 1980’s.

Major traffic generators for the northern Manitoba lines include outbound concentrates and ingots from Flin Flon, Lynn Lake and Thompson, predominantly Copper, Zinc and Nickel. As well, inbound concentrates, mill and smelter supplies for the smelters and concentrators at these mining centers is shipped by rail; raw logs and chemicals going to, and finished wood and paper products coming from the Tolko lumber mill and pulp mill, frack sand from Channing, grain loads going to and grain empties coming from Churchill, fuel and supplies to the various northern communities. As well Manitoba Hydro had several northern hydroelectric dams under construction or under renewal during the modeled time frame which added to the rail traffic mix.

Some of the last mixed trains in Canada continue to operate in northern Manitoba. In the layout’s time frame the Lynn Lake mixed and Churchill mixed trains were operating. In the name of added operational interest the Churchill mixed train has been extended to operate out of The Pas. In reality it ran between Wabowden and Churchill. These mixed trains had the last heavyweight combines (former Canadian Northern Colonist cars) in regular operation. The Lynn Lake (now running only to Pukatawagan) mixed train currently has the last CN/VIA lightweight “Super Continental” smooth side cars in operation as well.

Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting’s mine and smelter complex in Flin Flon was completed in 1929-1930. The plant and numerous mines in the area have been active ever since. HBM&S had an extensive railway system at the smelter and to the outlying mines, all operated with electric operations until the early 1970s’. Rebuilt steeple cab electric locomotives were used in slag haulage until 1999. Archbar trucks (many with roller bearings!) were in regular use under slag cars and wood bodied truss rod flatcars until 2008. There were many other anachronisms throughout the smelter operation, adding to its attraction from a modeling standpoint.

As for modeling, the HO scale Hudson Bay Railway Flin Flon Subdivision is currently being constructed to represent the line between The Pas (southern terminus of the HBR) and Flin Flon, with particular focus on the mining and smelting operations of the HBM&S, circa 1981 to 1983, with a lesser focus on the Omnitrax operations between 1995-1999. 

A lower level staging yard is used to represent northern destinations (Lynn Lake, Thompson, Churchill) on the HBR system. Upper level staging will represent southern destinations (Canora, Winnipeg, etc.).  My main timeframe is 1981-83 as there was ample freight and passenger traffic from all northern areas, heavy reefer and refrigerator traffic to and from northern destinations, and significant railway facilities in The Pas.  My friend Mark worked in Gillam and Churchill during the modelled timeframe and has been a great source of photos, information and encouragement.   

The later cutoff date of 1999 for the layout is due to the end of regular ore haulage by rail and the end of electric locomotive usage in slag service in 1999 at the Flin Flon smelter. This was coincident with a major upgrade to the smelter complex and the opening of a new modern mine (777 Mine) which changed the complexion of the smelter and mining operations significantly. Prior to these upgrades, the smelter was relatively unchanged since it was built in the late 1920’s.

I realize that having south as up and north as down might cause a bit of confusion, but considering that the number of people who are not from Manitoba that could actually find The Pas and Flin Flon on a map are pretty small I think most people will be able to cope with this.

I am extremely indebted to my friend Tim who has been a wealth of information about the region I am modeling since he actually lives there. He also models a bit of the HBM&S as seen here: <http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/15368>. His timeframe is a bit earlier than mine since the heavy electrics were sidelined around 1970 or so. I do plan to build one or more of the 85 tonners, and my ore car and slag car fleet will be populated by many of Tim's creations.

Two doodles of the overall planned layout are attached.  To date the lower level is operational but requires some tweaking before I undertake upper deck construction.  The Pas to Atik is on the upper level, Flin Flon is on the lower level.  Please note that some of the track appears to be too close to the walls and some track spacing needs work.  Like I said, it is a doodle that I'll be using more as a guide than as rigid plan.



Comments

Post a Comment

What people are looking at on this blog

CN Boxcars a Plenty

Image
Canadian National had a long lasting fleet of 40 foot boxcars, some of which lasted until 1996 in grain service.  Modelling northern Manitoba in the early 1980's requires a significant number of 40 footers in both grain and general service.   Over the past several years I have been building out my fleet of these cars using RTR, kitbashed kits and resin kits.  There have also been numerous CN painted models done over the years, with some being relatively accurate while others are stand in models - some call these foobies. First Thing To  Do If you want to accurately model any CN steel boxcar your first stop should be to find a copy of Railroad Model Craftsman's August 1993 issue with Stafford Swain's seminal article "Canadian National's 1937 AAR design 40-foot steel boxcars".  It covers the entire range of 40 foot steel cars from 1937 to the end of 40' car deliveries in 1957.  This is "must read" material.  CN Lines has a number of articles on the
Read more

Tank car weathering

Image
Rapido Model Trains recently released their model of the Procor GP20 20,000 gallon general purpose tank car.  This has long been on my list of "must have" models for the Hudson Bay Railway.  Any photo with a tank car in it from the late 1970's to the 1990's was likely one of these cars.  They were used to haul gasoline, diesel and other fuel to various parts of the northern railway network.  They were used to stock the fuel tank farm in Churchill that serviced the barges that supplied communities along Hudsons Bay.  This required massive numbers of tank cars to travel north.   The model from Rapido is very nicely done with etched walkways and nicely rendered fine details.  They are pretty much ready to go out of the box, however I want to try adding some weathering to the cars to better represent the prototype.   One challenge is that there are not that many photographs of these cars in service in the early 1980's, as much due to the cost of a roll of film as at t
Read more

Painting wheels for roller bearing and standard bearing trucks

Image
One of my pet peeves is otherwise nicely done models riding on shiny metal wheels - it ruins the effect of all the other work done on the model.  And you should NOT use plastic wheelsets - they seem to attract dirt and grime and gum up your track.  Swap out the plastic wheels for aftermarket metal wheelsets.   Most of my replacement wheelsets are Intermountain, available in boxes of 100 axles.  The wheel profile is not the best but they are readily available and are generally in proper gauge or easily adjusted.  I have tried other brands but they are hit and miss as far as being readily available locally.  I have found that Rapido wheelsets are always too narrow compared to the NMRA, and they are a bugger to regauge.   My process for the wheels is fairly simple and gives good results.  Below are my go to paints: Vallejo Air Black and Vallejo Game Effects Dry Rust If you want to you can first clean the wheels with 99% (or whatever % you have available) alcohol to clean any oil and dirt
Read more