The Hudson Bay Railway in HO Scale

The Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Railway in Flin Flon Manitoba (the town named after a science fiction novel) has been in continuous operation since about 1929.  They have used a motely assortment of used equipment from all over North America including former interurban steeple cab electrics,  a Minnesota logging Shay and GE 70 Tonners (see https://hudbayrailway.blogspot.com/2023/01/hudson-bay-mining-and-smelting-ge-70.html ).  As well they have had a wide range of second hand freight cars, many likely rescued from the scrapper.   Among these refugees were a pair of wood truss rod flat cars, #136 and #137.  Their history is unknown, but based on their design features they likely are a product of the early 1900's.  They rode on arch bar trucks and had no hand brakes.  They did have early air brake equipment, and the wheels were chocked when they were parked.   Exactly how these cars ended up in captive service at a smelter in northern Manitoba is not known, but my hypothesis is th

I have had a long term project in the form of a Kaslo Shops GE 70 Tonner kitbash that I started eons ago.  I initially focused on Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting GE 70T #1 as it was the longest lived 70T in the HBMS fleet.  However more research has led me to realize that for my earlier 1981-83 modelling timeframe that either #2 or #3 would be a better prototype to model as it had the carbody filter arrangement that I kitbashed for my modelling timeframe.   I had originally planned to model the late 1990's so #1 after it's rebuild was my plan.  However #1 had a different filter arrangement during the early 1980's.  HBM&S swapped around doors between the various units, so photos are the best guide to use.  So now we're doing #3.   HBM&S operated a total of 9 units, #1 was purchased new while the balance were purchased used in the late 1960's and 1970's.  The fleet lasted until the early 1990's basically intact with only #4 being scrapped early.  The ot