The Hudson Bay Railway in HO Scale

Previously I have blogged about my CN auto transporter build project.  I have completed 4 cars so far in the CN noodle scheme.  I have a 5th car that I was going to do as a noodle scheme car, but a few things got in the way.   The biggest hurdle to finishing the car previously was that the paint went on rough when I was airbrushing this car.  I elected to try sanding down the paint using 1000 grit sandpaper.  The sandpaper was trimmed to the width of the side panels so I wouldn't affect the rivet details.  I managed to salvage the car without having to strip and repaint it.  The roof and ends are still a bit rough but this will be hidden with weathering.   While going through the Canadian Freight Car Gallery looking for prototype inspiration, I came across this photo < here > that showed one of the auto transporter cars was still in the maple leaf scheme in 1978 - close enough to my early 1980's timeframe to justify having one in t...

Between 1956 and 1959 Canadian National took delivery of double deck auto transporter cars that were some of the earliest auto racks produced.  CN took delivery of a total of 75 x  75' cars and 75 x 57' cars.  These cars were intended to replace the 40 and 50 foot boxcars that were the primary transportation mode for automobiles on the railways. The 57 foot cars were almost immediately obsolete in their intended service as they were only able to transport 6 automobiles.  The 75' cars were able to transport 8 automobiles so were a bit more useable in their intended service.   These cars were not to be interchanged so primarily stayed on CN trackage for their careers.  8 of the 57' cars were used in Car Go Rail service on the Super Continental passenger train service in the 1970's.  As well other 57' cars were converted to transport other items like boats and roof trusses after they were superseded by enclosed autoracks.  One was converted to a...