The Hudson Bay Railway in HO Scale

I recently completed weathering on a pair of locomotives; a CN SD40-2W for myself and a CPR H-16-44 for the CPR Boundary Subdivision. These were an interesting pair and represent the 1st and 2nd generation diesel locomotive fleets of their respective railways. The SD40-2W was purchased by CN in 1980 and was a new mainline locomotive in my era (1981-1983) so would have fairly light weathering as CN maintained their road power in good condition. To represent this I used Tamiya Black Panel Liner on the doors, louvers and latches to pop them a bit. After this was cleaned up I masked the windows and applied Tamiya matt clear finish to seal the body. After this I used oil washes to give the body a light grime coat.  I used oil paint and black PanPastel powders around the exhaust stack to get the oily gritty appearance often seen on these locomotives.  The wheels were painted black followed by Vallejo Game Effects dry rust which gives a nice look to the wheelsets. I sprayed a matt fi...

Starting in 1983 CN selected 9 units from their fleet of 1973-74 rebuilt F7Au for conversion into trailing "B" units.  They had their cab equipment, bells and horns stripped, windows and number boards painted over and new fuel tanks added to replace the smaller as delivered tanks. They also got a new paint job.  They were known as blind beetles, Blind B's, beetles and a few other more colourful names in the railfan community.  Railfans also called them F7Aum to represent modified rebuilt F units. You can find out more about the CN rebuilt F unit fleet in CN Lines magazine Vol 20 No 1 and 2 that covered the prototype and modeling of the rebuilds.   I decided I needed one of these units for my fleet and used a Highliners shell and a Stewart (now Bowser) F7A drive for the locomotive.  I used photos as a guide for detailing the model, and I scratchbuilt a fuel tank as well. There are plenty of fiddly bits on the pilot and rear of the car body that took some fig...

  The most recent project off the workbench is something I never thought I would build: Santa Fe SD45-2B #5512.  Kaslo Shops recently brought out this kit and requested a built up version to use for their box art.  I thought it would be an interesting project to try and tackle, being the first ATSF locomotive I have done. In the 1980's Santa Fe rebuilt 8 SD45-2 units into B units for road service.  There was a phase in the late 1980's and early 1990's where many railways rebuilt locomotives into B units to decrease their maintenance costs.  CN rebuilt F7Au, CP rebuilt SD40-2, BN had a few SD units rebuilt and Santa Fe had the SD45-2 and a few other types rebuilt.  This seems to have fallen out of favour more recently due to the lack of flexibility offered by B units.  You can read more on the ATSF B unit fleet here:   Santa Fe SD45-2 fleet information The kit went together well with everything fitting as it should. Not having to worry about w...

I wasn't sure how to title this post without seeming too self congratulatory.  I took part in my first NMRA regional convention (actually I was part of the organizing committee) and entered a few of my models in the contests and AP (Achievement Program) judging program. I have only ever had my models on display at the various local meets over the years.   The  models did pretty well.  I entered six models in the AP and got five merit awards for my CN GP9 4243, CN snow plows, VIA Rail combine and the CN Fowler/Dominion work service boxcar, all of which I have blogged about previously here.  I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to get the merit awards.   On the last day of the show I had a moment to swing by the display/contest room and found out that my CN lightweight GP9 had won 1st place in the Diesel & Other category.  I was given a nicely framed certificate for this.  I promise I won't let it go to my head. June 7, 2024 updat...

I have added a page for kits and models for sale that I would like to send to a new home.  It will be updated as things are sold and I find new treasures that become surplus to my needs.  You can find the kits for sale page link at the top of the page under the title block.  

Mike Barone's excellent modelling.  Most interesting to me is the first CN diesel switcher in the background.  Can't wait to see it in finished form. This past weekend (May 26 to 28) we had the latest edition of the Railway Modellers Meet of BC at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.  The event was well attended with roughly 100 people in attendance over the 3 days.   Events included a prototype tour of the new G3 grain facility in North Vancouver, Operating Sessions, Layout Tours and two days of clinics, displays and camaraderie.  We also had a very interesting Keynote  address by Tony Thompson to kick things off.  Overall it was a very successful return to an in person event.  By all accounts it was very well received by attendees. I was the clinic coordinator for this year's edition and spent much of the meet running around trying to ensure that the clinic program ran smoothly with minimal hiccups.  Thanks to assistance by Mike and Lar...

I posted on my other blog about a derailment that happened while I was working in Flin Flon.  I was fortunate to be there during the clean up and got quite a few photos of the action.  Lots of modelling potential.  The post is here:  https://ageologistchasingtrains.blogspot.com/2023/05/flin-flon-derailment-on-hudson-bay.html When the long awaited rebuilt M420 arrives from Rapido Trains I will be custom painting HBR 3548, the lone M420 painted into the Hudson Bay Railway scheme.  

This blog generally focuses on my efforts to model the Canadian National's Hudson Bay Railway in the early 1980's with occasional forays into the Omnitrax Hudson Bay Railway era in the late 1990's and early 2000's.   My friend John asked me to build a Kaslo Shops Distributing Illinois Central GP11.  I was happy to do so as I haven't built a locomotive in a while now.  I won't go into detail about the build (maybe a magazine article in the future) but over the course of a couple of weeks I got the kit built, painted and mounted on a donor Athearn Genesis GP9 frame.   I'm happy with how the model turned out and have a second GP11 on the workbench that will be an ICG GP11 in the orange and grey paint scheme.  That will be the subject of another post when it is done now that I know the way forward from this build.  

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 sc...