Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff.

I was setting up a couple of trains before everyone else arrived when I found a lost box car hiding at Heritage Furniture, wonder how long it has been sitting there? The first 2 trains to run we're passenger trains. The picture below shows a meet at the Long River Bridge. Next a couple of freights started switching. As always, this is when problems pop up. We are still in the learning curve, where is such and such a place, sorry I forgot to put the switch back to the mainline, there is a hump in the track, my engine stops here all the time. Everyone needs to have a bright boy with them to clean the rails, if their engine stalls in one place. Please remember to put the switch back to the mainline. Next Tuesday is a work night, perhaps some of the track problems will be repaired. As the second picture shows, Jim ran his first switching train. What? Yes, it's true, this is a testament to how much people rely on him to program their engines and solve electronic problems, for which we are deeply indebted.

meet on the Long River Bridge

it may be Jim's first run but he has lots of help

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff

Bill and Glen were up on Friday to do some running and Bill added more feeder wires. The club bought a new Quad unit to reduce some of our bus wire length. This will stop run away engines and voltage drops.  One power supply and Quad will be moved below Warwick. It will supply Herons Landing, Wellington, upper main to Valleyview and lower main to Jutland. The next one under the loops will supply the upper and lower loops, the turn table and Elsewhere. The new one under Toms Hill will supply the upper main from Toms Hill to Valleyview, the lower main from Toms Hill to Jutland the Island and the branch line. We will reconfigure the bus that feeds the branch to supply power to the new Quad. All the bus lines will be fed from the center thus reducing the length in half. We estimate that no run will be over 30 feet. Most of the night was spent running trains and talking to a new member, Butch, and a guest Barry White, visiting from Ireland.

Trent discuses our card system with our guest Barry

Woodstock/Wellington station now has shingles

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff

Nice to arrive to a clean floor, thank you Bill. Jim showed us an Atlas turnout he had partially took apart which revealed that there were already jumpers to the inside rails, nice to know. With lots of running all the bugs are showing. Common rolling stock problems are coupler heights, couplers not centering properly, weight, and bad wheel sets. The double tracking of the upper loop was talked about. It was decided to move the hidden switch out on the wall and double track it later.

Valleyview water tank in place

now was that car to be picked up or delivered?

little engine working hard

now, what if we..............

turn table in use

hidden connections on Atlas turn outs

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff

Hard to know we're to begin. This was a work night and because I'm also working on a project, it's hard to know what everyone else is working on. Here goes, Glen leveled the Wellington station. Glen and I finished up the Northdale run around, then Don ballasted it. Trent added cows and a water trough to the wye area (Don had already put up fences). More buildings were added to Northdale. Jim replaced a broken turnout in Wellington and added more feeders.  The Fleets striped wire for more feeders and helped out installing them. Bill installed a water tank at Valleyview and worked on the coal mine. Don installed retaining walls at Hay Co. The rest of the crew helped out where needed.  The double tracking of the upper loop was discussed with many new ideas proposed. The consensus was to remove most of the Great Wall of the loop and move the turnout out of the tunnel. The remaining wall will be widened, a trestle of some sort will replace the part of the wall to be removed.

Scratchbuilding the Woodstock CNR Station Part 2

Here is the station framing underway using Ever-green styrene strips that follow the dimensions of the resources noted in Part 1. Some modellers like to construct using wood or cardboard. I have some structures on my personal layout that I printed on heavy paper downloaded from the internet. The siding shown here is embossed
1:87 plastic brick by JTT.


The many window cutouts were less tedious than anticipated thanks to a Micromark knibbler and
Tichy Trains windows and doors somewhat matched the real things. The roof was made of 1/8" hardboard and the main station section was the greatest challenge with its many odd angles.
I await black shingles from an Indiana supplier to fully complete the roof. Jim Fox's cardboard
mockup roof seen in the background was a great help in visualizing my roof angles.

Another shot of the final model from another angle showing the platform which will be em-
bedded a little into the layout base for the correct height above the track. One test of builder patience was the gothic decorations made from scratch under the eaves and supporting the waiting room roof overhang. While not an exact replica of the actual station, it is close enough to be instantly recognized by those from Woodstock who view it.

Scratchbuilding the Woodstock CNR Station - Part 1

The current CNR station was built in Woodstock
in the mid 1800's in gothic revival style by the Great Western Railway, retained by the Grand Trunk Railway and, in the 1990's, renovated in the original style by CN. It served as a pattern for other Grand Trunk stations in Chatham, Sarnia, Strathroy & Windsor.



This is the completed scratchbuilt model of the Woodstock station  in 1:87 scale [known also as HO gauge] now located in the city of Wellington on the Huff and Puff model rail layout on the se-
cond floor of the former Timberjack factory on Devonshire Ave. in Woodstock.



Resources included measurements, both actual and eyeball, pictures, a cardboard mockup and
styrene station sections that were already com-
pleted by Jim Fox, one of the Huff & Puffers. He graciously loaned them to Glen McDonald who
made a commitment to the club to build the station.

Sunday work crew

Well just Jim and I were there, but we got some stuff done. After I pulled off the hand laid rails from the Springbank to Valleyview trestle and put down flex track, Jim came over and soldered a few of the joints. Jim then went back to soldering some short sections of track together, especially between turnouts. This will improve continuity. I then removed the track between Northdale station and the trestle. A piece of ceiling tile was put over part of the harbour water, behind the wharf.  Jim and I then worked on soldering a couple of turnouts and a transition track at the trestle end of this run around. The rest of the track will have to wait until the work night on this Tuesday. When I wasn't having Jim help me, he continued to add more feeders on the main line and adjust turnouts.  We also took time to discuss the double tracking of the upper loop.  We determined that the existing deck can be removed, cut in half, lengthwise, spread apart, have more stringers added, and put back down with two runs of flex track on top of it.  The western approach will also have to be made wider at both ends, but this can be done ahead of time.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff

There was lots of running, I think we had 6 or more trains on the move at once.  With that much movement of rolling stock a lot of Red Cards and blue push pins got used.  At our monthly meeting we should decide if the club will supply parts to repair and adjust rolling stock or if everyone is responsible for there own rolling stock. We will be replacing the track on the trestle west of Springbank which has come loose because of expansion.  Another project is to add a run around at Northdale, which requires a left hand #6 and some flex track. As next week is our work meeting we can tackle track work and wiring in more feeders. I also talked to most members about double tracking the upper loop. This would involve replacing the trestle deck with one wide enough to hold 2 tracks, adjusting the outer wall of the approach to the tunnel, putting in a double tunnel portal, moving the turnout out of the tunnel to a new location by Trent's Hill and adjusting the tracks. Good thing the new lumber yard in Lincoln has lots of lumber.

acting yardmaster

spotting rolling stock

new lumber yard in Lincoln