From the Dome Car: Train 10 Track 1 (July, 2000)

 

Not only do I get to write the Dome Car again, I also have an article and photos in the issue about my late brother-in-law’s layout, the Cougar River Sub. Ken Epp’s spectacular layout was on three levels, with a fourth level for a staging yard hanging a foot from the basement ceiling. It traversed the entire basement, going through all the rooms. It was a must-see during conventions! I also write in this Dome Car about a new feature I helped arrange with Ian Wilson about transition-era railways. That was fun, working with him on that! It was all part of our effort to make CRM as relevant as possible to readers. And I could write about my own layout, too, the CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota Sub. We were writing out of our experience as model railroaders for the magazine, and we hoped that it showed.

People who model the ever-popular transition era have some unique challenges. For example: What was the proportion of home-road to other railway's cars in 1957? What colour were the fire hydrants? What about telephone booths—what did they look like? 

Fortunately, there is a lot of information out there to help people who model the steam-to-diesel transition era: Books, web sites and e-mail groups. Here at CRM we are happy to do our bit as well; beginning with the next issue we will run a regular column on the transition era in Canada by Ian Wilson, author of Steam at Allandale and To Stratford Under Steam (as well as numerous articles in various publications). 

With topics such as team tracks, way cars, retail coal traffic, Christmas tree loadings and wooden mail and express cars, we're sure you'll find something for those of you who model days gone by. 

Those of us who model the modern railway scene have no such trouble, of course; we can just walk outside and take a look. But we have other challenges. For example, a ten-car train pulled by two SD40-2s just doesn't look right—15 to 20 cars is a minimum, and longer is better. But long trains mean longer passing sidings, and more space between towns to avoid the engine-in-one-town, end-of-train-in-the-other effect. 

All this translates into more room for a layout, or severely limiting the amount of geography we seek to cover. Then there's the matter of industries; when it comes to less-than-carload traffic, those of us who model the 1990s have to face the fact that the trucks won. 

As well, there's the size of industries; a 50-foot box car can't be dropped off at a tiny industry and look right. For modern era layouts, industries need to be big. The major industry on my layout—a paper mill--occupies a space about 12 feet long along two walls and has six spurs, plus a two-track yard. Not everyone has enough space to do that! 

Then there's the matter of cabooses, or lack of them. When they first disappeared, trains didn't look right to me. It was like a sentence without a period. But it gradually began to look normal; eventually I realized that for my layout set in the mid-1990s, I would have to give up cabooses—just like the prototype. 

At first, it didn't look right there, either, but now it also looks normal.

But that led to the next question: What to do with my old cabooses? I could put them in boxes, or sell them. But then I thought: Why not do what the prototype did and sell them for scrap? A bit of weathering, a white line through the numbers and—voila!—a new car movement for my layout as the old cabooses make their way to the off-line scrap dealer. 

Admittedly, a string of cabooses in the middle of a train does look a little strange, but eventually that, too, will become normal. 

But there is one advantage to modern modelling. Like many others, I have collected a number of pieces of rolling stock lettered for U.S. railroads—cars which just don 't fit my theme (in this case, CP Rail in northwestern Ontario and Manitoba). 

Once again, the prototype comes to the rescue. With a bit of paint, I can cover up the old heralds, names and numbers, add the letters 'CP' or a private owner. Suddenly, the car fits perfectly! Best of all, neatness doesn't count, nor does matching colours; the prototype doesn't care, and I don 't have to, either. 

Anyway, no matter what era you model, I hope you find something in every issue of CRM to help you. And if you don't let us know. Or, better yet, write an article and help us fill in the gaps!