Changing direktions....

My biggest problem for Chetwynd was the direction of trains and where I could later place a hidden staging. On the prototype, trains coming from Chetwynd with most of the cars are emptys for the mills and others and only some needed goods for the northern communities.So I need a staging on the southend of the yard where trains are coming from and going to.The trains setting cars out for Dawson Creek at Chetwynd and going further north to Fort St. John and also going back to Vancouver adding loaded Cars at Chetwynd for the South.
So for operation it would be nice if there will be a staging simulating Vancouver in the south with trains coming from that staging to Chetwynd and also trains going back to Vancouver on the main.
On my layout the directions are from the start simulating south and the helix sitting on the north end of the yard with the spur to Dawson Creek. But the only possible connection to a hidden staging is on the north end where the helix is.....I placed the freelanced engine service and the canfor mill on the south end of the yard like on the prototype..Old Trackplan below

..And I found no way to go more like the prototype and have a staging for Vancouver for better operations. My brain was blocked for months but 2 days ago it hit me like a hammer....I could change the direction only by name,change a little bit of trackwork and leave the canfor mill and the engineservice as is but now they are on the northend of the yard and the Helix is on the Southend...that´s not absolute prototype correct but that´s okay for me. It will work and I could add the desired hidden Vancouver staging next year below Chetwynd. Track is going down into the helix and then to the staging. And here is the reworked Trackplan with to added spots and reworked trackalignement more prototypical.

I think this is the best way to deal with the space I have and my wishes. This will be the staging I´ll start with next year.

Like on the prototype there will be only 4 axle units serving the subdivision with some speed restrictions following some BC Rail timetables. My six-axle Alcos will run the trains from Vancouver staging to Chetwynd, will be serviced at the engine facility and then getting their train back to Vancouver.

Northwestern Wood Preservers rebuild

I´m still playing with the track arrangement for the Wood Preservers Planer Mill. This is what I have done so far.

After I have printed the trackplan and layed the track I was still not happy and removed one of the spurs.I named it storage track first but the mill is close to the yard, I think I don´t need it.

This looks much better in my eyes and not so overcrowded...I changed the entrance to the tracks yesterday with two curved turnouts and I´m very jappy with the layout now. Next Step will be finishing or rebuilding the structures, mounting the foambase and gluing down the tracks.

Northwestern Wood Preservers : Restart from new.

I wasn´t really happy with the track layout of this area. I searched through the net and finally found something what got my interest. It´s the n-scale switching puzzle of the Hull Oakes Saw Mill Dawson Station . I used this trackplan as a basic plan and converted it to my needs. Now I´m very happy with the look of it. I printed it out will start with tracklaying,soon.

 

 Finished plan of the whole room.You can see that the scenery on  top of the Helix will be changed,too

First parts of the plan printed out and layed down to see how it will look on the layout..

Long entrance to the Mill area. There will be a lot of trees behind the street and between the mill spur and the mainline. I´m thinking about raising the area of the mill a little bit. Maybe on some sheets of foam to give it a differnt look than all that flat plywood. Could be interesting.

Structures for Dawson Creek #5 and #6

 #5 Mike´s Custom Woodworking:

This one is a small structure made from Pikestuff parts. Nothing special on this building. It will get a small parking lot and a fence around it. And a lot of details.I added a basic base from modur foam to it.

I have painted it with Tamiya flat light ivory over Tamiya fine base...The roof will be painted aluminium or steel, the doors will get some light grey paint.I think I´ll use Woodland scenics Smooth it for the lot and street.

#6 A & C Cylinder Head Rebuilders Ltd.

On the other side of the street we will find another small company specialized in the process of rebuilding engine parts. Again it´s build from Pikestuff parts. I found a prototype for this structure and build it after that. I´ll add alot of details around this one.

I painted it blue from spraycan over a Tamiya base. The doors and windows will be painted white and the roof will be painted metal. There will be also a lot of details around the building later.

Here´s an overview of the area.

Structures for Dawson Creek #4 Loomis Express

The last structure on this "east end " of Dawson Creek is the Loomis Express warehouse or better part of it.It´s made from an Walthers freight house kit. I closed the loading doors on the backside of it and removed the loading dock. It´s base is again 20 mm styrodur sanded to shape. The lot in front of the building will be paved, the other parts of the lot will be only gravel. I´ll place some older trailes there and maybe one or two old rusty trucks and some other parts overgrown from grass...

Structures for Dawson Creek #3 R.Norman Towing & Trucking

On the other side of the tracks opposite to ACE you´ll find R. Norman Towing and Trucking. I show only a small part of this company with a shop building with addon office, parking lot in front of the office and a larger lot to the back of it on the shop side. I´m still thinking about leaving the isle side of the shop open to show some details inside like inspection pit for the equipment and a lot of other things you´ll find inside a repair shop...Sound nice but will be a lot of work. Progress will show my decision. The base for it is 8mm MDF, I´ll add a 2mm sheet of styrodur to the top.

This is a prototype picture of R. Norman Trucking used as a reference for my freelanced version of it.

Structures for Dawson Creek #2 ACE Instruments Ltd.

For this structure I took only the company name. It was made from Walthers modular parts with an additional storage shed on the back made from Pikestuff wall parts. It ´s base is made from 20mm styrodur sanded into shape for the street and matching trackhight.I painted it with Tamiya Desert Yellow and started some detailpainting with light gray. It will get some weathering later. There will be also a fence between the tracks and the properity. The parking lot in front of it will be paved a bit and also made from gravel.

Structures for Dawson Creek #1 Wright´s food Service

I made some progress on the structures in Dawson Creek. First part was to search Google maps for some current companys operating in Dawson Creek. First one I have found some time ago is Wright´s Food Service Ltd. I build one large structure for that but changed it and started scratchbuilding two smaller strucktures,both railserved.

I used this picture for reference and started building the two structures. They are made from 1,5 mm sheet and some Evergreen strips. It will get to loading doors for boxcars and three for trucks. The lot will be paved and it will sit on some 5mm styrodur to raise it to railhead hight.The first one is the grocery warehouse.

 

The second sturcture is the Freezer & Diary Cold Storage. It will have the raildoor for unloading one reefer or insulated boxcar inside the building and two truck loading docks.

There will be a type of fence behind the cold storage and to the front of the rails. It´s based on this original structure and will get some additional brick sheet between the vertical posts.

I will also add a small step next to the raildoor and a small office door and window next to it. I´ll modell the raised floor to the inside of the building and the inside walls of the office to hide the empty space when you look inside the building.

Update : Dawson Creek East end - West end

Next part of the update was some new benchwork on the East end of Dawson Creek. I also made a swap on this area between the interchange track and the teamtrack. I added about 2m of benchwork around the corner,and but a turnout with two tracks to it. One track is the mainline and the other is the interchangetrack with the CN/NAR. The BC-Rail tracks are ending here.The end of the tracks will be hidden by a bridge and some decent hills...Maybe I´ll add a short two track removable staging cassette to this end later.Wrights food service moved to the corner. All in all there is some more space between the industries and it´s looking better to my mind.

Wrights in the background moved left into the corner

Korkbed finished and track glued down.

Wrights food service

New structures added. all are none railserved. The brown structure was railserved earlier but is no more.

New location of the teamtrack to the front

 There will be a lot to do on this area but I also made a change to the West end of Dawson Creek last weekend. I was not happy with the straight look of all the roads,structures and trackwork so I decided to change the direction of the mainstreet. So I also have to change the direction of the Diamond Fertilizer plant. I turned it 90 degree and layed down the new turnout and some track.

You can stil see the old track for Diamond in the back crossing the new track. I moved the buildings around until I am near the look I´m searching for. I´ll cut two window openings next to the door to the blue building. And I will add a lot of details,too.

So those are all the updates and changes I have done during the last month. Now I´m happy with the look of the scenes on the layout and can start with some background painting and more.

Update : Chetwynd Yard - Canfor Mill - Engine Service

I finished the trackwork in the yard at Chetwynd and connected it do the rest of the layout. All turnouts are wired and I made some testruns. All worked very nice and the yard looks good with some trains.

Older picture, but trackwork is finished.

After finishing this work I thought about my engine service area. I need some more room to store the engines. So I made a swap and moved the engine service around the corner where the Canfor mill was located and the mill to the former engine service area. I started building a new engine house from an Pikestuff "the shops" kit and some additional wall sections. I added a foundation from different sheet material and painted the walls green. Glued the Peco inspection pit to the foundation and painted it grey to simulate a concrete floor....I will add some weathering to the building, later.

I also started adding the support beams build from sheet to the inside of the engine house. I want one part of the roof to be removable to show the details.

The last part of this update will show the ne arranged structures of the Canfor Mill. I added the Walthers debarker and will build some new structures from Pikestuff wall sections. On the opposite end of the debarker will be a loading shed with dock. The buildings are placed on 20mm thick foam, the woodchip track is layed on two layers of 5mm kork and the loading tracks are on one layer of 5mm kork. The edges of the foam will be smoothed out and I´ll build a ramp between the freeloading and the woodchip track.

Log loading area

Canfor Mill seen from the north with Chetwynd yard behind the Photographer

View from the other side. Mainlaine track on the right

Those are the updates from the lower deck of my layout. I made some small changes to the upper deck and will show those in my next post.