British Columbia Railway Dawson Creek Sub in HO

[Twist67]

Hi there,
thank you for your kind words. So finally I finished the trackwork at Dawson Creek. I added two more tunrouts and  got a runaround for the industries behind the yard.

This will make switching the elevators easier and I can also use this track to run the RDC straight to the station.

Leaving the turnout to the right this is the spur to Northwestern Wood Preservers planer mill. In this picture you´ll see the wigwam woodchipburner still in place but this track will get a small change. There will be no woodchip loading track but a track for tankcar unloading for the mill. The mill get paint and other liquid in tankcars for manufacturing plywood...I also started with the first buildings for the mill. The large warehouse is made of two pikestuff kits with foundations made from sheet, the other large structure is made from styrene sheet. There will be two other smaller buildings, a tankcar unloading platform and the Walthers log loading crane.

foundation for the large warehouse.

warehouse started and large millbuilding behind it



More progress with the other buildings will follow,soon. Weather here is rainy so there will be some time for modelrailroad...

thanks for looking,
Cheers,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,

Finally I have to post some update pictures of my layout. I made some small changes and also some progress during the last weeks. Not to much but also small things can change the whole look.
First part is on the industrie area on the upper level. There are the two elevators and Prarie Coast Farm equipment pressed into the corner. I removed that business,stretched the tracks up to the walls and moved the second elevator away from the first one.

And yes,there´s some paint on the background

The small warehouse moved to the other side of the tracks and will be now a small construction business or something like that. Prarie Coast Farm Equipment moved to an new location.

Finally I lengthened the interchange track a bit to store more cars if needed.


A tracklevel shot of the two elevators. I painted the backdrop behind Wreigths Food Service,too.



So as I said only small changes but a big change to the overall look.

Next step was to finish the inbound tracks for Northwestern wood preservers mill for tankcars,boxcars and from time to time some hoppers. The deliver the other goods needed for manufacturing plywood etc. The tracks will be glued down on some 2mm cork. The buidlings are only mockups and will be changed later.


Left track will be for tankcars, right track for boxcars in the background between the buildings and hoppers. I´m waiting for the curved Peco turnout to finish trackwork.

The next thing I´ve done was to find a location where I could build a small engine servicing for storing some of my locos. I found a proper location on the lower level next to the yard and siding. It´s only a small place but it will be a small service area. Enginehouse will be a Pikestuff The Shops kit with interior.I covered the interior walls with roofparts of that kit. It will get some details inside like an Peco inspection pit, maitenance platform etc. I´ll build an fuelplatform and sanding tower outside the building.




This is version two of the engine servicing and also the final version so I have to change the korkbed for the current version.

The track to the far right on the front of the layout will be for storing some caboose or engines.

The last change i made was on the Canfor planer mill. There was a wooden post on the front corner of that area and distrubed the whole look of this place. After some thoughts I cut it away. It looks way better now.

before with the post

After i have removed it.

Two Alco´s sitting on the main.

Main is on the left with the Alco´s and the entrance to the Canfor mill is on the right side.

So that´s all for now. More progress on all those small areas will follow soon. Thanks you for watching and following my build.
Any ideas,tips or comments are always very appreciated.

Cheers,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,

I haven´t done much on the layout so far. I´m not happy with my lower level. I´m still missing a staging and the solution for the yard is ok....but not more....I made some op sessions the last weeks but I´m not realy satisfied with it when I reach the lower level.
Here´s the trackplan of the lower level as it is today.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1Cp0m22CE6w/VX6xt0cf4II/AAAAAAAAJQQ/AF6P7LkbgGU/w1035-h349-no/Lower%2BLevel%2BFinal%2BVersion.jpg

So I searched the net and a lot of my books for some inspiration and finaly decided to redo the complete lower level trackwork. I did some tests with Anyrail and finally found a solution with a yard around one corner and using the helix for reaching a third level for staging without a complete Helix rebuild. Maybe I´ll build a better Helix someday but not now 
I also have an engine service area and the spur to the Canfor mill. I have to buy some turnouts,flextrack,kork and plywood but before I´ll start that I want to know what you think about my new plan. Any ideas and tips are very appreciated. So here´s the new version of Chetwynd yard on the lower level.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-H9qo6FFZ1Nc/Ve1j05WGxeI/AAAAAAAAJ1A/W8iPvD-277I/w1035-h349-no/Lower%2BLevel%2BChetwyndtest%2B1.03.jpg

The Radius on the maintrack is 80cm in the yard area.The mainline is the second yardtrack from the left.There are track 1 passing siding, 2 main and the other 3 are arrival/departure tracks. The main coming from Fort St. John staging below Chetwynd .The track passing next to the engine service against the wall is the main south to vancouver. Hidden staging will be 4 to 6 tracks.
So the more I look on the plan the better I like it.Please tell me what you think about it.

Thanks,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,

so here we are two weeks later. I have removed the old trackwork and turnouts, ripped off the old kork and plywod and started new.
Printed out the plan and started with the turnouts,then track. I think it will be ready by the end of this week, maybe Sunday.
Pictures will show how it looks now.

looking south to the engine service,main and canfor mill spur to the far left.

looking north.





Next step is to finish the northend of the yard and the connection to the existing track to the helix.


I was one bluepoint controller short  and hope it will be delivered today so I can mount the turnouts permanent this evening after work and finish trackwork tomorrow. On saturday evening after work I´ll then connect the wires and will be testing my work on Sunday evening after work. We will have a small two man op session on Sunday evening so it would be fine to include the Lower level into that operation...If not we could operate the upper level and this alone will be againa lot of switching. We will see how it work. Will post more progress tomorrow.
Thanks for looking,
Regards,Chris

[ACL1504]

Kris,

Great job on the redo of the track plan. It is much better and will give you more options. I can't tell you how many times I've redone my layout. Well, yes I can - to many times.. It seems when I think I have all the angles covered I'll start the new section and realize I didn't think of this or that.

Actually, I'm going through that process yet again.

Tom

[Zephyrus52246]

Looks good and quick work.     I think one reason many people have "layout stasis" is that they're afraid if they do something wrong, they can't change it.   


Jeff

[S&S RR]

Chris


All the changes look like they were worth the work. I think all of us are continuously making changes - it is just part of hobby. I'm enjoying the thread - thanks for sharing your build with us.

[Twist67]

Hi there,
Thanks a lot.......and here are some more changes
so it has been some time since my last post. I was busy on my Layout and in real life so there was not much time to post....Sorry for the delay on updates. But now here it is. First thing I have finished was the Yard at Chetwynd,BC. Track is glued down,wired and tested. All went well...and I found out that I have no pictures of the finished yard....I´ll do that this evening and post some pictures of that tomorrow....After the yard was finished I decided,that I need more room for storing engines and that I´m not happy with the current location of it. So I swapped the engine service and the Canfor mill. This gave me the possibility to add some more length to the mainline around the corner. At it´s end I´ll add a kind of staging cassette or something similar.
Here you will see the mainline to the left. It´s heading south to Vancouver. The engine facility is next to it. I added a fourth track to it.


The building is made from an Pikestuff "the Shops" kit with some additional wall sections,the foundation was made from several layers of styrene sheet.


I inserted an Peco inspection pit to the track.I´ll add a fueling island in front of the building and also a sanding tower. Other small sheds and other things will be added. There could be placed 4 engines inside the building and maybe 4-5 outside. I painted the structure in a green color from the rattlecan. That Duplicolor color is similar to the light BCR green tone.



While the paint was drying I started with cutting the parts for the I beams on the inside of the facility. They were also build from sheet and glued together.They will be painted in a dark grey color. The frames, dorrs and windows will be painted white or maybe dark green to mach the BCR paint theme.



From the engine servicing following the main a bit north around the corner you will see the Canfor Mill to the left and Chetwynd yard in the distance


The mill structures are raised on 20 mm foam, the woodchiptrack is layed out on to layers of 5mm kork and the loading tracks will be glued to 5mm kork.I´ll build a ramp for the vehicles to the foam. The loading shed will be scratchbuild from wood with a loadingdock inside the shed. I have to find out the final position for the buildings like the truck woodchiploader etc.





So that are my updates on the lower level, but there are some more changes to the upper level. Only small things but I think they are worth to show.
The first bigger change was also a swap of the interchange with the teamtrack. Not much to do here than changing the name from interchange to teamtrack and alter adding some details liek a loading dock etc.


You´ll see a new structure to the back of it. It´s no more railserved but has it´s loading dock on the railside. I have not decided what company will go into that but I think it will be some kind of storage building.

I added two other buildings on the opposite side of the street. One will be a construction company ( to the front) and the other another type of small business...maybe some type of electronics supply. The side you´ll see will only be the backside of the building with some fence around it....
Next to it is  Wrights Food service. The complex moved to the left and into the corner. This was possible because I extended the benchwork around the corner. This is the place where the Interchange track is now located. Mainline and Interchange are ending there below a roadbridge. Maybe I´ll add a removable two track storing cassette here,too. There will be no structures or roads here,only scenery....




And the last thing was a smal change at the West end of this area next to the G.E.R.N. complex. I moved one track and turnout around and also moved some buildings and the mainstreet. This breaks up the straight look of track,street and row of buildings.




So that´s all for nearly two months. Now I think I´m happy with the look of all those scenes.
Thanks you for looking and any comments are very appreciated.

Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,

some small things going on here and I made some progress on Dawson Creek "eastend" area. Here I started with a base for some scenery. I added some 20mm styrodur and sanded it to shape. Next step was to find some names for the companys around and I used Google Maps and Streeview looking through Dawson Creek.First Company is called Loomis Express...It´s a freight shed made from an Walthers kit. The loading doors on the back side of the building will be closed with sheet and I removed the loading dock on this side of the building.



On the other side of the street there will be two companys . To the back is ACE Instruments Ltd. The building is made from Walthers modular parts and the addon from Pikestuff wallparts. I painted it with Tamiya Desert Yellow. There will be a chainfence on the front to the tracks and to the back next to the loading dock.The painting isn´t finished,I have to do some detailing and weathering and redo some areas. Was more of a test.




R.Norman Trucking & Towing is on the ohter side of the tracks. The structure is build from Pikestuff wall and roofparts.It´s a shop building with an additional small office. I don´t know if I´ll leave the wall to the front open to detail the inside of the shopbuilding at the moment. I´ll make my decision later. The base for the structure and lot sits on a 14 x 95cm piece of 8mm MDF and will get a 2mm styrodur base for groundwork.




The last structure here is Wright´s Food Service Ltd. This one was in that corner of my layout for some time but I made some changes to the buildings. Or better I started from new and also change the trackwork for it. Now Wright´s has two separate buildings. To the left next to ACE sits the Freezer & Diary cold storage warehouse. It has a track going into the building and two truck loading doors. The core is made from 1,5mm sheet and it will get some bricksheets if I will ever find my stored walthers brick walls,lol. The second building is the grocery warehouse with two raildoors and three truckdoors. It will be made from 1,5mm sheet,too but without the brick walls. It will get a metal edge from old Pikestuff material. The area between the two buildings will be rough paved with some gravel on the edges.The tracks in front of the building will be paved,too. I´ll build two tanks and a small office building with a small parking lot on the left side next to the wall. The structures will be placed on 5mm styrodur on top of some Kork glued to the plywood. Structure and lot will be on railhead level.





Finally I made some structure changes in the downtown are of Dawson Creek. Some time ago I started scratchbuilding a structure for the layout but had no more use for it. Now it´s back on the layout....I will make some smaller changes to it but it is a nice match for the location it will placed. It´s next to Downtown Decos Addams Avenue part 1.


The open space between Addams Avenue Part 1 and Harrisons Hardware will be filled with part 2 and 3 of the Addams Avenue kits. So mabe I´ll give that street the name Addams Avenue,lol...


So this will be all for now....I have changed from trackwork to structure building and covering the plywood with some base for scenery...still a long way to go but the more fun part has started.

Thanks for looking and any input and comments are very appreciated.

Regards,Chris

[S&S RR]

Chris


It looks like you are making steady progress - looking good - keep having fun with it.

[Twist67]

Hi there,
John, thank you and yes I´m trying to work on the layout a bit every day...
Not so much progress here. I started painting the two structures for wrights food service. I cut out a base from plywood and glued the tracks down.I could use this as an diorama and will add some paint to the tracks and also some basic groundcover,soon. Maybe I´ll give ballasting a first try. I can do that on my workbench.



Grocery warehouse


cold storage




The warehouse is painted an off white and will be get some light weathering,the metal siding on the upper wall and the doorframes will be painted blue.


This is how the front wall of the cold storage will look with the brick inserts.

Next are two other small structures found on google maps. The first one is a small woodworking company called Mike´s Custom Woodworking. It´s made from Pikestuff walls with a rollupdoor and two doors. Painted the same color like Wright´s warehouse but will get some more weathering.The lot in front of it will be made from Woodland Smooth it.A fence will go around the building with a tree behind it and some details will be added to the roof.


On the other side of the street we will find A & C Cylinder Head Rebuilders , a small company specialized in rebuilding engine parts....Painted blue from spraycan I used a structure found on Google maps for reference. The lot and street will be made from Smooth it and both buildings are placed on a base from Modur foam.


and the model



I started another project on another part of the layout with redoing the northwestern wood preservers mill but this will be described in one of my next updates. Here is a picture of the new plan.........

For now there´s nothing more than this plan. The old tracks are gone and stored for the new version.

Thanks for looking,any comments are very appreciated.

Regards,Chris

[ACL1504]

Chris,

Looks like you've been busy on the warehouse district. Is the one in the corner a scratch build, either way it's a nice building. Love all the pictures.

Great stuff, keep it going.

Tom

[Twist67]

Hi,
Tom,yes I was very busy. The one in the corner is scratchbuild. I think you mean the white one with the two rollup doors on the trackside. That´s Wright´s Food Service grocery warehouse.

Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

HI,
as I wrote on my last post, I made some changes to the Northwestern Wood Preservers mill. I rearranged the trunouts and tracks for a smoother and simpler look. There are now 3 tracks, one of them still for woodchip cars, the next track for outside loading of bulkhead flatcars and center partition cars or boxcars and the last one for loading inside the shed. The woodchiptrack is designed to load 4 cars, the outside loading track could hold 3-4 cars and the inside track can hold 3 cars max. Logs will be delivered by truck.Liquid additives will be also mostly delivered with trucks and from time to time with tankcar.
Here´s the trackplan of the upper level:





The buildings will be made from Pikestuff kits and scratchbuild.

The other thing I changed was some trackwork on the lower level in Chetwynd yard. My goal was to get more prototypical operating on my layout. On the prototype most traffic is empty cars from the south (Vancouver) up north and loaded cars from the North back south. SO I searched for a way to include a hidden staging to the south of Chetwynd. But the destinations on my Layout are the other way, I could add a staging to the northend and not to the southend. On the proto Chetwynd yard the Canfor mill and the engine service are located on the south end of the yard and the spur to Dawson Creek on the north end where the helix is build on my layout....My mind was blocked how to get that working....Some days ago it hit me with a hammer,lol :wall1:  :wall1:  :wall1:
My layout is proto freelanced so why not change the directions of the lower level....this will be not much more than changing names...The difference to the 1:1 yard is now that the spur to Dawson Creek starts on the south end and the engine service and Canfor mill are at the north end. But I can add a second track going down the Helix and entering a staging level below Chetwynd.
In an op session ti means a train coming from Vancouver will set out the cars at Chetwynd.The engines will go to the service area for their turn back to Vancouver later. The yardswitcher will sort the cars for their destinations, local or Dawson creek and the Train to dawson creek will go it´s way up the helix and the yardswitcher at chetwynd serves the local spots.At Dawson Creek a local will switch the industries around and the train will head back to Chetwynd.At the end of the session the Train back to Vancouver is ready with loaded cars from Dawson Creek and the local industries and will be travel to the staging.
Chetwynd yard was changed a bit with some more turnouts and two new small industries to be served, BC Hydro Utility Pole yard and Imerial Oil spur.Trackage for both has to be layed but the trackage in the yard is ready for wires.
First there´s the Anyrail trackplan



Old northend of Chetwynd before the change


After the changes the two new spots will be on the far right.


Sticker for the direction of the tracks will be added to the fascia later.

I´ll add a passing siding on top of the Helix for some more fun.

Thanks for looking any any comments,tips,ideas are very appreciated.

Regards,Chris

[ACL1504]

Hi,
Tom,yes I was very busy. The one in the corner is scratchbuild. I think you mean the white one with the two rollup doors on the trackside. That´s Wright´s Food Service grocery warehouse.

Regards,Chris

Chris,

Yes, that is the one.

Tom