Taking Inventory

Happy new year!  Hope everyone had a good Christmas, or whichever holiday you celebrate.  After no posts in the past month and a bit, I'm back!  Life has been busy with preparations for Christmas and the holiday season, and I have decided that I will begin the new year with a post of a spreadsheet, showing what I own by way of rolling stock and motive power.

If you're into stats, then this post is most definitely for you!  You may notice that my reporting marks are in alphabetical order so I can find my cars and locomotives easily...and I'm a tad OCD, CDO, (the OCD way of spelling OCD ;)) One thing I noticed as I was taking inventory of my entire fleet is that I have way less rolling stock than I thought...I guess that means that I can buy more? :)  The following charts are sorted by Rolling Stock, (above) and Motive Power, (below).

I won't say anymore, and let the inventory do the rest of the talking, enjoy!

Reporting Marks:	Road Number:	Type:	Manufacturer:
B&O	480000	Boxcar	Unknown
BN	625571	Centre Beam	Walthers
C&O	3178	Wide Vision Caboose	Athearn BB
CCBX	400151	23, 500 Gallon Tanker	Atlas
CGTX	22320	Tanker	Unknown
CN	322660	Coal Hopper	Unknown
CN	377275	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Intermountain
CN	377324	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Intermountain
CN	370018	56’ Center-Flow Hopper	Bachmann
CN	78934	30’ Wood Caboose	Walthers
CN	873603	Woodchip Hopper	Walthers
CN	873640	Woodchip Hopper w/ Load	Walthers
CNA	553756	Combination Door Box	Athearn RTR
CNWX	109487	55’ ACF Center-Flow Hopper	Athearn BB
CP	330939	52’ Mill Gondola w/ Load	Athearn RTR
CPWX	604301	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Bachmann
CPWX	606691	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Intermountain
DTTX	56000	48’ Well	Athearn
DTTX	56147	48' Well	Athearn
DTTX	56174	48’ Well	Athearn
DTTX	655299	53’ Well Car	Walthers
GATX	71731	19 000 Gallon Tanker	Intermountain
GN	171021	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Atlas
IC	533046	Gunderson 50’ Hi-Cube Box	Walthers
ICG	700706	Thrall 89’ Tri-Level Autorack	Walthers
MEC	6627	40’ Box	Athearn BB
MILW	92115	52’ Mill Gondola	Athearn RTR
MLLX	97277	64’  Pellet Covered Hopper	Walthers
MOBX	14277	23 500 Gallon Tanker	Atlas
NAPA	8008	40' Box	Model Power
NIRX	16523	Mechanical Reefer	Golden Spike
NS	456724	Gunderson 50’ Hi-Cube Box	Walthers
RAIX	6489	23 000 Gallon Tanker	Walthers
RG	1500	36’ Wide Vision Caboose	Bachmann
SP	226379	Double Door Box	Unknown
T&NO	41531	Gondola	Unknown
USLX	3015	Double Door Box	Atlas
USLX	50241	56' Thrall All-Door Box	Walthers
UTLX	125036	13 000 Gallon Acid Tanker	Athearn RTR
WC	24071	50’ Box	Athearn
WC	38000	Logging Rack	Walthers
WH	9011	Cylindrical Covered Hopper	Intermountain
Undecorated	Undecorated	40’ Gondola	Unknown
Undecorated	Undecorated	40' Gondola	Unknown
Undecorated	Undecorated	48’ Mill Gondola	Unknown
Undecorated	Undecorated	Extended Woodchip	Unknown
Undecorated	Undecorated	Ore	Tichy
Undecorated	Undecorated	Flat w/Rail	Unknown

Reporting Marks:	Road Number:	Type:	Manufacturer:
CN	D-250	RDC	Proto 1000
CN	2514	C44-9W	Athearn BB
CN	5610	SD70i	Athearn Genesis
CN	7707	SW1500	Athearn BB
CN	9719	GP60M	Athearn RTR
NS	6775	SD60M	Proto 2000
SF	307	F-9	Bachmann
Undecorated	Undecorated	SD40	Athearn
Undecorated	Undecorated	GP9	MRC
UP	6344	SD60M	Proto 2000
VIA	6444	F40PH	Walthers

- Caleb

A Visit to Patrick Gagnon's Home Layout/Diorama

Well, so much for the thought of a weekly blogpost...but for now it is remaining regularly once per month, baby steps!

I contacted Patrick Gagnon, an excellent modeller, awhile back about paying him a visit and seeing some of his models along with his small, yet impressive layout in person.  He kindly obliged, and I made the trek to Saint-Leonard, NB yesterday.  Of course, as a railfan I had to check the west-facing home signal at Saint-Leonard immediately after crossing the border, which showed a very clear indication of no westbound trains for awhile.  So it was time to follow Patrick to his house, and see the layout and the models that awaited my camera!

Upon arrival at Patrick's, he and I walked downstairs into his basement and as soon as he opened the door to his layout room, I seriously didn't know where to look first.  Everywhere I turned there was either a finished, gorgeous looking product, or a project in the works.  This was the first scene that I saw as I entered the most impressive room.

Impressive workbench featuring Saint-Leonard Irving sawmill in behind.

I am being completely serious when I say that it took me a solid 10-15 minutes to just look everything over right in this spot.  I was truly impressed as I just looked everything over with drool ready to just drop right out of my mouth...okay so maybe not, but you get the idea!

Any type of pre 90's North American diesel locomotive and chances are, he has either 1) started and completed a kit/kitbash of the model, 2) is in the process of building the model, or 3) plans on getting the proper detailed parts to complete the kit at some point.  Let me just say that this guy knows how to model, and model well!  The assortment of half-completed, fully completed, no where near completed projects lay all over the workbench, each one was impressive in its own super detailed way.

After getting my eyes back in my head, it was time to clean the rails a bit and run some stuff!  As Patrick's layout is arranged as a diorama, there isn't much running to do, but for the little that is available, it has very good scenery.  The first order of business was to bring one of his GP40-2W's out and so after playing with the QSI sound functions, I snapped a couple photos.  I will share a few photos below here to show just how detailed a portion of his fleet is.  I say a portion because I could've spent a full week there photographing each individual model.  The portion where I mainly staged the trains for the photos is in a portion of what Patrick is portraying as modern day Longley on the CN Napadogan Subdivision, located in northwestern New Brunswick.

CN 9637 coupled up to another GP40-2W, staged at CN Longley with a scratchbuilt SGE signal.

With the shoot of the GP40 wide cabs out of the way, I brought out something from the yard that piqued my interest a little bit more, CN 4105, a GP9, and parked it right on the crossing for its 'photoshoot'.

CN 4105, a GP9 idles at the crossing with an impatient driver of a Midland truck on the other side.

There were a variety of more units I 'played' with, I'll share these photos below.

CN 2000 backing down from the crossing.

VIA LRC in run mode awaits a clear signal at CN Longley, with a MOW crew preparing to relay track.

CN 1124, a GMD-1, custom painted blares the horn as the lone unit approaches the busy crossing.

CN 9674 has a train in tow as the light engine movements are done for the moment, allowing a 'real train' to get rolling!

I'll take a few minutes now and discuss how Patrick's yard is set up.  He says that he originally planned to model a small BAR yard, such as Northern Maine Junction, (NMJ), located in Hermon, Maine. However, now he says it could be a representation of either NMJ or Edmundston, New Brunswick.  Regardless, I figured rather than just explaining it, I should document it, so I will have more ideas for my future yard someday, and so you all can see for yourselves! :)

NMJ or Edmundston?

You may notice that there are a collection of cabeese in back...one being a new-to-Patrick, Overland Models kit.  There really is not much else to say about the yard, other than the fact that he says he may add a couple more tracks in time to accommodate better switching.  Also, his 'siding' at Longley will be his yard lead in time.  I was beginning to get short on time at this point, as I had previous commitments, so I wrapped up the day with a couple shots of some 'rare' visitors to Canada ;)

Sister's BAR 85 & 86 sit dead after going into emergency, having just left the Saint-Leonard mill.

MMA 8592 comes to the rescue to pull the two BAR units out of the woods, and return to American soil.

And that about wrapped up the tour of Patrick Gagnon's small but impressive layout/diorama with some truly epic models!

After leaving Patrick's, I took the old highway on the way back to Grand Falls and intercepted CN 305, a manifest train, just west of Grand Falls.  Since I really was strapped for time, I observed it as I met it awhile driving and did a quick mental inventory of the power...of course I jotted it down when I got a chance :)

Hope you enjoyed reading about Patrick's layout, and if you are ever in the area, I am sure he would be open to more visitors.  Thanks again Patrick!

- Caleb