PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR 3-D printing a model A new, high-tech tool for scratchbuilding/Réne Gourley S
urely I could have chosen some- thing simpler for a first passenger car project. Surely I could have
found a car that had actual archived drawings, if not clear photographs. Surely nobody would mind if I bought a kit for a passenger car, lettered it for the Canada Atlantic and challenged anyone to call me a liar. I would mind.
The prototype modeling path is a per- sonal choice, and we all must decide how far down the path we will go. For me, there are so few resources showing this prototype as it really existed that I feel I must replicate what I find as closely as possible.
My current project is the town of Pembroke, Ontario–the northern ter- minus of the Pembroke Southern Rail- way–and I have four photographs that show the same passenger car on the line. This, then, is the car I need. Sub- stituting another car would be akin to ignoring one of my sources in prototype modeling and ultimately diminish the total effect. So, without drawings, clear photographs, incontrovertible dimen- sions, without even a car number, I set off to replicate a train and a car pulling into Pembroke sometime around 1905. From the photos it is impossible to discern the car’s number or, indeed, even the owner. Fortunately, the com- bine is a little unusual in having the baggage section between the first and second class seating compartments. In the U.S. such cars were typically called “Jim Crow” cars, after the local and state racial segregation laws enacted there. Here in Canada, we had no such RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
AUTHOR’S COLLECTION
This model of a Canada Atlantic combine (top) was based on a few photos, including this one (above) showing combine No. 2 crossing the Bonnechere River at Golden Lake (northwest of Ottawa). It was on an inspection train and leased to the Pembroke Southern Ry. in 1899.
laws: the baggage section in this case serves to separate genteel folk from drunken brawling lumberjacks. The Pembroke Southern leased all its passenger equipment. The Canada Atlantic Ry. operated the Pembroke Southern almost from the day it was opened, and it is reasonable to surmise that our combine could have been leased from the Canada Atlantic even though a Grand Trunk Railway engine is hauling the inspection train in one of the photos. The Canada Atlantic became part of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1905, and
an undated roster from that line shows only two first class/second class bag- gage cars inherited from the CA, Nos. 2 and 4. Assuming our Pembroke South- ern car was leased from the CA, which was the operating railroad, and assum- ing the car survived until the GTR ros- ter was compiled, the PS car was either CA No. 2 or 4. We have a clear photo of No. 4, and it does not match the PS car. So, if all my conjectures are true, then the car in the photo was CA No. 2. Having said that, by the time of the roster the GTR car was clearly differ- ent from the PS car. Notably, on the 53
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