T-Trak: Chester Railway Museum module (part 1) - Railroad Equipment

I am a member of the local N scale T-trak club in Albany and operate my Japanese Tokyo module with them. However, sometimes my wife wishes I would run some of "our" (she has an extensive collection of Western Pacific N scale equipment) trains at the shows. Since I am always looking for new projects I thought building a new T-trak module would be fun.

My "triple" Japanese module is nearly 36" long. That is a foot shorter than a regular N-trak module, but it still is hard to store something that big between shows. So I wanted something smaller. I brainstormed a British themed module a while ago and that might eventually be built. But for now, I am sticking with American. So, what should be the theme?

The first idea that jumped out at me was the Chester Railway Museum in Chester, Mass. We have camped there twice in their caboose and loved it. Running right by it is the double-track mainline of the former Boston and Albany (now CSX) railroad. The museum has a station, a caboose, a tank car painted for Baker's Chocolate, a speeder, two old wooden boxcars, and an old steam engine on display. It is compact, has sentimental memories, and wouldn't be too difficult to model. 

One thing I decided was that it wasn't going to be a perfect model of the station or the equipment. I was going for "close enough".

The general arrangement at the museum is interesting. To get there you drive in from the road shown at the bottom of the picture below, swing under the tracks via the bridge on the right, and then pull up to the museum. The ground is slanted, rising from right to left, and it all looks like it was carved out of a hill. Very nice, but not easy to model on a flat top module. So, I decided to have the right side of the module be right before the bridge to avoid that issue. 

In the picture above, northwest (towards Albany NY) is to the left and Southeast (towards Boston) is to the right.

Here is a shot of the dirt access driveway leading directly to the caboose, as well as the grade in general.

The museum grounds feature a disconnected track running along the statino platform and connecting the station area to the caboose. A small speeder is parked near the tank car, and two older wooden boxcars are at by the station platform, nicely painted on the side facing the museum. They use one for storage and the other as a children's play area with toys, games, a model train along the ceiling, etc. The track ends at a display of a wooden passenger car truck, which sadly needs further restoration.

On the other side of the station platform is a bay window caboose painted blue for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad that is used as a kitchen for catered events on site. When we were there last fall they were digging out the area to hold a full size passenger car, and it was finally delivered in late December 2025. I don't know how much of this area I plan to model.

The station property and CSX mainline are separated by a chain link fence. On the other side of the the mainline tracks is a maintenance of way siding that is occasionally used. There is no room on the front of the T-trak module to include it completely, though I might add a track in the weeds with a dummy switch. Or not, I am not sure.

I decided to do a quick search online to see what I could find for a tank car, caboose, and station. Without those key components, the project just wouldn't work. 

Finding a suitable tank car was easy. The tank car at the museum has a dome but if you search online for prototype information on Baker's Chocolate tank cars (such as here and here) many of the pictures of other prototype cars don't have domes. I don't recall the history of the museum's railcar, but it might not have been used in actual chocolate service.

There are several companies that make models of them in N scale with domes (Model Power, Intermountain, Micro Trains, Atlas Industrial Rail) but I picked Intermountain because it had a white platform around the dome. It might not be a perfect match but it was close enough. 

Upon receiving it I trimmed the coupler "air hoses" off, painted the wheels brown, and gave it a light weathering using drybrushed brown acrylic paint. I also rubbed the handrails with the sides of a pencil to darken them a bit. Though it probably could use another layer of overall grime, I didn't want to be heavy handed as they try and keep it in nice shape. Within minutes of working on it I realized that N scale is tiny, getting the wheels into the trucks isn't fun, and it is very easy to break delicate details!

The caboose was a bit tricker. The one at the museum (where we sleep at night) was an old Rutland car built by the New York Central when the Rutland was their subsidiary, currently painted up for the Boston and Albany. 

I couldn't find anything exact in N scale except a laser cut wood kit by American Model Builders. A friend of mine who models the NYC in N scale advised me that this kit was not for the faint of heart, so I passed. Instead, I chose an Athearn model (ATH14447) that featured three important characteristics: it was wood-sided, it had the right number of windows in approximately the right locations, and the cupola was also in the right location.  

I disassembled it by removing some truly miniscule screws, and then removing the cupola. This allowed me access to crack the clear window glazing from the inside. The roofwalk was also scrapped, though I kept the smokejack. Then, I used metal and nail files to smooth the roof and remove any roofwalk support nibs.

I used two small jewelers files to open up the windows to a larger size. There was barely any room to slide the file in and out of the opening before hitting the opposite wall. But, the plastic cut pretty easily. Then, I used a small chisel blade to remove the exterior window frames. Next, the windows were framed with Evergreen #8102 styrene on three sides, and some 0.060" Plastruct L-angle on the top. These windows and gutters were likely later additions added by the museum when they restored the caboose for camping service on the property.

The cupola was butchered by cutting most of each of the walls away, leaving just the corner posts. These were then shortened in height.

Finally, new window "frames" were added by taking some scribed styrene and cutting away portions to leave only one vertical row of siding (to represent the frame) with the rest gone (to represent the window opening). Fiddly, because everything was so small, but hardly noticeable from a foot away.

Lastly, the roof was given a layer of single-ply tissue paper and flooded with thin superglue.

Unfortunately, when I woke up the next morning it was a disaster. Excess tissue soaked with glue bent down and attached to the sides of the caboose. I spent the next hour doing my best to scrape, chisel, and sand away excess tissue paper stuck to to the sides. Two windows had to be rebuilt, and some wood siding was scribed with a knife to try and restore the look of wood boards. I was disheartened but pushed on, figuring I wouldn't really know how bad it looked until it was painted.

I used red primer to paint the caboose, which was a good match for the final color of the car. It was sprayed with clear gloss on the sides and then custom decals by Precision Design Company were applied. They aren't inexpensive but the company is great to work with. Mine went on fine, though I botched them a bit on one side and had to redo them (thank goodness they include spares!). Because of the window spacing I had to relocate the "NYC" oval emblem to the end of the caboose instead of between the windows, but I can live with that.

I didn't reattach the body to the body to the frame as I might want to add lights, and this will be simpler with it disassembled.

Also on site is a small 0-4-0 steam engine #74 named "LUCY". Trying to find an exact model of this in N scale was impossible, but again I only needed something close enough. 

I don't think it has an actual connection with the museum or the granite quarry across the street. It was looking a little rough around the edges, but she is cute and colorful.

In my collection I had a pair of small steamers which might work: a Bachmann "Docksider" 0-4-0 and a LifeLike saddle tank 0-6-0. Neither ran well so I didn't mind sacrificing them for the project. The Bachmann engine's length and wheel arrangement was correct, but the LifeLike's saddle tank assembly was closer to what I needed. So, I started with that.

I disassembled everything, and since it never had to run again I didn't have to be too careful. I removed the valve gear by pulling the crank pins, which allowed me to remove the center axle and the gears on the axles. I glued the chassis back together and had an 0-4-0. The frame was too long, so I took it over to my bandsaw and removed about a quarter-inch from the rear. I used a belt sander to shorten the cab to match.

Then, the boiler shell was modified. I carved away some grab irons molded on the saddle tank, the two extra sand domes, the water filler hatch, and the headlight. I used files to smooth over the areas, and also plugged the two dome holes some styrene rod that I had on hand that fit perfectly. 

After only about an hour's worth of work, this is what I had. Is it perfect? No. But the real thing looks a bit rough around the edges too. If you compare it with the prototype above you will note that I didn't replicate the large headlight on the front. I found it a bit ugly so I omitted it, though I may go back later and add something.

I then painted it up with black, green, silver, and white paint. There was a lot of touch ups using toothpicks to get the black, white, and silver exactly where they needed to go. And I didn't paint the wheel rims white as I knew I couldn't do it cleanly, but I did do the side rods and crossheads. 

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Though it looked resplendent in its green and black scheme, both my wife and son pointed out that the prototype engine was all black. I had painted it from memory using a black-and-white printout of the engine, and my memory was faulty. 

So, I had to repaint it black. With a red roof (another detail I didn't notice with my black and white picture. Then I looked at more pictures online and saw that the front buffer had wood boards painted green (perhaps that was what I was thinking of?), and a number plate that was red. The window frames also should have been green but I decided to quit while I was ahead.

Finally, I ordered some decals and again I turned to Precision Design Company. Though I was planning on just putting the number 74 on the cab, they drew up the artwork for the name "LUCY" and a white box around the number as an option. And did they ever go on easy. Though the entire model is only about 1.5" long, it came out great.

I also went and repainted the cab roof bright red to match pictures I found online, and I also added a black oversize headlight on the front made from a cut piece of paintbrush handle.

For the speeder, I first bought an old styrene or resin kit from Durango Press. However, after destroying the walls just trying to get them separated from the sprues I punted and went with a 3D resin casting that I purchased from Anthony Kochevar. For those with 3D printers, the file can be found here. Anthony sent me a painted one and his work was fantastic. It is roughly the size of a marble yet has so much detail packed in. 

With the rolling stock done (except for the two wooden boxcars and the B&O caboose), I decided that the project was indeed feasible and moved on to building the station itself.

Thomas the Tank Engine book

Ever since Thomas the Tank Engine came to America in 1989 I have always been a fan. My son Harrison is the same way, and has learned his numbers by referencing the engine numbers (Thomas = 1, Edward = 2, etc.).

One idea I have always had was to find a book showing all of the engines of the Island of Sodor along with prototype information for the actual steam or diesel locomotives they were based on. Sadly, such a book doesn't exist. Until now...

I imagine one difficulty is that the company which owns the rights to Thomas the Tank Engine doesn't want to pay the necessary licensing fees to use pictures of all of the prototype engines. I understand that. But they could still do a book with at least a bit of a blurb about the real thing and splash pictures of the Thomas models all over the page. But they haven't. So, for Christmas this year I decided to put together such a book myself.

I should point out that we did find this on Amazon and ordered it for Harrison too, but it isn't the same. It does have a lot of engines but not all of them, and the amount of prototype information is lacking. However, unlike my amateur efforts it definitely looks much more professional. See below. It is probably perfect for the casual train fan, but for true die-hard Thomas buffs like myself and Harrison it just wouldn't do.

Getting back to my book, over the course of about 30+ hours I searched the internet for lists of all of the engines and vehicles (here), and then went to the many Thomas fan pages online for more detailed information on the characters. When I was a kid there were about a dozen engines total, plus another half-dozen vehicles, so the list was small. I had no idea the universe of characters had ballooned to over 100 different named entities! 

I had a firm cut off where I stopped exploring new engines at the newer series that is completely computer-graphics and very toy-like, as this did not appeal to me at all. There are also many Thomas movies that introduce new characters, especially foreign engines, and I tried to get them all but I didn't sweat it if I missed some.

Then, I had to use the internet to put together a couple of sentences for each that described their prototype engine counterparts. I mostly looked for information such as when they were built and retired, how many were in the class, whether any are preserved, and what made that engine unique or special. I didn't try and dumb down the text because I am hoping that this book will be a useful vocabulary teaching tool as Harrison grows older ("Dad, what is a pilot truck" and "Dad, what does courageous mean") but I also excluded information that I didn't find useful (such as the name of the builder, the horsepower, cylinder size, etc.) All of this had to fit in about three sentences, so I was limited.

Then, picture time. The internet is full of pictures but a search for a specific engine also pulls up toys, books, animated cartoon images, scale model images, and lots of other stuff. I have about 400 pictures saved that I used. For the prototype engines it was a bit easier, especially if at least one of the class of engines made it into preservation. But for some of the older engines, I only could find grainy black and white shots. Thankfully, I found something for every engine.

It all came together nicely, though due to its extreme size (nearly 100 pages) it cost a lot more than I expected. A lot more! Thank goodness for Black Friday sales. And the first one they sent was damaged so they replaced it for free, allowing me to have two copies. 

I know he/we will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Peep Peep!

Thomas wooden trains and the Hummingbird Toy Factory (Arcade, NY)

What is this stuff? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Like me, my son Harrison is crazy for trains. He has dozens of the wooden Brio and Thomas style trains, plus gobs and gobs of track. He knows what a shunting yard is, what a loop to loop track configuration looks like, and the basics of train formations. He also knows that long trains and sharp the curves lead to spectacular wrecks. Ahhh, to be young.

What he doesn't know was that in 1993 and 1994, before the Thomas brand of wooden trains exploded in popularity, some were made in the Hummingbird Toy Company in the little town of Arcade, NY. Yes, the same Arcade that is home to the Arcade & Attica Railroad, which I have waxed on long about here and here. I don't know the full history of the Company but I found this article that provided some good information. 

Here are some pictures of took of the building in July 2017 while trainspotting:

Among other things, they manufactured Yo-Yos and during a flood in 1989 hundreds of the round toys were washed down the nearby river. There was even a book written which was based on the event. Though the flood didn't kill the Company, they expanded too quickly including taking on the Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train line. They lasted until 1995, and then closed for good. From what I understand, the building was recently demolished.

A friend lives in the area and during one conversation he mentioned finding old Thomas train toy wheels buried in the dirt outside. I asked him to collect some for me and he kindly obliged with a shoebox full of "stuff". Here is how it came to me (well, imagine it all dumped in a box).

If you think it looks like a box of muddy wood rubbish, you aren't far off. But as someone who loves the Arcade and Attica Railroad, and also loves Thomas the Tank Engine, I see more than just muck. I see history, and playthings that never made it into children's hands. 

I was expecting only a wheel or two, not a box of stuff, so I was both happy and surprised at the bounty. There were a bunch of Toby the tram engine bodies, some which were discolored from brown to green; parts for a Silver Percy; a couple of Mavis black/yellow diesel engines, many parts for generic red/green steam engines; a Thomas body; unidentifiable wooden blocks that could of been loads for flat cars or maybe freight car bodies; two different parts for boats; lots of wheels; a tree (!); and even a Thomas body.

I washed them all in soap and water with a toothbrush, and were they filthy. I only ended up cleaning two Toby bodies as I figured I have no need for another five. I also left the Thomas body untouched, which is what an archaeologist might do (I have seen enough Indiana Jones to figure it out). The wheels I tried to clean but I was more concerned they might go down the drain and jam our garbage disposal.

In the end, I don't quite know what to do with all this stuff. For now they will get stored with my other A&A memorabilia. But I am putting Thomas on display with my other A&A models, because Harrison will get a kick out of that and I can tell him the story of the Hummingbird Toy Factory when he is older.

Who would have thought such a popular toy came from such a tiny factory in a small town in Western New York?

RoLife's Kiki's Magic Emporium kit

A coworker of mine is also a professional magician (something which I wish I could be) and was aware that I am a model railroader. During one of our discussions he casually mentioned purchasing a kit for a magic shop and wondered if I had the contact information for any professional model builders who could assemble it for him. I asked to review the instructions and then I checked Amazon to confirm the kit was available there should I screw something up (it is). Feeling comfortable, I offered to build it for him. Below is the finished product.

I was unfamiliar with the company RoLife and I have never built any Dollhouse miniature kits before, but it looked like a fun project. Further, it was supposed to be easy with all of the parts pre-cut and/or painted. I even found Youtube videos showing how to assemble it.

While researching it I discovered that it is based on a famous Japanese anime movie Kiki's Delivery Service which I have seen with my wife, a huge anime fan. (As an aside, my favorite anime movie is Whispers of the Heart and I included a movie poster of it on my Japanese T-trak module as a reference to it).

A lot comes in the box, including a few tools like plastic tweezers, a paint pen, and a bottle of glue. 

Speaking of that glue, I tried using it and found it awkward. It is clear and gummy and leaves trails of residue behind it. However, it is very easy to clean up the excess. I think it is rubber cement, which is a good choice for a mixed medium kit containing painted and unpainted wood, wire, paper, and plastic parts. However, I quickly switched to superglue gel and Aleene's tacky glue for most of the assembly to speed up the process.  

The painted wood parts are in various bags, but unpainted ones are still left on the sprue. The logic behind the bag sorting escapes me. The instructions take a bit of reading to understand how things are organized. English is clearly not the first language of the writer and left me confused in places. I had to keep pulling out every bag and reviewing every piece to find the ones I needed. (Later on I discovered a nice color full-size schematic diagram identifying every piece of wood on every sprue, but by then the hard parts were over).

A note about the instructions. Some of the paper signs and such were nowhere to be found. So, I dug out the oversize instructions and looked to see which page there were on. And ironically, some were on the same page as the instructions itself! The instructions showed a life-size image of the paper part, and right next to it in a separate area with dotted lines was the same part ready to be cut out. Why the duplication? I dunno.

The kit involved skills that I normally don't use for model railroading, including paper folding and wire bending. The kit included a wooden "form" that was to be used to help bend some cabinet drawer handles from soft wire. I instead used a pair of pliers. The ends were later flattened and trimmed. My finished handles matched the instruction's dimensions but I think they look oversize, though that might be appropriate for the look of the original anime movie.

The kit also called for painting some silver trim on one of the cabinets with an included pen. I thought this wouldn't work at all but was too lazy to dig out my own silver paint so I gave their pen a try. It turned out working great and I will need to remember these metallic paint pens for the future.

After about 90 minutes I only had these four pieces of furniture to show for my efforts. But, I was still learning the process. The laser cut wood is pretty nice though some edges are still the raw burned wood. In such a busy magic store like this it probably won't matter, but were it for my layout I would definitely touch up the edges with more paint. Ironically, they even included a small piece of sandpaper to wear (age) the wooden shelf on the left.

It took me almost as much time to pull out of the various bags all the necessary parts and organize them as it did to clean up any flash and glue them together. Lots of little bits of paper were trimmed, rolled, and glued in place. Assembling some of the drawers from five pieces of wood (front, back, sides, and bottom) and gluing on the bead handle took a bit of effort. 

The chair, on the other hand, was a nuisance. The legs, leg braces, and back braces are all cut from toothpicks. Everything was glued up, and trying to keep all the legs at the correct angles so they touched the floor and didn't lean over was annoying. I relied on superglue here to keep my sanity. I can't imagine trying to build it with rubber cement as the instructions called for.

Then, I got to move on to the fun parts like filling up the glass jars with various paper scrolls, beads, flowers, and the like. This part of crafting is enjoyable. Thank goodness everything is provided, as having to source all of this would be a nightmare.

The candles in particular are made from paper tubes, the same type that that are used as lollypop handles. You are supposed to unwind the edge until there is just a thin strand left in the center and then paint that black to look like a candle wick. I didn't understand the instructions so instead I just glued on a thin piece of solder which I later painted black. Either way took a bit of effort, but I think they came out alright.

The hanging branch "things" started off as plastic Christmas tree (?) material that I had to cut up, bind with thin wire (that had black insulation which first had to be stripped), and then superglue for extra strength.

At this point, all of the interior details were just waiting to get put onto the shelves.

But first, I had to cut up some twine and red thread and make a broomstick. That wasn't much fun, and I set it aside for later. It was the last thing I ended up doing on the kit.

A lantern, composed of six pieces plus the wire handle that I had to bend myself, were glued together. You can see the instructions on the left that I referenced.

For extra security, I superglued the handle to the bottom and then filled in the rest with white glue to really hold it.

At least a half-hour was spent folding and gluing up the boxes and lids. Then labels were attached. Thankfully the bend lines were pre-scored.

Here is where I was after six hours:

Now that all the fun internal decorations were finished, it was time to start on the actual structure itself. The core of the building consists of white painted wood pieces and non-painted masonite. Most of the smaller pieces on the left were for the battery box holder.

The entry steps were pieces of wood wrapped in stone paper. Then, everything was glued together. I did it in stages to allow proper glue time while keeping everything in the alignment that best allowed gravity to assist me. The "wood floor" is more paper, and for that I used the rubber cement they provided.

The roof involved gluing on braces (which were warped from the kit) so I used weights to hold them flat. I also added cut metal hooks which will later support the signs and stuff.

The LED light didn't come prewired so I soldered it up (the instructions just suggest making contact joints under heat shrink tubing). The lamp is more pieces to put together.

Then, the light was glued to the roof using clamps and glue.

The overhead window material was glued onto the underside of the roof and then I could call that finished. Almost...

Extra weights were required to hold it all flat while the glue dried.

The instructions call for routing the wiring sideways out the top of the building, rearward under the eave of the roof, then back inside and down through the back corner. To hide the wires inside the building they include a piece of white shrink tubing (a neat idea), but routing them outside in the first place is stupid. If I had a lot more time I would have reengineered this step, but as it is I just built it as called for. You can see the wires glued to the outer underside of the roof edge. 

I had to get creative with the clamps and weights to get everything square and neat. Underneath that pile shown in the picture is a piece of vertical heatshrink tubing in the corner joint.

This part of the build really slowed down, as I would apply glue to the windows or wires or whatnot and have to let it dry a couple of hours before coming back and gluing something else. 

Here is how it turned out:

And from the other side...

All told, it took me 10.5 hours to build spread out over eleven work sessions. I enjoyed most of the process. I think I may build something of my own (or perhaps a gift for my wife) as it really is a neat project. For those who enjoy crafting, it would be a lot of fun. As it was, I found it similar to scratchbuilding something with lots of castings. Little bits, insignificant on their own, come together to form something much greater than the sum of its parts. And in the end, you have a lovely structure.

My friend said he was pleased with it, and that made it all worth while.