Progress at Severn Bridge

I have been working on my N scale representation of the Canadian National Railways (CNR) Huntsville Subdivision. There is a section of single track mainline between Callander (on the layout) and the north staging yard (which I will call Nipissing).

Even though the scene to the right, at Severn Bridge on the Newmarket Subdivision (just north of Washago) does not fit geographically into the layout section in question, I have chosen to transplant it there. As you can see from the picture, it is crying out to be reproduced in miniature.

In the second picture, you can see the progress which I am making with the assistance of my sons Spencer and Duncan, and my friend Paul Frechette (all three of these unfortunate individuals have been coaxed out by me in frigid weather to hold the cold end of a steel measuring tape). And with not even a Tim Horton's coffee as reward (seeing his opening, son Spencer has spotted a bag of cookies in the railway room, as I type this, and has asked for his "reward" now).

Back to the model. This shows the plaster abutments, along with a Central Valley truss bridge (and a Micro Engineering girder bridge to the left) in a mockup of the scene. A pair of CNR F-7s are set up with a northbound manifest freight train. Also in the picture are several elms and maples which I have made recently from a Scenic Express tree kit. The truck in the foreground is positioned on what will become a section of Highway 11. Between the stone abutment and the stone pier will be the Severn River.

Steam Scenes of Allandale and Steam at Allandale nicely describe the steam-era operations along the Newmarket and Huntsville Subdivisions, on which the layout is based.