Equipment Portraits :: 7

Several years ago, I started to shoot portraits of the equipment that ran on my (now dismantled) S scale Port Rowan layout, and published them on my previous (now defunct) website. I always liked this series and I think others enjoyed it too, so this month I’ve been resurrecting the series for this website. While I started by presenting the subjects featured in some of the original posts, I have also been expanding this series by adding more recent projects – such as this one…

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NS&T 21

At first glance, those who know their electric freight motors will recognize this as a Baldwin-Westinghouse Class D – but they’d be wrong. When this unit was built in 1927, cross-border duties and taxes were still a thing – and quite significant. So this unit was assembled in Canada by the Canadian Locomotive Company, following a B-W Class D design. The very non-Baldwin trucks are a good giveaway: This unit rides on longer, 8′ wheelbase trucks with Alco-Allen side frames. The Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto Railway acquired this 60-ton freight motor in 1941 from the Montreal & Southern Counties – a CNR electric subsidiary. It was scrapped in 1960.

My version of NS&T 21 started as a fully-assembled model built from a set of etchings produced at one time by Model Railroad Warehouse. I acquired it from good friend Jim Martin, who had commissioned William Flatt to build it and detail it for the Lake Erie & Northern – a Canadian Pacific Railway electric subsidiary. Jim’s model rode on trucks with a shorter wheelbase and had many different details – including pilots, railings, and rooftop appliances. I warmed up the resistance soldering rig and stripped the body down to a basic shell, then performed significant surgery on the ends. When I was happy with the basic body shape, I filled un-needed mounting holes and drilled new ones, then started mounting replacement parts. I also built a new floor for the model, on which to mount new power trucks (with a different wheelbase and spacing) plus DCC components. William supplied the side frames, a pair of trolley poles, and other details. Still more details came from a variety of sources. My model rides on a pair of Northwest Short Line Stanton Drive power trucks, controlled via an ESU LokSound V5 decoder enhanced with a PowerPack module and loaded with a customized sound package.

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I’ll continue to add more entries to this series of equipment portraits as time permits. If you’ve read this far, thanks for sticking with it. I hope you’re enjoying these photos and notes. Next time, a return to the freight cars that served Port Rowan…