Introduction
Two-foot gauge
railways were very rare in Canada, and those that existed were
not very well known. From 1940 to the mid 1980s, a small two
foot gauge railway operated in the Wainfleet bog, (Niagara Falls,
Ontario), largely unknown to the local narrow gauge railway enthusiasts.
The Erie Peat Company (later Atkins and Dunbrow (Erie) Ltd.)
operated a railway to haul peat moss from the bog to a nearby
processing plant. It was patterned after similar railways in
Ireland and in Britain. The railway equipment consisted of two
locomotives (a 1.5 ton Brookville and a much-modified Ruston
and Hornsby LAU) and 40 home-made peat wagons. One locomotive
shunted cars back and forth in the cutting fields and the other
locomotive hauled trains of up to 16 wagons to the processing
plant. The railway was abandoned after a devastating fire in
the bog in 1983. The locomotives and rolling stock were then
stored in a large shed on the property, and subsequently acquired
for preservation by local railway enthusiasts after their discovery
in 1993. The track network, totaling 3 miles, remains in place
to this day, with the bog now being a nature conservation area.
I became interested in the railway after having the opportunity to ride on some of the equipment when it was returned briefly to the bog railway for a special event for local narrow gauge enthusiasts in 1995. Since then, I have made several visits to photograph the equipment and document the remains of the railway in the bog. Given the rarity of two-foot railways in Canada, I just knew I had to build a model of this unique operation in 16mm scale. Fortunately, fellow local 16mm modeller Peter Foley shares my interest in the peat bog railway and has prepared drawings of the locomotives and the some of the rolling stock, (which have appeared in the American magazine "Light Iron Digest" over the last few years)
The Locomotive
Of the two locomotives, the tiny Brookville
appealed to me the most, so I set out to scratch build it. Even
in 16mm scale, it would be a mere 4.25" long, 2.25"
wide and 4.25 high-- a tiny locomotive indeed. The first challenge
was finding a suitable small power chassis for a battery-powered
model. I initially considered cutting down a 6 wheel Atlas Plymouth
O scale switcher chassis and re-powering it with a motor more
suitable for low voltage batteries. After some research, I discovered
that I P Engineering in the United Kingdom manufactured a small
power chassis that was very close in terms of wheel diameter
and axle spacing. After some experimentation, I discovered that
the power chassis ran very well off one "C" size 1.5
V battery. The locomotive frame and wheel bearings were then
constructed out of styrene. Two tiny toggle switches (one for
direction, one for on/off) were mounted under the deck frame.
For operation on my garden railway, I wanted to be able to control
the locomotive from levers inside the cab, just like the prototype.
I used near scale cast brass interlocking levers sold by 16 mm
scale supplier Brandbright Ltd. in the U.K. The large bottom
portion of the casting was cut off and the remaining detailed
piece was attached to the toggle lever with a piece of K&S
brass tubing. A battery holder was added to the frame and now
I had a functioning chassis.
The prototype Brookville had long ago lost the engine compartment covers, providing an excellent excuse to build a detailed engine. A dig through the surplus parts box yield a cast metal engine from a 1/20th scale metal Model T car kit of suitable size. The engine was cut so that it rested on the frame deck. Detail bits such as fan belts, and wiring were added. The air cleaner, muffler and piping were scratch built from styrene and brass tubing. The radiator came from a plastic Lionel diesel generator casting. The grill and support frames were constructed from angle brass stock. The couplers were cast brass, also supplied by Brandbright for 16mm scale models and modified to match the prototype. Commercial 3mm high cast styrene lettering were used to create the "BROOKVILLE" plates on the side of the frame.
The cab was constructed from sheet styrene and styrene strip. A somewhat oversize "fuel tank" hides the "C" battery inside the cab. I scratch built the seat in the cab. It sits on telescoping K&S tubing, which allows it to swivel (and, more importantly, be removed to allow replacement of the battery when needed). The model was painted with acrylic model railroad paints and weathered with "washes" of dilute black. Lastly, I added a few bits of lead to the underside of the tiny locomotive to increase its weight. I was quite pleased with the pulling power of the locomotive and the rather sedate speed at which it runs.
The Peat Wagons
The prototype wagon chassis were constructed
mostly from angle iron and welded pedestals. The parts box again
yielded the starting point for the solution- the chassis of an
O scale bobber caboose manufactured a number of years ago by
Rivarossi. The bobber caboose even matched the prototype's tiny
diameter wheels! I first soldered up a square frame from 1/8"
K&S brass angle. I took the razor saw to the caboose chassis
and removed the four bearing pedestals. Each bearing side frame
was trimmed to fit inside the brass angle frame and was glued
in place with ACC. The caboose O gauge wheels and axles were
used "as is".
For a number of years, I owned one of the full size peat wagon chassis and stored it my garage. When I was building the cars, it was extremely handy to be able to go out to the garage and check a measurement or two-- something I would certainly not be able to do if I was modeling standard gauge equipment!
The prototype wagon bodies were constructed from unpainted wood, so the logical choice would be made the models from the same material to achieve accurate texturing weathering. I first cut thin model aircraft plywood to the proper length. An old razor saw blade was dragged along the length of the wood to enhance the grain texture. Each individual piece of wood was stained with "Weather-All" to give it a nice weathered gray finish.
Since I was planning on building a train
of six wagons, I decided to first construct some jigs from scrap
styrene to speed up assembly. Building one or two of a particular
item "the hard way" is fine, but repetitive production
this way is mind-numbing and not very enjoyable. Jigs helped
to reduce the tediousness of the work, while ensuring accuracy
of fit of critical pieces.
Several nut-bolt-washer castings were required for the model. I used cast white metal ones of suitable size from G scale casting supplier Trackside Details. Some other metal work was required to build hardware for the car. A frame for the plywood door was soldered up from 3/64" diameter brass rod. The doors were made to operate. A removable retaining board keeps the door from opening (the doors are functional on the models and swing open as per the prototype). Link and pin couplers were fabricated from square brass tube. All metal parts were painted flat black then treated with "Rustall" to give them a nice weathered appearance. Coupling pins were made from 1/16th brass wire. The links are pieces of thin brass strip. (Even is this large scale, the couplers are tiny- a pair of tweezers or needle-nose pliers are needed to couple the wagons together.) The final touches were the quaint hand painted number boards in box car red oxide with yellow lettering.
Conclusion
The train is a lot of fun to operate- the tiny locomotive trundling a string of wagons back and forth, controlled from the levers in the cab. I really enjoyed this building a model of a unique Canadian two-foot gauge prototype- so much so that perhaps one day I will build a model of the Ruston and Hornsby locomotive and a maybe even a modular railway containing the processing plant.
Sources of Information
Here is a series of magazine articles on the Erie peat railway:
"Goings on in the Bog (Erie Peat and its Railroad): Part 1", Peter Foley
Light Iron Digest, October/November 1999"Goings on in the Bog: Part 2", Peter Foley
Light Iron Digest, March 2000(Note that there was no Part 3)
"Goings on in the Bog: Part 4", Peter Foley
Light Iron Digest, June/July 2001"Goings on in the Bog: Part 5", Peter Foley
Light Iron Digest, August/September 2002"Goings on in the Bog: Part 6", Peter Foley
Light Iron Digest, October/November 2002
Peter Foley's drawing of the Brookville "Winky" can be found here.
Brian Fayle has a page of detail photographs of "Winky" here.
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