Canadian Atlantic Railway - Dominion Atlantic Railway freelance

[DAR2902]

Anyone interested in a modern era freelance DAR? I'm giving it a modern spin of old and new industries but gypsum is still the bread and butter.

[stem]

I've thinking along the same lines. I have ordered two Rapido D-10s in DAR numbers and have a 11 foot by 24 inch space allotted to play on. Looking for older stock on the Rapido SW-1200s or hopefully a re-issue. I dearly want to do the WIndsor station, yard and town to the bridge but that won't happen. I have thought the Middleton yard as well would be interesting. Digby station, yard and wharf or the Yarmouth station, yard and wharf were alway locations to consider if there's a bit more space available.

Bits a pieces from any of the above combined together would make a fine freelance.

[DAR2902]

I have a fleet or 40 three bay cars for gypsum service. The yellow hopper is a ballast car and the yellow covered hopper was formerly a Penn Central scale car and is now a DAR scale car .

[DAR2902]

I've thinking along the same lines. I have ordered two Rapido D-10s in DAR numbers and have a 11 foot by 24 inch space allotted to play on. Looking for older stock on the Rapido SW-1200s or hopefully a re-issue. I dearly want to do the WIndsor station, yard and town to the bridge but that won't happen. I have thought the Middleton yard as well would be interesting. Digby station, yard and wharf or the Yarmouth station, yard and wharf were alway locations to consider if there's a bit more space available.

Bits a pieces from any of the above combined together would make a fine freelance.

Those D-10's should be a great loco for a small layout. I haven't settled on an area other than I want to model some of the Mantua mine, particularly the loading shed. I kept all of the trackage intact in my world including the line to Truro.

[stem]

I like your freelance DAR logo! If only I could get my vapour-layout to the point you have yours. Soon I hope but arrival of the locomotives will be my start trigger. The 3 bay hoppers are close enough for freelance.

Looks like you have lots of room.

[MP32_Halifax]

Kudos for thinking outside the box; i.e. a modern-day 'fantasy' DAR. Why get bogged down in the minutiae of reality? Freelancing makes things a lot easier!

I've thinking along the same lines. I have ordered two Rapido D-10s in DAR numbers and have a 11 foot by 24 inch space allotted to play on. Looking for older stock on the Rapido SW-1200s or hopefully a re-issue. I dearly want to do the WIndsor station, yard and town to the bridge but that won't happen...

I'm in almost exactly the same place, albeit with less space; I also have one of the Rapido D-10s on order and when it arrives, I really need to make a decision about what I'm going to model on the DAR. I was planning on a transition-era shelf layout since I have a P2K DAR S-3, a P1K RDC and a bunch of transition-era rolling stock to accompany the D-10 & S-3. Like Steve, my first choice would also be to model Windsor since I lived there and I remember the trains running through town before the causeway was built. However, I also have a small fleet of WWI-era DAR, ICR and GT wood boxcars that don't fit in the 50s/60s. Decisions, decisions...

[stem]

So many specialized AND old rolling stock items on the DAR that approximations and an impressionistic layout to capture the feel (but not necessarily historically correct) is the way to go without driving yourself mad.

I used to scratchbuild so much but it almost became an obsession once I started because after you set a benchmark for yourself, it's hard to back off. I decided to sell all my HO at that point and all my unbuilt 1.72 aircraft models and swore to never go back (25 years ago). Now I just want to play trains like when I was a kid. Ready to run and fill in the blanks with imagination.

So I think doing Windsor in a straight line would look good. Yard, station, freight shed, etc. on one end, town on the other. Time to start to try and figure out how.

[DAR2902]

I like your freelance DAR logo! If only I could get my vapour-layout to the point you have yours. Soon I hope but arrival of the locomotives will be my start trigger. The 3 bay hoppers are close enough for freelance.

Looks like you have lots of room.

The room is roughly 15x27.

[DAR2902]

Kudos for thinking outside the box; i.e. a modern-day 'fantasy' DAR. Why get bogged down in the minutiae of reality? Freelancing makes things a lot easier!

I'm in almost exactly the same place, albeit with less space; I also have one of the Rapido D-10s on order and when it arrives, I really need to make a decision about what I'm going to model on the DAR. I was planning on a transition-era shelf layout since I have a P2K DAR S-3, a P1K RDC and a bunch of transition-era rolling stock to accompany the D-10 & S-3. Like Steve, my first choice would also be to model Windsor since I lived there and I remember the trains running through town before the causeway was built. However, I also have a small fleet of WWI-era DAR, ICR and GT wood boxcars that don't fit in the 50s/60s. Decisions, decisions...

Reality is dull sometimes a d freelance keeps it fresh. Transition-era would be cool to model and not difficult if you did want to slide back or forward in time to model the fun stuff.

[MP32_Halifax]

So many specialized AND old rolling stock items on the DAR that approximations and an impressionistic layout to capture the feel (but not necessarily historically correct) is the way to go without driving yourself mad.

Agreed. The WWI-era cars may sit on a separate track in front of an apple warehouse (something else to build!)

I used to scratchbuild so much but it almost became an obsession once I started because after you set a benchmark for yourself, it's hard to back off. I decided to sell all my HO at that point and all my unbuilt 1.72 aircraft models and swore to never go back (25 years ago). Now I just want to play trains like when I was a kid. Ready to run and fill in the blanks with imagination.

Seems we have similar stories. For me, life got in the way of modelling about 40 years ago and everything had been boxed up for 35 years. When I was clearing out and selling my parents' house about seven years ago, the 'time capsule' was re-opened. Everything from brass steam to Athearn blue boxes to unfinished kitbash projects frozen in time. Plus a LOT of N scale stuff my father accumulated over the years, unbeknownst to me. Now that I've retired, I'm fortunate to have some time to sort through stuff and decide what I want to focus on. At least while my eyes are still up for the task. And yes, there's some recapturing of youth in there.

[stem]

I've only got what I purchased off of FB Marketplace in the last year. Waiting for those D10s! I only have 10' by 24" to start. But that shoulds be enough to get a little switching action going. I've learned a lot from Rob Chant on small switching stuff. Check out his group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/jomrd/

Then there's this group one too for more small layouts:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1073658332802559/about

[MP32_Halifax]

Back to the DAR freelancing (and small/micro layout design), I've been simultaneously intrigued, puzzled and very impressed by James Hilton's modelling of a freelanced TerraTransport that includes the DAR and HSW as subsidiaries. See https://paxton-road.blogspot.com/search ... atransport

What is puzzling is why someone in North Wales has taken such an interest in mostly-defunct railway lines in Atlantic Canada. Regardless, he has woven quite a fictional story about TT not only surviving CN's attempt to kill it, but thriving to become the parent of revived HSW, DAR and something called Dartmouth Terminal that operates the Wright's Cove gypsum terminal. Once you get over the mind-bending sight of a GP9RM in TT livery with DAR or HSW lettering, it's quite cool.

Also, he's an excellent modeller and seems to specialize in building micro layouts. He has one for PEI with a CN 70-tonner. I'll very likely take some of his ideas for the small spaces I have. Easy to see one for Windsor. Anyway, really impressive stuff. Perhaps y'all were already aware of his site.

[DAR2902]

James also came up with a great concept for keeping rail alive in the maritimes. So many missed opportunities in the three provinces with freight and passenger service.

Rob does fantastic work and he did my track plan.

So far the top and middle sections have been built. The bottom section is getting a bit of a redo relocating the solid waste plant and adding the Mantua mine. The papermill needs a name as do most of the other industries and I'll use their former names or something DAR related.