The OLOR in February

We've just turned the calendar to the second month of the year as we visit Bill's OLOR. For those who do not know, the OLOR stands for the "Ontario L'Orignal Railroad". This is a colourful railroad to railfan and Bill has covered the line in an equally colourful fashion! Coming from someone who models the 1950's with the varience in colour being boxcar red, black and the odd white covered hopper, these modern railroads resemble a rainbow of colour!

In the photograph above we spot the L'Orignal train on the main in Hawksbury sandwiched between cars on the Fib-Pak siding and the IKO siding.

The crew conveniently placed all traffic for the large rolling mill at the tailend of the train. After arriving Hawksbury, they will exchange traffic in the local sidings first before heading the seven kilometres or so westward to the IVACO rolling mill.

In recent weeks we've been discussing gondola loads and Bill's layout offers numerous and varied examples for study. All gons loaded with scrap metal are destined for the plant where the metal will be turned into coil. Note the graffiti on the side of the Conrail gon.

We've managed to spot this gondola sharing track eight with a covered hopper. There's another loaded gon on track nine. Man, this plant is a busy place 24/7!

Much of the traffic destined for Hawksbury and the plant in L'Orignal originates at Coteau, a junction point on the mainline between Toronto and Montreal. Bill staging area in the furnace room simulates the action at Coteau. I can attest that it's a lot of fun making up and breaking down trains here in the furnace room staging area. Five tracks are located here, three stubend jobbies and the two tracks serving as a runaround in the foreground which bend around the far wall where a couple of diesels and a caboose are housed.

Thanks Bill for hosting! All the lads enjoyed a wonderful evening! Mike