The railway had a few structures, the smallest being the tool shed/office. I decided at the time I would like to experiment with styrene construction for large scale structures, and used a variety of commercial styrene products to build the model. One of the most interesting project I have completed to date is the railway's small passenger car (originally an open trolley car). I kit bashed it using parts from variety of sources. The seats, frame and end walls are from a New Bright toy train model of a Walt Disney World Railroad passenger car from the early 1990s. A portion of the roof comes from a Bachmann trolley and the trucks are Lionel with Bachmann wheels. One of the constant challenges is deciding on the appropriate level of detail for these models. I would like to add enough detail bits that they are reasonably accurate models of the prototype, but on the other hand, they are design for operation on my garden railway and see a lot of use and handling.

Some time ago, I was running my Portage Flyer at a model railway exhibit in Toronto. An elderly lady stopped by the display and instantly remarked: "That's a model of the train I used to ride on as a child to go to our cottage!" Then I knew my modeling efforts had all been worthwhile. About three years ago, I modified an Accucraft Ruby to resemble one of the latter Huntsville and Lake of Bays locomotives by adding a saddle tank made from brass, new end beams and a some additional detail bits. Although a tad large in 1/24th scale, it captures the feel of the prototype nicely and looks good hauling the Portage Flyer. An article on the saddletank construction is here.

Finally, I completed the last piece of rolling stock, namely the large coach. The construction was similar to that of the small coach, in that New Bright toy coaches were used for the floor, seats and end walls and Bachmann trolleys supplied the roof. Since the prototype was 42' long, the model is huge (21" long) by comparison to the small coach. I used silk cloth applied with a coating of white glue to simulate the canvas roof, followed by matt black paint and some chalk weathering. Pleased the result, I went back and did the same treatment to the roof on the small coach.

In conclusion, I find it truly amazing that such a little railway with such a small roster and has held my modeling interest for so long. There are a number of projects I'd like to tackle, such as the two original Porters, the north and south station/shelter buildings and then there is always the company's steamboats...

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