by Trevor Marshall/photos by the author except as noted
Modeling a specific prototype often forces us to learn new skills as we need to recreate certain locomotives, cars and structures. That’s certainly been the case for me as I attempt to bring the Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto Railway to life in my layout room. I wrote about my NS&T ambitions in the April 2023 issue of RMC, but the short version of the story is, I’ve wanted to model this electrified subsidiary of the Canadian National Railways system once located in southern Ontario since I first learned about it in the early 1980s. After more than four decades of dreaming, I finally got the chance to make it happen when I met William Flatt, another modeler fascinated by Niagara’s famous electric railway. William had produced sets of photoetches for the bodies of several NS&T freight motors, and I was able to acquire his spares. I was in business!
There was just one problem: I’d never built a brass locomotive. To turn these sheets of brass into the heart and soul of a layout, I’d have to learn a whole lot about metal fabrication — including resistance soldering.
The model that’s the subject of this article is actually the seventh NS&T freight motor I’ve built, and as I describe its construction I’ll focus on some of the lessons I’ve learned. If you have a project in brass that is on hold because you’re not sure how to approach it, I hope this will encourage you to get it out of the box and onto the bench.
ABOVE: NS&T 17 was wearing its classic black scheme at the St. Catharines car barn on June 11, 1955. A similar photo in a book about the railway inspired the author to model this freight motor. —P.W. Prescott photo, author’s collection
More Than Four Decades of Service
The Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto Railway was a regional railway that ran under trolley wire in the Niagara Peninsula of southern Ontario, operating from 1899 until 1959. Motor No. 17 started life as E-9, a 35-foot-long, 50-ton motor built by National Steel Car in Hamilton, Ont., in 1918. E-9 was ordered by the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario for use on the construction railway that helped build the HEPC’s 8.5-mile-long Queenston Power Canal to feed a generating station downriver from Niagara Falls.
Once the power plant opened in 1921, HEPC dismantled its railway and sold off the equipment. NS&T acquired E-9 in 1926 and it worked for its new owner until the end of electrification in 1960. When the wire came down, parent Canadian National transferred 17 and several other NS&T freight motors to the Oshawa Railway, located east of Toronto. Number 17 was eventually scrapped.
Learning to Solder, Again
I’ve been soldering since the 1970s and I’m comfortable with the process — at least as it applies to wiring. And the same skills work well for soldering small parts such as photoetched ladders or wire railings. But the bigger stuff like frames and body panels requires a different approach, and while I’d acquired some of the tools I really wasn’t sure where to begin.
ABOVE: Outer cab walls, hood tops, and hood sides are marked and drilled for railings and other details. A and B markings, plus hood tops labels, help indicate which end is adjacent to the cab.
Fortunately, I know people who do. One day, while talking with my friend Andy Malette, we realized we both had brass models of USRA 2-8-2s that we wanted to re-detail as CN Mikados, and I asked if we could work on them together. Andy taught me the basics of tinning sheets, safely holding hot stuff, and using a resistance soldering rig.
I moved 2,000 miles away before we finished that project — and also realized I needed more practice before I tackled my NS&T motors. I looked for some well-designed kits that would let me master the techniques Andy taught me.
I found what I needed in the U.K., where there’s a long tradition of building railway models in photoetched brass. I acquired a number of 7mm (British 0 scale) kits for 19th century freight cars manufactured by Walsall Model Industries. The instructions are well-written and the prototypes are pretty rudimentary compared to more modern (e.g.: 20th Century) rolling stock, so there are fewer fiddly bits to worry about. What’s more, I could easily order a replacement kit if I made an unredeemable mess of things — something I could not do with my NS&T etches. (There are other manufacturers with quality product too, of course — including some that advertise “beginner’s kits.” Ask for recommendations on a U.K. modeling forum.)
ABOVE: Once the body is assembled, the author added detail parts and piping. The study guide and a punch list are invaluable for planning the work.
I started with simple open wagons (gondolas, basically) and worked my way up to vans (boxcars) and more complex prototypes such as brake vans (cabooses). When I felt comfortable with the process, I tackled my freight motors. (If you don’t have someone to teach you to use a resistance soldering rig, I highly recommend this approach. As a bonus, if your hobby has been focused strictly on North American subjects, you’ll learn about a different prototype and a different world of modelbuilding.)
