My S scale Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto Railway has one more piece of motive power today, as I put the finishing touches on Number 18, cleaned its wheels, and declared it ready for service.
This is an interesting freight motor in that it’s one of the very few American locomotives on the NS&T. (Most were fabricated in Canada, either by the NS&T itself or by a builder such as National Steel Car or Canadian Locomotive Company.) Baldwin Westinghouse built this 55-ton Class B in 1918 for the Hydro Electric Power Commission’s Queenston Construction Railway, where it wore the number E-21. After the power canal was built, it was reassigned in 1924 to the Toronto & York Radial Railway. The NS&T acquired it in 1927 and it ran until the wires came down in 1960. From the NS&T, it moved to the Oshawa Railway as that CNR subsidiary’s Number 18, and then in 1965 it ended up at the Connecticut Electric museum – where it remains to this day.
As with my other freight motors, I’ve modelled this in the classic black CNR “Wafer” scheme. There are many photos of the prototype in CNR green and black and while it’s a lovely scheme, the green wasn’t applied until sometime in 1959, shortly before the NS&T shut off the power. The orange windows (with scratch-built frames) give the Wafer scheme a welcome splash of colour.
This model is a nice addition to the roster for a few reasons. For one, it provides an interesting contrast to NS&T 21, a CLC-built clone of the slightly larger Baldwin Westinghouse Class D. For another, it’s the first of my freight motors to be equipped with a whistle instead of air horns, so it sounds very different. (I’d say “unique”, but when I build Number 17 it will also have a whistle.)
I’m grateful to Eric Hopkins for selling me a set of Model Railroad Warehouse brass body etchings from his stash to make this model possible. Thanks again, Eric!
The Model Railway Show 