ACR Standard Structure Paint Colours

Many railroads over the years eventually developed standards for colour schemes and designs of stations and other structures. Since the Algoma Central was a relatively small railway, and running through such sparsely populated wilderness, only a small handful of proper stations were ever built, and each at different times and to fit the requirements of the location, so a standard station plan was never developed (and the stations at the well-known crossing points of other railways at Franz, Oba and Hearst were all built by the other railways at those locations – Canadian Pacific, Canadian Northern and National Transcontinental Railways, respectively, and the current two-storey brick station at Hawk Junction only dates to the 1940s when the yard was extensively redeveloped). However more or less standard versions of many other common structures were developed, which I have been exploring here on this blog over the last few months.

It is natural too, that the railway would establish a standard painting scheme for these structures, and while a trip along the line today will display quite a variety of treatments to the old section houses, many of these existing section houses on the south end between Sault Ste. Marie and Hawk Junction have been renovated and upgraded by private owners as cottages. During the 1970s and 1980s the standard colour scheme for most [wood sided] ACR structures was white with dark green trim.

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Mashkode section bunkhouse, July 2014. Now a private camp, but mostly unaltered. My photo.

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Franz section bunkhouse, September 2013. My photo.

These two shots of Mashkode and Franz help illustrate how the bunkhouse and associated tool sheds would all receive the same treatment.

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Abandoned speeder/tool shed at Frater in the mid 1990s. Blair Smith photo.

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Outhouse behind Searchmont Station. July 2013, my photo.

Even this old double outhouse and a nearby storage shed in the weeds behind Searchmont station follows the standard colours with white paint overall and dark green trim.

This two-storey structure at Hawk Junction is identified as the railway bunkhouse. It was located across the street from the station and apparently later lost to a fire. It again follows the standard colours.

Prior to about 1970, the standard railway colours still involved a dark green trim, but on what can best be described as a sort of light pistachio green shade for the siding. As this started to be repainted to white and green in the early 1970s, there aren’t really any existing examples of this anymore, but Ted Ellis has some good 1960s shots on his Algoma Central photo website:

Canyon Section Bunkhouse and Tool Sheds – 1964

Mashkode Section Bunkhouse and Tool Sheds – 1970

Frater Engineman’s Bunkhouse – 1964

Franz Section House – Porch and Trimming

I’ve had the opportunity to put a little more work into my section house build, and it’s starting to get a lot closer to finished.

Across the front of the structure is a covered porch which extends the full width of the building. According to the standard drawings, the porch extends five and a half feet forward from the structure. To start the porch roof, I built an open framework using scale 4×4 strip for the porch roof. This was a very delicate piece to work with, but holds together fairly strongly once fully assembled with the sheet material for the roof’s surface cemented to the rafters.

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After this was all set up, I proceeded to add the fascia trim to all of the roof edges of the structure.

I also built the porch with a sheet of .020″ thick scribed Evergreen styrene sheet material and some .060x.060″ strip framing. Then, to complete the model down to the ground and also hold everything together more rigidly, I added the vertical board cladding all around the bottom supports of the structure. (Some more recent photos at this location show some of this replaced with lattice, but I have a couple of older photos that I’ve saved and archived in my reference folder where this is vertical siding all the way around, so I went with this approach.)

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You’ll also notice I’ve added the chimneys for the stoves that heat the structure. To mount the main chimney at the peak of the roof, I filed a notch into the roof itself so that the chimney could be cemented down on a flat surface rather than trying some sort of painful attempt to cut a peaked bevel into the base of the molded plastic chimney which I never would have pulled off cleanly.

The kitchen chimney however had the based filed off at an angle to bevel it to the slope of the roof.

Franz Section House Scratchbuild

Thanks to a couple of days off this week for American Thanksgiving (while I live and work in Canada, my office does the lion’s share of our business south of the border, so the office is closed these two days) I had a chance to actually spend a good amount of time working on model projects this week. And the main project I’m working on right now is a model of the section house for Franz, where the ACR crossed the Canadian Pacific transcontinental main line.

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Being able to just kick back and relax and spend a couple of evenings and pretty much most of my Saturday enjoying my models allowed me to actually make quite a bit more progress than I expected and the main body of the section house is essentially completed:

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The body of the structure and the doors and corner trim were constructed in the same manner and using the same approach and techniques as with the tool sheds, just with a slightly different shaped building.

As the windows on the Franz section house were all covered (and a 1981 slide in my collection showing a general view of the structures along Franz siding shows that this was the case then as well, and the newer bunkhouse and maintenance tool/storage shed are also in place then) I did not cut out the window openings to install window castings, but overlaid rectangles of .010″ styrene on the surface of the structure wall to represent the cover over the window opening and scratchbuilt frames with .010x.060″ strip and a .020x.020″ bottom sill.

The roof is .040″ sheet and still needs some fascia trimming to finish up the detailing, and a mount for the chimney in the centre of the roof line.

Next will be a matter of constructing the porch and porch roof and the footings on which the structure sits and is raised off of the ground.

ACR Standard Design Section Houses Part 2

As a follow-up to my previous post on the ACR’s standard design section house, here’s a collection of additional still surviving section houses along the line. Many of these are now private cottages, and a few farther to the north on the railway are simply abandoned.

Northland (Mile 24.7)

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Northland section. September 30, 2014. Chris vanderHeide.

Typical design. Now a private cabin. The sign hanging off of the porch roof identifies it as “The Ranch”. Notice that this house has a shallower roof pitch than most of the others, matching a 1/3 roof pitch shown on standard drawings.

Another view of Northland Section in 1988, before the trees screened some of the view, from Ted Ellis’s site.

Achigan (Mile 41.8)

Achigan section, July 28, 2014. Chris vanderHeide.

Achigan section, July 28, 2014. Chris vanderHeide.

Achigan section has received some renovations with a replaced roof, siding and windows. Looks like the kitchen needs a little work yet. This shows a steeper roof pitch than the 1/3 shown in the standard drawing and the Northland section house above.

Achigan in 1974 (Ted Ellis)

Batchewana (Mile 79.8)

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Batchewana section. July 28, 2014. Chris vanderHeide.

Batchewana is one of the last places south of Canyon that still have both an active full-length siding and a surviving section house structure. This is another almost original structure, although the owner of the house has enclosed the porch into a sunroom.

Batchewana section in 1970 (Ted Ellis)

Rand (Mile 85)

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Rand section. August 2014. Nick Acciavatti.

This was the location of a forestry service fire base, and there are quite a number of other buildings located here pretty much all of which are privately owned cabins today. There was no ACR siding at this location, but the outline of the standard section house is unmistakable, even with new siding and windows.

Rand, 1979 (Ted Ellis)

Hubert (Mile 95. 5)

Hubert section. July 28, 2014. Chris vanderHeide.

Hubert section. July 28, 2014. Chris vanderHeide.

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Hubert section. July 28, 2014. Chris vanderHeide.

This is another former section house that has received some extensive renovations in private ownership. It (and its associated sheds) have all received new metal roofing, new siding and upgraded windows. This cottage definitely appears to be in nice shape.

Frater (Mile 102.6)

Frater section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

Frater section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

Frater’s section house was located a little farther back from the rails, across the parking area for Frater station, which was formerly located just to the south. (The station was demolished several years ago.) Frater is one of the few places along the line with easy road access, with the nearest proper highway access (other than unimproved logging roads) being 50+ miles to the north or south.

Canyon (Mile 113.8)

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Canyon section. June 2000. Chris vanderHeide.

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Canyon section. July 28, 2014. Chris vanderHeide.

The former Canyon section house is now used as the Park Ranger’s bunkhouse and first aid station at Agawa Canyon Park.

The rough-edged wood siding, giving this structure a more rustic look, is not original. This structure once had the same sort of milled siding as found on the other typical ACR section houses.

Eton (Mile 120.1)

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Eton section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

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Eton section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

The section house at Eton is now a private rental lodge. It’s seen some alterations with the front porch enclosed making a sun room, an enlarged first floor window on the south side, an extended deck and a large addition on the north side of the structure, but otherwise this structure still exhibits the typical look of ACR section houses. It also appears to have been relocated from an original location lower and closer to the tracks.

Eton is the first siding north of Canyon and still remains in service as an active siding. There is also currently quite an active pulpwood loading spur near the north end of Eton siding.

O’Connor (Mile 125.5)

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O’Connor section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

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O’Connor section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

There is no siding at this location, just this lonely section house, which is now a private cabin. Another typical design, very close to the standard drawing and almost identical to Agawa, Mashkode and Batchewana except for window and door locations on the kitchen annex.

Perry (Mile 149.9)

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Perry section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

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Perry section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

Another section house that is now privately owned. The front porch has been gussied up a bit with a lattice railing, and the stonework chimney on the south side of the structure is an alteration. You can see a cap in the middle of the roof line where the original centrally located brick chimney would have been.

The kitchen extension on this section house is definitely unusual, being full width across the back of the structure and having a peaked gabled roof, instead of a simple slanting lean-to roof that would be common on other section houses.

Perry, 1988 (Ted Ellis)

Franz (Mile 194.9)

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Franz section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

Another fairly typical section house with a large rear annex, although the window locations vary a bit from most other section houses. This building was replaced by a newer one story crew bunkhouse nearby, and is now boarded up and disused. Franz is another example with a shallower roof pitch similar to the drawing in the Sault Public Library Archives.

Oba (Mile 244.7)

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Oba section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

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Oba section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide.

This abandoned bunk house at Oba has probably the most unusual siding treatment, being covered in tan asphalt “insul-brick” below the eaves and grey shingles on the gable end. Rolled roofing instead of shingles is also unusual compared to other examples. The chimney also appears to be located to the rear of the main structure instead of the exact centre along the ridge line.

Trees and bushes growing in around the derelict structure make it hard to tell if it even has a rear annex, although this would be particularly unusual for the kitchen annex to not be present.

To finish off, here’s a few more section house locations not covered above from Ted Ellis. If any of these actually still exist today, I was looking out the wrong side of the train when we passed and didn’t see them.

Heyden (Mile 14.1), 1972

Wanda (Mile 188.3), 1983

Horsey (Mile 273.1), 1973

Coppell (Mile 280.9), 1973

And that would seem to be about it for prototype section houses for now. With some various simple sheds tackled, I’m ready to get into building one or two of these bunkhouses, starting with a new model of the Franz section house with proper dimensions.

Stay tuned…

ACR Standard Design Section House

A railroad requires a lot of regular maintenance to keep the operations running smoothly. And in the old days prior to reliable automotive transport and modern track maintenance machines, a small local maintenance crew would have been responsible for inspecting and maintaining a given section of track of a few miles. The section bunkhouse (and related nearby sheds for storing maintenance supplies, tools and other materiel) served as the home for the local “section” foreman. (These track maintenance workers responsible for a section of railway were sometimes called sectionmen.) With the advent of more mechanized forms of track maintenance, fewer workers could maintain much larger stretches of railway, so manpower needs were reduced, and the section houses closed. Most section houses are now long gone from the railways, but several of the old Algoma Central section houses still stand today. Some stand derelict and abandoned but some (particularly the remaining ones closer to the south end of the railway) are now privately owned camps and cabins.

Most railways had standard designs for common structures along the line like section bunkhouses. Here, the Algoma Central was no exception. The ACR’s standard 2 bedroom section house was a 2-story wood-frame structure with the gable ends aligned perpendicular to the tracks, a covered porch at the front and a 1-story kitchen annex at the rear. An original drawing from the Algoma Central’s files of a 1951 version of the standard plan exists in the collection of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library’s archives.

ACR drawing # C-5-4 (Standard Section House). Collection of Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Archives.

Excerpt from ACR drawing # C-5-4 (Standard Section House). Collection of Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Archives.

The drawing shows a main structure with and 18’ x 22’ footprint and a 14’ x 14’ kitchen attached to the rear. The main floor features a living and dining area and the upstairs has two equally sized bedrooms. The section houses built along the line tended to vary slightly from the actual drawing though, and a close look at the drawing shows that it’s been revised a couple times and you can see where pencil marks for locations of doors and windows around the kitchen annex have been shifted around on the drawing.

Main floor plan of standard section house. Excerpt from ACR drawing # C-5-4 (Standard Section House). Collection of Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Archives.

Main floor plan of standard section house.
Excerpt from ACR drawing # C-5-4 (Standard Section House). Collection of Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Archives.

However as mentioned, as new houses were built or rebuilt over the years, the details of each individual section house tended to vary slightly, and I don’t think a single one of the section houses of which I have photographs matches the drawing exactly in every detail. The dimensions of the main part of the structure stayed consistent, but window arrangements could vary slightly from location to location, and sometimes the internal floor plan is mirror imaged from the “standard” plan.

The standard drawings also show a 1/3 roof pitch on the main structure, which some existing houses appear to match (Northland and Franz) but the majority seem to have a much steeper roof pitch, so there’s at least two variations here.

The kitchen annex was where the most variation tended to be; varying in size and particularly in window and door arrangements, much more than the main part of the structure. (It appears that for some older section houses, the annex was actually added later.)

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Agawa section. September 30, 2013. Chris vanderHeide photo.

This abandoned but still-standing section house at Agawa (Mile 130.9) is pretty close to the standard drawing (other than some window locations on the kitchen and steeper roof pitch) and illustrates the typical style and finish quite nicely, with an asphalt shingled roof, wide veranda porch on the front of the structure and milled board siding (what Evergreen would call “novelty siding” in their line of textured styrene sheet products for model scratchbuilding).

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Mashkode section. July 28, 2014. Chris vanderHeide photo.

At Mashkode (Mile 56.2), now a privately owned cottage but more or less unaltered from its previous appearance, we can see the bunkhouse in context of the other outbuildings that would typically accompany the sectionhouse: a small storage shed, and an outhouse.

Not visible, but also would have typically been part of the collection of structures for a section would be a track speeder and tool storage shed near the tracks and in some locations, as the main structure was only a 2 bedroom affair, additional small one man bunk cabins.

Main floor plan of Wyborn section house. Excerpt from ACR drawing # E-23-4 (Wyborn Section House). Collection of Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Archives.

Main floor plan of Wyborn section house.
Excerpt from ACR drawing # E-23-4 (Wyborn Section House). Collection of Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Archives.

Often located many dozens of miles from any sort of recognizable community, very few of these section houses were located anywhere near any municipal sources of running water or electricity. Wyborn (Mile 294.1) is a notable exception; the section house here was located within the city of Hearst and an original drawing of this section house also exists in the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Archives (dated 1937 but with a notation for a 1968 revision), and this drawing shows a full bath with tub and shower on the floor plan, as well as the location of the incoming electrical meter and breaker box (near the left side of the kitchen). This section house is also a little unusual in that instead of a full width veranda porch on the front, there is a simple peaked canopy just over the entry door, and the drawing specifies in this case aluminum siding.

And of course with many of the surviving former section houses on the line now in private ownership as camps and cottages, many of them have been rebuilt to some extent or another, further changing their appearance from the standard plans.

HO scale scratchbuilt model of Franz section house by Chris vanderHeide.

HO scale scratchbuilt model of Franz section house by Chris vanderHeide.

Several years ago, I attempted to build this model of the section house at Franz, scaling it from photos. While the proportions have always felt relatively close, I’ve felt that it ended up being oversize. The dimensions on the original railway drawings confirm that the model is approximately 10% overscale. (I got too-large windows and sort of proportionally scaled things off that comparison.) It’s a pretty good representation, but now that I have access to the proper dimensions in the official drawings, I can do a much better job of constructing a version with much more accurate dimensions.