I built the town on the floor and raised it into place suspending it from the ceiling until the legs could be build. Under the north end I have my work bench.
Luckily I have a number of good photos of the town. Of course, the 1954 aerial photo was invaluable for getting the scale correct. Bob Sandusky, again, came to the rescue. He took one of the best ever photographs from atop the coal tower looking north. As usual, there were some structures where their were no photographs. Esso, McColl Frontenac and Bryan's grain elevator were difficult due to only having distant, and or partial, photos.
I was also missing photos of the south end of the yard. I had to make an educated guess as to how the engine facilities track started from the mail line. I do know where it started (the turn out ties are still there), but how each track branched is a bit of an educated guess. So far, it appears to be correct from subsequent photos I've seen.
In 1984 I was there and took some photos. The engine trackage, round house, and coal tower were long gone by then. I took two good photos of the freight shed (the year before it was torn down) and I have a good collection of photos of the station. The bunk house is still in situ and currently used as an office by the new railway (Orangeville and Brampton Railway). The station was carted away, not too far, and is now a restaurant.
The only "new" industry I added to the layout is the lumber yard, other than that, everything else is correct.
Except for the grain elevator, all the buildings were scratch built. The grain elevator was two standard kits built as one big building.
The north end of track contains the sidings for the MOW equipment. Plows, cabooses, etc were stored there.
Tracks are numbered from the station outwards. The two most west tracks (6 and 7) are storage of empties. The next two tracks (4 and 5) are for sorting . Track 4's north end is for cars destined for Owen Sound. Track 4's south end are for cars destined for Lambton. Track 5 north end is for Teeswater cars, and the south end for Elora cars. Track 3 is southbound trains, track 2 for northbound trains. Track 1 is the station track.
Trains arriving do their own sorting of cars. There is no yard switcher.
Train 90 comes up from Lambton one day and returns the next as 89. Normally, these would be pulled by G1 or G2 Pacifics (I have 2559 and 2231 for the job). This yard services the rest of the layout, specifically the two branch lines. These were generally mixed trains pulled by D4, D6, and D10 ten wheelers. I have D4 445, D10 953, D10 963, D10 1018. All the mixed trains leave in the morning and return at night. Making Orangeville a busy place during those times.
Train M747/748 runs the Elora line and returns the same day. Typically with less than 10 cars to switch.
Train M753 runs to Teeswater, returning the next day as M756. The two trains meet at Fraxa Junction. (for now, once Phase 2 is complete, they will meet in Grand valley).
There actually was another mixed, M715/716, that ran to Walkerton. Unfortunately I cannot have that branch due to space limitations.
To run the local industries north of Orangeville and the town itself, I created wayfreight 715/716. It runs north into Fraxa and switches that town, National Silicates, Associate Tube and the industries in Laural. More than enough to keep someone busy for a couple hours!
There are two passenger trains that stop at the town. 707 southbound from Owen Sound, usually pulled by a G5 Pacific (I plan to get 1278 for the job) and one northbound train from Toronto, train 708. They both will meet at this town at noon time.
Another train that will come through will be the gravel unit train to Highland Creek, though not a prototype train, it will add to the runs of trains. I plan on having an N1 3500 or 3600 consolidation for the job.
Some scenery has been added. I've put the station platform in place. The original was asphalt supported with wood sides. Between the wood I laid down
drywall compound, eventually carving the top into the appropriate shape. After the staining the wood, I painted the whole asphalt area with black paint. I then applied a number of different diluted grays, with a final coat of diluted black die. I think you will agree this looks quite realistic.
I've also finished applying the drywall compound to the roads and walkways.
The station was going to be a real tackle. The problem lies in the witches hat north end of the station roof. So I decided to do the roof first. Actually, this turned out to be the easy part. I started by cutting the ceiling in the correct shape. Finding the centre of the circle part I glued a tube of styrene the correct height. I then cut triangles of sheet styrene the correct shape for the sides of the witches hat and glued them to the ceiling and vertical tube. I did this for the 90, then 45, then 22 degree angles. Once in place, I glued .02 inch sheet styrene around the witches hat. That done I did the rest of the roof. Then I tackled the rest of the station.
The hardest part of the station, it turns out, is the windows and doors. There are no exact types of Grandt windows and doors, but they did have close ones. Close enough to make composites of them into the correct windows and doors used in the station.
March, 2002: As mentioned earlier, the track into the engine facilities was a guess, I thought was an educated guess. Reality has a nasty habit of thwarting guesses! I finally got a photo that shows, in the distance, the track that leads into the engine facilities. Not what I thought! It curves out, some 20 feet, then back in. See new photo of the change I made to reflect what was.
I've also built the station platform at Orangeville. I did it with wood sides, and drywall compound for the asphalt. The one thing about drywall compound is that, even when carved into shape, is too smooth. Asphalt is pitted and not entirely black as the sun and time takes it's toll giving the asphalt a gray colour. Also, asphalt is pitted.
Thus I had to pit the platform, but how. The solution I used was to take course sand paper, lay it grit down on the black painted asphalt. Holding it still, rubbed the handle of a screwdriver hard across the back of the paper. The result is pitted drywall compound, pitted asphalt! The harder you rub the more it is pitted. In some areas, small lumps are lifted giving more contour to the asphalt. The pits are white inside, thus need to be painted. Once the grays are carefully wiped across the surface, the pits retain the black. Perfect asphalt!