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Teeswater

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The town of Teeswater was one of the end of the line for the original Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway (the other town was Wingham, not on my layout).  Because of the terminal there, the town boasted a roundhouse (2 stall), turn table, coal bin and water tower..  The line was to originally to continue on towards Lake Huron, but it was not meant to be.

This description of what I have of Teeswater so far is as of August 2001.  I have very few photos of the town layout or buildings and trackage, but enough to complete the town very close to scale..  The most famous of all is the photo Bob Sandusky took towards the station from atop of the round house.  Besides that, a few glimpses in other photos is all I had to go on.  I did visit the town in 1984, but by then there was few trackage left, no buildings.  Luckily, I acquired two excellent colour photos of the station from both ends (but not the back).

I laid out the track plan from a 1954 aerial photo, first to scale, then altered to fit the space I had (about 12 by 2 feet).  The only place I had problems was in the curve out of town, I had to make it much tighter (30") to get around the corner.  I also added one spur on the east end of town to service two "new" industries.  One, Knechtels Furniture, I kit-bashed from Corner Stone's Headquarters and altered it to be one big furniture factory.  The other, Ontario Seed co, will be just the stock kit.

The rest of the buildings are all currently being scratch built from styrene sheet.  Ready to be painted are the roundhouse, section man's dwelling, ice house, station and grain elevator.  The turntable (as with all the others on the layout) will also be build from scratch.

The CPR time table from the early fifties shows two trains that ran this route from Orangeville.  One train (M753) came up one day, spending the night in 

Teeswater, then returned (as M756) to Orangeville the next day (passing each other at Glennanen).  This is how I also plan to run trains.  My trains will pass in Fraxa Junction (for now, once Phase Two is completed it will be at Grand Valley).  The locomotives pulling these trains were mostly  D10 class (such as 1081 on the last steam run).

After careful studying of photos I took of the end of the trackage in 1984, I realized I did not have the track correct leading to the grain elevator.  The creamery and grain elevator are against the road at the end of the track, which is the main drag into town.  I noticed that the grain elevator lead had a dog leg at the very end.  Checking the aerial photo indeed you can make this out.  Thus I changed the lead to the appropriate shape.  

I've also built the cattle ramp right down to the pieces missing and broken in the photo, as well as I've made the two buildings for the creamery.

Principle Industries:

Station Freight
Wm Knechtel & Sons Grain elevator
Teeswater Creamery Butter and Dairy products
Team track
Ice house
Cattle pen
Knechtel Furnature Office and home wood furnishings
Ontario Seed Co. Farm seeds
CPR Coal Bin
Heinz Pickles Various pickle products

Shipments outbound from this town include:

From Industry To Industry Load Frequency
Canada Wire Co. Lambton Yard, Lambton 1 GD of Spools of high tension wire Fridays (All Year)
Cattle Ramp Cattle Transfer, Orangeville 1 CT of Beaf Cattle Wednesdays (All Year)
Cattle Ramp Cattle Transfer, Orangeville 1 CT of Beaf Cattle Thursdays (All Year)
Heinz Pickles Lambton Yard, Lambton 1 BX of Barrels of pickles Mondays (All Year)
Knechtel Furnature Ltd. Lambton Yard, Lambton 2 BX of Office Furnature Tuesdays (All Year)
Knechtel Furnature Ltd. Lambton Yard, Lambton 2 BX of Household Furnature Thursdays (All Year)
Station Freight CPR Freight Shed, Orangeville 1 BX of Freight Wednesdays (All Year)
Team Track Lambton Yard, Lambton 1 RF of Crates of Mushrooms Fridays (All Year)
Team Track Lambton Yard, Lambton 1 GD of Magnesium limestone Mondays (All Year)
Team Track Lambton Yard, Lambton 2 BX of Boxes of Turnips Fridays (All Year)
Teeswater Creamery Ltd. Lambton Yard, Lambton 1 RF of Butter Fridays (All Year)
Teeswater Creamery Ltd. Lambton Yard, Lambton 1 RF of Butter Wednesdays (All Year)
Teeswater Creamery Ltd. Lambton Yard, Lambton 1 RF of Butter Mondays (All Year)

Shipments inbound into this town include:

From Industry To Industry Load Frequency
CPR Coal Tower, Orangeville Coal Bin 1 FCH of Locomotive Coal Fridays (All Year)
CPR Freight Shed, Inglewood Knechtel Furnature Ltd. 1 BX of Wool (Riverdale Woollen Mill Ltd.) Mondays (All Year)
Lambton Yard, Lambton Ontario Seed Co. 1 CH of Farm Seed Fridays (All Year)
Lambton Yard, Lambton Team Tracker 1 RF of Foods (National Grocers) Mondays (All Year)
Lambton Yard, Lambton Heinz Pickles 1 TK of Vinegar Fridays (All Year)
Lambton Yard, Lambton CPR Ice House 1 RF of Ice Blocks Mondays (All Year)
Lambton Yard, Lambton Canada Wire Co. 1 BX of Copper Ingots Tuesdays (All Year)

Layout Photos

Scratch built grain elevator at west end of yard.  To the right is the Teeswater Grain and Coal dealer.  The track there was enclosed in concrete.  In the background you can see Heinz Pickles. 
Station and end of track (which was just a mound of dirt.
Bob Sandusky stood atop the round house and took his famous photo of the whole of the west end of town.  Here I tried to recreate that same scene.  To the left at the far end is the grain elevator, then the station, a box car on the team track and the ice house to the right (out of view). The cattle ramp at the left.
Engine facilities.  Turntable is not yet operational.
Ontario Seed Co. with the incoming track in front.  This was the standard Cornerstone kit with some alterations and addition of the grain bin.  Behind that is Knetchel's Furnature.