.

As Charle was coming back to the hangar, avoiding bushes and trying not to trip in the tall grass, he seemed to muttered words
that sounded like “incompetent !”, “irresponsible”, “idiots”, and other which frankly are not suitable for all audiences .


Finaly out of the weeds - so to speak - Charle made it to the hangar.

As he opened the door Oscar erupted ! Agitated ! and obviously excited !




Oscar took a deep breath and said:

" Charle I have news! While you were chatting away I called CN. I finally got someone in logistic/dispatch or some other place, and they told me the boxcar
went to the wrong classification yard ! Can you believe it : THE WRONG YARD ! "

“ Huuu yes I can believe it ! “ said Charle with an air that said he was less than amused by what Oscar was telling him.

“ Wait Charle that is not all ! So a wrong move and it ended up at the Montreal harbour. At the yard beside the container terminal !
Once they realised what happened it was too late !”

“ I am sure it was Oscar, since, evidently, the boxcar isn’t here this morning as it should “ said Charle without a hint of his earlier, early morning accent!

“ No ! That is not it Charle ” said Oscar. “ It’s TOO LATE for the car. It’s gone ! said Oscar still very much agitated.

"What do you mean GONE ? Gone where? In the St-Lawrence ? " Said Charle with a chuckle.

Oscar wasn't listening to Charle and he cut him off saying: "It was transfer along with a pair of BBD loco TO A SHIP ! "

" It’s out to SEA Charle ! It’s ON ITS WAY TO EUROPE! “







It became eerily quiet in the hangar.




Pure silence really.






The quick and sharp sound of a chair being push on the floor snapped Charle back to reality :

" Sacrebleue " he said, his full Marseilles accent was back with a vengeance !

.

To Europe indeed !

A somewhat common occurrence for new rolling stock being shipped overseas.
Not so much for an old 40” boxcar, that might be a first.



According to the ship manifest, it was heading to Brest, northwest France.
From there some cargo would go down the Loire valley to Touraine and beyond.


So its heading to France..an old, ex-CN, beat up, rusted, tired boxcar.
Kinda far away from home isn't ?






Where will this all end ?

.
The tour...aaane what ? You say ?

Touraine region. There’s a place called Chinon St Jacques . It is close to the Loire river.
It has quite the rail traffic: Both passengers and freight , plus it has its own yard.

So in France




It’s a place like all others: It’s people, vineyard, wine and beer merchant, local shops and cafe,
train station, bistro etc.. normal people living a normal life !



Like any other french town in France in HO scale........












I wonder how the boxcar is doing on the high sea?

Syl,

More great modeling, are you going to make us wait up to two weeks for the ship to arrive?

Bruce

Just how BIG is your layout??

Great-looking scenes.

Wayne

bdw9535 Wrote:Syl,
More great modeling, are you going to make us wait up to two weeks for the ship to arrive?
Bruce

doctorwayne Wrote:Just how BIG is your layout??
Great-looking scenes.
Wayne

Two weeks ? I'll have to check again! I thought it was 4 !

It is that BIG Imagine the maintenace haha



As far as I know the people at Chinon St Jacques do not know St-Hyacinthe exist and vice-versa
They may be in for a surprise....I don't know......just saying............



The thread that relates to the above french layout, is on Loco-revue. The owner of the layout is quite a talented artist

.

Meantime in Ste-Rosalie it was business like usual




Grain cars to be switched at the local grain elevator.......



Everything seem to be quite normal indeed

.

While things seem to be "business as usual" in Ste-Rosalie....

...the people in Chinon St-Jacques (Fr) woke up to quite a surprise this morning!

The local "cheminots" (Trains man, brake man, conductor & engineers) were stun to see this in the local yard:



The "Chef" who was still feeling the after effect of the night before said to an evergrowing gathering:

" Mon Dieu! What iz diz thing? Did we move to America ? "

" Je ne sais pas chef ! But it smell like Maple syrup...? " said the local brakeman.

The yard master could not believe his eyes either:



North America indeed. The little boxcar that could. From St-Hyacinthe to Europe. If only Charle and Oscar could see this !
They would have a bottle of the finest red wine with the Chef and his crew........





and like the "Chef" would say : " That is a good excuse to have a little fete, with our finest red wine bien sur !"

and that morning the local "cheminot" and towns people gather to mademoiselle Adele boutique (across form the rail yard) where she had set up a table with
wine and cheese - what else ! -to celebrate this unbelievable event !

All this under the watchfull eye of the Gendarme..in case some North American hobo might be waking up in ze boxcar! Sacrebleue!

Syl,

Looks like it took the ship two weeks to arrive enjoying your storytelling and modeling.

Bruce

Thanks Bruce

It actually got there in 8 days ! Busy with scenery and such on the layout, however I think some pictures are coming.....

Hi,

Great story and also a great layout.....

Cheers,Chris

Hello MLW, I just finished reading your little mystery about the missing boxcar, I was wondering, maybe Charle and Oscar should of called inspector Clouseau from the Gendarmerie ?
I was really hooked on your story, you've got a lot of imagination and also lots of talent for weathering.
Thank you for sharing photos of your beautiful layout.

Have a nice day

Thanks Chris for the comments. I appreciate it.

Scribbelt: Indeed, I never thought about "Inspecteur Clouseau " hahaha! Thanks for the comments. I greatly appreciate it

Busy right now with soldering and ballasting tracks. Once that is completed I will add some scenery in place. Then I'll start on the various buildings.
Most of them are up, but no details and most are barely painted at all. I will find time to take some pictures.

I did make a quick movie a little while ago about "Gare Central" in Montreal. Basically I was checking to make sure clearance was good for all trains etc.
It's not completed by any means there is a cross-over to insalled and wiring , leveling some tracks where there are some slight dips etc.
However it's progressing - slow pace - but progress nevertheless.

Link: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTiOn4gcvrE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTiOn4gcvrE</a><!-- m -->

Later

Syl

Very nicely-done video, Syl. Once the track and scenery is finished, it will be difficult to distinguish it from the real thing.

Wayne

Quote:Postby doctorwayne » Feb 28th, '15, 14:56

Very nicely-done video, Syl. Once the track and scenery is finished, it will be difficult to distinguish it from the real thing.

Wayne

Thanks Wayne. Greatly appreciate it. Once all is done including the numerous catanery and dwarf signal it will be "close enough"