Branch Line Railways Co.

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Branch Line Railways Co. Freelance Model Railway representing 1980s to present time private railway operations on the Canadian Prairies in HO scale.

Also known as BL Rail Services as part of the BL Corp umbrella of rail operations. Est: 1980 in Alberta, Revived in Manitoba 2010.

Proto following model.....1:1 undec masked for paint ;-) 😜😆
24/05/2026

Proto following model.....
1:1 undec masked for paint ;-) 😜😆

Package of goodies arrived last night. Will reveal once the seeding season has slowed down enough to get back to trains....
24/05/2026

Package of goodies arrived last night. Will reveal once the seeding season has slowed down enough to get back to trains. Yeah we have a GMD-1 thing ... these 2 make 7 in our custody 😜

Making some slow progress on the GP20c Eco. Cab is ready for semigloss but airbrush trigger started sticking while attem...
18/05/2026

Making some slow progress on the GP20c Eco. Cab is ready for semigloss but airbrush trigger started sticking while attempting the nose on the main body.
Time for a thorough cleaning and mask some tiny lights at the base of the rear nose.

Did we mention we are fast becoming non-fans of Tamiya mask tape?
Well we are. Starting to hate the stuff. It doesn’t like to stay stuck and doesn’t conform near as well as regular old green or blue painters tape. Not real impressed at all.

Time for some other activities before getting back to this. Have a good Victoria day! 🇬🇧

They weren't painted like this when I worked there but they sure looked good once they were!!
18/05/2026

They weren't painted like this when I worked there but they sure looked good once they were!!

Phase 3 of the Eco project began over the weekend. Shown here with its BL Grey applied to the long hood after phase 2 de...
05/05/2026

Phase 3 of the Eco project began over the weekend. Shown here with its BL Grey applied to the long hood after phase 2 details had a day to set up. Yes we found the AWOL grab to complete the rear face. It’s a little hard to see but there is a difference in grey cast vs grey paint - compare the unpainted nose to painted body.

On a side note, we’ve had to change our original painting plan as the masking for the added colour stripe became far more difficult than expected due to body details interfering with smooth application. Since we have little to no patience we opted to return to our foundation of keeping things simple. We’ve also recently run across far too many similar schemes in different colours on both proto and freelance railways to be comfortable that it won’t be considered as ‘copied’.
So, on that note, we’ve decided to apply a modified version of our 2023 F40PH Executive scheme. Hopefully far easier to apply than our original redesign. The 2023 scheme can be seen elsewhere on this page by searching F40PH.

Second side note:
This project has managed to pick up a nickname that will be revealed upon completion. 😉

03/05/2026

Crawling around on the floor looking for an AWOL grab iron
🤦🏻‍♂️
“Model railroading is fun!”

It has officially begun. Our Prairie Shadows Model Railway Co GP20c Eco is getting disassembled and prepped for details ...
23/04/2026

It has officially begun.
Our Prairie Shadows Model Railway Co GP20c Eco is getting disassembled and prepped for details & paint.

Not an easy one to come apart with fairly tight tolerances in fitment and then some processor boards needing removal. Not going crazy with it as theres way too many little wires for our liking. The main objective was to separate the shell from the chassis and the cab from the body. We accomplished that after some careful guess work and slow prying.
Unfortunately our planned paint scheme is going to have to be modified due to the awkwardness of trying to mask uneven detail features. Not a fan of complicated masking so we need to simplify it. That has always been our MO anyway - clean and simple.

Will update as we go.
Captions w/ photos.

So on Friday our Prairie Shadows Model Railway Co GP20c Eco arrived in the undecorated form we had requested. This is so...
20/04/2026

So on Friday our Prairie Shadows Model Railway Co GP20c Eco arrived in the undecorated form we had requested. This is so far an amazing unit. It is one of our few modern era locomotives with the only others being the NRE 3GS21B Gensets we have had since 2010. We are excited to get started on its transformation from empty canvas to modern era representative.
Our plan for this unit is obviously to paint it in BL Corporate colours and we will be doing just that in the weeks going forward. So which scheme of the many we have used over the last 46 years does this new unit deserve? ..... Good question! We have a partial answer.

We have posted before what we were thinking for this unit but had not yet committed to a particular scheme. As of a few weeks ago it has been decided as to which version of the 4 proposals will be applied - but you will have to wait to see it ;-)
We were hoping to be the first Canadian Freelance Railway to paint one of these units but Southern Alberta Rail has managed to grab that place of honour through a production deal, so we will have to settle for being "one of the first" instead. However, with our paint crews on slow speed due to outside factors we may even fall into the "one of the many" category, but we are just happy to have one of these on our roster. We have admired them for years on CP around the prairies and finally have one of our own.

Follow us for updates on this project as it moves forward.
Captions with photos.

Address

Palliser's Triangle

AB-SK

Website

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