The Canada Atlantic Railway Modellers Historical and Technical Society

I’m often asked why I model the Canada Atlantic while living in BC, thousands of kilometres away. The truth is, I grew up in Ottawa, the centre of the system, albeit some 70 years after the flag fell. My mum, sister and brother are still in town, and I spent the last two weeks visiting […]

Arts and Crafts at OVAR

I’ve come to Ottawa to visit my mum and take her to a show. So, I reached out to my old friend, Bill Scobie, to see if I could get myself invited for an ops session (I can), and he reminded me that the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders would be meeting this evening. Well, I’ve […]

So Long mark

From my perspective, Mark Dance burst onto the Vancouver model railway scene fully-formed. There were no years of showing up at meets and sitting at the back of clinics, no decades of collecting whatever struck his fancy at train shows, no screeds explaining the superiority of his one-day layout. No, my introduction to Mark was […]

Oktobahnfest 2025

How many years does it take to make a tradition? It’s probably more than two, but you have to go through two to get to 25 or whatever it does take to make a tradition. So, this was the second annual Oktobahnfest, in which I invited the North Shore Model Railroaders (a subdivision of the […]

The Insane Engineering at Trains and Scones

[Updated per Graham’s corrections] For about ten Decembers, Graham and Leddy Stokes have hosted a layout visit for the North Shore subdivision of the NMRA. Graham shows off the progress on his trains, and Leddy makes delicious scones, and nobody is sure which is the bigger draw. Anyone with something to show is invited to […]

Oktobahnfest 2024

This week, the North Shore model railroaders came by to check on progress at Pembroke. Our organizer, Graham, holds an annual gathering of the North Shore in December that he calls Trains and Scones. So, my Darling Wife and I decided we needed a theme for our own, which was in October for the second […]

Fresh Tracks at Donald

I was delighted to receive an invitation last week for the inaugural operating session on Brian Rudko’s latest layout, Donald. This is his first return to HO scale in decades, and the first layout he’s built for operations. It is inspired by Ian Wilson’s many books about the CN in southern Ontario, and Brian, with […]

Booming in Ottawa

On the railroad, a boomer was an engineer (or other running trade?) from another division or railroad. Was the act of being a boomer “booming” or “boomering?” It doesn’t matter; the fact that does matter is I’ve been working in Ottawa this past week so I could spend some time with my mum, and I […]

Railway Modellers’ Meet is in the Bag

This weekend was the Railway Modellers’ Meet of BC, our annual divisional meet here in BC. As chair of the organizing committee, I had the opportunity to fill in for a cancellation in the clinic line-up, and supported the new recruiter for table-top clinics (soon to be renamed “demonstrations” I think) with a demo as […]

Railway Modellers’ Meet Clinic

After several years of trying, the Railway Modellers’ Meet finally accepted one of my clinic proposals. On Thursday, I delivered Reinventing Wheels: A Pembroke Update to a packed Zoom room. The title was a nod to Mark Dance, who once noted that if there is a more difficult way to do something, I will find […]