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 […]

The Railway Modellers come to Pembroke

The Railway Modellers’ Meet was one of the first to meets to forge ahead in a virtual format amongst all the cancellations of 2020, and I dare say we have virtual meets increasingly dialed in. The virtual format suits the British Columbian geography. Sparsely perched on the far edge of the continent, for many of […]

Last train on the Columbia and Western

I had the great privilege to be invited to Mark Dance’s Columbia and Western for one last run before he tears it out and crates it up for its new life in Edmonton. We ran some trains (including, at 47 cars, the longest ever on the railroad), had some snacks and Mark gave each of […]