Operations ideas from BC Hydro

My friend, Colin Dover, intimated to me last night that he builds layouts purely so he can have a place to switch. A couple of years ago, he tore out his representation of Vancouver Waterfront to build his “much simpler” Central Park line of BC Hydro. I put “much simpler” in quotes because, well, it […]

Vollmer Mill

At the Halifax and South Shore Railway Museum last summer, The Boy stuck up his hand when the proprietor asked if there were any model railroaders in the group. Later, he intimated that he wasn’t so interested in the railway itself as in the buildings and scene around it. When we got home, he started […]

Cade’s Green

As guest editor for Model Railway Journal No. 250, Iain Rice profiled his own home layout, Cade’s Green. Now, Iain’s is one of the few voices that somehow avoids the stultifying muffle of the American press, even when writing for Kalmbach. So, left to his own devices, his feature article absolutely sings with his rich […]

Reflections on the first layout tour

Well, the Railway Modellers’ Meet is in the can for 2017. Everyone seems to agree that it was a super event. Pembroke was on the self-guided layout tour, which took place today around mid-day. I was still sweeping the silk tree leaves off the driveway when the first guests pulled up, and for four hours […]

Near miss on the Boundary Sub

On Wednesday evening, I had an opportunity to dispatch on my friend Scott Calvert’s layout. His is a timetable and train order operation, just as the real Boundary was. If you’ve never had an opportunity to participate in a TT&TO operation, I encourage you to come to Vancouver for the annual Railway Modellers’ Meet. This […]

Coming Shifts in the Hobby

After visiting the south shore of Nova Scotia, and a dip into New Brunswick to celebrate Grammie’s 100th birthday, we found ourself on PEI. We stayed with our friend Marshall Ouellet, who was Laura’s Katimavik parent before I’d ever considered moving to Vancouver. He also happens to be a model railroader. The only other person […]

Halifax Southwestern Railway Museum

Last week, we rented a cottage near Bridgewater Nova Scotia. The weather was largely perfect, and we had a beautiful quiet lake almost to ourselves. Every day, we went out to explore the south shore. In Lunenburg, we discovered the Halifax Southwestern Railway Museum. Now, I don’t enter into most railway museums with very high hopes. Restoring […]

Obbekaer featured in Continental Modeller

A few weeks ago, Geraint Hughes responded to my little tantrum about the writing in North American model train magazines. He made the astute observation that people are sheep, and concluded that authors are merely following each others’ styles. Then he got me all excited because apparently his railway was featured in Continental Modeller. Sadly, he […]

First Scratchbuilt Model

The Boy has decided he would like to have a go at building some structures. Being a clever sort of fellow, he decided to first find out if he could make a small box out of wood. Myself, I was never so sensible: the first thing I ever launched myself at was an ore car, which […]

Remembering Ken Healy

As I was moving some books around today, a business card dropped out of one of them and fluttered to the floor. Ken Healy has been gone for some years, and I don’t think I ever saw him after I moved away from Ottawa over twenty five years ago. Yet, his card clicking softly to the floor […]