Sand Service comes to Pembroke

24 buckets! My friend Al Lill was speaking to another model railroader last week, who helped around the CNR Victoria roundhouse in his youth. One of his jobs was to fill the sand dome on the little consolidations that plied the Island line, and he told Al that they held 24 buckets of sand in […]

A Rudko Original

I’ve always admired Brian Rudko’s modelling. Being a professional model-maker for many years, he knows how to make things straight where they’re supposed to be, and avoid gaps and globs of glue. More importantly, he has a wonderful eye for colour and texture. So, when he said that he would like to make a small […]

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 […]

Pembroke Southern Narrowly avoids Service Interruption

My friends Brian Rudko and Jamie Neilson were scheduled to stop by on the Thursday of what turned out to be a very busy week at work and in my various volunteer organizations. I’d hoped to have 1120 on the layout by the time they came, but work had other plans. However, 2543 had run […]

The First Signature in the Guest Book

It’s fitting that the first person to sign the Pembroke guest book is Brian Rudko. He is actually the first person I ever met from the Vancouver model railroad scene, so long ago that he doesn’t even remember it. Yes, Brian, we met at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Seattle in 1991, two dozen […]