A Tribute to Stafford Swain

A scene on Stafford Swain's CNR Whiteshell
Subdivision.

If you are a Canadian model railroader, or if you appreciate accurate and prototypical models of rolling stock or locomotives, one person you need to thank is Stafford Swain.

Swain, a Master Model Railroader from my hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was foremost among those who set the bar high when it came to fidelity in model railroading. His attention to detail was not limited to trains, however; he brought the same high standards to buildings, trackwork and scenery on his transistion-era HO scale CNR Whiteshell Subdivision.

Best of all, Stafford loved to share what he discovered; over the past 35 years or so he published over 80 articles in every major model railroad magazine.

Due to ill health, Stafford will move this summer into a condo. This means that his legendary layout will also be taken down. I was privileged to be able to visit him in January for an article in an upcoming issue of Canadian Railway Modeller. The issue should be out sometime in March; look for it in your local hobby shop, or subscribe today.

Stafford's layout will be on display one final time May 28-30 at Steam On The Prairies, the NMRA Thousand Lakes Region convention here in Winnipeg. If you want a chance to see a legendary layout, and meet a living legend, register today!

Click here for an index of blog postings.

New Index For The CP Rail M & M Sub. Blog

I like Blogger, but one thing it lacks is the ability to include an index (as far as I can tell, at least). So I made one of my own; Click here to find it on the Welcome & Index page; you can also use the link in the About Me section of the blog.

The topics in the Index are arranged by The Layout, Tips & Tricks, Railfanning & The Prototype, Other Layouts and General Ruminations & Reflections (a catch-all).

Helper Action on the CP Rail M & M Sub.

GP38-2 #3036 pushes hard to get that train
up the grade.

Helpers are never needed on the CP Rail M & M Sub. The old guys know just how much a normal consist of two units can pull. But then management sent a too-heavy train west. The old guys said it wouldn't work, but did they listen? The result: A helper had to be added at Fort Frances.

When I heard the news, I grabbed my camera and headed out. Bonus: #5447, the ugliest unit on the roster, was in the consist!

View the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teUEe03kCFE

A no-music version is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RQVHe-5AI4

The More Things Change . . .

Cover of the 1954 20th anniversary
issue of Model Railroader
. . . the more they stay the same. I was idly flipping through the 20th anniversary issue of Model Railroader the other day (published in 1954). In an article celebrating the advances in the hobby, it was noted that "the big story in model railroad marketing in the past 20 years is the growth and expansion of the local hobby shop."

"In the early years," the article continued, "almost all hobbyists had to rely on mail order buying. Now almost all of us are a few minutes or a few miles of a hobby shop."

Skip ahead 56 years and it's back to the future; today many model railroaders use the Internet for their supplies, and the local hobby shop is becoming a thing of the past.

The same article noted the growing number of ready-to-run and pre-fab items and wondered if they had "gone too far . . . was the ready-to-use equipment and the too-easy kit harming or helping the hobby?"

Like Yogi Berra famously stated: "It's déjà vu all over again."

A Regular Layout By A Regular Modeller

A regular train crosses a regular bridge over a
regular river on the CP Rail M & M Sub.
After I posted a note on a forum about my layout being featured in the December issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, someone wrote: "Excellent article and some nice modeling too. I'm glad to see RMC do some articles on ‘regular guy’ layouts.”

“Regular guy . . .” That phrase is interesting—and true. When it comes to life and model railroading, I think I’m about as regular as they come.

For starters, I’m not rich. I do have a fair-size layout and collection of locomotives, rolling stock and accessories, but none of it was bought all at once. It was carefully and frugally obtained over a period of 22 years; much of it was purchased used at flea markets or private sales. (The original ready-to-run.)

I’m also not particularly skilled, especially when it comes to carpentry or wiring. I just followed how-to books, and solicited the advice of friends. If the layout works at all, it’s through trial and error (lots and lots of errors).

The layout itself is pretty regular, too. For one thing, it’s DC (Dinosaur Control). For another, most of my locomotives are Athearn Blue Box. Rolling stock is regular, too; only about a third of my cars have metal wheels, and I happily run cars made by Athearn Blue Box, MDC, Tyco and LifeLike alongside cars made by InterMountain, Atlas, Proto 1000 and Walthers.

My track is all Atlas Code 100. None of the switches on the visible portion of the layout are electfied. I use Caboose switch throws or homemade springs to hold the switches in place. (Read about how I make and use them at http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.com/2009/11/simple-wire-activated-switches.html)

When it comes to operation, once again, nothing fancy. I use conventional cab control and blocks; rotary switches affixed to two panels (mainline dispatcher and yardmaster) are used to direct power.

None of my locomotives are superdetailed, although I have lightly “Canadianized” a few by moving the headlights to the nose and the bell to above the cab windows. Ditto for rolling stock: No contest quality items here!

The "water" on the layout? Paint, covered with gloss medium. Nothing special..

I am kind of proud of my scenery, but it's pretty basic, too—no elaborate or highly-detailed town or city scenes. I stuck with mostly rural scenery, since that is what I thought I could pull off most convincingly.

In other words, the CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota Subdivision is a regular layout built by a regular modeler using regular skills with a regular amount of dollars. Or, as I like to tell others, the CP Rail M & M Sub. proves that if I can build a layout, anyone can.