A Great Canadian Model Railroad: York Railway Modellers

Another great Canadian model railroad I had the pleasure of helping to get published is York Railway Modellers.

The club, which is located in Toronto, started in 1992. The HO scale layout combines CNR and CPR mainline and wayfreight operation in southern Ontario between 1953-57.

The layout is over 1,600 square feet in area and has around 11 scale miles of mainline track. It features two major yards and eight towns. Each yard has three industrial areas plus a roundhouse, turntable and engine facilities.

The single track mainline runs from is set up to run end-to-end from the CPR Lambton Yard (West Toronto) to the CNR London Yard. A total of 25 people are required to operate it properly.

Today the club has finished all the trackwork and 95 percent of the wiring; work on scenery is a continuing project.

York Railway Modellers was featured in Canadian Railway Modeller Train 7 Track 4. Photos from the club’s website and Scott Reid. Click here to visit their website. A few more photos are below.

Whitcomb in Wenatchee, Washington

While wandering the waterfront in Wenatchee, WA during my recent trains and mountains tour, I came across this interesting unit—a Whitcomb 65-tonner that had formerly belonged to the U.S. Army Transportation Corps.

According to a sign on the unit, the locomotive—a 65-D.E.-19-A—was built in 1944 and worked in North Africa as U.S. Army 8450. It was part of a large number of Whitcomb locomotives sent overseas as part of the war effort; the units also worked in Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands.

Information plate on the unit.

 

In a helpful overview about these units on a web page (about Lehigh & New England #601 and Wanamaker,Kempton & Southern #602) by Jeff. Z., R.H. Piligian notes that the Army specification called for a locomotive to be able to run on any European main line, have a top speed of at least 45 mph, and be able to operate with similar locomotives.

Piligian goes on to note that locomotives from Whitcomb were used to pull the first train into Rome after it was taken from the Germans; the first train across the Rhine River; and the first train into Paris after it was liberated by the Allies.

After the war in Europe ended, the Army shipped 118 of the units back to the U.S. for use in the war against Japan. When the war against that country, the units were no longer needed; they were sold to various shortlines beginning in 1947.

At some point in its life, the 8450 became American Silicon Technologies (ASTX) 11. I have not been able to learn how it came to be displayed in Wenatchee.

Learn more about the Whitcomb Locomotive Compnay here and here (with lots of photos).

Switching Activity at the Peace River Paper Mill

I caught a bit of switching activity at the Peace River paper mill today. The mill is the largest industry on the Manitoba & Minnesota Sub. So big, in fact, that it has its own switcher--an old unpainted Atlas S-2. (One of those "one day" projects, as in "one day I am going to give it a proper paint job.")

The mill itself is made from Evergreen corrugated styrene glued to foam core. It's not as detailed as it could be, but that's where GEFM comes in: Good Enough For Me."

Besides, operators hardly notice the details, or lack thereof, while switching the mill's five spotting tracks and two track yard. It can take about 45 minutes to switch out departing cars and replace them with incoming cars.


A mirror makes the track seem longer.

Back to the yard . . . .

Overview of the paper mill.

More On Radio Control for HO Scale Layouts

Earlier I wrote about radio control for model railroads (Radio Control For HO Scale Model Trains: A Pipe Dream or Coming Reality?) In that post I pointed to some forums and websites where people were talking about the potential of radio control to run HO scale size layouts.

Well, the topic has come up again, this time on the Atlas HO Forum. (Look for the topic "Where is the NMRA on the RCC protocol?")

In the first post, the writer makes the case for why is now the time for the NMRA--the body that sets standards for the hobby--to start working with radio control manufacturers and get them to agree on common standards for radio control interoperability (as it did with DCC).

Says he: "The NMRA Working Group MUST wake up and some alive on this new front NOW while it is in its infancy! The work on this new protocol will not only ensure the new RCC systems play well together (and give these companies a combined collective boost by expanding their markets), but it will also ensure that the manufacturers remember to include a device in their system that connects to the now 'ancient' DCC command station and thus allows you to still interact with your 'legacy' DCC fleet using the same controller you use to interact with the RCC fleet."

It's a fascinating discussion about what might just be the future of the hobby--and just after you finally broke down and invested in DCC!

Death and the UK Model Railroader V: A Cautionary Tale

The deceased with his layout.

Not sure if this is a cautionary tale or not, but it does involve death and a model railroader--and the sad destruction of a layout. The article comes from Kent Online in Great Britain.

If there's any lesson to be drawn from it, I guess it is to make sure you leave clear, written instructions for the disposition of your model railroad.

As for the layout itself, it was probably unrealistic of the deceased to hope it could be saved--very few can be.

The  saddest thing was the deceased's inability to go upstairs for ten years to run his trains.

By-the-way, an equity release company appears to be a business that gives you the value of your house in cash while you are alive, but takes ownership of the house when you die and sells it to get their money back.

Model railway set to be smashed up

The railway took more than 30 years to build, it carried no passengers and its surrounding scenery was awesome.

But passersby never knew it existed as trains, track and surrounding were all tucked away in a loft in Bearsted.

Now the intricate and complex model railway, measuring 6 metres by 4 metres, is about to be smashed up following the death of its builder, Frederick Ernest Lucas.

Mr Lucas, 87, left no next of kin and his bungalow in Weavering Street, will next Wednesday be handed to an equity release company.

His executor and friend Peter Scobey, said: “All those decades of lovingly building it just shone through. If you saw it you would think it’s out of this world.

“You go up through the loft hatch and you’re totally surrounded by this railway and landscaping of countryside with little houses.

“When the collectors went up last weekend they just couldn’t speak for the first 15 minutes. They had never seen anything like it on that scale and beauty.

“It took Fred over three decades to build.

“Sadly, the loft will be cleared by the owners, and so the only thing that is salvagable is the little railway’s rolling stock, which will go to specialised collectors.”

Mr Lucas lived at the bungalow with his late wife Brenda, who died at 81 in 2004, for some 61 years.

Ill health followed Mr Lucas, which prevented him from climbing the loft ladder to tend his beloved railway and so it remained unused for ten years.

“Fred was devastated by his wife’s death and his health gradually deteriorated,” said Mr Scobey.

“He collapsed inside Tesco’s at Grove Green on Thursday, July 7 and was taken to Maidstone Hospital before passing away in a nursing home two weeks later.

Mr Scobey said: “A few days before his death he made me promise I would do everything in my power to try to save as much of the railway as possible.

“I can’t be present when the rest is broken on Wednesday, I’d be too emotional to witness it.”