Model Railroading as "Focal Practice"

I’m not working on my layout—I’m participating in a “focal practice.”

At least, that’s what I told myself today as I was slowly and methodically painting some track. I got the idea from my friend Arthur Paul Boers, who has released a new book titled Living into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions.

Boers. who holds the R.J. Bernardo Family Chair of Leadership at Tyndale University College & Seminary in Toronto, wrote the book to help people who feel harried and rushed by today’s high-speed culture.

“Our lives are speeding up and changing, and not always for the better,” he says about our fast-paced world.

One way to slow down, take charge and find balance in our lives is through what he calls “focal practices”—activities that centre, balance, focus, and orient our life.

For him, one of those ways is hiking—he walks a lot, including hiking the 500-mile Camino de Santigo pilgrimage in Spain. (detailed in his book The Way is Made for Walking.)

There are other ways, too, he says—things like gardening, cooking, reading, journaling and, yes, hobbies, including a hobby like model railroading. Anything that requires to slow down, take time, focus and let the rushing world pass by.

From my experience, model railroading is a great focal practice. To do it well—whether that’s building a whole layout or building models—takes time, concentration, dedication and discipline. That. plus a timeline for completion that is some time in the future and a willingness not to see results right away.

That's certainly true for my CP Rail M & M Sub. I’ve been working at it for 18 years—how many other people can say they have dedicated that much time to a single thing? It's like a 500-mile hike, only it takes a lot longer and produces fewer blisters.

So the next time someone asks if you are playing with trains, say no—you are participating in a focal practice. They might be confused, but your soul and spirit may feel better.

For more about religious imagery and symbolism in model railroading, see my post Of Tibetan Sand Mandalas and Model Railroading.

Train of Hope, or, how many railway cars are needed for 40,849 tonnes of food aid?

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I work in international development. My employer, Canadian Foodgrains Bank, provides food for people in the developing world who don't have enough to eat. In 2011-12 we provided 40,849 tonnes of food. Altogether, we helped 2.1 million people in 36 countries.

How much food is that? Enough to fill 450 hopper cars, or a train eight kilometres long--as this video amply illustrates!

Click here to view it directly on YouTube.

Great Model Railroad: Dave Rickaby's Wisconsin & Michigan Western Division

I don’t save many old issues of Model Railroader, but one I’ve hung on to comes from January, 1995. That’s the one that features the Wisconsin & Michigan—two layouts featuring different divisions of a railroad by Lyle Beck and Dave Rickaby.

I kept it because I was impressed by the quality of the two layouts, and by their operational concept. The article came along at the same time I was starting my new layout, and it influenced how I conceived and built it.

A little while ago, I came across that old issue, and I wondered what had happened to the two layouts—were they still around? So I contacted Dave for an update.

Before I get to that, a bit about those layouts: Set in Wisconsin’s and Michgan's iron and copper country, the two HO scale layouts not only represented different regions, but also different eras—Lyle modeled modern railroading, while Dave modeled the late 1960s.

Dave’s Western Division of the W & M ran from Everett Junction, Mich., to Crandon, Wis., with a branch line to Mole Lake, Wis. At Everett Junction, it connected with Lyle's Lake Michigan Division. Lyle’s layout ran from Marinette in the south to Everett Junction, then continued to Iron Mountain and Monarch Mine.

As you’ve noticed, I am writing about the layouts in the past tense—both are gone. Dave dismantled his layout in 2003, and Lyle took his down in 2011. Dave is building a new double-deck layout, this time the Ashland Subdivision of the Lake Superior Division of the W&M. The layout covers a 43 X 17 foot area, and is controlled by NCE radio throttles.

(Dave made a video tour of his new layout; find it on YouTube by clicking here.  In the video he says that he might be moving and that the layout would be coming down; that didn't happen—which is fortunate, because it looks great!)

Of the old layout, Dave says: “That article appeared over 17 years ago and people still come up to me and tell me that they remembered it and that it had changed the way that they thought about model railroading. It's very humbling and gratifying.”

Dave kindly sent me some photos of his old layout; it’s a pleasure to post them here, along with a few from that original Model Railroader article. As far as I can tell, this is the first time photos of that fabulous former layout have appeared on the Web. Enjoy!

Photos and info about Lyle's Lake Michigan Division of the Wisconsin & Michigan have now been added to this blog; click here to see them and read about it.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Turbo Train Visits Manitoba

In late June Jason Shron of Rapido Trains made his annual summer pilgrimage to Winnipeg. While here, he visited the Selkirk Model Railroad Club, located in the city of Selkirk about 30 minutes north of Winnipeg. (And the place where the CPR was originally supposed to cross the Red River, until Winnipeg's city fathers cut the railway a sweet deal that caused it to turn south. Read about that bit of scurrilous 19th century politics here.)

The Turbo in a very un-Turbo-like setting!

But all is mostly forgiven in Selkirk, even if it remains a much superior place to cross the Red River (it doesn't flood there). And Jason enjoyed an evening running trains on the Club's layout, including his own personal Turbo.

The Turbo, VIA set number CN 2, features new power trucks; painted headrests, armrests, cupboards and counters; new etched grills over five of the intakes; weathering, including the signature nose smudge); and the "masking tape" around the sand filler hatch, and the grabs on the dome roofs. He also removed the weights from all the ICs and added weight to the noses and in front of the controls in the PDCs.

Jason photographs his Turbo.

Says Jason: "If only I knew then what I know now, our production Turbo model would have been very different . . . "

While at the Club he also did a bit of maintenance on a Club member's Canadian; nothing like having the owner of the company stop by for a bit of customer service!

Now that's customer service!

I made a short video of the Turbo on the Selkirk Club's layout; click here to see it on YouTube.

Video of the G Scale Winter Valley Railway

A friend of Dave Winters reworked one of his videos of his G scale Winter Valley Railway (featured earlier as part of the Great Canadian Model Railway series). Click on the video below to watch it, or click here to view it on YouTube.