March 2009
Modelling the NAR in Winter Valley
There’s something fascinating about trains. Even for us who make a living moving steel wheels on steel rails I know I still get a thrill watching those tons speed by.
Just this morning, earlier than usual, the yard at Winter Valley was full of CN action. We had 9034 sitting in for our usual WV trip to the city. She would be in charge of 33 cars, mostly grain, as well as 24 passengers aboard combine 7210. All our own power was either busy in Hudson or already assigned and working in the south. I was walking too work today enjoying what would probably be one of our last fine autumn mornings, when a pair of 1200’s eased past heading north. (Photo 1) For a moment the yard was all red and black and if I might borrow a well worn phrase, the earth did move.
My small ‘fleet’ of CN locomotives both opportunities to model my favourate prototype and are a key to the Winter Valley story line. After all, the WVRR was built on a sold off CN branch but they retained running rights over most of it. The F3’s from USA Trains were converted to CN F7A’s and B’s and are painted in my favourate paint scheme. Horns, bell, cooling pipes and winterization hatches were applied and the grilles along the side were ’updated’ as required.
The SW1200’s required a great deal more work from the ground up as they started out as USAT NW2’s. More pictures of that conversion can be found at http://wvrr.ca/october05_update.htm Both models still await new sound cards but Soundtraxx has stopped building the Sierra cards I already installed in all my other diesels. That’s understandable! I bet on Beta as well.
But today my life long connection with the railroad world would take a somewhat different turn. An old friend of mine, John Green, was building a railroad of his own and I was being asked to contribute some experience to the project. Well, I had to say yes, even knowing it would probably absorb my time like a sponge and take me away from my real work. Ah, the sacrifices I make!
John’s ‘railroad’ was being built in his back yard. A long time fan and model builder of the Northern Alberta Railway, see www.narwy.ca, John had decided to put his extensive small scale layout to bed and join the growing ranks of modellers with gravity. He was rebuilding the NAR in his back yard.
So by lunch the pressing paper work was out of the way. I had handed what was left to my right hand girl and walked across the tracks to John’s house. The regular crowd was converging on the tennis courts in the park (Photo 2) as I waited for VWGJ to haul her way out of town. Yes, it was going to be a great day.
One of the greatest things about large-scale trains – or anything else that’s closer to human scale – is the opportunity to photograph things from eye level. Or very close to it. Can you imagine getting this view on a small scale layout? Not likely. Or you’d need a very special lends to do it. This is a point and shoot picture that just about mimics the real world.
The BCRail 52-foot center beam log/plywood car is a kit bash that started out as two USAT 40-foot models. A relatively straight forward cut and paste job – with details.
Lunch was on when I arrived. Diane had put out a bunch of burgers and salad. Enough to keep John and I well fed and with plenty left over to sustain a gang of antique car lovers who were showing off a beautiful 40 Chevy for the boarders. The fully restored classic (Photo 3) sat in the sunny driveway and simply cried out for a drive down Main Street. Hmmmm. I’ve just got to get myself a hobby.
But my ‘job’ today was to assure access to Winter Valley property so John could take photos and videos of some of the engines and rolling stock that showed up in Grande Prairie and Pearson. A stickler for detail, John insisted that everything on “his railroad’ was as prototypically accurate as he could make it. As a result, I got to tour the plant and visit the troops and John got to take pictures.
I was never a great fan of having a whole bunch of cars and trucks on my layouts. Even in my N scale days those things that travel on the highway were kept at a very minimum. Just some street parking and loading zones. That sort of thing. But in 1/24 th to 1/29 th scale the models available at a very good price are outstanding and can make a big contribution to the scenery.
Those car and truck modellers also have their own lines of people as well and for the most part, with perhaps the exception of Preiser, they are far more detailed and useful in ordinary day to day scenes. No cowboys, weddings and clowns here.
As luck would have it there were a couple of NAR boxcars in Grande Prairie and they were still in pretty good shape given the hardships of their northern home and the miles behind them on the road. John set himself up under the fans of an idling WV ‘geep’ so he could get photos of the ends of the NAR 53 footers (Photo 4) as well as a few detail shots of the brake gear on one of Winter Valley’s new covered hoppers.
John knew his way around rail yards having done time with CP Rail in the past so I wasn’t concerned about his safety but I still had the radio and so there weren’t going to be any surprises caused by suddenly moving cars. No need to spoil a good day by getting run over by a train.
As luck would have it there were a couple of NAR boxcars in Grande Prairie and they were still in pretty good shape given the hardships of their northern home and the miles behind them on the road. John set himself up under the fans of an idling WV ‘geep’ so he could get photos of the ends of the NAR 53 footers (Photo 4) as well as a few detail shots of the brake gear on one of Winter Valley’s new covered hoppers.
John knew his way around rail yards having done time with CP Rail in the past so I wasn’t concerned about his safety but I still had the radio and so there weren’t going to be any surprises caused by suddenly moving cars. No need to spoil a good day by getting run over by a train.
Over at the Grande Prairie fuel depot John was busy with more ‘detail’ shots. He was planning on using some of the features of the real facility (Photo 5) to bring some life into his models. Things around here look like clutter but in reality its pretty well taken car of. Everything has a use and everything is in it’s appropriate, most efficient place.
Today the guys were using the refueling track to take a better look at the bearings on a PROCOR can on its way to Kelowna. A detector had registered a problem but the experts couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Better though to leave it behind a few hours than have a serious issue crop up out on the main line.
As the story line goes, John is taking pictures at the Grande Prairie fuel facility. In real life John built that facility for me. His first foray into 1/29 th scale modelling but not his last. Infectious ain’t it?
I first saw it as an HO scale kit bash that John built for his own wonderful layout and then again as he began building them for sale on eBay. Funny how these things tie in together. You can build anything in any scale. Don’t be afraid to look for the things you like in any other scale catalogue.
Back at the house it was soon became evident that John just couldn’t get enough trains. His back yard opened onto our main line but there would soon be a ‘main line’ on his side of the fence.
It didn’t take long and Diane was staking out the spot for her vegetables (Photo 6) and John was going over what he could do with the lawn while still providing access for the mower and the visitors. Track was put down end to end, switch for switch, imaginary yards were built and rivers, mountains and tunnels were forged in the mind. This was really going to be a layout to rival the former basement model.
This Preiser guy used to be carrying a camera too. Now he’s actually having some fun. The significant other is also from Preiser. Pretty fine eh?
That back yard has been with us since the beginning and I was satisfied with a simple vegetable patch and a little grass. My daughter found the trains in a popcorn box and they sat there on the lawn, unused, for over 8 years. Now, with a little imagination, we’re building a garden railway and that stir stick fence makes a great playpen for the big boys.
By the time the light had faded and we had discussed, in some detail, large-scale traffic flow from end to end, it was also time for me to make my way back to the station (Photo 7) and the office. Just for a last look around. I knew I hadn’t been missed.
Now is that a good thing? Was my job so menial that everyone could do it or was my staff just so good that they could look after things themselves? Well, I could dwell on that another time. Right now the park looked beautiful in the evening and Extra 8106 was arriving from the south,
Boy, this photo goes way back. But you never stop changing things on the layout so it’s ‘new’ all over again. Back then there were no telephone wires and my pair of GP9’s were handling all the traffic by themselves. Today they’re often assigned to back up a modern SD40-2. The tractor is more at home in a field outside of Pearson and kids and dads play ball by the park gates.
Every day there’s something to do.
Hope I’ll see you all at www.mylargescale.com
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