September 2008
Winter Valley – an overview after eight years.
Eight years is a long time so when you look around down here - some would say I’m a bit of a slacker. The track was down and operating years ago and there’s really just scenery to add so why did I get only 12 feet of it finished this year? Seems I spent a lot of time building cars and engines as well as our clubs G gauge modules. Then of course there’s real work. Someday I’m going to have to get serious about retirement.
I dug this 2001 diagram off the Network Map pages. It will help you navigate through the seven ‘aerial’ photos of the layout. Only real difference today is the connection at (A). Today’s track circles around behind the furnace and hot water heater as shown but now it joins onto the former ‘End of Track’ at Grande Prairie. An obvious addition.
Map 1 40’ x 45’ with a 300 foot main line.
The big UGG grain elevator at Grande Prairie (1) covers a large section of the wall. The original 1:1 building was at Portage la Prairie Manitoba. It’s long gone now so after I removed a few of the older Archives here I left this construction story up for those who want to try. The small station at the right was used, and then unused, at Barriere BC until fire swept through the region.
All of the Grande Prairie section, station, elevator and engine shops are built on 40 inch bench work to facilitate easy viewing from a seated position in the future lounge area.
Elevator siding at Grande Prairie
Around the corner to the right are the engine facilities at Grande Prairie. See area (2) There is a typical diesel sand tower and a ‘handy mans special’ fuel station fashioned out of a former 36-foot tank car. An old boxcar serves as a tool shed, bunk house and speeder bay.
The shops are modelled after an existing building on Clement Ave. in Kelowna BC. It is the present home of a high-end boat repair business but it always looked so ‘railroady’ that the owners let me measure and photograph the whole place. Nice! That roof is made out of BBQ’ed pop and beer cans.
Engine servicing at Grande Prairie
Over at location (3) the towns of Pearson and Grizzly Junction share a medium sized yard area. Operationally the Pearson tracks consist of the main line (the F units) and the station siding with the GP38-2. The Grizzly Junction yard consists of the empty main line to Fox Creek at the right and the Pearson main line. Track at the far end of town forms a turning “Y” and curves right behind the furnace and also left to Hudson’s Mills – now called simply Hudson.
The station at Pearson is a typical Grande Trunk Pacific E type station common throughout the west and built from photos and measurements made in Fort Qu’Appelle Saskatchewan. 
A line up at Pearson yard
Over against the wall at Hudson the track runs tight between the giant grain terminal at the left and the power plant and a small, specialized wood products industry at the right. The brick factory is one of only two ‘kits’ on the layout as I always prefer to build my own unique structures. This building is never the less quite rare and is no longer available.
The smaller wooden building is scratch built from photos taken at a local cherry orchard. It originally housed a sorting and packing machine and is now gone to make way for a housing development.
The elevator siding at Hudson
A view from area (5) and looking down the length of the Winter Valley peninsula shows the old water tower on the left and farther along the track – the Winter Valley station. The tower in a typical CNR/CPR enclosed structure designed to keep the water from freezing during the long, cold prairie winters. The station, my first and favourate scratch build, is a CNoR 3 rd class depot that became iconic of the Canadian West. Farther down on the left are the team track and an auger to load and unload feed grain.
In the right foreground are my ‘wheat fields’ made out of carpet. These are often/always used by guests as elbow rests and/or drink holders. And as that was the intention – it’s a good thing. The machine shop is the first small building on the siding. It’s now a motorcycle repair business so it offers no rail-related revenue. Next is the warehouse. There is always something coming and going there as there is at the Co-op grain elevator. 
The station at Winter Valley
Number (6) is the same area as viewed from the other end. The Co-op is on the left and you can see the freight platform of the warehouse. The front of the cycle shop is visible across the road.
You can see where the auger is working on the right and you can see the station parking lot just over the road. The water tank is just visible in the distance.
The yard area at Winter Valley
The south wall of the basement has a small notch built in to accommodate the on suite upstairs. It was an ideal location for building the mine facility at Colder.
Single track raises out of Winter Valley and passes through a snow scene before entering the yard at the mine. There is lots of opportunity for switching ore and incoming freight before descending through the park snow scene (yet to be built) and entering Hudson.
The mines at work in Colder
I hope you enjoyed the aerial tour of Winter Valley and the surrounding area. I think this will give visitors a better idea of how the layout is organized in the given space (about 1400 sq. ft.) and what can be done with G scale indoors. It’s true, I could have squeezed in a lot more track but it's a Canadian prairie short line. Not a busy, big city commuter line.
I’ll see you all at www.mylargescale.com
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