Category Archives: Archives
My Three Minutes of Fame – A visit from Shaw Cable
Something New Around Here.
One of the things that can drive you crazy out this way is that every day is pretty much the same as the next. Days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months. Changes happen over time. Seasons for example. Those changes you notice. I’m not whining about that. There’s a curse that goes,… Continue reading »
Operation: 1st Night
After 10+ years of planning and building it has finally come to this. It’s ‘Operations Night’ on the Winter Valley. The much feared and often put off meet is upon us and friends are invited over for the upcoming Wednesday evening. They’ll be given a quick ‘show and tell’ about the layout, the engines, the… Continue reading »
A Big City Never Sleeps
A Big City Never Sleeps Well, for some people around here this is the ‘big city’. Most of the folks grew up on the farm or were closely associated to the farm and country life in general but good roads, school, hospital and business amalgamation and new oil and gas workers from ‘away’ have meant… Continue reading »
Working Winter Valley
January 2015 Working Winter Valley The sun gets up suddenly and in it’s full regalia in Winter Valley. It quietly creeps up behind the hills and then ‘bang’ it’s daytime and life below is buzzing around in every which direction. Down at the station we prefer some order in all things. Trains arrive, drop off… Continue reading »
The Family Album
January 2014 The Family Album Photos by Friedhelm Weidelich In early 2005 I had the pleasure of being visited by Friedhelm Weidelich on behalf of the glossy German model railway magazine Gartenbahm profi.Friedhelm is an excellent model photographer, a fine writer and he has a deep background in the European garden railway world. His publication… Continue reading »
The Fleet Is In
November 2013 The Fleet Is In Repowering the Winter Valley Over the years that I’ve been a part of the Winter Valley family there have been projects that have taken a great deal of time and money to get right. Rebuilding the station at Pearson was one such project. Being classified as a heritage building… Continue reading »
Playing With the Light.
May 2013 Playing With the Light. A little light sometimes sneaks into the basement. The wharf jutting out into the stream at Hudson’s Mill attracts a small crowd at all times of the day in all seasons of the year. Ice fishing and skating start early in these parts and the short summers fill with… Continue reading »
Looking back just a little
March 2013 Looking back just a little. I hope I’m forgiven for doing nothing newsworthy on the layout since finishing off the scenery in the corner. https://wvrr.ca.htm All of my efforts have been dedicated to installing AirWire and Phoenix in the motive power, rebuilding a USAT extended vision caboose and chopping the nose on a… Continue reading »
Summer’s Over so It’s Time to Start Again
September 2012 Summer’s over so it’s time to start again I know. I’ve been away this summer. Loving the out of doors though. Last fall I bought myself a beautiful Mustang convertible and darn it anyway, I used it. My last day at work was the 1st of May and so I chased trains and… Continue reading »
Building a Canadian Cylindrical Hopper in 1/29th Scale.
May 2012 Building a Canadian cylindrical hopper in 1/29th scale. One of the things on my bucket list was to build a ‘Trudeau hopper’ in 1/29th scale but it was a crazy great gift from my son that convinced me it was possible. Finding a foundation that was the right length – and had great… Continue reading »
Wireless Control for the Winter Valley
April 2012 Wireless Control for the Winter Valley It was a long time coming and it will be a while before it’s all done but eventually all 9 of my diesel engines will be equipped with ‘radio control” by AirWire and controlled by the new T5000 wireless throttles. Wireless thinking started a few years… Continue reading »
Returning a Favour – Leasing Power to The NAR – Part 2.
Nov 2011 Returning a favour – Leasing power to the NAR Part 2. I greeted the world with a massive headache and I couldn’t even find my watch. I’d leased a taxi to get me to McLennan and had no idea if I was late or early. A call to the desk set me straight. … Continue reading »
A Brief Visit From the Past.
October 2011 A Brief Visit From the Past. There wasn’t anything unusual about this September day. It broke as early as it usually dose at this time of year and by 7 AM it was light enough so I could see my way down the path that lead past the park and into the small… Continue reading »
Returning a Favour – Leasing Power to The NAR – Part 1.
July 2011 Returning a favour – Leasing power to the NAR Part 1. Over the past few years, with the boom in the oil and lumber industries, the Winter Valley Regional Railway has had to lease seasonal power wherever they could find it. This power was logged in using a complex horsepower – hours –… Continue reading »
A Party For Reagan
February 2011 A Party For Reagan I run into ‘Train Nuts” in my line of work, hell I’m one myself, and they’re particularly prevalent and around the Winter Valley. This modern short line railway offers friendly access to people and property; we run ‘traditional’ LTC (less that carload) trains rather than those boring unit… Continue reading »
A few new friends in Winter Valley
October 20 2005 A few new friends in Winter Valley It may have started out to be just another day but something special was about to happen. We waited in the shade down at the old freight shed and talked excitedly about what our first sighting of 5006 would be like. The 7 th SD40-2… Continue reading »
Climbing out of a sleeping bag
15 July 2005 Climbing out of a sleeping bag at 0630 on a coolish fall morning isn’t normally a big deal but after hiking up this far, just the day before, the thinner air and the smell of an early frost makes a nice warm pocket a hard place to leave. Photo 1 An old… Continue reading »
A trip into the high country.
10 March, 2005 A trip into the high country. The main line north of Winter Valley climes slowly and steadily towards High Pass (the highest elevation on the WVRR) before dropping slowly into the mining country around Colder. This is not Rogers Pass, or even the Yellowhead, but it’s high enough to rate it’s own… Continue reading »