Childhood models: Canadian adventure...

During my teens my Dad lost interest in the British outline layout and I often found layout plans scribbled on the back of cigarette packets (literally) after he'd been for a pint at the pub. I later discovered this was the beginning of the last great project, a Canadian HO layout in our double garage...

Now Dad still wanted to park two cars in the garage, so the layout was confined to the edges, with perhaps 3-4 ft depth at the back for a Prairies scene and 1-2ft depth at the sides, one to be a Rocky Mountain scene and the other to be downtown Vancouver (the latter never built). There was a later extension in the centre, that had a drop down section on one side, and some boards built to the same design as 'Stapley' but 4' x 2'ft size - these featured a dock side Canadian 'shield' scene with flatter rockier landscape and a treelined back scene. Across the door there was a long passing loop. The layout wasn't particularly complicated but it was big, and being pre-DCC all the wiring came back to the control panel, just infront of where Dad is standing above... a LOT of wiring went into this, and my main role on the project ended up being soldering upside down under the baseboards, fitting point motor and section wiring and feeding it back to the board, that Dad then wired up. This project was never finished, once Andrew and I left home he spent less time working on the model, and his interest waned a little. Later Dad's health began to deteriorate and it became a bit of a chore to setup - but got used until the early noughties whenever I visited home.

Here I am, aged 17 perhaps, infront of the prairie section. This had a massive 4ft back scene, Dad wanted to recreate the feeling of an the big sky. The lighting was hidden behind staging, so when viewed from the front, was like a theatre. There were just a mainline and two sidings, the sidings being long enough for around 12 grain cars (somewhat short of the prototypes tens of wagons long), long enough to look impressive. We eventually built a pair of grain elevators, and the start of small town. I remember Dad spent hours and hours trying to get the road smooth! I always thought it was him putting off doing the grass fields!

These early photos show the grain cars, mostly Intermountain kits, pre-weathering and aren't very well lit. They do show the hand painted sky, and the massive scale of the grain elevators though.

I later weathered the stock using powders and washes based on photos Dad took in Canada in the late 1990s on a university funded research trip. I believe the one below featured on the Model Railroader website back in the day in their junior modeller section.

I don't have photos of the whole layout but there are some of the rocky mountain scene. There was a mainline heading across a spindly girder bridge and a lower track that had to drop a lot of height to get under the baseboard supports - this had a return loop so trains could be reversed on this line. The wooden trestle bridge is still in my collection.

The SW1200 was a model I was quite proud of at the time, I think I still have most of the Canadian stock and locos, nothing was thrown away. It was all much newer than the UK stock, and of course, probably has more sentimental value too - and is worth less in the UK then perhaps if we lived in Canada. 

We did have a short rake of intermodal wagons, I pestered Dad to get these, saying we needed a double stack train. The CN liveried GE Dash 9 was the last HO locomotive he bought.

We had 4 or 5 SD40-2s from the Athearn model - great runners, nicely moulded. Over time I gadded grab handles on the end and they were weathered a fair bit.

My brother Andrew has a collection of Santa Fe locos and wagons, he liked the colour scheme - and he ended up helping Dad do a fair bit of the scenery. The scene here is barely 18" deep. The backscene I painted and my Dad re-worked some of the tree line more effectively. 

I think there are probably some more bettie photos of the layout on my other computer - but I've tried and failed to find them. I hope it's been interesting to browse through this very brief potted overview. I do count myself lucky to have grown up with two such wonderful layouts and a talented and encouraging father. More soon...