This is where I stand…
The summer of 1989. Whilst British Rail’s Class 03s turn their last wheels on the mainland just a stones throw from my childhood home I’m just starting out with my first great Canadian adventure…
That experience has shaped my life, those four weeks, three provinces, two planes created one love affair with the ribbons of steel stretching endlessly across a continent.
I missed the 03s of reality, but models too have shaped my modelling in a different way.
Today in N scale my latest muse, a reminder of both Tim’s and Dad’s OO gauge ones from my childhood - but more, these modern N gauge models are wonderful toys, delightfully conceived and beautifully captured time machines. For whilst 03162 sits here on Paxton Road my mind wanders to the badlands of Alberta and my first hand brush with Canadian railways in the summer of ‘89.
I love model railways.
Until next time, more soon…
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Morning James. I remember seeing a program in the 80's at primary school called zig zag. The presenter went for a journey on the Canadian from Toronto to Vancouver. The CN F units on the train made a huge impression on me ( red noses and big black and white stripes). I've never been to Canada sadly but the railways look amazing! My experience of 03 shunters is limited to the one they have on the Isle of Wight steam railway, I've had a cab ride in it though a few years ago. Thought provoking post today. Take care.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine! I suspect each of us has our relationship with trains, railways and model making - but exploring and sharing this is an important part of the hobby, the craft, the art for me...
DeleteHi James
ReplyDeleteHope you are having a relaxing weekend. Another interesting and contemplative post. I do find that statement about "ribbons of steel" is one of the attractive aspects of railways/railroads. Even without rolling stock it says something to the soul.
However prototypical that is, and most mainlines have fewer trains than we would like to see, it is a perhaps poor inspiration for a model and even more I guess for an exhibition . Maybe that is why train frequency feels too great in those cases, and why I am drawn toward industrial switching( shunting) and yard work where the possibility to see, and to model trains, at work seems higher. As I said elsewhere mainline and express trains have little interest for me, so perhaps my views and my modelling is coloured by this!!
Best regards
Alan
I don't think these things are mutually exclusive - for whilst you prefer the industrial and switching operations, many of them cannot exist without the mainline. I love the bucolic and rural, down at heel, perhaps long forgotten... you'd find that (just about) in 1989 in Canada too... the long Prairie branch lines that would parallel our journeys, watching the tracks follow the contours of the line catching the setting sun. Lone grain cars showing that trains do still come this way, sometimes... and the hope, the childlike innocence, almost imagining how wonderful it will be when you do catch one. You never do... but the promise is still there.
DeleteHi James
ReplyDeleteYes I do agree with you that mainlines, shortlines and industrial operations can not exist without each other, even if I find not so much of interest in mainlines compared with the backwaters, Coming across the "ribbons of rail" whether by design or accident is raises the interest and the hope.
My point however was that the "mainline" with its time between trains and the speed of passing may not always make a satisfying model , especially in an exhibition environment, means time and frequency gets compressed to "keep things interesting" and so we can end up with a caricature of a railway.
Best regards
Alan
I guess it depends - I completely agree, but just sat, reflecting, I wonder if trains need to move for it to be a model railway? In which case, a lonely prairie station, grain elevator, not a soul to be seen - would that still feel like the Canada I remember... which I think, you can probably imagine, yes, it does... so perhaps there is something in these prairie branchline memories to explore...
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