Background
In the 1980's I built a small HO model railroad which had a life span of a couple of years. At the time there was no Digital Command Control (DCC) and no sound (equals boring) which, combined with family and career commitments, fell into disuse after a couple of years and was taken down.In the 1990's I built a rather extensive N scale model railroad which was most enjoyable. This was my first attempt at realistic scenery. At around the 60% complete mark when things started to get really interesting my empire succumbed to a flood – a leak in a water pipe in the suspended ceiling above the model railroad resulted in a very real rain storm which lasted for about 20 minutes before it was discovered. My water effects had filled up with real water (rather nice) but much of the rest of the scenery the “power packs” (again no DCC) sustained a lot of damage. I didn’t feel like doing a major refurbishment so that was that.
My next model railroading adventure was my garden railway. This was incredibly interesting and enjoyable. There is an earlier posting on this blog which tells all about this. The only downside to a garden railway when you live in a place that has five months of winter is that winter operations, while not impossible can be frustrating when, at minus 30 Celsius the wheels become caked with ice.
In 2011 I negotiated the use of a then-unused basement bedroom with head office (aka my wife) in which to construct a model railroad in HO scale. While I enjoyed N scale for the ability to fit a lot of track and scenery in a relatively small space, I felt that N scale would grow to become too small as I aged.
The Model Railroad
My inspiration in the creation of my first “serious” model railroad came from my purchase of a book Model Railroading with John Allen by Linn Westcott and John Allen, Kalmbach Publishing, 1996. Many of you will know that John Allen was one of the early leaders of this hobby. He created grand vistas of floor-to-ceiling mountains through which his model railroad wound. Built in the 1950’s before electronics, DCC, sound, static grass, wonderful adhesives and paints – all the things we take for granted today – John Allen’s model railroad was light years ahead of almost everyone else in the hobby at the time.My goal was to build a very downscaled version using John Allen’s floor-to-ceiling mountain concept. I was tired of seeing flat model railroads with some token no-reason-for-being tunnels covered with crappy died green sawdust. I wanted to create something different. This was also my very first foray into DCC and sound – WOW did these make a difference. My interest in this hobby skyrocketed when I purchased my first Digtrax system and a sound-equipped locomotive. I have not looked back.
The End of the Story
I know you are not supposed to end a story before it has really got off the ground but, in 2014 my wife and I decided to sell our house and move to the bungalow condominium where we now live – on condition that I could have a full woodworking workshop in the basement and that there would be a separate room in the basement that could house a reasonable size HO layout. The reasons for our move were several but the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was that the neighbours from hell moved in next door. With seven very noisy adult children, an unlicensed (but still totally legal) daycare, many smokers and many dumpy vehicles and a large boat on a broken trailer in the driveway our enjoyment of our home had changed for the worse – and there was very little that we could do about it. Our move would have happened one day anyway; this situation simply created a greater incentive, but also an opportunity. We found a delightful place that checked all the boxes (the workshop and model railroad room in particular!).This meant that the floor to ceiling model railroad did get built but only about ¾ of the way. I salvaged what I could, but most went in the garbage. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. From my floor to ceiling model railroad I learned several things about what NOT to do:
- Hidden track should be kept to a minimum. I had left a hidden walkway that I was able to use standing up behind the model railroad so I could rescue trains, if necessary. It was a good idea. However, it also meant that the trains were out of sight for 50% of the time – boring, even though my control panel showed me exactly where each train was from the use of detection circuits.
- You must have passing tracks, something I completely overlooked. In hindsight, I had read a lot about passing tracks in articles but I knew best and didn’t grasp the fact that prototype railroads have these for a reason.
- You must not have spurs facing away from the direction of travel when you have no passing tracks or it is impossible to drop off and pick up cars from such spurs (as Homer Simpson would say, Doh!).
- I had built a control panel which operated every turnout and electrical uncoupler from a central location. While this seemed like a good idea it meant that, to operate you had to remain in one place. I quickly decided that I would never do that again. It is much more fun to follow your trains around the room, with toggle switches or push buttons located in the fascia near where the action takes place.
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| The structure with some track before any scenery |
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| Partially complete |
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| My favorite scene |
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| From another angle |
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| The central control panel |
One thing that I built that I was very proud of was a completely hidden train lift/elevator. This model railroad was set in the 1930’s and was more whimsy that prototypical. It had only mining and forestry traffic and a short passenger train that would mainly ferry workers to and from work sites. This meant that the trains were always quite short. I constructed a very effective lift/elevator that would move a complete train from the lower track which was located about 3 feet off the floor to the upper track which was about 5 feet off the floor – and do so completely out of sight of the operator. I installed light sensors, numerous safety switches, etc. in order to make sure the trains were stopped in exactly the right place. I would throw one toggle switch either up or down on the central control panel and the elevator would move the corresponding direction, automatically stopping in exactly the correct place. The train would then be turned on and would chug (no diesels on this model railroad, of course) off the elevator and proceed to do their work – such as try to drop three cars off on a facing spur, which didn’t work too well! I built the elevator because I had read so many horror stories about helixes as well as for the challenge.
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| The train elevator from front - at lowest level (note the two tracks) |
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| Half-way to the top level |
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| At the highest level |
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| Back side showing heavy steel counterweight |
I had to come up with a name for my model railroad. I didn’t want to use a real road name because I didn’t want people taking exception to my use of various pieces of rolling stock in non-prototypical ways. I came up with a name which, to local people in Regina, Saskatchewan, might see the irony – the Wascana Canyon Railway. Wascana is an anglicization of the Cree word “oscana” which means “pile of bones” in reference to piles of bones that would accumulate before the area in which we live was populated by non-indigenous people. The reference to “Canyon” is the irony – it is so flat here that you can watch your dog run away for three days!
Wascana Canyon Railway v2
Future posts will feature what I have done in model railroading at the new house. In four years, I am already on my second one, but that is a story for later.