Showing posts with label model railroad. Show all posts

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Passing a Half Century (Part 2) - No Trains

And I don't understand why I sleep all day
And I start to complain that there's no train
-- No Rain (more or less), Blind Melon

The first day of my 50th birthday trip (first post) was spent traveling from Winnipeg to Calgary and then driving to southern Alberta. It was very busy!

Warning: NO TRAINS.

No plan survives contact with the enemy

"Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus." - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Our plans for my birthday trip went awry even before we left.

Our first night was going to be spent at the majestic Prince of Wales hotel in Waterton, Alberta.

Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton National Park 2009

This hotel is a landmark for the area. It was built in the late 1920s by the Great Northern Railway as the last in a chain of luxury hotels. Today it's a national historic site. It closes for the winter and we had booked one night - September 19th - on its last week of operation for the season. My wife had been there before but I had never been.

It has been a dry summer all across western Canada and there were numerous wildfires popping up in Alberta and British Columbia. These made for spectacular sunsets - even in Manitoba - but they made for worrisome and sometimes dangerous conditions for residents and firefighters.

Unfortunately, the Kenow wildfire spread like... well, wildfire... and crossed into Alberta and into Waterton Park itself. We received a call and email from the hotel on September 7th, and when I called them back, they told me the hotel was closing and the town of Waterton was evacuating. They offered to book us in another hotel in Montana - no thanks - so they gave us a full refund.

Totally understandable, but... shoot. Disappointing.

We hurriedly booked a room at the Ramada in nearby Pincher Creek, Alberta and that was that.

Calgary

We took AC 8333 from YWG/Winnipeg to YYC/Calgary early in the morning (thank you to my father-in-law for driving us to the airport). We landed pretty much on time just after 8 AM and retrieved our luggage and headed to the car rental section.

I had some free days with Enterprise so I had booked a mid-size car there.

They wanted to upgrade me to an SUV but I hate driving those, so they gave us a "luxury" car instead, a Chrysler 300. That is a sweet car but it made me feel a little old! Great range, though - over 900 km on a (large) tank of gas.

I wanted to stop at the Trains-And-Such model train store, but they didn't open until 10. We drove to the area then had breakfast at a nearby Tim Horton's until just before 10, then went to the store.

Trains & Such, Calgary

I love that place! I ended up buying a dozen employee timetables to add to my collection.

With that done, we headed south toward Pincher Creek, in search of grain elevators.

De Winton

The next stop was the small town of De Winton, not far south of Calgary. The town has two small grain elevators, on private land. Oddly I had never been here, despite its proximity to Calgary.

De Winton grain elevators

These two elevators are fairly old. The Diamond Fertilizers elevator dates from around 1906 and is one of the oldest in Alberta. The other is from the 1920s. More details can be found in the excellent BIGDoer article on these elevators, which came out just a few days after I visited the site. Coincidence? ;)

The other side of the DeWinton elevators

I photographed them from public roads on both sides of the elevators. While driving away from the last shot, I saw this.

A bucolic scene in De Winton

I don't know who arranged these, but... thanks!

Note the Calgary skyline in the distance... De Winton is not that far out of town.

Next stop...

Azure

The Azure grain elevator

This elevator is a little south of High River, and is barely visible from highway 2.

The Azure grain elevator is part of a farm complex and was on the CP Macleod subdivision. This is a former Alberta Pacific grain elevator, still in its original location. More on the BIGDoer site, again!

We drove around to the "sun side" and I broke out the long lens to get a shot of the elevator with the mountains behind it.

Haybales, a grain elevator and mountains.. not the usual combination

I included the hay bales because I was thinking of BW Bandy and his blog. Go read it! He posts a lot of interesting things - not just hay bales.

After Azure, we got back on the highway, and drove into Nanton. The town of Nanton has a couple of grain elevators that form the Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre. I've photographed these elevators a couple of times and on this trip I completely ignored them. My focus was instead on...

The Bomber Command Museum of Canada

PP-616 on display in Nanton Alberta

It's an odd place for an airplane museum, but Nanton hosts the Bomber Command Museum of Canada. This museum hosts a number of planes and a pretty extensive array of interpretive displays. The star of the museum is their Lancaster bomber, FM-159.

Lancaster FM-159 in Nanton, Alberta

I had seen the outside of the museum before but it was never open when I passed through Nanton.. or I didn't have time to stop. Time to correct that.

We spent about an hour touring the museum. The interpretive displays are quite nicely done and explain the history of bomber planes with the Canadian military, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the history of Lancasters and their use in raids like the "Dambusters".

Nanton itself doesn't have any air force history that I know of, but towns around it like Vulcan and Dewinton certainly did.

Have a look at their web site - lots of interesting detail there, even if it looks like it was written in the late 1990s - and give them a visit when you're in town!

On to...

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

My wife expressed an interest in visiting Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. I think she was intrigued by the name, but since it wasn't that far off the highway, off we went.

The site is quite well done and explains how some First Nations people would herd bison off cliffs, then harvest the carcasses. I had not heard of this practice before so it was very educational for me.

It was interesting but a little expensive at $15 per adult.

These bison in a nearby field were a nice bonus.

Don't jump!

We returned to the highway and kept going south. I had one more grain elevator to see.

Raley

Raley grain elevator

We drove down highway 2 almost to Cardston, then took highway 5 northeast until we approached Raley. The grain elevator is pretty well hidden. You could easily miss it from the nearby road. Fortunately I knew where it was from prior map scouting so I spotted it as we approached.

Raley has the oldest grain elevator in Alberta, built in 1905.

There are a few houses in the vicinity but nothing very close to the elevator. It looks like it is still on the roadbed of the former CP Woolford subdivision.

Former Alberta Pacific grain elevator in Raley

I'm not sure if this elevator is still in use or not. The annex looks like it was recently patched up and some Internet searching shows the nearby Hutterite colony uses the annex for fertilizer storage.

It's a beautiful old elevator. More information is available on Wikipedia and of course on BIGDoer.com. I should be getting a commission from Chris and Connie for all the linking I'm doing in this post! ;)

After paying my respects to this elevator, it was time to head to Pincher Creek for the night... or was it?

Pincher Creek

We returned to Cardston, where I bought a Pepsi Max, then went somewhat cross-country to Pincher Creek. We could have taken highway 2 back up to Fort Macleod then highway 3 to Pincher Creek, but we had just been on highway 2 and wanted to go a different route. So we took highway 2 north to route 505 and headed more or less west from there.

Eventually it teed off into highway 6, where we would have gone south into Waterton Park if that wasn't actively on fire at the time. So, north it was. We saw and smelled the smoke around that area.

We arrived in Pincher Creek and checked into the Ramada hotel. The sun was still up and I wanted to take advantage of that, so we went up to Pincher Station - just north of highway 3 - to see if there were any trains around.

The title of the post tells you there were no trains. I did take the time to photograph this fragment of a grain elevator annex that Jason Paul Sailer told me about.

A bit of an annex

There are two elevators of sorts in Pincher Station.

One is a former Elephant fertilizer elevator, now with an Agrium sign on it. These distinctive elevators once dotted the prairies, and several still exist. Eric Gagnon has a great post on these elevators.

The other elevator in Pincher Station is in Alberta Pool turquoise and still has the Pool logo on the non-track side. It has a big sign proclaiming Sinnott Farm Services on the track / highway side.

Now that I look back on the photos I took of these elevators in May 2016, the Elephant elevator also has a Sinnott Farm Services sign.

Sinnott Farm Services elevator in Pincher Station, Alberta

The light was getting low, but I wanted to have a quick look at the nearby Lundbreck Falls.

Lundbreck Falls

You wouldn't think there would be waterfalls outside of the mountains in Alberta, but... you'd be wrong!

Mind you, they aren't very tall - 12 metres / 39 feet - but they are pretty and worth a quick trip off the highway.

This is the Crowsnest River.

We took a few photos from various angles and vowed to return in the morning on our way west into the Crowsnest Pass. Still no trains. :(

Coming Up

On our second day of my 50th birthday trip, we headed into the Crowsnest Pass and visited Blairmore and Fernie before touring the railway museum in Cranbrook... and two more grain elevators! Another busy day coming up.

READ NEXT / Back to the first post

PS you can read this series as an eBook, with extra photos and content!

Monday, February 08, 2016

Canadian Model Train Store Directory

Just a quick note to let you know that I've created a model train store directory over at Modeltraingeek.com.

I had noticed there wasn't any good listing of all the Canadian model train stores. Both the NMRA and the CAORM had pages with Canadian stores, but they were incomplete and out of date, with many linked sites no longer existing.

This past Sunday, I went through both lists, as well as the list of stores in Canadian Railway Modeller, weeded out the sites that were no longer responding, and came up with an initial list. I then added sites that came up in Google and called it rev 0 and posted it in the excellent Canadian Railway Modellers Facebook group.

I received some additions to the list and a few deletions too, so I've incorporated all of their great suggestions and I believe the list is more or less complete now.

I will do my best to maintain it and I welcome any corrections, additions or sad notices of store closures.

I should point out that I'm only listing physical stores that people can visit. Virtual stores like Canadian Express Line are not listed. I want to encourage people to visit their local hobby store, and I want to have a listing of local stores so when people are visiting someplace new, they can find a hobby store. Already people have commented about stores that they never knew existed near them.

See the Canadian model train store directory!

Don't have a local model train store?

Look for model trains on Amazon.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

10 Questions for William Brillinger

Railroad magazine used to have a regular feature highlighting an "Interesting Railfan". I thought I would run a similar series with some railfans who have agreed to participate. I'm asking each railfan 10 questions, some standard and some customized for the particular person. I hope you enjoy it. (See all in the series)

William Brillinger is a modeler who lives near Altona, Manitoba. I had the pleasure of operating on his layout once (so far) and he graciously agreed to answer my 10 questions. In a great twist, his wife Dana also answered the questions on his behalf. I've included her responses afterward.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I grew up in a hardware store in a small town in Southern Ontario. I worked in a hobby shop in Kitchener for a number of my teenage years and later moved to Manitoba to work for Promotex. I am self-employed and work mostly in the model railroad industry, which is great because I get to spend most of my days playing with something train related - I manufacture a line of laser cut model railroad detail parts. When I’m not playing with trains, I’m in IT and website development. I’m 43 years old and my wife, 2 teenage children, and I live just outside of Altona, MB.

2. Why do you like trains?

I wish I knew. I have always been fascinated with trains. I got my first “real” train set and a subscription to Model Railroader when I was 7 years old from my uncle who was a train nut. I also spent a considerable amount of time around the rail yards in Kitchener and London as a teenager. ...but I still can’t explain why I like trains.

CN 5320 in Emerson, MB, June 2011

3. Where's your favourite place to railfan?

Pretty much anywhere, but mostly I enjoy watching the happenings along the Letellier Sub in southern Manitoba since it has a direct impact on my modelling choices.

4. Would you consider yourself a modeller, a railfan, or somewhere in between?

I’ve always considered myself in between, but when I really think about this question, I have to say railfanning is a means to an end: my modelling, so I suppose that makes me a modeler.

5. Why did you choose the CN Letellier / BNSF Noyes area to model?

I chose the Letellier sub because CN is my first love in the Railroad world and it’s close enough to where I live that I could gather information easily. Little did I know when I chose it how diverse this little connector line would be.

Engelhart, ON, June 1992

6. What's your favourite railway?

Well, here it comes. I have to betray my first love and say the Ontario Northland of the 80’s is hands down my favourite Railway. The breathtaking scenery, diverse operations and a stand out paint scheme really captured my attention during yearly fishing trips with my dad when I was a kid, and it would have been the focus of my current layout if it were a little easier to get to from Altona.

In model form, I think my favorite railway is Mike Confalone’s Allagash. His series showcased in Model Railroad Hobbyist is inspirational to me.

7. What attracts you to the operations aspect of model railroading?

Trains are part of a large complicated system that I find fascinating and moving freight is why they exist. Replicating this system in miniature gives my models believability and I find it immersive. Without aiming for realistic feeling operations, I feel like my toys are reduced to just that… toys.

8. What model would you love to see?

A decent RTR SD40-2W would be nice.

Bill's app in progress

9. What projects are you working on?

Right now I am working on an APP for the conductors on my 2 man crews to use. The app holds paperwork such as timetables, rules, dbo’s, spins info and zone maps, and simulates brake tests, border crossing procedures and other tasks that people use chance cards or dice rolls to incorporate into op sessions. The app also provides sound effects pertinent to the conductor’s job such as coupler clunks and stretches, among others. It’s web based and there will be a generic version that anyone is free to use.

10. Is there anything better than Allagash Lemon Cake after running trains?

Nope.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BONUS - Bill's wife responds for him!

AND THIS IS HOW MY WIFE ANSWED THESE QUESTIONS FOR ME… (Interjections in brackets by Bill.)

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am an Ontario refugee living in Manitoba. They have been very welcoming but I hate the cold; it makes my hair fall out. Since I like things to happen, I am always busy; directing my family, employee, and committees to complete tasks well. Some things however I’ve got to take care of myself. I built my own house (with some help), and I like to build my own detail parts for my layout. I like the process, so currently I enjoy the plywood prairie running around my office. My kids occasionally come to check up on my progress, or some neat thing I’ve just invented, and my wife comes along trainspotting i.e. taking video of entire trains, recording clunks, or scenery photos, if I promise Chinese food in Emerson. I inherited “Art” from my mom and “Computer” from my dad, so I was well suited to deliver pizza early in my marriage, which has since morphed into a tidy IT business, and hobby focused detail parts business, and the ability to paint. I participate in the online model railroad community and enjoy bringing the rail equipment I photograph to exacting perfection in HO scale.

2. Why do you like trains?

They are like thunder, harnessed power, directed to a useful, orderly, and efficient purpose. OK, I sat on a signal catwalk while a train rumbled by beneath me, and it was awesome!

Paperwork on Bill's BNML layout

3. Where's your favourite place to railfan?

In Manitoba I like to hang out near the Emerson/Noyes crossing. The BNSF, CN, CP, and SOO can be spotted and often recorded while stopped for customs or crew change. Of course the US customs officers get annoyed if they think you are too interested in their VACIS system. Also the Chinese restaurant is pretty good and my wife will come along.

4. Would you consider yourself a modeller, a railfan, or somewhere in between?

I consider myself a modeller. I plan to build my own specialty pieces with materials labelled, styrene and thou, with evil smelling solvents, paints, and glues. When working with purchased rolling stock, I measure wheel spacing, replace couplers, cut off inaccurate parts, and make custom decals. Eventually, perhaps using my fantastic laser cutter, I plan to build my own buildings for my layout. Of course, the amount of time I spend trackside for “research”, throws me into the railfan category among my family.

5. Why did you choose the CN Letellier / BNSF Noyes area to model?

The CN Letellier / BNSF Noyes area is diverse, not crowded, with steady traffic, and close to home. BNML trains squeeze through the border with CP & SOO which makes for an interesting puzzle when transferred to the plywood prairie.

6. What's your favourite railway?

My favorite railway is the GNR. (Ha! She’s just guessing!)

7. What attracts you to the operations aspect of model railroading?

Solving the switching puzzles efficiently is challenging and fun but it’s running the layout, bells, whistles, switches, delays, pick-ups, deliveries, and paper work issues really make the experience engrossing.

8. What model would you love to see?

I would really like to see a model of the caboose I scratch built many years ago. Also an HO loco model that doesn’t need so many adjustments to make it respectably prototypical would be fantastic. (She nailed it here.)

9. What projects are you working on?

Currently I am working on laser cut hooks, shackles, binders, switch machines and card boxes for sale… And lighting and wiring on the plywood BNML. Fascia is next.

10. Is there anything better than Allagash Lemon Cake after running trains?

Allagash Lemon Cake is fantastic and my wife hasn’t messed it up, but there are things which are better. (Oh yeah? Name two!)

Steve here. Thanks, Dana, and thanks again for the delicious Allagash Lemon Cake!

If you want to get in touch with Bill, you can find him here:
Website: www.pdc.ca/rr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/precisiondesignco
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/pdcweb/videos
Blog: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/blog/23320

Thursday, October 15, 2015

On To The Czech Republic

After touring Vienna for six days (and a side trip to Salzburg), it was time to move on to Prague in the Czech Republic.

Before leaving Vienna, I discovered the Carl Hilpert toy store near Stephansdom. Check out the trains! The entire top floor is trains, mostly European models but I did see a SOO engine and a few American ones. It was pretty spendy and I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to tour it.

Bright and early on September 29, we headed to the Wien Hauptbahnhof to catch our Railjet to Prague.

There were a lot of trains departing!

We had quite a wait so I had a long time to wander around and photograph trains... I was OK with that.

A two unit diesel powered train

A Bombardier Talent trainset

CityShuttle 8073 011-3... pushed by an electric locomotive on the other end

An ÖBB 1063 pushing some passenger cars.

Nose to nose - two Talent sets coupled together

Our Railjet arrived and we boarded. We had paid extra to choose our seats so we were able to sit together. It was quite comfortable but unfortunately had no wifi. I visited the snack bar in the neighbouring car to get a little snack.

I used an offline English-Czech dictionary app to translate a few words here and there while we were in the Czech Republic. This chip bag says "lightly salted".

We soon left Austria and entered the Czech Republic. Since we were in the Schengen Area, there was no passport check or any notice at all that we were passing into the Czech Republic.

The train looks much like an airplane.

There were lots of trains to see on the way. Here's a sampling of some that I saw from the train.

Česká Třebová station

An LTE Group locomotive - no idea what kind but it's pretty cool!

This was our top speed - 160 km/hr or 100 MPH

Hey look, a grain elevator!

Even some grain cars on a siding... complete with graffiti. I felt like I was home again!

Transcereales grain cars

České dráhy series 163 locomotive #061-5, made by Škoda and capable of 120 km/hr operation

The Škoda CityElefant class 471 electric multiple unit train

The Brno passenger station

We arrived at the Praha Hlavní Nádraží (Prague main train station). The engineer spotted the train just right for this photo.

Arrival

We collected our bags (stored in the same car that we were in) and headed out into Prague to begin the second half of our vacation.

Next up - Trams of Prague!

Also, have a look at this slideshow of Czech locomotives.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Spring Cleaning Sale

I'm cleaning house here at Traingeek Mansion. The following is a list of HO scale model train stuff, as well as some paper railroad items. Prices do not include shipping. Please email me at steve@theboykos.com if you are interested! First come, first served. I prefer PayPal for payment.