One of the major regional model railroad operating events of odd years occurs in September with VanRail. This event brings model railroad operators, generally from the West, to Vancouver, British Columbia for a delightful array of railroads graciously hosted. I have attended since 2017 and have enjoyed it every time. This year I put my bids in for a couple of railroads I operated on in the past plus one more open slot. That “open slot” often produces a new delight for me. This year did not disappoint.
My first layout was Greg Madsen’s Spokane and British Columbia Railway. As the name implies, this was a cross-border railway with historic antecedents. Greg applied “proto-fiction” to bring the historic S&BC into the 1950s. Greg’s railway features two yards with through trains doing block swaps with the yard switching crew plus separate local industry switching jobs. I drew Greg’s major yard and promptly brought the railroad down on its knees. Credit that to not studying Greg’s switch-lists long enough to recognize the pattern he created. Still, the session was sufficiently laid-back with our guest crew that we all had a good time.
Greg Madsen’s Spokane and British Columbia layout as our guest crew looked around. The yard I served in is on the right.
Another view of Greg Madsen’s layout with a mainline train proceeding on the left.
One feature of operating events is that it often represents a gathering of peers—model railroaders with similar interests and driven to create layouts focused on operation, especially individual car movements. That led to several interesting discussions dealing with issues we face in creating our dream empires. I was struck by this as an after-session discussion with Greg in his shop led to a fresh perspective for me dealing with model paint, prompted by the demise of our most common model railroad paint a decade ago. Greg explained to me what he learned about using modern acrylic model paints and the changes in tools and techniques he has employed.
That was valuable to me as I currently embark upon fresh model projects.
Following the first day’s operations, overall event coordinator Scott Calvert and his wife Margot hosted a reception for all participants—guests and layout hosts at his house. This gave me an opportunity to directly observe progress made by Scott and his crew in bringing his vision of the Canadian Pacific Boundary Division into life in HO-scale. I have operated a couple of times on Scott’s railroad, so I was eager to see what he had done since my last visit. Scott and I both have larger layouts so we have exchanged e-mail discussions of challenges we face.
Scott Calvert’s CPR Boundary Division layout. Scott has been adding the upper deck to the layout with the mountain summit at Fallon on the left and more mountain track on the upper right. Below is the major yard at Nelson.
My second day’s layout was John Green’s 1950’s era Coquihalla (Kettle Valley) Railway. This was my second visit to John’s operation so I had at least a little prior experience. Although the aisles can be a bit cramped with choke points, we all made allowances and moved the traffic. I drew a road crew job and traversed the mainline a couple of times with both an Extra and a scheduled (regular) freight.
Dick Z. operates a train at Hope, BC, on the upper level of John Green’s Coquiahlla Valley Railway.
Following a through freight on John Green’s Coquihalla Valley Railway.
Our second evening found guests and hosts gathered at the restaurant alongside our central event hotel for an evening of cross-table discussions. This gave me an opportunity to continue discussions begun in the hotel lobby concerning future operating developments on my railroad as well as sharing perspectives on other challenges.
After dinner, we moved into a hotel meeting room for a presentation on railway less-than-carload (LCL) traffic. LCL traffic lasted longer in parts of Canada as it took longer to develop the highway network that eventually doomed the rail traffic. Still, LCL is an interesting topic and is applicable to my own favorite prototype of the Southern Pacific which successfully carried LCL traffic into the 1960s with a combination of rail and the SP’s Pacific Motor Transport trucking subsidiary.
My final layout assignment was on Anthony Craig’s Canadian Pacific Railway Kettle Valley Division, set around 1950 with all-steam operation. Just as my first experience with Anthony’s layout some years ago, I split my time between work as a pusher (helper) engineer and then as the Train Order Operator at the major yard of Brookmere.
Our guest crew gathers for Anthony Craig’s briefing in the aisles space in front of the major yard of Brookmere. Rob K. serves as the first trick Train Order Operator at Brookmere (seated, just beyond the roundhouse), the operator position I filled for the second trick (after our session refreshment break).
Our three-way meet on Anthony Craig’s CPR Kettle Valley Division. I was the pusher engineer at the rear of the train on the left. We followed a First Class train already in the siding. The opposing First Class train was supposed to have been met by both the train ahead of us and us (We had meet orders.) at Coquihalla. We used a flagman and found a way to do the saw-by.
Anthony Craig describes himself as a modeler first and operator second. He is at a very high level for both of those activities. His layout is beautiful with lots of scratch-built structures. His locomotives and cars are well detailed and run very well. He has a well-defined operation that showcases use of timetable and train orders for train movement management. All of this makes for an enjoyable experience.
VanRail features wonderful operating layouts with most gracious hosts. I look forward to my next trek north to visit my friends in the Vancouver, BC, area.
