Modelers rekindle rail passion in Owen Sound at CWHC’s inaugural show

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A deep love of milestones in railroad history and railcar modeling was on display at the Owen Sound Legion on Saturday.

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The Community Waterfront Heritage Center’s first model show and sale for railroad modelers and enthusiasts welcomed hundreds of people through the legion’s doors with more than 50 vendor tables to visit and exhibits to see.

Before entering the main show, guests can view a 1950s CWHC scale plan of Owen Sound’s western harbor, built by Bluewater Modelers who attended the event.

CWHC curator Zack McLean said the heritage center wanted to pay homage to the city’s somewhat forgotten railroad history and give local enthusiasts a place to connect.

McLean pointed out that ships have been stopping by the city’s inner harbor to this day and said, “Maritime history is an ongoing history in the region.” “Trains have not been running for a while. . . “It’s also a great way for experienced modelers and those new to the hobby to connect.”

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Chris McCurley is a CWHC board member who started working with model train sets when he was just 16 years old.

McCurley said it’s a varied hobby. Some people enjoy researching the history of trains, others enjoy technical work or getting all the intricate details, others enjoy the craft side of the hobby like painting and decal work, others still enjoy researching industry and construction. planning to create a new order.

And even for those who love running trains, it goes deeper than just watching a single engine and a few cars go around in circles. There’s setting a schedule, changing routes, connecting and disconnecting cars, and now with new digital control systems the possibilities for sophistication are wide and varied.

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“A lot of people might be interested in it. It’s a hands-on hobby,” McCurley said.

He pointed to one of the train cars on his desk, painted to show a worn-out condition.

“It’s not just about painting the car and making it look dirty, people can research and think, so how does dirt accumulate in a wagon?” said McCurley.

On the other side of the room, Brian Swanton and Owen Parsons were helping people with a model train puzzle game called The Inglenook Challenge.

In carriages numbered one through six, one person rolls the dice three times. If the dice rolls two, three and six, the person must arrange the numbered wagons in this order. The game involves combining and separating wagons, switching between the main track and two side rails, and lots of strategy.

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Swanton said he started this hobby when his wife took him to see a garden. There was a model train setup in the garden and his wife said, “Look, you can do this.”

Swanton’s garden railroad now includes two small towns and two ponds with a stream and waterfall between them. There is also a lumber mill, sawmill and coal mine. The railway is divided by a large stone staircase, where trains travel in a tunnel under steps running from one side to the other. It was featured in a magazine and was modeled after the Kettle Valley Railway, which once carried freight and passengers in British Columbia’s Thomson/Okanagan Region.

Vendors at the fair displayed pieces ranging from ‘N’ Scale, one of the smallest scales, to ‘Garden’ scale.

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Collingwood’s Wayne Parkes showed off his 3D-printed rail cars, including the Canadian National’s new firefighting coaster called “Poseidon.”

Parkes said firefighting and military wagons are not commercially available in Canada, but Parkes’ printed models are intricate in detail, from small 3D-printed ladders to car numbers.

Parkes said he frequently attends 10 model train shows a year, the largest of which is in Amherst, New Hampshire.

“Everyone wants something different,” he said.

Parkes took up the hobby at a young age, but said new digital control systems have led to a resurgence in the activity and involvement of the younger generation.

He said he spent hours running trains at his grandchildren’s home.

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“These are hours you can’t get back,” he said of the bonding experience.

The Nottawasaga Model Railroad Club held the largest display of the CWHC’s inaugural model train. The club operates out of the Days of Future Past Heritage Village in Collingwood and transports its traveling exhibit to events in the area with the help of a caravan.

The display allows people to operate the controls and interact with the trains.

The club’s permanent exhibit in Days of Future Past is a working model of the CN railroad from Barrie to Meaford. This is a multi-level layout showing the 1950s railway section with stops via Angus, Stayner, Thornbury, Collingwood and Meaford.

Randy Schnarr is the model maker behind the hands-on model train exhibit at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Center in Southampton, which chronicles the 100-year history of commercial and personal activities surrounding the railroad in Bruce County from the 1920s to the 1950s through Mildmay. , Walkerton, Paisley, Port Elgin and Southampton.

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After working on the museum’s popular model train exhibit, Schnarr said people continued to offer him their vintage train cars. At first he turned it down, thinking, “What am I going to do with all this stuff?”, but then an idea came to his mind.

His idea evolved into a way to attract young people to the hobby at an affordable price.

Schnarr takes inexpensive, donated model train hobby materials and fixes them up to create “starter kits.” Each kit contains everything needed to get started in the hobby, including a locomotive, freight cars, power unit and control unit, rails and an information pack on model railway building. All for about an eighth of the price of most store-bought starter kits.

“I don’t make any money from this,” he said. “Nowadays, everything is on the screen, it cannot be touched. “It’s a different sense of achievement and achievement when you build something hands-on.”

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He said he has sold over 100 sets since he started the project. Each set takes three hours to weld, clean, test and package.

“I love seeing the hobby grow,” he said.

There were no trains on Dave Huston’s dealer table, but among the intricate models displayed by the man who grew up in Owen Sound was the Junkyard Dodge, a realistic, weathered classic car complete with a small coat hanger that doubled as a spare radio antenna. .

“I’m a car enthusiast, I used to spend weekends in the junkyard looking for things, so I came up with the idea of ​​making a junkyard car model,” he said.

He won an award by submitting the unique model in a model car contest, and the following year a handful of other “junkyard” models and eventually an entire “junkyard” category emerged, he said.

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Hutson also displayed model fighter planes, complete with small and intricate details such as control panels in the cockpit.

Hutson said he worked as a “technician” for a hearing aid manufacturer and used high-powered microscopes and small tools as part of his day job, which helped him install a small button in the cockpit of a model fighter jet.

Hutson said he bought his first model from Ted Beatty’s Pro Shop in Owen Sound.

“First of all, he taught me how to play all of my dad’s instruments and how to use them,” Hutson joked. “Now he’s teaching me patience.”

Hutson’s family moved to Ottawa where he pursued his hobby and his models eventually went on display at the Canadian War Museum.

The inaugural CWHC model train event took place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to and sales for the show was $5 for ages 12 and up, free for teens 11 and under, and also included admission to the museum in the old CN train station. 1st Avenue West.

The Heritage Center was first established in 1978 by a volunteer group of history enthusiasts who wanted to preserve and expand Owen Sound’s history as a thriving seaport. It preserves the maritime, railway and industrial history of the region. It opened to the public in 1985.

Housed in a former Canadian National Railway Station, the museum features artifacts, scale models, archive photographs and interactive stations. Also on display are ship models made by skilled craftsmen, as well as CNR and CPR memorabilia and a working railway model.

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