CPR’s Boundary Subdivision
est in operations had grown enormous- ly over the last decade, and emulating the prototypical systems became a key aspect of the hobby for me.
During a post-operating session cof- fee break at a friend’s layout many years ago, I had occasion to look through his photo album, and in it were several pictures of his earliest operating sessions. There was no scenery, only mock up buildings, nothing was weath- ered, and the control panels were made of hardboard with felt marker writing. I thought to myself, “Wow, my layout
The Phoenix Subdivision way freight crosses the McCormack Creek trestle. This particular bridge was completely scratchbuilt by Gordon Varney from plans based on a CPR design. The prototype photo of Eholt, as it appeared in the 1960’s (belowleft), was an inspiration for René Gourley to scratchbuild this rural Canadian Pacific station (belowright). The rustic wooden building had a tool shed and section house to the rear which René also modeled.
final design evolved from the many con- cept shapes and sketches that were gen- erated. Even though the room was rela- tively large, I didn’t want operators to be able to view the entire layout from any one vantage point since I was modeling a mountainous railway. Consequently, the layout was designed as three separate valleys connected by the main aisle. This was essentially in the shape of a letter E, as can be seen on the plan. This concept proved quite successful and worked well considering that the area I modeled was either mountains and/or valleys. The initial design was a proto-free- lance design rather than a true reflec- tion of the prototype. Over time the
PHOTO BY STAN STYLES, GTC COLLECTIBLES: EHOLT, B.C., JULY 15, 1960
layout underwent many changes and enhancements that were aimed at im- proving the operations aspect of the layout and shifting the layout closer to the prototype configuration. We also settled on the mid-1960’s as the era since that is when CP’s power was painted in the classic and very attrac- tive Tuscan and gray scheme. Since the natural scenery colors can be quite vi- brant, we chose to model the early fall so the foliage would be more visually interesting and dramatic. From the beginning, one of the major objectives was to construct an opera- tions-based layout capable of hosting a crew of six to ten operators. My inter-
looks just like that.” As a consequence, I hosted my first operating session short- ly thereafter. What a great experience that was. Not only did it inspire me to continue to develop a more sophisticated operations-based system, it also gave me the chance to receive constructive feed- back from the crew and visitors. Numer- ous beneficial improvements and revi- sions to the layout resulted from those early opinions and suggestions. The LD- Sig and OpSig special interest groups of the NMRA have been wonderful re- sources in this regard, as well. From those earliest days of rudimen- tary operations employing “mother may I” dispatching and plenty of hand-writ- ten notes, I grew to host several sessions every year using a full timetable and train order system utilizing car card/waybills. Guests from all over the world have joined us for these sessions. I held monthly sessions, plus sessions hosted as part of the local NMRA 7th Di- vision annual fall meet. I also participat- ed in the VanRail invitational operations weekend that occurs in greater Vancou- ver every second year. I estimate that I’ve hosted in excess of 125 sessions with over 1,000 participants during the fif- teen years the layout was operated. During the early planning stages of
the layout I flirted with the notion of hand laying my track, and a good friend candidly asked me if I wanted to
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