Recently the Central Okanagan Railway Company (CORC) played host to modelers from Vernon and Kelowna who pitched in and helped ‘de-bug’ the KVR layout. Robert Moore and his group pulled in at 11:00 and, following a familiarization tour and a working lunch at the Blind Angler, the real work got under way. The local attraction was cleaned, tested and successfully prepared for the up coming tourist season.
The work parties ran trains from Grand Forks in the east, through the Okanagan over the famous Myra Canyon, down into Penticton, Summerland and up again into Merritt. It seems to be true that children, of all ages, still delight in watching trains of any size. Visitors to the museum watched and asked questions while slow freight trains took sidings and passenger trains such as The Kootenay Express swooshed by at a speedy 30 MPH. Not a bad clip in these mountainous conditions.
The CORC modelers had completed a significant upgrade in the display during the winter by switching from an obsolete analog system to the now standard Digital Command Control system. This innovation offers the group the flexibility they need to first: present a historically accurate model of the Kettle Valley Railway (within the limits of space and money of course) to Peachland visitors and second; a significant challenge to the members on their monthly operating evenings.
By late afternoon the visiting hoggers had proven the system and headed up north again still talking about drawbars, slack action and sanding the rails. About controllers and consists and double-heading. They’ll be back in Peachland again though for the 10th Annual Hobby Show in the fall but in the meantime CORC is ready to play host to the world all through these summer months.
Don Wilson. curator and local historian, (center) introduces a couple of visiting railroaders to the intricacies of Penticton Yard during an operations test held recently at the Peachland Museum. The trains have delighted huge numbers of young and old over the years and now they should be even better this tourist season.