Central Okanagan Railway Company

With the sudden disappearance of creativity in and around Penticton the crew have moved over to the sleepy village of Greenwood.  It’s a quiet ‘near ghost town’ high along the Highway 3 route across the south.  Promoted as BC’s smallest ‘city’ it boasts a population of 650 future ghosts at last count.  

Just last summer though, when it was a mere grade crossing in the corner, it was decided to enhance the scene somewhat.  We had purchased of a supply of great new buildings with Penticton in mind but there were at least 4 that were unsuitable. Sleepy Greenwood it seemed would have a short, unexpected and unexplained construction boom. 

Tracks were torn up, land was acquired and the simple scenery was removed…..

Two of the old main line tracks remained where they were but the new acreage allowed for a single new “inside” track that would serve a small station and a few small buildings.  The degree of industrial development was in dispute but I may have won that one.  Happily, Imperial Oil will NOT be constructing their new billion dollar refinery in Greenwood.  

These small photos highlight the identifiable landmarks we wanted to include while keeping the space ‘small’ in scope….

The goal was to install our new structures while offering visitors who knew the area a glimpse of home.   Some cut and paste was in order.

Landmarks were built flat against the wall and new, small buildings would be organized on the new benchwork.  The old smelter was a priority.  The bell shaped objects were created when containers of hot slag were dumped in the area.  An odd tourist attraction indeed.   

A single small road would serve the new structures.  The station, a warehouse, a welding shop and a junk dealer.  All having seen busier and better days.

We have decided that a single spur will serve a business of some type just off the frame to the left.  The ‘business’ is actually there to cover the switch machine that controls access to the station siding.  

But more on that as we finish this small scene…

….It seems the winter rebuild is already under way.  Much more extensive that originally planned of course.

What was planned was a “dressing up” of the large Nelson yard.  It’s a dark wall with a very long, 6 track yard.  Fine when it was out of view of the public but now it offers the one of the best views in the building.  So add some scenic backdrops and a few up to date buildings and we’d be good there.  But then there was the operating trolley, a big job in itself,  and a highway overpass that took hours, and without warning Nelson became a PROJECT.

Penticton was always sort’a on the list but now we will remove a length of track so we can build a fully functioning down town street scene, install a better station, remove a scenic hillside with all the mess that entails, move the turn table pit (Not my job.  Not my job) and rebuild the roundhouse.   Next summer when everyone is out enjoying the beach our scenery folks will still be inside working full time on that one.

Look!  My G gauge work bench is fully occupied with HO stuff already so nothing at all is being done on my own layout.  The club got a real good deal on a box of 15 building kits from Woodland Scenics but even with less track Penticton each building has to be reduced to 1 1/2 inches deep so they fit the area.  Course if we eliminated, or vastly reduced the roads, the buildings could be finished in days.  Hmmmm.

Some of the buildings will be used at Greenwood.  

Greenwood?  That wasn’t a part of this rebuild!!

Well it is now.  We are adding 6 to 8 inches of  ‘benchwork’ to peaceful little Greenwood so we can move the tracks and create a town complete with station, section house, industrial facilities, paved streets with x-ing guards and probably some noisy engine facilities.   

The fine people of Greenwood don’t deserve this.

So, if your in the neighbourhood, and you have your toolbox with you, we expect you to drop by and lend a hand.  I expect we’ll need 40+ hours to install, test and prove the updated Yardmasters before Christmas. If that works it will take weeks just to remove the old relay system and clean up the wiring mess it left behind.  That 150 foot bridge over Wilson’s Canyon has to be replaced (more scenery rebuilding) and some lighting has to be built and installed on 8 feet of facia.  We also need to buy or build a very reliable CPR passenger train or find some replacement 6 wheel trucks for what we have.  A thousand miles and they’re completely warn out.

This never ends.  <VBG>

Very much thanks has to be extended to members and guests at this years swap meet and soiree held on the 4th of October.  Everyone who attended seemed to enjoy themselves whether selling, buying or simply looking.  This garage sale style format may be the future as the demographics and the economy change.

As a group we were able to pick up a new pair of  C-liners as ours are on their last legs.  They have been the work horses of the public display for 20 years and have past their useful life.  So many new and modern engines are available in todays market but we have tied ourselves to the 1965 era so there you go.

Further to the hobby show topic, our club, though pretty active and running in the black, has trouble these days affording the use of our Community Center and as the average age of the members goes up the desire to spend long days setting up and taking down has diminished.  My own recent trip down to the Chilliwack event seems to support that feeling.  It was 1/2 the show it has been in recent years.

Parking was ‘right at the door’ at about 11:00 on Saturday.  Super helpful and friendly volunteers made it easy to find a space.  They asked if I was a senior.  Made the trip worthwhile.

In side ‘the barn’ the layouts were excellent as usual.  Not as many perhaps, and not nearly as many dealers, but those that did attend were some of the best.

I hung around the G gauge layouts so I could see the BIG trains running.  The Vancouver group shown here even had a live steam big-boy.  Quite impressive.  For readers unfamiliar with the Chilliwack facility there are two buildings like this side by side.  Pretty big.

Now we can get ready for Christmas. Thomas will need to be oiled, washed down and put to work on the main line. Perhaps I can also put a nice Christmas tree in Summerside or Greenwood.  Also, the Yardmasters should be back from Oceanside CA next week.  No rest for the wicked.

Good news and bad news.

Bad!  The annual Swap Meet as advertised on these pages has been cancelled in favour of a much less structured event.

Good! Our group will still be having a free, informal swap meet and train running day at the Peachland Museum from 10:00 until whenever on 4 October 2014.   This get-together will have all the features of our more structured meet without the high cost of tables, building rental and insurance.  We’re getting old and cheap.

Your all welcome to bring down your best “stuff’ and find a place to lay it out indoors, sell off or give away what you can and have a coffee with us.  We will supply doughnuts and napkins.

We will also supply a throttle and about 700 feet of track so if you want to bring that favourate engine along please do.  Show it off.  Should be fun.

Simply call Don Wilson at the Museum and let us know if you’ll be along.  Try 250 767-3441

….and it’s been all to short for me.  I know I should’a spent a lot more early mornings out on the lake but there always seemed to be tomorrow.  Still, as a group, we accomplished a few things down on the CORC during the rare cloudy days.

Probably most obvious are the beginnings of the Nelson rebuild.  Much of the work will be done during our annual shut-down in January but John Green has shifted a few feet of track and turnouts around and made room for the coaling tower donated by Arnold Stoffer.  That will be a great scenic addition and the last thing you see as you head out on the fire escape should the need arise.    

Also new, and still not installed, is the highway overpass in Nelson.   Your right.  There isn’t a 4 lane bridge over the freight yard but I needed a ‘shady place’ to install a pair of new infrared emitters and detectors.  More on that later but even without that reason it adds significantly to the look of the yard.  It is well lit with street lights and the truck will add more colour.  There is a good DC buss under the bridge so John can add all the effects he likes and it unplugs easily so a person can take it to a work bench.

I’ll be blending the whole structure into a full scenic backdrop from ScenicKing in the next few weeks. 

Over at the dispatchers office I found a location for the CORC and personal throttles.  They had been piling up in a filing cabinet drawer.  Not good technically or professionally.  All of these will soon be returned for upgrading because we want full radio control by Christmas.  It would be nice to remove the plug-ins but I’m pretty sure guests will find a use for them.

You’ll notice we’ve replaced the BIG knobs on all the small throttles.  Now the grownups can get their thumbs around the address switches.   

They’re Baaaaack!  

Yes, those dastardly Yardmasters are reborn.  Following 5 months of failure at the start of this year the group and I decided to toss it in and simplify the visitors “Go and Stop” function at the museum.  With a series of timer relays we were able to apply DC to the station areas and reapply DCC on demand.  Engines would slow down and stop on the DC and speed up and return to the main line on DCC.  It worked well but….

The wheels of the engines  (three or more of them running at once) would pass over the DC/DCC track junction and momentarily corrupt the DCC on the whole layout causing the decoders in engines that were still running to stop and jump ahead.  Not unworkable but when an engine had stopped in it’s desired location it would often receive a false message to get up and go.  Not a good thing.

So here we are again……

The three once derelict Yardmasters were farmed out to John Kerby in Coldstream and he devised a schematic (different from that suggested by the maker) that seemed to work on his bench.

New, high end infrared, better 12 VDC power and much more judicious use of shielded cables in an ugly EMI environment and I have (1) very positive sensor response and (2) a stable trigger output at the Yardmasters.

Over the next week or two we will run trains using the DC/DCC system while I observe the interaction of the track sensors and the Yardmaster output messages to see if they really do follow each other.  Should that be the situation I will hook up the Yardmasters to the stopping tracks and let the chips fall where they may.

Failing that, the members approved a plan to double track the whole outside loop.  That would offer us 3 tracks for 3 trains. Press GO – trains run for 3 or 4 minutes – trains stop. 

Anyway, be sure to drop by the museum in Peachland BC and pay us a visit.  Anytime for a look-see.  Wednesday evening and Saturday afternoon if you want a throttle. 

Last week Jeremy Spurway, one of our favourite supporters, dropped in and took a short video of the whole layout as we worked away on the new town of Nelson.  The RDC’s stop from time to time, as they should and where they should but please forgive the chatter in the background as we deal with relay timing issues.

Yes.  The Nelson trolley works now but more on that later….

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For sometime now we have had this huge gravel pit just outside Penticton and above Naramata near Little Tunnel. We inadvertently created this impossible to reach location when we built the broad loop of track that rises to the major Myra Canyon section of the layout.  

At the time it was decided to just build an industrial sized gravel pit up there producing ballast and served by a very short spur and loader.  We could simply fill the ‘pit’ with heavy equipment and the accompanying flashing lights and sounds.  The loader itself was reduced to a European building of odd design bashed and weathered to look industrial but in the end it looked completely out of character.  Visitors weren’t impressed and the tiny spur held two hoppers that never moved.

The gift of three wood and metal kits of purely North American style could solve everything.  Our kit-bash expert was given some acreage, a new spur was planned and work began with the removal of an old farm house, the original spur, the German mill and a few trees.

What you see here is the firm new foundation for the new construction as it looks now with all the old scenery removed and cleaned up.  

That’s the main line to Myra Canyon and Beaverdell at the bottom.  The old spur roadbed is seen curving upwards on the right. Parts of a scene dividing hillside is torn away at the top center and the lighted interior of the farmhouse is still connected, but set aside, at the left. 

If things go as planned, the new and longer spur will cut across this view from about the 4 o’clock position and go up to around the 10 o’clock area. A larger and newer gravel crusher/sorter will dominate the scene on both sides of the spur receiving truckloads of raw material from the still busy pit off to the right.

Yes it’s true.  No such place exists up on the KVR but we’re here to entertain.  More pictures will follow as we rebuild this formally boring and unused hilltop.

21 April 2014

Hi everyone

Everything is in and working at Brookmere.  Don’t wait for Wednesday night.  Drop in.

Arnold was generous enough with his time and material to add lights to the water tank and the coaling tower AND gift us with a fine little sand facility. That was added to the scene rather than the small shed we got from the estate.  Looking good.  Overhead lighting also installed.  Also of note, John Green brought in about 100 little people who used to populate his NAR.  These folks are happily enjoying the sunshine in Summerland – if they’re not working away at the servicing facility in Brookmere.  Thanks John.

As soon as Don finishes supporting the new glass I’ll touch up the backdrop and call it an END to rebuilding scenery.  At least until the fall.

The Tulameen Sawmill.  She looks kind’a beat up now but it will soon be looking real good.

The beehive burner at Tulameen is powered by random flashing orange, white and red LEDs.  On demand, there is a goodly amount of smoke belching forth for about two minutes courtesy a GP9 smoke unit from USAT.

None of this would have been possible without the generous donation of a family leaving their big house and retiring to a retirement resort.  Comes to us all I guess.

An overview of Tulameen Sawmill.  Top left is the bosses house, below that, the company store and the sawdust burner.  At the center top is the big warehouse and the shipping and receiving shed.    Raw logs in at the top.  Finished lumber out at the bottom.  Mostly railway ties.

Stuff for this week….

Fixing the thunder and lightning cct and moving the Max’s new collection box to display the timing cct.  That will be a real success with our fans.

Members reminder:  We need a bunch of ‘courthouse square’ type of buildings so we can rebuild and expand the down town scenery at Nelson.  If you find any at sale, or in your garage, please donate.  We’ll name them after you.  Ritmans Hardware??