tag:railwaypages.com,2005:/blogs/opinion-pieceOpinion Piece2018-08-20T15:05:14-04:00Charles Cooper's Railway Pagesfalsetag:railwaypages.com,2005:Post/50541092018-01-31T14:24:28-05:002020-09-17T10:12:38-04:00Canada’s passenger rail crisis and HSR v HPR <p>Back in 1977, VIA Rail was established to take the passenger rail business off the CPR’s and the (then) CNR’s hands to allow them to concentrate on what they were doing best – and profitably – that was adapting Canada’s aging rail infrastructure to provide a profitable and sustainable freight service. Branch lines were either torn up or sold off to short line operators. </p>
<p>Not that a sustainable freight service was a slam-dunk without the millstone of passenger trains around their necks – they still had to contend with union contracts and an indirectly-subsidized trucking industry. Railways have to pay for their track infrastructure – the trucking industry gets the highways for free – and leaves their deterioration for the taxpayers to pick up. </p>
<p>VIA Rail started off with great promise – until it hit the first major cuts that took place in 1981, followed by more in 1990. Arguably the unkindest cut of all then was the selling-off to a private company of the most scenic route tourist attraction in Canada through the Rockies. Since then it has been a tale of further cuts and gradual deterioration – as the service continued to be slashed, so naturally did passenger support decline, until today the service is a shadow of its former self. Delays and breakdowns are a common occurrence. Reported on-time performance is in the 70 per cent range. What is left of long distance passenger transportation (except for Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal) is moribund. The passenger trains that do exist spend a lot in of their time in sidings to let the bulk commodity freight trains get there on time. One doesn’t have to be a transportation expert to figure out there is a fundamental flaw in a concept of credible service when one doesn’t own the tracks needed to provide the service. </p>
<p>A fleet of second-hand (“Renaissance”) passenger cars from Europe was never a real bargain in the long run and in any event, VIA Rail’s equipment is now in urgent need of renewal. </p>
<p>In the middle of this crisis, what we hear over and over (especially just before elections) are the pipe dreams of high speed rail (HSR). Yes, many other countries are doing it. Fifty years ago (yes, it was in 1968) in Canada, it may have been a practical proposition with the short-lived Turbo train – if there had been the political will to make it happen. No doubt about it, one can’t operate a high speed rail system with myriads of grade crossings, let alone on someone else’s freight track. We discovered that with the first run of what was to be the future with the Turbo train – capable of doing over 200 km/hour chained to a 90 km/hour infrastructure – and even then it hit a truck on its inaugural run. Brilliant. That’s when we blew the HSR window of opportunity. </p>
<p>Things are in such bad shape now, we are way past the immediate chance of implementing high speed rail, but we still hear it touted for Quebec-Windsor – study after study says it’s marvellous, but there is not a chance to get it on the ground in less than 20 years. And then there’s that pipe dream of resurrecting the old abandoned Ontario & Quebec line between Toronto and Ottawa via Peterborough. Dream on folks – remember Peterborough once had VIA service into Toronto, but that disappeared in the 1990 cuts, and a proposal to revive just that short section is dead in the water. </p>
<p>All these wonderful schemes that are being floated about make no sense, when the need is so dire and urgent. We don’t have time for something that might be there in 20 years. Given the shape we’re in with passenger service, we need something now. </p>
<p>There’s one concept that might just work – </p>
<p><strong>High Performance Rail</strong> </p>
<p>HPR makes sense when such a lot could be done now with a fraction of the billions that are being bandied about for the pipe dreams. </p>
<p>High-performance rail (HPR) is a stepping stone to high-speed rail (HSR). HPR uses current technology and current infrastructure to improve all aspects of the existing conventional rail service by building on the public funds that have already been invested. Operating at progressively higher speeds with modern cars and locomotives, HPR offers the potential of an improved passenger rail experience. Its major advantage is that it can deliver benefits before the entire project is completed, as the improvements are incremental without the need for investment in untried technology, totally new infrastructure and major and disruptive land acquisition. </p>
<p>This strategy is already employed on several Amtrak corridors in the U.S. It would be ideal for VIA Rail’s Quebec-Windsor Corridor, and could eventually be applied to other Canadian rail corridors. It could start with a single-digit billion dollar investment that would provide much faster and more frequent service than VIA Rail can now deliver. It has the potential of replacing VIA’s current ageing fleet with modern trains capable of operating at up to 200 km/hour. It would also upgrade the tracks, improve the signal systems and eliminate many dangerous grade crossings. </p>
<p>Equipment options using state-of-the-art current technology are available, and it might even be possible to piggy-back on orders being placed in the U.S. </p>
<p>The result would be more travellers, higher revenues, lower costs and improved public safety. </p>
<p>A second similar investment would build on the first to cut journey times, boost train frequency and attract even more travellers. </p>
<p>The economic benefits of HPR would be large. Advocates for HPR point out that rail improvement projects have been proven to generate three to four times their investment cost in economic spin-off and job creation. </p>
<p>Can we afford not to look at the HPR option? It seems to be a much better proposition than the endless pipedreams and studies to see whether we can afford something that might be in place 20 years down the road. </p>
<p>One last thought – the biggest challenge of all is how to get the sticky political fingers out of the pie, when the pie involves so much political financing. While VIA Rail is an independent federal Crown corporation, it was created by an Order-in-Council of the Privy Council, and not by legislation passed in Parliament. Legislation would enable it to seek funding on the money markets, and to make decisions that would put the viability of passenger rail service first, instead of having to dance to the tune being played by the incumbent political masters of whatever stripe. Today, to add to its woes, VIA Rail is sort of a pork barrel on steel wheels.</p>Charles Cooper's Railway Pagestag:railwaypages.com,2005:Post/50528402018-01-30T20:46:31-05:002018-07-07T11:21:10-04:00Railways and climate change, especially in Canada <p>We have all heard that the “Industrial Age” precipitated our climate change woes. And we all know that the Industrial Age began with the invention of stationary and later “locomotive” boilers to produce steam that would drive machinery and enable cars to be drawn along rails for easier transportation. </p>
<p>In fact, the steam locomotive was the marvel and the defining economic icon of the 19th century. </p>
<p>Steam locomotion ended almost abruptly in the mid-20th century when diesel-electric and electric power ended the “steam” era. </p>
<p>In fact electric power had come to urban transportation (trams, street cars, interurbans, underground railways and later “light rail”) as early as the end of the 19th century. </p>
<p>In densely populated parts of the world, such as in Europe, China and Japan, electrification has been standard for decades (even though one may question in some parts the continued use of coal to generate the required electricity … ). India is working on it and Amtrak electrified the North East Corridor two decades ago. </p>
<p>The legacy of “steam” is the mass transportation of goods and people. Ironically, rail transportation of any kind remains the most green-house emission-friendly form of locomotion per ton-mile moved, no matter what energy form is used. </p>
<p>So where are we at in Canada? </p>
<p>Many medium-sized and most smaller towns have no rails anymore. For those that do, the only trains that pound through are long freight trains - unless they are on one of VIA Rail’s rapidly-dwindling routes and therefore still have a station. For the others that may still have rails, all they see are local (short line) freight operations and the state of the track will be down to around 10-20 km/hour. </p>
<p>Bulk commodity freight rules the rails. If you need a new car, it’s right there for you. If you need to move your body, if you're not on one of the few VIA routes that are left, you’re plumb out of luck. Even if you are, you may have to figure out on which day there is a train. </p>
<p>Long distance passenger transportation (except for Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal) is dead or dying. The passenger trains that do exist spend a lot of their time in sidings to let the bulk commodity freight trains get there on time. Transcontinental passenger service is a cruel joke. </p>
<p>Railways are part of the solution in combatting climate change with their ability to get people out of their cars, and for short hauls, out of the airports. Yet VIA Rail is dying a slow death, because providing a reasonable and reliable passenger network is seen as a money loser and not as an investment in our future. In Canada, we just don’t seem to be able to “get it”. Why not? It is not difficult to finger lack of political will as the reason. </p>
<p>The invention that got us into the climate change pickle can help get us out, but here in Canada we are still waiting for that “penny to drop”. It looks as if it will be until hell freezes over. Literally.</p>Charles Cooper's Railway Pagestag:railwaypages.com,2005:Post/31817532014-09-10T23:30:17-04:002020-09-17T10:11:48-04:00The Future of Canadian Rail - 2014 It is true that as a railway history researcher, one's focus tends to be on the past.<br>On the other hand, I have often been asked at railway history presentations what I think the future of railways is.<br>Broad question. In Canada? Passenger, or freight - or both? Yes and yes.<br><br>My answer? I have tried to be 'guardedly optimistic'. I speak of re-invention, the economic imperative, the vital contribution to Canada's economy, low population density, our environmental future, deregulation, technical innovation, (passenger) service for profit or service to the public, public subsidy of highway infrastructure that allows trucking to compete on a tilted playing field, and so forth.<br><br>Privately, I think of the vibrancy of the role of railways in Europe, the renaissance of rail south of the Canadian border, the pursuit of hi-speed technology and its implementation around the world, and then I think of the perilous state of VIA Rail, the challenges of the bulk transportation of dangerous or flammable substances, the steady shrinkage of a rail network that not only once served so many fair-sized communities but also often provided alternate route options, the daily almost frightening freight tonnage on our highway system, and so forth. One then starts to wonder just how optimistic one can really afford to be without invoking a suspicion that to be that optimistic, one must be smoking something. It was in that frame of mind that I came across this article that I feel deserves scrutiny, constructive debate and support:<br><br>The article is by Peter Miasek, the president of Transport Action Ontario, and it appeared in its July-August 2014 newsletter. I reproduce it here with his kind permission. Its parent <a contents="Transport Action Canada " data-link-label="" data-link-type="" href="http://www.transport-action.ca/">Transport Action Canada </a>is a non-profit organization whose primary purpose is research, public education and consumer advocacy. It promotes environmentally-sound transportation solutions and gets actively involved in a wide range of issues such as: public transportation, safety, accessibility, energy efficiency, protection of the environment, intermodal cooperation and government regulation. (For anyone with an interest in, or concerns about, current Canadian railway and transit issues, an organization most worthy of support. Ed.) <br><br>Here is the article:<br><br><strong>"New direction for investing in transportation infrastructure</strong><br><br>"July 6, 2014 marked the one year anniversary of the Lac Mégantic, Quebec tragedy where a 72 car freight train carrying volatile crude oil became a runaway before derailing and exploding in the centre of the town, with a loss of 47 lives. The national media gave the anniversary a lot of attention. I had several interviews, including a long one on Canada AM, CTV's flagship morning show. The interview can be seen on the <a contents="Transport Action Ontario" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.transport-action-ontario.com/">Transport Action Ontario</a> website.<br><br>"The media questions were along the line of "what has the government done in the past year to correct the safety problems, and what more needs to be done?" My answers went beyond the safety question and spoke to a number of major issues faced by Canada's railways.<br><br>"After the incident, Transport Canada immediately mandated a series of changed operating procedures. In early 2014, Transport Canada followed up with regulations to phase out the problematic thin-walled DOT-111 cars.<br><br>"In our view, these changes only go a short distance to curing the ills of Canada's railway system. To quote our colleague Greg Gormick, "that tragic accident really resulted from decades of failed federal and provincial transportation and the public spending decisions that flowed from them."<br><br>"Since World War II, all levels of government have invested heavily in roads and highways. Although trucks and buses pay higher license fees, numerous studies have shown that these do not cover the high cost of publicly-funded highway construction, operations and maintenance. In contrast, the railways must cover all their fixed infrastructure costs - tracks, crossings, bridges, security, maintenance - and deliver a profit to their shareholders. In view of this non-level playing field, despite numerous advantages such as fuel efficiency and worker productivity, railways have been losing market share to trucking for decades.<br><br>"A presentation by CP Rail to Transport Action Ontario in 2009 gave a glimpse into the seriousness of the problem. In the 1960s CP had a substantial intermodal business in Ontario. In 1965, CP moved 63,000 trailers by rail, for a market share of 33 per cent. Ten years later (1975), after Highway 401 had been continually improved and widened by the Province, intermodal movements dropped by half, to 30,000.<br><br>"Our railway system is showing numerous symptoms of being in trouble, due to an inability to raise sufficient capital funds. There are four large problems:<br><br>" • <strong>Safety Issues </strong>- the Quebec incident, together with others such as Gainford, AB and Plaster Rock, NB point to an industry where the physical and human assets are constantly being squeezed to wring out necessary profits. Important safety improvements such as Positive Train Control, long recommended by the Transportation Safety Board, cost money that is hard to find.<br><br>" • <strong>Capacity Issues</strong> - the difficulties for the industry to handle Western Canada's bumper grain crop during the severe winter earlier this year again shows that assets are being squeezed with no surge capacity. The government responded with strange legislation ordering the railways to move the grain, but this does not address the fundamental problem.<br><br>" • <strong>Secondary and Branch Line Maintenance and Abandonment </strong>- As freight traffic shifts from rail to truck, rail lines with lower densities of customers become uneconomic. This results in lower maintenance levels and track speeds or, in the long run, abandonment of the line. The poster child for this problem is the recent abandonment of both CN and CP lines in the Ottawa valley. This results in all East-West Canadian freight traffic being routed through Greater Toronto, past millions of residents and numerous important assets such as nuclear power plants. Any incident on this line would completely sever east-west rail connections in Canada.<br><br>" • <strong>Decline of Passenger Rail </strong>- the decline of VIA Rail Canada is well known to readers of this newsletter. There are numerous causes, including inadequate government investment over the decades in passenger rail, increased freight/passenger conflicts on undersized railway corridors which limits ability to increase service, and schedule challenges on under-maintained secondary lines.<br><br>"In our view, the root cause of all these issues is a lack of money in the freight railway system, caused largely by subsidized trucking.<br><br>"We believe the issue can be addressed by taking a page from our USA neighbours. The US rail industry faced similar issues to Canada's in the 1970s. It has made a lot of progress but still faces a capital shortfall of $39B to fund required improvements on the core rail freight system. The USA has instituted a series of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) where the federal and state governments, along with the private railways, jointly invest in improved infrastructure. Current examples include:<br><br>" • Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE), a partnership between six freight railways (including CN), two passenger railways and three levels of government. Seventy projects to improve freight movement in the Chicago region are completed or planned, costing $3.8B. The benefits to government include improved economic vitality, reduced traffic congestion, better passenger rail service, reduced highway maintenance, reduced air pollution and increased public safety.<br><br>" • Heartland Corridor, a PPP between Norfolk-Southern Railway, the federal government and three states, to improve railroad freight operations between Norfolk, Virginia and the US Midwest. It includes higher tunnel clearances to allow double stack intermodal trains and new intermodal shipping yards.<br><br>"In all cases, the improved infrastructure will continue to be owned by the private railways.<br><br>"There is limited but growing recognition among Canadian provincial and federal governments that rail is in trouble. In February, 2014, Ottawa and New Brunswick announced financial grants to allow CN to upgrade a branch line in New Brunswick, enabling VIA Rail to continue service on this line. In March, Ottawa announced a one year delay for elimination of the subsidy for the Algoma Central Railway passenger service in Northern Ontario.<br><br>"In June, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced a statutory review of the Canada Transportation Act, one year ahead of schedule, using a panel of eminent Canadians. The early review was triggered by the grain transportation issue, but will also cover numerous other areas, including:<div style="text-align: center;">international competitiveness<br>improved transportation policies<br>innovative financing mechanisms for infrastructure<br>northern transportation systems<br>railway safety<br>gateways and corridors and federally regulated passenger rail services.</div><br>"The review is to be completed by spring, 2016. Transport Action Ontario intends to make a submission to the panel, including the points in this article.<br> <div>My Op:<br>Better late than never (for the federal review). But of course the review will have to translate into action. We can always hope. There has been talk for years of the need for a national transportation strategy or policy to address the pressing issues recited in the above article. It is clear that Canada's railways have challenges that are having a real impact on our national economy and our productivity, let alone the issue of the viability of a transportation system that is the only real option for many segments of the Canadian population (dare one say taxpayers? Perhaps there are some taxpayers who may really prefer a train to another tax cut ... ?). And the national economy is supposed to be this government's specialty? Should this not have been a slam-dunk a long time ago? But hey, what do we know.<br><br>And when it comes to safety and environmental hazards, the optics are that Transport Canada has been rubberstamping anything that enhances a corporate economic bottom line until there is a calamity and the Transportation Safety Board blows the whistle.<br><br>All in all, it does indeed seem to be a very curious way "to run a railroad" by and for a G7 industrialized nation. In a moment of sardonic reflection on government leadership, Keystone Cops does come to mind.</div>Charles Cooper's Railway Pagestag:railwaypages.com,2005:Post/26149652014-02-20T11:57:18-05:002018-04-26T17:30:53-04:00The Sociology of Model Railroading<p><span>In the January-February 2006 (Train 14 Track 4) Issue of the <em>Canadian Railway Modeller</em> there was a website review of a controversial article by this title to be found under <a href="http://www.trainweb.org/lfnwfan/html/Sociology.htm">http://www.trainweb.org/lfnwfan/html/Sociology.htm</a> . </span></p>
<p><span>(<em>CRM</em> review p. 8: "Model railroaders like to build things and run trains - most of us don't spend a lot of time philosophizing about the hobby. But John Bruce does. He has written a very long critique of things like train shows; prototype modellers' meets; model railroad clubs; the NMRA; model railroad magazines; and technical and historical societies. You may disagree with his opinions, but you will be entertained by his forthright comments.")</span></p>
<p><span>Ed. Note: The author of the article in question has evidently continued to update his commentary beyond the date of <em>CRM</em>'s review in 2006.</span><br><br><span>As the review summarized it, it is a critique of model railway shows, prototype modellers' meets, model railroad clubs, hobby-related organizations and publications. They are the author's observations, and they are conditioned by his own experience with the hobby where he has encountered it, and geographically that appears to be entirely in the U.S.A. </span></p>
<p>The purpose of this opinion piece is not to debate points of the author's article, but to discuss the three related hobby issues that are the focus of his article:</p>
<ul> <li>hobby image</li> <li>hobby standards</li> <li>hobby politics</li>
</ul>
<h4>Hobby image</h4>
<p>Very definitely this has to be framed into time and place. When I came to Canada in the late 1950s, I came with memories of huge Märklin or Hornby Gauge 0 or Gauge 1 layouts of the toy train era, when toy trains fired the imaginations of generations of pre-WWII adults and children alike. As the hobby migrated further and further to "scale" after WWII to hold and expand the adult interest in trains (a process that had begun in the 1930s), model railroading in Europe solidified its quite open standing as a respectable adult hobby pastime that could be readily distinguished from toy trains for children as in "playing with trains" of the early decades of the 20th century.</p>
<p>I discovered very quickly that societal acceptance of this transition had not yet taken place in Canada in 1957 - and if you were a model railway hobbyist, it was best for career and friends if one was discreet about letting on to this particular interest, since it seemed to be almost capable of raising questions about one's maturity or even one's masculinity. Of course model railroad clubs existed here then too, but they kept to themselves except for some advertised open houses annually (it's always been OK to go <u>see</u> model trains, especially if going as a family, because after all, one was taking the children).</p>
<p>Despite these early club "open houses" (which were of course much-needed sources of funds and new members), model railway shows as we know them today did not emerge, in this part of Canada at least, until the mid-1970s. It was around then that it seemed to become alright for males to admit to a hobby interest other than sports. However model railroading, unlike other hobbies such as photography, ham radio, stamp collecting, postcards and so forth, had to struggle with the toy train image and the unspoken question as to why we had not managed "to put away childish things". So, in order to win full acceptance as a legitimate adult pastime, it has had to aspire to very high standards to dispel the image of a bunch of old-timers playing with trains. It's an unfair burden, because the children audience has no problem with toy trains of the earlier era, or with a bunch of guys wearing engineer's hats or vests laden with railroad badges. But the adults - we're still not suuuure - but I think it's fair to say that there is now public acceptance ...</p>
<h4>Hobby standards</h4>
<p>All endeavours strive for perfection, or least, to improvement. In that regard, the model railway hobby is no different from any other. Since for most hobbyists, model railroading is a craft rather than a collection-oriented endeavour, it has to aim for high standards of scale modelling. <a href="index.php?tmp=2&id=26">(</a><a contents='See my website article "The Credible Model"' data-link-label="The Credible Model" data-link-type="page" href="/the-credible-model">See my website article "The Credible Model"</a><a href="index.php?tmp=2&id=26">.)</a> The reproduction of the real thing to scale proportions calls for many skills that are made up of the scientific and the artistic, and the modeller who can recreate a real scene in miniature is a gifted person indeed. Most modellers start by concentrating on the immediate railway scene and should aim to reproduce exquisite replicas of locomotives, rolling stock, track, and railway structures; and then progress to include the surrounding urban and rural scapes. </p>
<p>Everyone has to start somewhere, and growth of one's skills can be a lifetime process of trial and error, and some may never aspire to the hobby pinnacle of total realism in miniature. In the privacy of one's home or one's club one can experiment and grow in private; or in the solace, encouragement and example of your fellow modellers - but, there is absolutely no question, if one goes public - for the sake of the hobby, whether the public pays to see the displays or not, they have to be the very very best in order to continue to promote and advertise the hobby as a legitimate adult pastime. The Brits have understood this for years - and their standards are some of the highest in the hobby anywhere.</p>
<h4>Hobby politics</h4>
<p>Well, when any two people get together for anything, you have politics. So if there is a club or an assocation, there are going to be politics, for the simple reason that different people want different things, and will jockey for position to get it. No rocket science there. So some modellers who may have to deal with a lot of politics in the other parts of their lives, need a hobby where they can free themselves from the stresses that the politics bring, and therefore prefer to work at their hobby as "lone wolves", getting advice as they need it from model railway magazines, hobby store proprietors, the Internet, and model railway show participants.</p>
<p>However, if there are benefits to belonging to a club or an association, the inevitable politics have to be dealt with. One can try to ignore them by not running for any kind of office, but to remain in good standing with one's fellow members, one has to contribute something, so some politics are going to be inevitable at some point, even if it's just a very basic debate about what kind of track to use, or how to do the background scenery. The best approach here is to seek compromise, and to appreciate and recognize the diversity of skills that go to make up the group. The catch is that when it comes to standards, compromise becomes more difficult and this is where the disagreements and the politics can become divisive. Moreover, compromise may not produce a higher standard, but is more likely to entrench mediocrity. But, very definitely, that is the perennial challenge of being in the hobby as part of a group. What was that saying about the heat in the kitchen? </p>
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
<p>To come back to the article that provoked this one, the whole point of a hobby is for it to be relaxing, fun and challenging - to be an enjoyment of one's leisure time. The author of the cited article is right to be concerned about the hobby's image, and it's his privilege to see some things as negatives - and the organized hobby, as does any other congregation of human beings, will always have its problems.</p>
<p>By all means speak out about anything that ought to promote the best interests of the hobby, and having done so, determine to enjoy and contribute to the hobby in your own way, be it as a "lone wolf" or as part of a group. In the final analysis, the interests of the hobby will be best served if everyone strives to be the best modeller one can be, whether on one's own layout, or as a contribution to the efforts of the group.</p>
<p>That is, as long as there is enjoyment - without that, it's no longer a hobby - just another source of stress.</p>
<p>The good news is that the model railroading hobby is so diversified that there is a place - somewhere - for everyone. </p>Charles Cooper's Railway Pagestag:railwaypages.com,2005:Post/26149642014-02-20T11:56:26-05:002018-05-07T13:11:45-04:00Prototypical model railways - a key to the survival of the hobby?<p>The future of the model railway hobby is definitely on everyone's mind and a very frequent topic of discussion - as we look around, grey hair certainly predominates among the practitioners of our passion. Most clubs are struggling with declining memberships, and hobby stores hedge their bets with model planes, boats and games.</p>
<p>Many reasons have been advanced for this state of affairs - the disappearance of railways from our daily lives as the principal means of travel - the competition of the wonders of the electronic age - the hectic pace of modern life where many have to work at more than one job, or where one's work is no longer nine to five, and the Blackberry™ demands to be answered day and night just to stay on top, so that one's daily bread doesn't become outsourced to some place half way round the world. </p>
<p>A commonly touted saviour is Thomas the Tank Engine™, and very definitely something that began as a series of stories for children has captured the imagination of successive generations of post-WWII youngsters. We all hope that this stimulus will somehow translate into young adults who after their education, mating and successful career initiation will pick up the adult equivalent of this railway icon and become serious model railway enthusiasts. And well some of them may, despite the fact that in North America at least, they may never have had the chance to ride a real train.</p>
<p>However, there is a new trend afoot. It's not a new concept by any means, but one that is gathering considerable momentum. These are model railways that are faithful miniature replicas of a railway that may still exist - or more likely, has vanished into history.</p>Traditionally, the vast number of model railways have been "freelance", in other words have more or less imaginary settings.
<p>More and more layouts however, while still essentially freelance, have started to include reproduced prototypical features, such as a station building or other objects that are recognizably reproductions of somewhere or something in the actual past or, with a bit of luck, still existing but likely destined for history.</p>
<p>Even more compellingly there are now more and more layouts that are rivetting cameo reproductions of an entire length of railway as the focal point of a scene that is recognizable to visitors as a museum-quality (if that is a good description) miniature of a real piece of our heritage past.</p>
<p>Such railways and scenes are not easy to build. They require consummate modelling skills that are an art form no different from the ability to paint or sculpt or carve or mold or blow. They are skills that have to be honed as any other, and innate creativity is a crucial talent. Aside from that, prototypical railway modelling requires patience for the creation of perfection, and the willingness to perform countless hours of archival research to discover what existed and what it looked like.</p>
<p>So why may this art form be a key to the survival of our hobby?</p>
<p>Simply because it moves the hobby to a higher platform that speaks to the universal fascination with our past. Despite (or because of?) the frenetic age in which we live, we continue to be drawn towards our heritage of what there was that went before us, we hunger to know how our antecedents lived, and perhaps equally importantly because we can see something where we can take momentary refuge and indulge in the solace in our past. These things remain important to the human soul - witness the countless number of amateur genealogists who search for roots. Some would say - <a contents="it's all about the memories" data-link-label="Opinion Piece" data-link-type="page" href="/opinion-piece">it's all about the memories</a>.</p>
<p>In this universal search for our past, our hobby has a powerful drawing card - the deep-seated fascination for, an invention that has arguably fired the human imagination as has no other - the railway.</p>
<p>In summary, the model railway hobby has something very important to offer to respond to this need - and that indeed may be the key to its survival.</p>Charles Cooper's Railway Pagestag:railwaypages.com,2005:Post/26149622014-02-20T11:55:14-05:002021-05-17T19:54:49-04:00It's All About the Memories<p>It came to me a short while ago, when the son of a model railroader I had known years ago (and who had passed on well before he should have done) offered me his father's three-rail Hornby-Dublo goods train set in mint condition "free to a good home". I jumped at the offer, not only in his memory, but also because Hornby and then Hornby-Dublo were the electric trains I grew up with many, many years ago. (For my railway-mania story, see <a contents="About My Railway Interest" data-link-label="About My Railway Interest" data-link-type="page" href="/about-my-railway-interest">About My Railway Interest</a>.)</p>
<p>On reflection, methinks it is all about the memories.</p>
<p>I have many many railway memories, but there are two from my childhood that for me are abiding and were transformational. And they are not what you might think they are, if you have read <a contents="About My Railway Interest" data-link-label="About My Railway Interest" data-link-type="page" href="/about-my-railway-interest">About My Railway Interest</a>.</p>
<p>The first was a train ride to Whitby, Yorkshire when I was about six years old. My maternal grandparents always went to Whitby for their annual one-week holiday from Huddersfield's smoking woollen mills chimney stacks. I remember the old LMS 3rd class compartment carriage, and the broad leather strap with which one could raise and lower the window in the door. (On arriving one had to open the window to reach out and open the door handle.) I just remember the scenery on that long beautiful stretch of North Yorkshire moors just before we got to our destination, - now the <a href="http://www.nymr.co.uk/" target="_self">North Yorkshire Moors Railway</a>, and oh boy, our arrival at the Whitby station (now a shadow of its former busy sea-side station self) to try out my bucket and spade, and oh, the ice creams and the donkey rides.</p>
<p>The second memory is rather bleaker in one way. It was bombed-out Berlin, Germany in 1945 and I was going to school in a shell-shocked building with no windows and plaster falling off the ceiling, and lunch was bully-beef soup provided courtesy of the British Army. One day our teacher organized an outing to a building of generously-appointed but old-fashioned European-style flats that somehow was still standing, to be enthralled by a huge Gauge 1 electric train layout - double-tracked and all around the room. I was 12 years old then - I don't remember much of the detail except for the trains whizzing, nay clattering, around the tracks, and the level crossing barriers going up and down as the trains passed. They must have been Bing or Märklin - or both. No matter, it remained a memory for all time.</p>
<p>I digress. But yes, it's all about the memories.</p>
<p>With a model railway, what exactly is it that we want to accomplish? After all, for most modellers, it is a train doing a circuit, however well and ingeniously disguised. So what attracts us there and what keeps us there? Why, as the joke goes, is it a lifelong but harmless affliction (disease, some would say) from which there is no cure? Yes, there is the creative outlet, there is the pleasure of designing something and making it work, collecting pieces of whatever kind that will "go well" with the railway. Certainly most modellers will confess to having bought far more of this or that that they will ever build or place on the railway. OK, some of it may go into display cabinets, but why do we do it? Talk to anyone about their layout, and it is not long before you find out, that built-in to that layout are life memories of one kind or another - and they peek out from the layout - but until pointed out, only recognized by the owner, because they are all personal vignettes or associations. In some respects, the train going around the track can almost be irrelevant.</p>
<p>Yes, it's all about the memories.</p>
<p>When we go to a model railway show, what do we expect to see? Why don't we seem to mind seeing the same layouts over and over again? Why are there always clusters of old-timers with misty faraway looks around old Lionel or other toy train displays? And if we stop to talk to old friends and acquaintances, what do we do? - chances are we reminisce - past shows, past displays, long-time-ago get-togethers. Do you remember when ...? Do you remember old so-and-so? Do you recall that fabulous layout ...? Do you remember the year that ...? Wasn't that a great fish-and-chip place for lunch? (Oh yes, someone ought to do a thesis on the relationship between model railways and fish and chips ... for me, maybe it is tied in with Whitby, Yorkshire - the fish and chip mecca - who knows?)</p>
<p>Alright, does all this mean that the model railway hobby is about Christmases-past? Toys of our childhoods? Our own memory-lanes? If the hobby is creativity, fellowship and memories, yea verily, I have come to believe that the greatest of these is our memories. The memories are the linchpin that I had not really thought about until I had a conversion on the road to that donated Hornby-Dublo train set. After all, why would I embrace and seek to expand something that I had happily discarded 35 years ago?<br><br>Yes, it has to be all about the memories.</p>
<p>A lot has been written and mused about the future of the hobby. We worry that it is based on our memories of a yesteryear railway world that no longer exists, and that when we die, those memories will die with us, and therefore that the hobby will die with us. We obsess that kids today are all glued to their iPads and their smartphones. We bemoan that we are all living in a very fast world today that provides scant resources or time for anyone to build a model layout. There is a germ of truth to at least some of those thoughts, but as I see it, we're missing the far far bigger picture, circumscribed by two immutable laws:</p>
<p>Law Number 1. There is a fibre in all our beings that speaks to our own personal history - we hunger to know who we are and where we came from - and with or without a railway, we all remember where we grew up, and we all have memories of scenes past. And that's part of us, it's genetically embedded, no matter what our age. And one way or another, it's going to be acted out.</p>
<p>Law Number 2. Even today there is nothing that attracts a crowd better than a moving object - and a train is a perfect moving object for universal curiosity. Trains in department store windows are a thing of the past - but put a moving train in a store window anywhere and it will still draw a crowd of onlookers. Don't ask me why, but it does.</p>
<p>And it's not as if railways have died. They have changed a lot, and in North America for many of us they are no longer part of the daily scene (unless one rides a subway ["underground" in Europe] or a light rapid transit train or even a streetcar somewhere). In Europe they're still all over the place - in fact it's only in Canada that passenger rail seems to be dying, but that's a different topic for another subject. And one way or another, future generations will eventually get their train ride, somewhere, sometime - and the fascination will start all over again. Guaranteed. Law Number 2.</p>
<p>Sometime earlier I wrote an opinion piece entitled <a contents="Prototypical Model Railways - a Key to the Survival of the Hobby" data-link-label="Opinion Piece" data-link-type="page" href="/opinion-piece">Prototypical Model Railways - a Key to the Survival of the Hobby</a>?<br>Basically, that's Law Number 1. I still believe that, and I don't think it's in conflict with what I write here. I believe the two concepts complement each other. I really do.</p>
<p>I'm an optimist. Our individual sense of history and the fascination of a moving train. It's an unbeatable combination - and the future of the hobby is assured. We worry too much.</p>
<p>Basically, when we have examined everything else - it IS all about the memories. And they will endure in whatever way we have the creativity with which to conjure them back up. One way for sure, is by building a model - preferably one that moves. Guaranteed.</p>
<p>As my geometry master used to pronounce - Q.E.D. - quod erat demonstrandum - or freely translated: "I rest my case".</p>Charles Cooper's Railway Pages