Not much layout or modelling time for me this past two weeks while dealing with an estate, but a few friends and I managed to get away to Vancouver Island for two days.
Michael (aka Dayliner) wanted to visit Lake Cowichan to obtain measurements and photographs of the station for his layout. The E&N no longer calls at Lake Cowichan, but the station survives and houses a very good museum:
We also checked out the bridge which once carried the E&N over the river into Lake Cowichan:
We visited our friend Nolan Stewart who is building an N scale layout depicting the British Columbia Railway's Lillooet Subdivision between Lone Butte and Williams Lake. The upper deck is now installed and operational:
We ran a passenger special around the layout to commemorate the layout's first group visit:
We also visited Steve Stark for an op session on his N scale Esquimalt & Nanaimo layout. This layout was formerly located in their Vancouver home and was featured in Great Model Railroads. The layout has since been moved to Vancouver Island and expanded to include an upper deck. I operated regularly on this layout for a few years and it was fun to visit it in its new location.
I took Train 27 north from Victoria to Courtenay. This view shows the train crossing the Niagara Canyon:
This view shows my train entering Parksville, which was the junction with the Port Alberni Subdivision:
Thank you to Nolan and Steve for hosting us, and for their permission to post a few photos here.
Now back to work on mine!
Tim
