A trip to the far north at the Prince Albert Model Railroaders train show

Michael Oleksyn/Daily Herald Brian Randall, president of the Prince Albert Model Railroaders stands next to theChurchill part of his model train display at the Train Show in the Gateway Mall on Saturday.

The Prince Albert Model Railroaders hosted their annual model train show on Jan. 18-19 at the former Staples location in the Gateway Mall.

The event featured many interesting train setups and models, including one from Brian Randall, the President of the PA Model Railroaders, who used his setup to recreate a favourite place. “What I’m depicting is the rail line from The Pas, Manitoba through the tundra up to Churchill, Manitoba, and the whole thing is built on top of an interior door,” Randall explained.

“I worked for the railroad before and I’ve been up working along that line. I took my family up there probably 15 years ago just so they could see Churchill and I just wanted to model that line.” The design is split into three parts, one representing The Pas, one representing the Northern Tundra and one representing Churchill, Manitoba.

“I’ve represented mining, agriculture, lumber, different forestry and the big train station that’s up there and the town itself.” he said.

Michael Oleksyn/Daily Herald There were many interesting displays from around the province at the Prince Albert Model Rail-roaders Train Show on Jan. 18 and 19 in the Gateway Mall.

Randall has been working on the layout for seven years as it is constantly evolving. He said he chips away and makes changes.

“You are always adding details all the time, so it’s like the real world. Hey, things change all the time, so that’s what I do. I’ll add more detail to a certain area or something like that,” he said.

Randall explained that he can have several trains running for the set but he chose to have one running for the train show.

“Nothing’s ever done, you just keep adding more and more. It’s no different than what a real city is, old buildings go out, new buildings go up,” he explained. Randall was once a railroader himself and comes from a family of railroad people. He said making model railroads allows him to follow two passions, one for real trains and one for model trains. “What they always say when you worked on the railroad, it’s in your blood afterwards,” he explained.

The Tundra representation includes the Northern Lights and the Muskeg. He also includes other notable parts of the Tundra like Polar Bears, and the Town of Churchill Grain Terminal.

“The trees up in the north there, they only grow on one side because of the polar winds,” he ex-plained. “The branches only grow on one side. The telegraph poles are a tripod because if you have a straight pole in muskeg, it sinks down. With a tripod it floats Then I’ve got my polar bears with the polar bear buggy doing the tours.

“Then you go over to Churchill and it looks like Churchill, so what you’ve got is the big grain terminal that’s there. When they ship grain across to Europe from Churchill is the shortest route to Europe (through) the Northwest passage.” He also has the Polar Bear Jail, which is another interesting feature of the Town. “I’ve got the polar bear jail and the polar bear jail is when they catch them in town. They keep them in the polar bear jail for 30 days and all they’re given is water, no food, and then after 30 days they fly them out by helicopter,” he said. The whole system is run with a recent invention that makes it possible to run several trains “It’s a DCC system, so it’s a pulse system,” he explained. “You can run each train, (and) each engine has its own computer chip in it, so you can run them opposite directions on the same track and everything.”

Randall added that the DCC system has been around for 20 years, but it’s not like the old model trains, which could only run in one direction. “You can control it, and there’s sound systems and that so I can blow the whistle on that ring the bell and everything,” he said. michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca

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