By Bruce Campbell
staff REporter
Laurie Kitchen prepares prepares his model trains for a run in his basement. Kitchen has spent more than 20 years building a state-of-the-art model train in his house and it was completed with a ’last spike’ ceremony on Friday. photo by Lyle Aspinall |
Laurie Kitchen has been working on his railway all the livelong day for 22 years. And on Friday night he nailed in the last spike to complete his 1,550-ft. track model way railway.
It’s a system that Kitchen started building at his Okotoks home — before he actually built his Okotoks home.
“I got a year’s notice that I was moving to the Calgary area in 1986,” Kitchen said. “Because I had some time I was able to design my house specifically for my trains.
“There are no plumbing pipes, no posts, it is designed so stairs come down the middle — so the train could go around in a donut shape… Most of the design for the track was done in 1985 before I moved to Okotoks.”
Kitchen had designed his locomotives, passenger cars, freight cars and equipment, crossing lights, to be a replica of what the Canadian railway was like in 1957. He uses an O-scale, that is, 1/48 of the actual size.
“For example, the dining car is set with a tablecloth, knives and forks, flower on the table just like one that would have been used in 1957,” Kitchen said. “Everything you see, at least as much as practically possible, is historically accurate to 1957.”
He chose that time period because it was a crossing of eras in railway history.
“It was during the switch over from steam to diesel,” Kitchen said. “So I can use the last of the steam and the first of the diesel. You have some modern stuff coming along and you still had the old wooden boxcars…. It gives you the excuse, legally, to run a whole variety of equipment.”
The Kettle Valley-like trestles and the bridges are designed exactly to what would have been seen in 1957.
Kitchen recently completed a 26-foot bridge (actual size) that he had every detail — right down to the last rivet.
“There are over 25,000 rivets on this bridge — and each one was made by me using a drop of Elmer’s white glue,” he said.
While Kitchen’s railway system is something from the days of Ike and Diefenbaker, his designing of the railway is new age.
“What I tried to do was think outside the box — I designed the layout to be a showcase of what can be done in model railways,” Kitchen said. “The track is laid out at eye-level — some of it a little bit above, some below — I wanted to give the same perspective as if you were standing at the side of the tracks watching the train go by.”
The trains are operated by remote control, the operator walks in a mountain valley with the trains running on both sides of the valley.
“When you are operating you are walking with the trains. You don’t just stand back and watch the trains run,” he said.
Kitchen got his first electric train set when he was six years old. It was tinkering with electric trains that led to him being an electrical engineer.
“Radio control is another way that we are pushing the frontier,” Kitchen said. “We are using digital command control which means every locomotion running here has a mini-computer on it with its own address. So I can call up that engine and run it everywhere on the layout without interference. I can control the headlights, back up lights and sounds independently. And it all comes from the locomotives.”
Only an electrical engineer could have designed the intricate layout. Kitchen has more than 40 kilometers of wiring in his system — all of it neatly tucked away so as not to affect the visual design.
All of Kitchen’s work is a labour of love.
“I got my first train when I was five yeas old — it was a wind-up toy,” Kitchen said. “The next year I got my first electrical train, but it was still a toy. There was nothing scale about it.
“I find this such an interesting hobby because there are so many aspects — history, prototype research even carpentry. I have 1,400 sq.; feet pf bench work down here.”
Kitchen shares his love of trains with the public. He teaches youth how to operate the train system as well, he works in the museum at Heritage Park.
Fortunately, his wife Laura also has a love for trains.
The couple’s honeymoon was a trip to the Maritimes — taking the train from Medicine Hat to Moncton, N.B.
“I do enjoy trains — I love to ride them and watch them,” Laura said. “I like them a lot more since I got married.
It does cause some extra household problems.
“We do have to keep the cats from going downstairs – otherwise they will head straight for the bridges.”
Laurie pounded in the last spike on his track Friday night — complete with a 1/48th scale cairn similar to the one at Roger’s Pass.
While the track is set, it’s now time to put in the villages, towers, and towns — all with the 1957 theme — to surround his track.
“When will I get done?” Kitchen said with a smile. “I don’t expect I will ever be done.” |
