GALLERY
A visit to a railway museum will provide some perspective for the passage of passing time. We get into this hobby and over the years our models, following the prototype, quietly come and go. Geeps and F units are replaced by SD40’s and soon they’re gone as well. Replaced with –9’s and other eco-friendy monsters. Then suddenly we spot our favourate engine on a rip track or see our first ‘new’ boxcar preserved by some historical society. Are you feeling older yet?
The Wainwright Rail Park (Wainwright Railway Preservation Society) occupies a large field on the south side of the tracks across from an iconic old station. My unexpected and unguided tour of the place began early on a cold September morning and in a typical prairie small town fashion, I just opened the gate and drove myself in.
Check out http://www.railpark.org/index.html and http://cnlines.ca/CNcy clo pedia/van
Transfer caboose 76588, and others like it, were built for the CN by the Point St Charles shops 1978 using boxcars as a base. All had diesel generators installed and were the pinnacle of rides at the end of the caboose era. This example was pretty much striped down to the basic structure but it’s good that at least one of these was set aside for future generations to enjoy.
I’ve seen these in HO scale but the rest of us will have to build them from scratch. Perhaps from an old 40 foot boxcar. Regardless, it would make an interesting addition to any layout