Seeking your state of mind

Everybody who built a layout knows at some point it is an evolving beast that follows many rational and irrational influences.

When the project started, we were stuck on the 50s and the 60s. The idea was all about diesel, steam, CNR green and yellow, CPR maroon and grey. We also thought it was the busiest and most interesting era of Quebec City, before the golden era downfall occurred in late 1959. People here like to think they had their “revolution” but one must admit the same process occurred all over North America about the same time. 60s and early 70s were all about perceived modernization and rejection of the past. Mid-70s onward marked a shift from industrialization to a tertiary sector-oriented economy were trains struggled to keep their place. All this may seems a big caricature of recent history but it helps show us how simple minded we can be when picking up our modelling era. At this point, I feel like all railroading eras are in fact great opportunities. The real deal is to find an era so rooted to our personal experience that we want to replicate it in miniature to be able to live it again.

A "wet noodled" locomotive pulling a string of brown boxcars...

 

Our club story is no different. All three club members grew up discovering trains by watching CNR orange and black “wet noodled” locomotives pulling strings of brown boxcars, dirty hoppers and a guy waving the hand in the caboose . All we knew about CPR was their flashing Multimark-schemed rolling stock only seen on toy trains. Only Louis-Marie, the older of us three had faint memories of seeing regular local passenger services while a young kid.

Despite loving the 50s, we must admit we get excited every time a new Canadian prototype HO locomotive is released, especially 1960s and 1970s Alco-MLW stuff. We all love classical caboose designs such as CNR Pointe Saint-Charles and CPR Transcona. We hardly have the same feeling for late steamers. We like them, but hardly can feel the same nostalgia. Truth to be told, we never saw them in action but we witnessed MLW M420 in their glorious days. As poetic transition era can be, its memories aren’t ours. In that state of mind, it’s hard to feel totally involved into a project and more honest to just take a leap toward what made railroading such a blast when we were kids.

Many have said it about model railroading… Better stick with what inspire you and makes you feels trains are great.