Craftsman Structures: Mike's OVAR Presentation

Mike's OVAR Presentation May 2022

In early May I was asked to offer a presentation to OVAR, the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders.

OVAR is a dinner club of some 150 members of which almost 100 come out to dinner once a month excepting July and August, the summer hiatus.

Members of OVAR may be model railroaders, railfans, authors, company manufacturers...really anybody in the Ottawa area who are interested in railroading.

The theme of my talk was my evolution in the hobby and those who influenced me along the way, in particular the early years.

You can enlarge any image by clicking on it. You can return to the default look of the page by clicking outside the image.

This was the fifth of six clinics I have offered in under a calendar year across Canada.

I am a positive thinking person who looks for the good aspects of any situation.

While I know many are tired of ZOOM meets, a number of my clinics were held this way nationwide. What this meant was that modelers in far-off regions of Canada could attend these series of clinics when in non-pandemic times they would never be able to make it out in-person to the workshop due to the great distances found in Canada.

For me, offering clinics is my way of "giving back" to the hobby. I guess you could call it "paying it forward".

Each of the six clinics I offered in the span of under 12 months was unique from the others so as not to be repetitive to folks who may be members of multiple organizations.

A small number of friends early on made an indelible impact on me in the hobby.

What I learned from them a long time ago carries with me today.

So...who are these four friends?

No Mike...not the Beatles...although they influenced my guitar playing!

Hey, I prefer that title for the album, let It B&M...seeing as I am a B&M modeler even though I live in Canada and the Boston and Maine is located in the United States!

It must have been Ringo who liked that name for the Let It be album seeing as he has a fascination with model trains.

Many famous individuals are model railroaders...google them to see just how many there are.

Here are the names of but four of the many musicians who are into this great hobby of ours.

Before we go any further I would like to dedicate this presentation to my sister, Marty (Margaret), who passed away recently. This one's for you kiddo! Oh yes, being six years older than her little twin brothers she obviously put up with a lot from Mike (on the left) and Jim (to the right)!

I would also like to dedicate this blog posting to my parents, Mary and Fred Hamer. Mom was born in Kingston, Ontario in 1918 and she had we twins at the age of 40. Can you imagine! Dad was born in Huddersfield in Yorkshire, England. As he reached adulthood war broke out once again in Europe. He was in the RAF stationed at an air base along the English Channel. One day, his troop were given marching orders to board a train the following morning to take them to a southern port in England where they would then board a ship, destination Malta. As fate would have it, the Germans bombed that southern rail line in the overnight hours and his train was diverted to Liverpool where he boarded either the Queen Mary or the Queen Elizabeth where he headed to Canada across the North Atlantic. In Canada, his group's role was to train Canadian fighter pilots for the war effort. So-o-o, if it were not for the Germans bombing that railway line I mightn't be typing this message as my father would have headed to Malta in the Mediterranean, one of the bloodiest theatres of war!

On my Boston & Maine layout I have dedicated the F.B. Hamer & Sons building after my father.

I have dedicated the Mary's Garden building in my town of North Dover after my mother.

And...the Martin Guitar Co. building also in North Dover after one of my acoustic guitars even though the real Martin Guitar Co. is located in Nazareth, Pennsylvania!

While in Canada, my father met my mother during the war. They fell in love and were married. With the war over they started a new life together in Kingston, Ontario. While saving up for a house, they chose inexpensive methods of entertainment...like heading to Kingston's outer station to watch the trains come and go.

Fortunately for me, my dad like taking photos of the trains.

He compiled a small book of his photos with written captions which I share with you today.

I love the old "black and whites" of the trains and the people of the day.

My father had a very good understanding of locomotives...

...as his father worked for the railroads in England as a conductor on passenger trains.

I'm so glad that we still have these photos which I can share with you.

This was one of my dad's favourites!

Well...eventually I became a young man and teaching was my calling. This is the class picture from my grade 4/5 combined class back in the year Canada was celebrating its 125th birthday. The principal at the time asked teachers to celebrate in their classrooms this momentous celebration in whichever manner they deemed fit.

Rather than me coming up with the idea in my class I put the question to the students, "How do we want to celebrate Canada's 125th birthday?" Through a series of entertaining brainstorming sessions many ideas came to the fore...we could celebrate Canadian athletes...or perhaps Canadian authors...how about Canadian inventors...then the little boy on the right of the image above raised his hand and said, "Mr. Hamer, wasn't it the railroad that helped make our country?" I swear he must've been in bed dreaming the night before as his parents were watching Pierre Burton's "Last Spike" on the television...just the manner he articulated the idea. I responded, "You're right, Mitch...perhaps we could build a train set in the back of class?" Well...thirty pairs of eyes lit up at the notion..."Can we sir!!!" they called out.

I was certainly a newby to model railroading referring to a model railroad as a "train set" like the ones you purchase at Christmas time...but we did build a model railroad in the back of the classroom. One of the students suggested that we name some of the places after famous Canadians who made an impact on the country which we did. The names in the above image will attest to the fact.

Remember, you can click on the image to enlarge it!

Click outside to reduce.

The students quickly became specialists in areas of modelling be it carving the plaster rocks, adding foliage, stringing the telegraph lines...and...I was learning at the same time alongside them.

My principal was most impressed and asked if I would be interested in starting up a model railroad club in the school which I did. We made this sectional layout with each member of the club building their own module. Both layouts you see above made it out to Ottawa's Railfair where young children attending the event were allowed to run the trains which were placed on low tables for optimum visibility for them.

A member of the school community suggested that we take images and submit an article to one of the model railroad magazines which we did. Boy, was it a thrill for the students to see their efforts published in Model Railroader Magazine. I would like to thank Rock Chan, the father of one of the students who came into the school to photograph the layout with the pupils. He was a professional photographer who travelled the country taking images of artifacts for the various museums in Canada. I was also impressed with the editors at Model Railroader Magazine who sent the class many copies of the magazine as well as the specific article on magazine quality paper for each of the 27 students.

I must thank Pauline (our kindergarten teacher) and her husband Jens, for being the ones who truly got me into the hobby of model railroading. For we had a staff social at their home on the Friday following "Meet the Creature" night, our affectionate name for "Meet the Teacher" night.

When I was in her living room, there was what I thought at first a painting of a railroad locomotive. When I asked Pauline about it, she said, "No Mike, it's not a painting...it's an actual model recessed into the wall." No wonder it looked so real. While I don't have a picture from that day, suffice it to say that it was similar to how folks with aquariums sometimes recess them into their walls. Pauline said that her husband was into trains so she introduced him to me.

I told Jens about this "train set" I was going to build in the back of my class along with the students. He offered us advice and loaned us magazines for the the students to look through. He even offered to come in and speak with the children. Jens showed me his collection of model railroad items and then he said to me..."Mike, if you really want to learn a lot about the hobby, you should come out to dinner with me!"

At first I didn't know what Jens meant about how going out to dinner would improve my learning curve in relation to model railroading. "Come out to OVAR this month," Jens advised. "What's OVAR?" I asked. "It's the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders" a group of individuals who are knowledgeable about trains. You will meet many model railroaders there." So I went out to OVAR and that is where I met my "Fab Four" of model railroad friends who were a huge influence on me as a modeler.

Here is my version of the "Fab Four". Clockwise from the top left corner...Trevor fills in for John, Marty is Paul, Stan represents George and Bill is Ringo!

Let's begin with my good friend and amazing modeler, Trevor Marshall.

This image showcases the wonderful work Trevor manages to accomplish in the model railroading world.

When I met Trevor at my first OVAR dinner he offered up some advice. "Mike," he said, "Before you go to construct your first model railroad, you should visit a few others to see what you like and what you may not want to include in your railroad." Trevor then invited me to his home where he was building an HO scale layout depicting the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo line. The image above is a large scale version of one of the diesels which belongs to our OVAR executive member, Bernie Goodman. I didn't have a camera with me the day I visited Trevor but I immediately liked the colour choices of the TH&B.

It was when we went upstairs for a drink and I spotted this coffee table book on...well...the coffee table I noticed the picture on the cover had engines with similar colours to the TH&B with the difference being maroon and gold rather than maroon and cream. I opened the book and thumbed through the pages to find to my astonishment pictures depicting places I had visited while camping in the northeastern US! I was born in Toronto but grew up in Montreal. My camping family prefered the campgrounds south of the border with the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains and the White Mountains plus the seacoast. I called over to Trevor getting drinks in the kitchen, "I camped right beside that railway line! I recognize many of the places in this book."

The die was cast! I would model the B&M railroad! Trevor offered to assist me in my planning loaning some books for me to peruse and recommending others to purchase.

Then a funny thing happened. Trevor became smitten with the Boston and Maine as well! So much so...that he sold off all of his diesels (OVAR member and fellow TH&B modeler Angus was thankful) and with the newfound money he purchased two brass moguls painted for the Boston and Maine! Here you see one of them with snowplow about to cross a moveable bridge span on his newly developed layout in Toronto after his move there. Trevor is modelling what some call "The Fifth Season"...that time between fall and winter when the snow hasn't really started falling but there are few leaves on the trees and the ground takes on a more brownish hue than green.

Here we see a double-header of the two 2-6-0 moguls.

Trevor even went as far as painting his fascia boards in the B&M maroon.

He drew the lines indicating the turnout positions in the EMD inspired gold pinstriping as well! Yes, those cardboard mock-ups look most professional!

It wasn't too long after that Trevor's tastes changed when he began reading about Maine Two-Foot Gauge railroads.

Working in the same room as the original B&M layout, the model railroad was transformed into a two-foot shortline in Maine.

Trevor set the scene in the early autumn with green still on the trees while other trees are beginning to change colour.

Love the shadow box look as well!

Then...later on...Trevor discovered S Scale, most likely after visiting a club that sets up at the local train shows.

He changed his plans and went to the larger scale which offers so much in realism. Check out the figures in silhouette on the front porch as an example.

Love the roots of the tree sticking above ground...so rarely modeled.

A lovely "going away" shot!

Remember those fun billboard scenes at the side of the road!

Lovely vignettes hidden among the realistic scenery offer so much pleasure to the viewer.

While this train wouldn't be plying these lines typically...it's Trevor's railroad and he can run whatever train he likes! Hehehe!

Trevor began helping me plan my model railroad. Here is one of my first drawings of the layout that will be located in an 11 x 13 foot room. Trevor kept slapping my hand so to speak. "Don't put in extra sidings that the railroad wouldn't have! Think realistically!"

Trevor was right...I had too many sidings and staging tracks that could never fit the room...so I cut down the numbers of both. (The black construction paper in the previous image covers the staging tracks.) Because I was in a small room and my wife, Lisa, did home daycare, our basement was finished nicely like a kindergarten class. My layout room was located in an addition put on to the house. I didn't want staging tracks to go outside the room where little children would get their hands on the trains. Everything must remain in the confines of the room! A pocket sliding door meant that the little children never knew what was "inside the closet" from their perspective!!!

This is the official layout schematic as drawn by Rick Johnson of Model Railroader Magazine when my layout appeared there!

It was "Christmas in July" when I learned that my layout would adorn the cover of Great Model Railroads 2004 with one of the pictures my good friend Peter Nesbitt snapped while at my home. This is Model Railroader's special issue where they profile ten layouts from around the world across the various scales that they feel are exemplary of magnificent modelling!. Imagine from humble beginnings and with the help of a handful of friends, we made the cover of this illustrious magazine plus the lead article to boot. Thank you to Charls Gendron who painted and detailed my RS3 which is about to tiptoe out onto the New England River Bridge!

Marshall Cut in honour of Trevor.

The outbound (north) end of the cut.

There is also a creamery in Trevor's honour on the layout.

My next "Fab Four" who made a lasting contribution on me as a modeler is my good friend, Marty Phillips.

Shortly after my layout was built Marty and his wife Mary moved to Vancouver Island in British Columbia where Lisa and I paid them a visit. More on that later.

Marty approached me just after school had let out for the summer. He said, "Mike, I know you are a teacher and you are on your summer break now. How about we start the benchwork on your layout as soon as my holidays kick in!" Marty studied the plan Trevor and I came up with. He took fine detailed measurements of the room and we were off to the lumber yard. When the benchwork was up and all was said and done, there was hardly a scrap of lumber left over...his measurements and ability to make the most out of every cut was truly remarkable. "Measure twice, cut once" was the lesson he gave me!

I had already built a number of structures that adorned various dioramas I had brought out to the OVAR dinner meetings so when it came time to scenic atop the benchwork...the effort progressed rapidly.

Trevor taught me how to lay track...take your time for it will be the circulatory system of your railroad.

I made certain that every train locomotive and the largest passenger car would navigate all curves and turnouts with ease. My smallest curve is of 30 inch radius.

Just a wee joke! This scene transformed into the one below.

Here.

And here!

This scene with construction paper sitting in for track morphed into...

...this city scape.

Over to the other side of town where the main industries are located...

...the scene became this!

On my visit to Vancouver Island with my wife Lisa we stayed at Marty and Mary's place.

This allowed me to photograph his newly developing layout.

Marty went from N scale back to HO.

He also modeled New England like me.

Here we are in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

I built the bridge abutments and peers for Marty from scratch out of plaster.

A photo backdrop on a second railroad Marty started.

The railroad remained in the same room but changed over to the Mass Central and environs around Palmer, Massachusetts.

Hey...why don't we take a short hiatus and look into the trip that took Lisa and me out to Vancouver, BC. Yes we boarded The Canadian!

In the park car dome meeting with others from around the world.

Here was a coincidence. The next morning we ventured to the dining car for breakfast. Who was seated with us? He looked so familiar. In fact, he had recently delivered a speech to OVAR. It's Pierre Ozorak, a well-known rail photographer!

Family fun on the train.

On the initial trip out west in 2005, Marty and Mary asked us, "Where are the girls? You didn't bring the girls?" I responded..."Marty, it's our 25th anniversary! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge,...no, we didn't bring the girls!" Marty and Mary sent us numerous e-mails following our first trip asking us to come out again the following summer, this time with the girls. The above images were taken on the second railroad trip aboard The Canadian in the summer of 2006.

A refueling truck has arrived (just visible to the right of the image) and will refuel the diesels in Northern Ontario.

Yes...if have verified...our Park Car or Club Car for the trip across the country was Waterton Park.

To think we know the engineer aboard the train that suffered the equipment mishap.

Some railfanning time with Marty brought us to Qualicum Beach.

Our Rail Diesel cars with both running in 2006. In 2005 when we came, there was a road crossing incident with a dump truck disabling one of the RDC's and only one was on the trip. That meant standing room only. I didn't mind as I got to spend time in the cab up front!

My artsy shot of the trip.

Marty toured me around to a couple of layouts including this beauty.

N-scale! Wow, tremendous scenery!

Lovely backdrop too!

Perhaps whoever snapped this image had a glass of wing too many! Hehehe!

Marty is honoured on my layout with the Phillips Furniture Factory, a large industry which supports a large part of the traffic arriving and departing my town of North Dover.

My third "Fab Four" friend is Stan Conley...aka George Harrison.

Stan is a master modeler.

Stan is an engineer who comes up with solutions to all problems.

I encountered a problem early on when I was building my layout. I wanted to create a stone arch span across the river gap you see in the image above.

The mock-up.

With Stan's tremendous input with regard to the bridge, this is how the location turned out. I love this scene on my layout!

The span came out perfectly!

This was in my very early days of modeling. I could do a much better job today carving the stone courses on the bridge! Yikes! But it is sentimental.

Here are some examples of Stan's models.

Quite the variety.

Love Stan's efforts on the coal tipple with lighting as well.

Nice colours and textures on this model built by Stan.

Stan is also an excellent painter as the vehicles attest.

Some of Stans's rolling stock.

Even a paper model.

Stan is honoured on my layout with the Conley Lumber & Coal facility.

Stan presented me with this nice conveyer system.

An early craftsman kit.

I scratch built the small coal shed.

A nice facility all around.

There's a restriction taking place here due to the wooden overhang. The locomotive is restricted from passing beneath.

We do have fun!

And...here is Ringo Starr...errrr...I mean, Bill Meek...my fourth Fab Four member!

Bill lives just a handful of blocks away from me here in the Alta Vista neighbourhood of Ottawa.

He is a tremendous ambassador to the hobby. During the benchwork phase of construction, Marty was away when I changed my mind and wanted a deeper chasm for a large bridge scene to the left. I was worried about compromising Marty's excellent benchwork. Bill said, "No problem Mike. We can do this!" Bill, also being an engineer, knew his stuff! My river gorge scene became deeper.

Here is the finished product.

The New England River Bridge at the southern abutment.

The northern abutment.

The scene offers up some dramatic images, for sure!

An "artsy" shot from a canoe in the river!

I also scratchbuilt all of the bridge piers in a three section process. Note the angled ice breaking ability of the pier down at water level.

Let's take a glance at Bill's layout.

Bill models a line not far from his home which makes railfanning pretty easy!

I love Bill's farm scene!

There are hidden tracks in behind the backdrop that lead to staging in the furnace room.

Two craftsman kits work together to create this lovely farmstead.

Bill's version of the Alder Models barn.

Over and under!

Time for a ball game.

Things begin to heat up in the 9th inning!

Love Bill's highway area.

The upper level representing Hawksbury, Ontario.

Bill's large steel plant.

Some locations in Hawksbury.

Love the lighting Bill has worked into his layout.

Some nice structures.

Creative modelling.

Yet another artsy shot!

A railfan trip with Bill along the line he models allowed me to snap a few railfan shots.

Nice bridge.

Dramatic views!

OC Rail and not CP Rail...Ottawa Central.

Black beauties!

A fairly recent scene on Bill's layout.

The bridge structure was an NMRA group project.

The SLD is the St. Lawrence Division of the NMRA.

Nice abutment Bill.

A great looking end car!

Here's little old me!

Bill is also honoured on my layout!

Thanks, Bill!

Let's head back in time in Mr. Peabody's Time Machine to the year 1995.

Trevor had recommended that I visit a few layouts during their operating sessions. I visited Michel Boucher's amazing HO scale Delaware & Hudson layout a number of times. We catch Marty and Trevor having fun as Michel looks on with a smile.

Michel extended his layout into his crew lounge after a few years of operating sessions. We catch Marty working there.

Michel's extension develops some scenery. Note the brick wall which is kept clean for the most part.

Normand was an excellent railroad dispatcher who worked a number of layouts in the greater Ottawa region in this capacity. Normand recently passed away and he is deeply missed.

Another scene from in the crew lounge.

Chris Lyon painted the backdrop.

This train will enter the tunnel and appear once again in the main railroad room.

Michel makes use of stacked ceiling tiles for the cliff side.

A train spotted in staging in the laundry room.

Michel honours his friends who have worked on the layout with plaques describing their efforts on the fascia board.

If you have an engine servicing facility, you can extend the runs for the operating crew or you can create a hostler position for other attendees.

Two series of liveries for the D&H.

A wonderful railroad.

Trains ascend and descend the grades through the hills of New York.

Love those shark units! Thanks, Michel, for hosting some great operating sessions!

Trevor also brought me out to run John Licharson's SBLK layout.

A huge classification yard adorned the middle of the room for this double-decked layout.

Most impressive, John!

Yeah!...I spot a blue B&M car in the mix!

Check out John's incredible modeling.

Love the wagon too!

Nine operators make up a session and Norman is the dispatcher here as well.

The upper level has some lovely scenery.

A huge helix within a mountain brought the trains to the upper level...with the trains half exposed as they climbed the mountain.

Oh, oh! Someone turned the master switch off for the layout!

He thought it was the switch for the bathroom!

Sessions were held Monday evenings.

The three amigos!

This is what John is up to these days.

Lovely modelling, John!

With my experience running trains at Michel's and John's layouts I began hosting my own sessions on Friday nights. Over the years I have hosted hundreds of operating sessions.

After a year or so of operating every Friday night at my place, we began to branch out to other layouts.

At top left we see Howard Scodras's Ontabec Central.

Upper right is Bill Meek's Ontario L'Orignal.

At bottom is Jim McSherry's Esquimalt and Nanaimo.

Upper left we see Don Leger's Ottawa Central.

Upper right shows John Mitchell's NYCentral/Canada Southern.

On the bottom we find a B&M and Maine Narrow Gauge railroad belonging to a friend named Mike.

Chris Lyon's Lyon Valley Northern is upper left.

David Primeau's B&M/Maine Central/St. J&LC is on the upper right.

Ron Newby's Clearwater Valley is below.

We also visited every once in a while these three layouts.

Tommy Hood's Canadian Northern in the upper left corner.

Bill Scobie's Rio Grande Southern is to the upper right.

Michel Boucher's D&H Adirondack Branch at bottom.

Then I began performing on a more frequent basis with my three bands and was operating on a less frequent basis excepting every Saturday morning on a large scale outdoor layout.

I feel it important to "Give Back" to the hobby by conducting workshops and clinics with other model railroaders.

Here we have a few of our volunteers at the St. Lawrence Division of the NMRA also contributing their time at an event we called Trains101. Families were able to come on out and create a small diorama. They learned how to lay track and ballast as well as creating a small rural scene.

I've enjoyed hosting the families of my students at the end of the school year. Mom's and dad's accompany their children and often grandparents came by as well.

Boy Scout groups have made it over.

As has Walter Gretzky and other NHL friends!

Now I give back through building models as favours for friends including this scratch built machine shop in O-scale for my friend Doug Matheson.

Here is an outdoor view of the shop before the roof was built.

This is an HO structure combining two of the four kits from the Tidewater Wharf build.

The boat building and repair shed as part of the project.

A resin kit I made for my friend Chris Lyon and painted in the western colours of grey with white trim with red public access doors and blue service doors.

The same kit as built for my friend Bill Meek.

The resin station now residing on Bill's layout.

Looking good!

A Hamilton Model Works grain elevator, also a resin kit.

It was a dark colour as determined by black and white photos John had so we went with this dark brown colour choice.

Two towers for my friend, Doug.

A truncated station for Doug as well where I took the back of the station and brought it around to the front and doubled the length of the depot.

I built this engine house for another Doug, Doug Cushman.

Some of my B&M and MEC locomotives peer out of their dormitory.

I have also been asked to build kits for the manufacturers as I did with this lumber yard.

I love the Sylvan truck that came with the kit! It begged to have the wheels turned.

This truncated farmhouse was created for a Hospital Layout build. The layout was raffled and the proceeds went to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario...CHEO.

Of course I couldn't build the structure and then take a Saws-All to it. I had to mock up the model in cardboard first, then make the individual wall and roof cuts before proceeding to the put the kit together. Following Marty's advice I "measured twice and cut once!"

It turned out great!

Here is another project built in my basement lounge for our local hospital raffle.

Yes, it was an N-scale railroad built within the parameters of an IKEA coffee table.

What I have learned from Trevor, Marty, Stan and Bill is incorporated in all of these modeling projects.

Let's get back to those well-known musicians and singers and check out at bit about two of them.

When Rod Stewart was first interviewed by David Letterman on his late night show, Letterman teased Rod about model railroaders having nothing else in their life...but Rod set the record straight as illustrated above. David never teased Rod after that and he gained a new respect for we modelers.

In fact, Rod told David that he was more excited to have his model railroad appear on the cover of Model Railroader Magazine than when he first appeared on the cover of the Rolling Stone!

Neil Young wanted to make his model railroad more user friendly for his son with cerebral palsy. He came up with a digital system that he created and took the concept to Lionel trains. They said it couldn't be done on a feasible scale...so Neil bought the lion's share of stock in the company and installed the system which was introduced to the public. Yes, Neil is the pioneer of DCC, Digital Command Control!

Neil Young also converted an old car he had into an electric car and took the concept to the "Big Three" in Detroit. Again, they said it couldn't be done. Well, Neil proved them wrong. Today we are seeing more and more electric cars on the roads...although they were also around in the earliest days of motoring.