Layout Tours

Dewdney-Alouette Railway Society

The Dewdney-Alouette Railway Society (DARS) layout is centered on Port Haney in 1926, on the lower level of the Maple Ridge Museum building. The group has been working on the layout for more than 35 years, and the society members continue to work on the display weekly.

The diorama displays the CPR along the Fraser River from Hammond to Ruskin and the recent addition of sound and lighting brings back memories of the old steam locomotives.

Mark’s Addiction
Mark Horne

Mark’s 1200 square foot “O” gauge high rail layout has no particular theme or area being modeled. Mark collects and operates trains from the Pacific Northwest and Canada. The era is 1930 -1950. All the trains were manufactured by Lionel, MTH, Atlas, Weaver, 3rd Rail and Williams since 1990.

Mark started construction in Sept 2010 and has used 68 sheets of ½” plywood; 46 sheet of Donnacona board; 600 – 2” x 4”s and over 5000’ of wire so far. The layout is not finished (as if any layout is ever finished!) but represents a very large Lionel type layout which means the purpose is to have fun building and operating your trains.

CN Basement Sub
Rob Huddlestan

Rob’s HO scale CN-dominated railway fills two basement rooms, totaling 600 square feet. The double deck design, with provision for continuous running, incorporates two 10-track staging yards, 3 classification yards and two main switching areas. A 2% climb combined with a 2 1/2 turn helix connects the two levels. The majority of track work is complete with a couple of spurs still to be added; the backdrops are in although not detailed, and work on the fascia is underway. Digitrax DCC controls the trains.

Kettle Valley Railway
David Mills

David Mills began construction of his current Kettle Valley Railway HO scale layout about 10 years ago. 

The layout will eventually feature a run from Hope to Penticton, as it appeared in the late 1930’s. It is in a finished room in the basement; the “L” shaped room measures 26′ x 15′.

Work began with the Princeton Subdivsion, starting with the construction of the railyard in Penticton, which involved building 21 (fast-track) turnouts, a 70′ turntable, and a swing-bridge over the Okanagan River. Diverging from the yard is what was called the “townline spur”. This too has been built and will feature the fruit-packing houses, an interchange with CNR, a wye, and the waterfront station and pier on Okanagan Lake.

Tracks were then laid west (code 70 flex) to West Summerland, and then to the summit at Osprey Lake where a scratch-built trestle was made from original CPR blueprints. Soon, tracks will be laid to Jura, and then to Princeton.

The layout is DCC, and uses Bullfrog turnout controls. The steam engines are brass with sound decoders. Rolling stock is a mix of brass, scratch-built, and resin and other kits. Some scenery began in 2022.

Ratchapie
Blair Sturgeon

Blair’s layout loosely represents 62 miles of the Santa Fe Mainline, which travels over Raton Pass between Raton, NM to Trinidad, Colorado. To gain the necessary height between decks he created a loop that is a reverse replica of Santa Fe’s Tehachapi Loop, thus the fictitious name, Ratchapi Sub. The layout has 3 level ranging from 28″ to 64″, a minimum radius of 32″. Staging represents Barstow, Colton, Denver, and Chicago. In order to allow movement of trains between all three levels, there is an 8-level helix with layout connections at levels 1,4,6,7 and 8. Many fictional industries provide switching opportunities that weren’t available on this line. For trains, Blair runs some of Santa Fe’s famous passenger trains, ice reefer, TOFC and coal trains.