MEET `99.
MEET `99.
I spent the summer of `99 chauffeuring Japanese tourist around the city of Vancouver, B. C. I suppose you are wondering what connection there could be between me, as a driver of tour busses, and the world of model railroading.
As a youth I was heavily involved in HO. The idea to get back into it continually flickers across my mind. Imagine my surprise, and elation, when my boss asked me if I could work on the evening of November 13th, driving a bus load of RR modelers from house to house, so that they could view what our city has to offer in home layouts.
| ALL ABOARD |  Wellstone Coach Lines # 602 Leaving on track€ Cameron St. Destination, Layout Tour `99 |
Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity to partake in this annual event. The tours, by cars, had started in 1988.
For the Sixth consecutive year busses from Wellstone Coach Lines gathered at the Cameron Recreational Center in Burnaby, B. C. where the 7th division of the PNR-NMRA was holding their annual model train convention and display.
| SECTIONS |  Modelers build sections to spec so that each section will complete a large layout. |
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| ONE SECTION |  It is hard to tell where the model hills become painted backdrop in this section. |
Saturday was a one day, members only, display and convention which was followed by a public show on the Sunday. The meet, Trains `99, wound up Sunday evening with a banquet and awards ceremony for members.
| SUNDAY |  Open to an enthusiastic public. |
Each bus carried approximately twenty passengers and a conductor. My conductor was George Massey. Though George doesn't have a layout of his own, at the present time, he has been helping on the Coquihalla Valley RR.
A trestle that George had built for the CQVR was modeled after the one at mile 20.7 on the Coquihalla subdivision of the Kettle Valley RR. The model won, for George, his Structure's Award Certificate for the NMRA Achievement Program and second prize in structures at `Trains `97'.
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| FIRST PRIZE |  George¥s prize winning trestle sits proudly on the Coquihalla Valley RR. |
Through the dark rainy night I took my charges past the Burlington Northern Yards, under a rail bridge, a car bridge, and the SkyBridge (LRT) in New Westminster. Then past the Southern BC RR yard to Burnaby. Though they were hard to see through the rain, I tried to point out these RR points of interest, for my out-of-town passengers.
In a whirlwind tour of Burnaby, and Vancouver, the five busses deposited half their human cargo at five separate houses and then moved on to the next house where they discharged the second half of their cargo before picking up the half load that was left there by the bus before them.
By only dropping half of the passengers at each house it gave the viewers more room in the, sometimes small, basements and made full use of both basements and busses.
With approximately fifteen minutes travel time between each house, the viewers, from the far flung corners; Fruitvale; Quesnel; Kelowna; and the not so far corners: Burnaby; Pt. Moody; Coquitlam; of the Province, had twenty minutes to view each layout while the proud owners of the layouts were given a chance to explain their ideas and operations.
Though I didn't have a chance to get in during the first round I did on the second. While the group I brought was waiting, for the group I was picking up to come out, I was able to slip in for a couple of minutes and take some pictures.
The first layout we visited, in Vancouver, was that of the Spokane and British Columbia RR. An imaginary RR, based on an actual plan that was abandoned in 1919. The creator has projected what it would have looked like, in 1955, had it been completed.
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| SPOKANE & B. C. |  Computerized engines are run by radio control. Eventually there will be two more levels above this one. |
Our second stop was at the home of the Seymour Valley Logging and RR Co. which is a fignewton of the builder's imagination, as, to his knowledge, there was never a RR in the Seymour Valley.
| SEYMOUR VALLEY |  The detailing is superb, from the forest fire in the far mountain, the lighting dimming to evening and the glow of the forge as the blacksmith pumps the bellows. |
Third stop was at the Kettle Valley Division of the CPR (Canadian Pacific). This layout is based on the Coquihalla and Princeton subdivisions of the Kettle Valley line circa 1949.
| KETTLE VALLEY |  The guest book goes unsigned as viewers are enthralled with the miles of N scale. |
At stop number four we toured the Selkirk Division, an imaginary extension of the Burlington Northern RR. This multi-train, mainline, operation is set in the Pacific South West corner of Canada during the 1970's and was the only N Gauge system on the tour, the other four being HO.
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| SELKIRK DIVISION |  One of the many control panels . |
Then stop five and our final destination of the evening. John Green the coordinator for the tours, has built his Coquihalla Valley RR based on the Coquihalla subdivision of the Kettle Valley RR. This layout is planned to be operated in two eras, the 1940's and the 1980's.
| COQUIHALLA VALLEY |  Two of the many bridges. The superb landscaping blends, magically, into the scenic backdrop. |
At the CQVR I picked up half of the people I had started with and by returning to the first house we had stopped at, having completed the circuit twice, I picked up the second half of my original charge.
Passing through central Burnaby I pointed out several of the many film studios in Hollywood North before returning my model RR enthusiasts to the Cameron Rec. Center where I was given a real treat, a free pass to the next days showing of Trains `99.
It was a great treat to meet the friendly people and see the wonderful layouts on the tour.
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| 6X6 |  Each entry was restricted to a width and depth of six inches. |
Who know's, maybe next year, instead of chauffeuring visitors from home to home, I may be letting modelers view `Bear's Line', an in coffee-table, N gauge.
Currently still in my mind but I sure picked up a lot of great ideas, not to mention enthusiasm to get started, during the tour.
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