on
more
than
one occasion. They aren't able to display everything they
have, but do give tours of
the rest of the collection
.
Every chance we get, we
take the
train
to
go out
of town
(Kingston
and back
). We even take them in-town
(Montreal)
if
we can or deliver friends
and relatives
for their voyages.
I took Nico with
his cousins
to the Railway Museum of Eastern
Ontario in Smiths Falls for the day.
When Nico was 3, I took him to
Railfair
which he enjoyed immensely.
We went again in
2008
with Annabelle. She seems to be enjoying it too. There is a
tie-in with Meccano, in which Nico has also shown an ability and
interest.
In 2007, Michael Richardson
and I took
our boys to a model railway show at an auto dealership
in
Gatineau.
My dad has been very generous in getting them
started
with Thomas the Tank Engine.
Our local Human Powered Vehicle
Operators of Ottawa even modelled a steam passenger
train for a parade
.
I am continuing the modelling tradition with my son Nicolas now that he is 8 1/2 at
Christmas in
2011
. We ended up with an Athearn set with a CN diesel
freight theme. I was very impressed by the quality of the set, sporting
all-metal wheels on all the rolling stock, authentic metal couplers and
a flywheel engine that is able to creep along so slowly that you can
barely tell it is moving. It comes with E-Z track that will
interoperate with my existing track and rolling stock. It is time to
set up a train table in the basement so we aren't walking on it in the
living room. Due to recent solar panel installation
activity, it is
also making attic renovations attractive, which would make a great train
room.
Just after Christmas 2011 I took the kids to see Rocky Mountain Express at the Museum of Civilisation on the IMAX
screen. Here is a good review.
I was totally blown away. Canadian Pacific have restored the 1930s
4-6-4 steam locomotive 2816
"Empress" (wikipedia) between 1998 and 2002. The film
is a very good bit of canadian history which includes some stunning
cinematography. I understand that locomotive is making a tour in the
summer of 2012. We'll try to get a ride.
Canada's
biggest model railway, a masterpiece built over decades, will be
dismantled
Ottawa Railway history:
