A "What Might Have Been" in On30

A desire to get back into scratchbuilding, and decreasing eyesight, attracted me to On30 over the last two years.  I'd previously built an N scale empire, which disappeared during a move 15 years ago, to be replaced by a double-deck HO layout based on the Esquimalt & Nanaimo as well as logging operations on Vancouver Island.  A desire to get back to my childhood trains saw the E&N transformed (and upgraded to DCC) into the Black Forest branch of the German Deutsche Bundesbahn, which takes 4 or more operators to run.  German kits are magnificent but the latitude for scratchbuilding is very limited if you want to get a good portrayal of Germany in the late 60s.  As well, operating a layout meant for several operators when you just want to play with trains by yourself isn't very satisfying

Enter On30.  The local hobby shop had a lovely Bachmann On30 Consolidation on display with no takers for the longest time.  It intrigued me, and I began to learn more about O scale narrow gauge modelling.  That Connie is now engine #2, the first On30 engine of what quickly became an obsession.

In what little space was left around the walls of the basement train room, I conceived and built an O scale, 30 inch gauge short-line.  Nostalgia for my old E&N and the logging operations had me set this fictional line on the east coast of Vancouver Island, somewhat further to the north and a few decades back in time from the HO logging layout.  And yes, logging is a feature, but not, at this time, visibly modeled through anything other than a log dump, and a cut of skeleton log cars.  Thus the Salmon Run & Robson Landing was born.

The town of Salmon Run is the in-land terminus of the SR&RL, and hub of the Salmon Run Lumber Company which exploits tracts of lumber in the surrounding mountains.  The clear waters of the Salmon River enticed an enterprising Beer Baron to build the Shipyard Brewery, a major customer of the SR&RL - at least until Highway 19 made its way up the island past Campbell River and connected Salmon Run to the outside world on land in the years after WW2.

Robson Landing, as its name indicates, is the coastal terminus and site of Salmon Run Lumber's tidewater sawmill.  From the town's lone pier, people and supplies for the area inland, are transported by the SR&RL up along the Salmon River, past a number of settlements and into Salmon Run.

The SR&RL, a co-venture between SRL Co. and local interests, operates mostly steam engines, with a couple of gas engine rail trucks/busses, and one single narrow gauge boxcab diesel which somehow found its way to Robson Landing on a coastal ferry.  By the end of WW2, the SR&RL was no longer economically viable, and its trackage was converted to gravel roads, with trucks hauling lumber to tidewater, the fate of many logging short lines in British Columbia.

In the next few posts, I will introduce the motive power.  Some Bachmann On30 engines, the rest kit-bashed or scratchbuilt using HO mechanisms recovered from the old HO logging layout.  All engines are equipped with DCC, and some even have sound.  I have not yet started on the scenery, but several buildings, kit and scratch have gone up, as have two turntables.

Stay tuned.