All aboard for this show

By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Nov. 5, 2003

A bright red forest fire blazing in the hills above a coastal logging camp would usually send most people running for cover, but not 79-year-old Carl Sparks.

The retired handyman has been working on this particular forest fire for about 35 years, ever since he painstakingly built the 1/ 64th size animated blaze as part of an elaborate HO scale model railway scene in the basement of his west Burnaby home.

"This will never be finished," Sparks told the Burnaby NOW last week. "I keep finding more and more details that I want to keep adding."

Detail is the name of the game in the model railroad business, and Sparks is an admitted expert. And this weekend, he will be among three experienced modellers who will be opening their homes to visitors as part of British Columbia's largest model railway show and meet being held at the Cameron rec centre.

Much like in the full-sized world, the greatest advance in the model railway industry over the past several years has been the advent of digital technology, and Sparks has jumped on board that trend with complete enthusiasm.

"The last piece I added was the digital command control station that can control up to 99 locomotives on the same piece of track and they don't interfere with each other," he says proudly. "There's two decoders in each locomotive - one for the motor and another for the sound system."

Among the many sounds he can create are the chuff, chuff, chuff of a steam engine, bells, whistles and air pumps, and the noise of Fireman Fred shovelling coal into the boiler. He even hears a noisy 'clang' whenever two cars are coupled together.

He chose a logging camp as the theme for the 12- by 13-foot diorama because his father used to be a cook at the old logging camps on the B.C. coast.

The display is as elaborate as it was painstaking to construct. The camp includes an operating incline that can actually lower the train cars down the steep hills by cable.

The forest fire itself is animated, so it looks like it's really burning, and the mining equipment includes buckets that move back and forth. Among the other painstakingly created features are the handmade railroad tracks and ties and immaculate wood and canvas tents made of toothpicks, balsa wood and single ply kleenex.

"It's fun figuring out how to do these things and then carrying it out," Sparks said enthusiastically.

The public is invited to learn exactly what these hobbyists do at the Trains 2003 model railway show and meet on Sunday.

Dick Sutcliffe, an organizer of the show, said he's not surprised by the popularity of the hobby in this part of the world because Western Canada was quite literally built on the backs of the railways.

"Until very recently, most families of European descent arrived here by train. Their grandparents would talk about the train trips, and railways were a significant part of Western Canada's development," he said. "So, I think it's a genetic thing."

When asked if some hobbyists go overboard on their models, Sutcliffe laughed. "Oh yes, and I'm one of them," he said. "I was probably three years old when I first saw the Christmas train running around the family tree, and I didn't stand much of a chance."

Sutcliffe says modelling is a wonderful hobby because it has so many different aspects. While some people devote their energies to simple collecting, others focus their skills on woodwork, metal work, electronics, map making, photography and even historical research.

At this year's public show, there will be up to nine different model railway layouts on display, demonstrations from some of B.C.'s best modellers, plus vendor booths and door prizes.

The Trains 2003 model railway show and meet runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 9 at Cameron rec centre, 9523 Cameron St.

For inquiries about the full weekend convention, visit the group's website at www.bctrains.org.