FORMER LAYOUT: Fraser Canyon, HO scale, set in western Canada.
In the mid-1970s, two members (Chris Leigh and Keith Willows) made separate visits to relatives in Western Canada and came home with souvenir HO scale Canadian trains. They planned a diorama with a steel trestle bridge on which to display their models, but even before it was finished, the 'diorama' had grown into a complete layout, inspired by the CN and CP lines through the Fraser Canyon. It was Keith's first exercise in building lightweight plywood baseboards, which he would develop into a fine art, culminating with his own Simply Narrow Gauge circular layout.
This is a very early picture of the layout before any trees had been added. We used the 'bottle brush' method to make our trees, eventually getting the technique down to one tree made every two minutes. Chris recalls that it ended up with around 350 trees and most of them have been re-used several times and are still on the Carling Lake layout. Keith built the bridge from Plastruct strip and we did much of the scenery using the methods and materials from Jack Kine, the model-maker whose work featured regularly in Michael Bentine's 'Its a Square World' TV series.
In the mid-1970s, two members (Chris Leigh and Keith Willows) made separate visits to relatives in Western Canada and came home with souvenir HO scale Canadian trains. They planned a diorama with a steel trestle bridge on which to display their models, but even before it was finished, the 'diorama' had grown into a complete layout, inspired by the CN and CP lines through the Fraser Canyon. It was Keith's first exercise in building lightweight plywood baseboards, which he would develop into a fine art, culminating with his own Simply Narrow Gauge circular layout.
This is a very early picture of the layout before any trees had been added. We used the 'bottle brush' method to make our trees, eventually getting the technique down to one tree made every two minutes. Chris recalls that it ended up with around 350 trees and most of them have been re-used several times and are still on the Carling Lake layout. Keith built the bridge from Plastruct strip and we did much of the scenery using the methods and materials from Jack Kine, the model-maker whose work featured regularly in Michael Bentine's 'Its a Square World' TV series.