History
The Prairie Rail Workshop model railroad club was formed around late
1981 - early 1982 in Saskatoon. Original members included some
former members of the defunct Saskatoon Model Railroad Club, as well as
some new members who did not belong to the old club. Prairie Rail
Workshop's original slogan was 'An Informal Group with a Mutual
Interest in Railroading'. During the early 1980s meetings were
held in members' homes, a sort of 'round robin' format where each
member would take his turn hosting a meeting. If a host member
did not have an operating layout, there would be a slide presentation
or discussions relating to prototype or model railroading.
Membership dues were collected annually, and membership cards would
entitle club members to a ten per cent discount at one of the local
hobby shops.
About a year into the club's existence, there was talk of building a
layout. Some club members got bored with just talking about trains at
meetings where there were no layouts, so the club decided to build a
modular layout in HO scale. The proposed layout would have a
mixture of prairie and mountainous scenery, and the modular sections
would be roughly four feet in length with wooden frames and detachable
wooden legs. The layout was completed in 1984 , and it consisted
of four corner modules and eight straight modules to form a double
track main line. There was no yard, but there were a few side
tracks to store equipment while the layout was on display.
There was also no fancy wiring, so operation was limited to running one
train on each loop.
After the first layout was ready for display, it 'went on the
road'. The layout was taken to craft fairs, hobby shows, the
Saskatoon Prairieland Exhibition, and to various shopping malls in the
city. The layout was even taken to model railroad conventions in
other cities, and in 1985 the Prairie Rail Workshop would host a model
railroad convention in Saskatoon. As the layout was
being displayed to the model railroad community and members of the
general public, the club's mission statement was refined to 'promote
the hobby'.
In 1986 some club members suggested abandoning the 'round robin' format
and adopt a fixed meeting place. The City of Saskatoon acquired
and renovated an abandoned elementary school and turned it into a
community centre. For the next seventeen years the club would
rent a room and hold its meetings and layout work sessions in the
Albert Community
Centre. At about the same time there was talk of building a
new layout with more operating potential, and with a fixed meeting
place and room to work, plans went ahead. The club also decided
to rent one of the centre's larger rooms for one Saturday in February
and put on a public show. Other clubs and model railroaders
were invited to bring layouts or set up displays, and there would also
be used model railroad equipment up for silent auction.
This extravaganza proved to be successful, and to this day the annual
train show is a major event for Prairie Rail. Other activities
throughout the 1980s included field trips, railfan trips, and group
excursions to other
cities.
The second layout came to fruition by the end of the 1980s.
More mountainous scenery was constructed on eight foot sections while
the remaining modules were four feet in length. The club
also chose to go with folding table legs to support the modules, making
the trains more visible to children. A city scene, passing
sidings, and industrial spurs made for more interesting operation, but
like the previous layout only two trains could run at any given
time. The building of a new layout coincided with
plans to host another convention, and in 1990, the 100th anniversary of
the first railway into the Saskatoon area, Prairie Rail hosted another
show. Both the 1985 and 1990 conventions included the Sixth
Divison of the Pacific Northwestern Region, which in turn is part of
the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA). The NMRA
sets standards in the hobby and its regions and divisions sponsor
annual conventions held throughout Canada and the United States.
In 1995 Prairie Rail hosted a regional model railroad convention, and
model railroaders from all over western Canada and the northwestern US
were invited to attend. It was Saskatoon's biggest model railroad
convention ever, and after that show Prairie Rail was again considering
some changes. First, the second layout was just as if not more
awkward to transport than the first layout, and the club wanted
something that was quicker to set up and take down. Second,
the club was in search of a sense of direction or focus. So by
1997 construction began on a new layout and with it a new mission
statement: 'To build, operate, and maintain a portable model
railroad layout.' Finally, the club would eventually decide
on a change of venue for the annual train show. It had
become an event to look forward to, both for members and non-members
alike, and each year there was more preparation involved for the
event.
The third layout would become Prairie Rail's present HO layout, and
along with two mainline tracks there would be passing sidings,
industrial spurs, an engine terminal, and two yards. With
all that trackage and much greater operating potential, it would prove
to be a wiring nightmare if it were to be run on DC power packs.
So as the layout neared completion, the club decided to equip it with
digital command control (DCC), which in turn would make operating
sessions more feasible. The first two years of DCC
operation were chaotic, and there were some members who were somewhat
reluctant to participate. But once the basics of the system were
figured out there were trains running all over the place. As with
the second layout, the third layout would have folding legs, but unlike
the previous layout it would have interlocking joints for ease of
assembly.
Another divisional convention was held in 2001, and it was Prairie
Rail's fourth convention as host. In the years following
the annual train show made a change in venue, first to the Wheatland
Building on the city's exhibition grounds and after that the Western
Development Museum. In 2003 the club relocated to some vacant
store space in a shopping mall and left the layout set up for
operation, public display, and work sessions. By this time
the club had a sizeable contingent of N scale modelers amongst
the membership, so the decision was made to build a modular layout that
would be larger (in terms of scale miles), lighter, easier to assemble,
and have even more trackage than the HO layout. And unlike the HO
layout, the N scale layout was built with DCC operation in mind from
the beginning. Another novel concept would involve club ownership
of enough modules to make a simple 'dog bone' loop to loop with a
double track main line and yards in between, while remaining modules
would be owned by individual members. This 'variable size'
concept allows the club to set up the layout in smaller venues.
So for twenty-five years Prairie Rail Workshop has grown from a group
of people with a 'mutual interest' in railroading to a model railroad
club with two layouts and operation in two different scales. And
our
agenda is the same as it was since we built our first layout - to
promote the hobby and just have fun running trains.
