Fun is on track with the Lindsay & District Model Engineers

Just in Time local history series

Steam locomotives small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand weave their way through luscious forests and over bridges that have taken many months to build from scratch. They quietly couple onto tiny freight wagons waiting adjacent to weather-beaten buildings that resemble structures once found up and down the length of old Victoria County, before setting off on a pint-sized journey under the watchful eye of hobbyists who devote hours to recreating the past in miniature.

Across the room, slightly bigger locomotives dash around large loops of tin-plated track, smoke puffing and whistles wailing. The landscaping here is minimal, and electricity is carried through a conspicuously unrealistic third rail – but no one seems to notice. They are too busy enjoying the moment, asking questions of the exhibitors, and perhaps recalling their own youth, when electric trains were a familiar sight in store windows and a much-anticipated gift at Christmastime.

For almost half a century, the Victoria Park Armoury in Lindsay has played host to scenes like these at the annual model railway show organized by the Lindsay & District Model Railroaders.

The L&DMR – known originally as the Lindsay & District Model Engineers – traces its origins back to at least 1965 (or 1967, according to one source). Back then, train service to Lindsay and surrounding area was by and large in decline. Steam engines had been phased out by 1960, scheduled passenger service had wrapped up in 1962, and local industrial concerns were moving more goods by truck rather than train. A drive to preserve the rapidly-fading past in the form of scale models motivated many enthusiasts to form clubs of like-minded individuals.

By the end of the decade, the town’s burgeoning model railway club had 12 members. “The hobby attracts all manner of citizens,” noted a story about the group in the Jan. 24, 1969 issue of the Lindsay Daily Post, “from full-time railroad workers to lawyers, from clerks to newspapermen – all linked together by a love of railroading.” Charter members included W. Budd Bates, the clerk-administrator of Lindsay; Ron Barjarow, Rich Brian, Norm Reeds, Ted Gravelin, Ken Baines, and Larry Murphy.

Most members modelled in HO scale (approximately 87 times smaller than the prototype), and they met at each other’s homes. “We put a gondola car on the layout, people would put dimes in the gondola, and that would pay for the doughnuts for the evening,” Murphy recalls.

Eventually, the club set up shop on the upper floor of Northern Casket, then located at 27 King Street – and appropriately situated adjacent to the junction of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway trackage. A 20’ x 40’ modular layout kept the growing organization occupied for seven or eight years before they packed up and moved a block and a half away. By 1982, the L&DME was based out of the Queen Street United Church Annex and had aspirations of developing a 16’ x 36’ permanent layout in this space. “We got (the) layout started, but never really completed it,” Murphy admits.

Indeed, much of the club’s time was taken up with toting its 14’ x 56’ modular display to model railway shows across the province. “Tangney’s store would give us a truck to take the layout to shows in Hamilton, Midland, and St. Catherines,” Murphy says, pointing out that this was a win-win for both the L&DME and Tangney’s, with the latter advertising itself wherever the truck went.

Raising awareness about the hobby has always been a pressing concern for model railroaders, and the L&DME pulled out all the stops for its flagship Lindsay train show. Murphy remembers that some 500-600 people came to the first show; reportage in the Post on April 15, 1975, however, suggested that the crowd numbered more than 1,000. Five operating layouts were on display, as were models built to operate on live steam. Fifteen exhibitors set up tables in the armoury, and enthusiasts flocked to Lindsay from as far away as Kingston, Pembroke, and Ottawa. (The show has taken place at the armoury ever since, save for one year when renovations required it to temporarily relocate to the LCVI cafeteria.)

The new millennium saw close to 2,500 train show attendees coming through the armoury’s doors and the L&DME was a going concern. It numbered close to 40 members, and a permanent layout measuring over 50’ long dominated the club’s meeting room, by then located on York Street.

Over time, membership has declined, the club has been forced to relocate to rented space outside of Lindsay proper, and from 2020-2022, the train show was sidelined by the pandemic. Moreover, a combination of competing interests, smaller living spaces, and increasingly expensive equipment have made it challenging to attract young people into the hobby.

Yet there is still something mesmerizing about it all. “When I was five years old, my Mum and Dad gave me a Lionel train set, and then when I was eight years old, they bought me another one,” recalls longtime L&DMR member Wayne Lamb. By the time he was in high school, Lamb was actively involved with the much smaller “N” scale trains. It was the start of a pastime that has brought him – like Murphy and many others besides – much joy and camaraderie over the years.