By Paul Norton

Author  Bio As a teenager, I used to ride with my dad in the caboose to go trout fishing with him in Algonquin Park. The interior of the van smelled of coal oil and kerosene.

I was born exactly one year after the Victory in Europe, following my dad's return from the Second World War. It has been said that I was born in with lantern oil in my veins, as both my father and his father spent their working lives on the Canadian National Railways (CNR).

My home town, Canada's National Capital City, Ottawa; was a division point on the CNR trans-continental line. The portion of the line that my dad worked ran from Montreal through Ottawa to Brent, a former division point on Cedar Lake in Algonquin Park. In the late 1990s, the tracks though the park were removed and CNR main line traffic was routed from Montreal through Toronto, to North Bay.

As a teenager, I used to ride with my dad in the caboose to go trout fishing with him in Algonquin Park. The interior of the van smelled of coal oil and kerosene. You got whipped around so bad on the end of a long freight train it was hard to walk about, and when the engineer didn't take the slack out of the train properly the kettle toppled off the pot bellied stove splashing hot water all over the floor. There was a shallow, steel basin for washing the soot off your hands. But if you tried, the van would lurch sideways and splash half the cold water in your lap; much to the amusement of the rest of the crew.

But the trips I took in my dad's wooden van I will treasure forever. If I close my eyes I can still smell the lamps and hear the rhythmic sound of the wheels over the jointed rails. Almost like a metallic heartbeat .... kathump, kathump.....kathump, kathump.

It's was amazing how good a steak and sliced potatoes tasted, fried in an iron skillet on top of that pot bellied stove. Later I would sit in the cupola and be treated to the spectacular scenery of northern Algonquin Park. At the end of the run, there was a comfortable railway bunk overlooking Cedar Lake and a chance to go trout fishing. Ah ... the good 'ol days!

Like most north american youths, my first model train was a plastic Lionel steam set. At that time they sold for $39.99, well out the reach of a youngster with a dollar a week allowance. After working at a couple of professional football games selling popcorn, however, ten dollars was saved. That ten dollars bought two green stamp books from my mum, which were taken to the local grocery store for that coveted Lionel train set. By the end of the football season I had both a steam and diesel set running on a 8 by 8 foot table in the basement. As I grew older, however, the trains were put aside for sports, motorcycling, girls, marriage, home and a career.

Thirty years flipped by like the pages of a good book, and I began dreaming of the many things to do when I retired. Then one day in the fall of 1990, the sudden death of a friend at work fast forwarded those plans. Model railroading was selected from my retirement wish list and every hobby shop in the area was explored. In one shop I saw my first large scale train set. I was impressed and excited by the size and heft of these models. The shop owner then told me about a group that ran these trains outdoors and gave me information on the local garden railway group.

The following weekend I met the members of the Ottawa Valley GRS (OVGRS). They let me run a large scale locomotive on the Ironwood, Peter's Pond and Western Garden Railway and the hook was well set. Although large scale railroading was still in its infancy here, OVGRS had already adopted battery power and radio control (R/C) as its running standard. As a result, members like myself have continuously experimented with battery power and radio control for more than a decade.

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