Model Railroads in Victoria

[Bill Stone]

Just returned home from a great trip to Victoria, BC, Canada. The weather was even perfect while we were there.....

Any model railroader visiting Victoria aught to make it a point to visit Miniature World. I know, it sounds a little like that obnoxious ride at Disneyland, but it's not. This is a museum of sorts composed entirely of excellent miniature dioramas --- covering many aspects of Canadian, US, and some European history. The best part (for us) is the section called "The Great Canadian Railway" which is composed of a number of large historic scenes, 1885 - 1915, done in HO, and with trains running through them. (Press the button to make the treain go.) Really well done, and this part alone is worth the price of admission --- even worth the price of the ferry trip to Victoria.

And still at Miniature World, you logging railroad nuts would love spending some time drooling over a fantastic working model of all the insides of a (bandsaw) lumber mill. It's fairly large scale --- perhaps 1" to the foot --- and really shows how it was (is) done.

Miniature World is right down town, on Humboldt Street, on the north side of the Empress Hotel. You can justify the trip to Victoria by treating your better half to high tea at the Empress (reservations required). You'll enjoy it as much as she will. And Victoria itself is a treat: A small but cosmopolitan and delightful city.

Bill S

 

[shamus]

Originally posted by Bill Stone

And still at Miniature World, you logging railroad nuts would love spending some time drooling over a fantastic working model of all the insides of a (bandsaw) lumber mill. It's fairly large scale --- perhaps 1" to the foot --- and really shows how it was (is) done.

Bill S

Hi Bill, and welcome back friend, glad you enjoyed your holiday.
That sounds like a great place for me to visit, I would like to see the workings of the insides of a (bandsaw) lumber mill. Got any photo's of it??

Shamus

 

[Bill Stone]

Naw, Shamus.

My wife dragged me to the place. I sort of expected it to be a doll museum or something, and wasn't even carrying the camera.

If I'd have been thinking, I'd have gone back with the camera. Sorry.

I know we have some British Columbians here on The Gauge, but not sure any of them are on Vancouver Island. If there are, perhaps one of them would volunteer to go shoot the place for you.

Bill S

 

[rockislandmike]

Thanks for the tip. My wife's dad lives in Victoria, so next time we go out to visit I'll be sure to check it out (and post some pics if somebody hasn't by then)....

 

[Vic]

Gosh Micheal.....GO SOON!!! I want to see pictures of that too as I rarely get to travel. but that's the kind of thing I look for when I do

 

[farmer ron]

Bill, did you go up the island a ways to a place called Duncan, and ride the shay. They have a logging museum with all the real things one to one scale, you can ride the shay and they have a few other steamers running also. Was a couple of years ago I was in railroaders heaven. Did you see the Vancouver Island club modular layout?? It is on logging theme in BC and very well done, done to the standard of Shamus's work. Ron..

 

[K.V.Div]

The union and management just settled a major dispute whish resulted in the closing of British Columbia Forestry Discovery center (formerly the Duncan Foresty Museum) for a period of about 2 months and according to Bill Turner (a good freind and employee) things are getting back to normal.
As for the excellent disply at Miniature World, Hank Wansink did a fantasic job of the railway scenes as well as a few others and I can try to send a few pictures of the dioramas if I can figure out how to send them.
I don't have a website and won't be able to set one up until I move into my new house (49ft x 36 ft basement (Mine! ) with a house added on as an afterthought , but don't tell the "War Department" , or I will be building my next layout in a doghouse )
If anyone can help, I will get some shots of Miniature World and pass them along to them. I can send via email to individual addresses if that can help.
Happy Modeling and Cheers!

Terry

 

[Bill Stone]

No, Ron. Didn't see much outside of Victoria.

We arrived (by ferry from Port Angeles) on Thursday the 30th, and saw Miniature World and had our high tea that day. On Friday we lunched with a couple of guys from the Royal BC Museum, spent the afternoon at the archives, and had dinner with a writer who is doing a book on the history of big game hunting in BC (including a chapter on my grandfather who discovered, among others, the Stone Sheep) and then on Saturday we had to drive up to Sidney to catch the 11:45 ferry to Anacortes.

With our druthers, we'd have stayed a week or longer, but we just didn't have the time. We really liked Victoria, had a great hotel only two doors from the museum (the Helms Inn which I highly recommend) and learned to envy you Canadians your TV networks. I've been to various parts of Canada in the past on business trips, but never had the time before to really look around. I was in Victoria in 1977, but either I wasn't looking, or the city has become far more inviting since then.

By the way. Nothing to do with model railroads, but I checked the mileage on my wife's little '96 Pontiac Grand Am on this trip (My Suburban is getting too elderly to trust on such a trip) and was surprised and pleased that the thing averaged 29.85 miles per gallon over a total of 3,068 hard-driven miles. Not at all bad for a V6 engine with over 80,000 miles on the odometer.

Bill S