On my recent trip to southern Ontario, a highlight was getting to take part in an operating session on Liberty Village – a wonderful, unique HO scale layout being built by my friend Stephen Gardiner. While Stephen and I exchange notes almost daily so I’m kept up to date on his layout progress, it was my first in-person visit to the layout in more than four years and I was astonished at what he has accomplished.
The layout is a faithful rendering of an industrial area in the western part of downtown Toronto in the 1950s, served by both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. What makes it unique is Stephen has put his professional skills to good use to research and model the actual buildings.
Along the way, he has forced himself to learn a wide variety of new skills such as resin casting. I’m sure he’ll also admit he’s learned some important life skills such as patience and how to work through problems when something hasn’t turned out right. He’s not afraid to go back and rebuild something to make it better and the layout definitely benefits.
I’ve seen very few model railways as “real” as this one and it’s been great to watch Liberty Village come to life from 3,000 km away. But it was even better to experience the progress first-hand.
For our operating session, Stephen and I were joined by our friends Chris Abbott and Mark Zagrodney. Stephen had prepared four jobs for us – two for each railway. We ran two-person crews, and each job used a switch list to shuffle 4-6 freight cars in and out of the area’s industries.
The work is challenging without devolving into a switching puzzle game. We used the staging areas (a CN yard to the west and CP yard to the east) for all run-around moves, so we had to sort out our cars before heading into the district. Some industries loaded or unloaded directly off the main track, so those cars had to be spotted last.
We also did our best to keep safety top of mind, for example by not burying the locomotive in the middle of the train and not blocking cross-streets while switching – even though we were technically working the district in the middle of the night when traffic would be light and primarily consist of commercial vehicles.
I did not take too many photos – I was too busy having fun with friends – but Stephen did grab plenty of pictures and shared them in his report on the operating session. Enjoy if you visit!
While I enjoyed the layout, this hobby is really about people and I have spent many, many happy hours with Mark and Chris – whether working on layouts, taking part in operating sessions, or just enjoying each other’s ideas over food and drink. Almost 20 years ago, the three of us would get together monthly to work on my O scale, Maine two-foot layout. I really miss those times and it was wonderful to run trains with them again. (Thanks guys!)
I also miss how readily these two guys will step up to offer help. During our session, the two transfer tables that act as staging at each end of Liberty Village gave us some alignment problems. Even as we worked through our switch lists, we were brainstorming ideas to address the issues and I know Chris and Mark will help Stephen resolve them. I only wish I was closer so I could also lend a hand. Instead, I’ll have to settle for being a long-distance enabler.
My relationship with Liberty Village goes back to its beginnings. In 2018, I was fortunate to have a hand in moving this layout from concept to reality. Stephen doesn’t have room for a workshop so in August that year, I packed my vehicle full of power tools and we set up on his front patio to build the first benchwork for his layout. Then I was part of a wiring party in January of 2020 – which would be the last time I saw the layout in person.
So much has changed since then – in part because the Covid-19 pandemic gave every railway modeller a lot more time to make progress on their layout. I’m so glad I had a chance to see it in person: Thank you, Stephen, for arranging the session – especially after our long day at the Great British Train Show. I look forward to future ops sessions in the village.
The Model Railway Show 