The QUEBEC MODEL RAILROAD SOCIETY (QMRS)
began
its 1 1/2 inches live steam operation
in 1995.
We have 1100’ of main line
track in a dog bone style; our curves have a radius of 32’. There are
two 55' staging or parking track and also a 35' stub ballast loading track.
The construction of our 40’ truss bridge (two 20’ arms from a crane) on the
layout is complete and a final coat of black paint has been applied.
We also have a 10’ long elevating
turntable to help facilitate loading and unloading of locomotives and other
rolling stock from trucks or trailers. Off the turntable, we have two 10’ stalls 48’’
high to park locomotives for maintenance or repairs.
Between May
14 and 22nd 2007, Reynald Proulx and other members
of our club built an elevating transfer table. We eliminated a three-way
switch to a single track access where we now can use the six
(6) storage tracks (two are elevated tracks) inside our 20' container for a total of 120'
of storage. In a second container we have another 45' of storage track.
Our club owns a diesel
locomotive LRC VIA Rail style number 6903,
a 5’ riding (gondola) car and another 6’ gondola. Three (3) other members
between them also own 5 different style locomotives and cars, two members own
each a different car
(one gondola and one covered hopper), which also operate
on the layout.
Pictures of our 1 1/2 scale equipement; click below on the link:
Rolling stock of our members
and QMRS equipement
This year our project for our 1.5 layout is
adding approximately 725 feet of new track which should give us a total
of 1800 feet of mainline track. We will simply continue Eastward on the
present layout, with a projected 45 degree diamond with automated signals for
insured security. We've begun cutting ties, about 2000 are needed and ground
work should begin in may(if the snow ever melts !!).
In February we received from one of our
sponsors, Alexandre Côté Ltd, 160 boards, 2x8x10' of which we cut up 80 of
the boards producing, after many hours of work, some 2000 ties which should
be completed before the end of march. This should easily cover all
needed ties for our expansion project,,, if ever summer rolls around snow
!!!
Well, the month of May has arrived and much
of the snow is almost gone but unfortunately the ground is still quite wet.
We can't begin our expansion project for a few more weeks, time to let it dry
off. We have over 2600 ties and are being treated here at the club with wood
preservative. Our bridge sustained light damage with all this past
winter snow, both wooden sides were ripped off and are to be redone but this
time with steel. The bridge itself bent about an inch but we put in a new
support and brought it back to level. We've received 3600 clips, which are
used to tie down the track to the ties and more are to come. On May first we
received our new track, enough for 800 additional feet to the layout. This
place is just like a bee-hive, bzzz-bzzz-bzzz, no, actually I meant,
busy-busy-busy !!!
-
June news
On saturday may 10 & 24,
2008 a friend and ex .member of our club, Martin Simoneau came over with a
small shovel to complete the digging and levelling of our new expansion trace
of approximately 600'. The new return loop will also have a 32' radius and
with that we had to build a retaining wall on the South side of the loop. On
saturday may 17, 2008 using 19 railroad ties our team constructed the
retaining wall which is 32' wide and 30" high. On tuesday june 3, 2008 we
received from one of our sponsors, a 26 ton load of 0-3/4 gravel. Member
Reynald Proulx is making 2 switches which will give the option to either going
through the new extended trace or use the present return loop.
As of june 21,
work has progressed quite well, we've installed both switches and also the 27
degree crossover. About 520 feet of track has been laid down, leaving a
short 80 feet of track to finish off our project. Friday morning june 20th my
construction friend came over with a smaller version of a payloader and plowed
out a big mud hole and hopefully left to dry out. This is where the last 80
feet will be laid down this coming week if ever the rain can give us a break.
June 23, 2008
will
be a date to remember for the QMRS lads of the 1.5 inch live steam,
accompanied with Reynald Proulx we finally tied up the loop, completing the
additional 600 feet of track. At 14h30 in the rain, Reynald, the QMRS Track
Superintendent had a quick track opening ceremony, no golden spike, but
instead a final silver (stainless) bolt was installed. We now have 1700 feet
of track on our layout and with my little Witcomb engine I drove around a
couple of times and it is with great satisfaction, I can say, a Job Well Done.
All texts written
by:
Ronald Pelletier, QMRS Track Superintendent
Here is a diagram of the expansion of our exterior
layout:
First photo: member Reynald Proulx with
his steam loco.
Live Steam clubs in
Canada
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
Nova Scotia
Ontario
Quebec
Email: