The Kawartha Lakes Railway is my HO scale freelance railway
which incorporates certain elements of Ontario based industries and scenery
into a fictional road. The layout
was designed to incorporate aspects of two of my favorite roads, the Ontario
Northland Railway (ONR) as well as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail). In essence, I have stretched the
operating area of the ONR over into part of an area covered by the CP, as well
as running track south to link with another area which the CP actually
covers. The railway is based on
prototypical businesses found in the Peterborough/Lakefield region and well as
several present in the Ottawa Valley.
The setting is September 1985, as the summer comes
to an end and the ever-changing weather of autumn descends upon the near north
regions of Ontario.
Throughout
the KLR, I have tried to incorporate the history of the area into the areas
that I model. While certain key
features or aspects couldn’t be modeled due to size constraints, I have tried
to include enough key industries for realistic operations, without making the
layout too busy. My goal was to mimic the remoteness of the area, having long
runs between the yard and the various industries served. Certain
industries that are unique to the area have been included, as well as a few
industries which are found in other portions of southern Ontario, but for the
convenience of proto-freelance modeling, have been moved to fit onto the KLR.
The
primary purpose is to have the railway serve several small to medium sized
industries located in the rural locales of Ontario. The KLR's traffic base includes forestry products
(such as paper, pulpboard, dimensional lumber and pulpwood) along with mining
and several other industries. The
rail line serves a number of growing customers including Spruce Falls Pulp and Paper Company, Sherwin Williams Canada, Ontario Natural Products, Indusmin Canada, Ontario Hydro,
Beaver Lumber .
The two largest industries on the layout include
the Spruce Falls Pulp and Paper mill, which was modeled after the Tembec mills in
Temiscaming, Quebec and Kapuskasing, Ontario. The Unimin mine in Nephton, Ontario, which produces syenite
(a mineral in the feldspar family used in glass making and ceramics), and the Muskoka Timber Ltd. operation serve as
the other focal industries. The primary interchange is with the CP at Pembroke and Toronto (off the
modeled layout), with a secondary interchange with the ONR at North Bay. While CP discontinued trains east of
Havelock and CN terminated its running line to Lakefield, the Kawartha
Lakes Railway was able to purchase the trackage and become a profitable
shortline, serving the small industries scattered throughout Ontario.
The KLR was started in 2004, after the dismantling of a predecessor 9x12-ft
oval layout. The layout is built using a series of modules, which generally follow the Freemo format.
