ONRH&TS Convention

I belong to a great group that shares an interest in the Ontario Northland Railway, both present and historical operations, engines, and rolling stock. Once a year a multi day convention is held somewhere along the ONR's domain, to get everyone together for some railfanning, sharing stories and good old railroad fellowship. This year, for the second time in our groups history (2007 was the first OH meeting), the Ohio contingent of members have invited everyone north of the Peace Bridge to come and visit our local rail activities in northeast Ohio. We will be having our convention this year in Vermilion, Ohio. The convention includes a trip to the Age of Steam roundhouse, some local interest tours and layout tours. The dates are Thursday July 23-Sunday July 26^th.

It's roughly two months to the convention and as usual for most conventions or open houses, I have more things on the my list to complete than time actually allows. Fortunately, except for my new yard that is being built as I write this, all of my trackage was complete and in good running shape from last years NMRA National Convention held in Cleveland. However, as I look at the calendar, it's time to crank it up a notch and get busy with some scenery items and other details that I didn't quite get done over the winter. Of course, this all conflicts with a son's graduation from University, cutting the lawn, getting the boat ready for the water, etc. So I'm trying to make an effort to spend at least a couple of hours each night after the day’s chores and activities are done to spend time on the layout. Over the next few weeks, I intend to capture this on these pages so that attendees can get a feel for the layout before they arrive in Ohio.

The primary purpose is to have the railway serve several small to medium sized industries located in the rural locales of Ontario.  While not all had railroad access, I have tried to select industries which have a need for rail ops due to the type of raw materials which may be supplied or the finished goods which are produced. Most industries receive 1-2 railcars daily, although businesses such as the mine receive a train daily.  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 Sherwin Williams Canada, Quaker Oats, United Canadian Malting, Indusmin Canada, Beaver Lumber and Commonwealth Plywood to name a few.

The two largest industries on the layout include the Spruce Falls Pulp and Paper mill complex, 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), serves as another primary industry.  The Muskoka Timber Mills facility rounds out the largest areas of the layout.

Up to the time of the convention, my goal is to post some discussions about each of the industries found on the KLR so that convention attendees can get a feel for the layout, as well as what has changed since I had an open house for the 2007 convention.