My history with model trains include both the Arctic and Arizona. I have never been in Arizona, but my model railroad is inspired by the Peavine – the Santa Fe branch from their transcontinental mainline to Phoenix.
My first train set, however, was bought in colder climate, in Longyearbyen, 78 degrees north.
I lived there 1960-63 as a small boy together with my family. I even visited Ny-Ålesund further north, a small settlement that probably hosted the worlds northernmost railroad-operation hauling coal from the mines to the harbour.
Christmas eve 1963 we were back in continental Norway, but my parents had a real surprise for my brother and me: They had bought a Märklin starter set with some extra track and cars. I have scanned some of my fathers old slides, and it seems that one of those cars might have been an UP-gondala!
My mother says she never knew that she started a life long interest in railroading and trains.
The next autumn we moved to Hol in the Hallingdal valley. Bergensbanen, the mainline between Oslo to Bergen runs through the valley. When not at school I was often found on the “StationRoute” the combined freight and passenger bus between our village and the station. I am not sure of how much help the bus driver actually got from us kids, but he was a kind and funny man.
I built and tore down the tracks a lot of times. Those layouts got more advanced, but I never got into building scenery. I must admit I still have no experience building scenery.
I came to Oslo in the mid 70s and soon discovered a good hobby shop. They introduced me for the German magazine MiBa and even to an US locomotive, which I later think must have been a SP GP38 from Atlas (Roco). I never bought that one, but that could have changed my model railroading history (smile).
During these years I did move from the Märklin 3-rail AC to 2-rail DC and now with Norwegian prototype.
I bought my first issue of the ModelRailroader some years later. During the years following I was more and more influenced by modelling US-style. In 1996 I eventually swapped out my Norwegian and European equipment with US-models. I never looked back.
I learned about the Peavine line in an issue of the Warbonnet. It features an important branch line running through different kind of scenery, from pine covered hills to the desert and the city of Phoenix. Until 1961 it also had very steep grades with helper operation. Just what a modeller wants. My model railroad is inspired by the real Peavine in the early 60s. I do not try to model it closely.
When I switched to modelling US modelling, my three sons bought there own rolling stock. Only the oldest one, Eivind is still a model railroader.
A couple of years ago, when browsing through my first issue of ModelRailroader, the February 1982 issue, I made a surprising discovery. In that very issue there was a mention of the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix - the Peavine line – in the first instalment of John Olsons series on the Jerome & Southwestern.
That layout was set in the Arizona desert. But Arizona has more to offer, even heavy snowfalls.
Maybe I should bring my old cross-county skies when visiting the CAMRRC in Prescott? Thanks to Bruce Petrarca - the founder of Lichtfield Station and the DCC-columnist in MRH - I was introduced to this club.
Yes, it is a small world, and with our model railroads we can build a world from an other continent, maybe an American is building a Norwegian prototype? I know there are Germans and Dutch who do.
Knut
PS
This was copied from my blog over at the MRH-forum.
I got some comments on the difference between Spitsbergen and Arizona.
If you want to read those, please follow this link.
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