Monashee Pacific

Owner: Edmonton Model Railroad Association

The Edmonton Model Railroad Association is a non-profit society. Its members are able to build and display a large model railroad that they could never do in their own homes. Formed in 1946, the club has built layouts in several locations including the CP Rail station in Old Strathcona, the South Edmonton Public Library, and the Edmonton Gardens. The Freight Shed at Fort Edmonton Park, which houses the layout, was completed in 1992 using funds raised by club members. Sixty percent of the construction was done by members. After years of planning, work began on the present layout in October of 1992. The Freight Shed is open for viewing the layout every weekend during the summer, and we hold an open house each fall.

The EMRA is constructing a layout based on an actual railroad that was surveyed and chartered in central British Columbia in 1896 but was never built. The railroad was to link Vernon and Castlegar by way of the Monashee Mountains. The layout represents what the club feels the railroad would have looked like in 1959 had it actually been built. The names along the line are actual town or geographical names along the surveyed route. The railroad traffic is based on businesses that either existed or could have existed along the route such as coal, fruit and lumber, and the members operate the trains realistically. Club members conduct research and take great efforts to give the scenery, towns, and trains the look and feel of the real locations. Hundreds of buildings, thousands of trees, and miles of track take you back to the fall of 1959 in BC’s Southern Interior.

Had it been built the real railroad would have had about 135 miles of mainline track and a ruling grade of 2.2% between Monashee Summit and Castlegar. The model railroad continues into the United States south of Castlegar, and connects with the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National north of Vernon. This allows a variety of our members’ favourite railroad equipment to appear, “passing through” on the Monashee Pacific.