Man became fascinated with trains while growing up in Brantford
BELLEVILLE Ever wanted to operate a freight train between Belleville and Ottawa?
Belleville hobby-train enthusiast Barry Birkett has just the ticket.
For the last 10 years, Birkett has been constructing and expanding his Belleville-Eastern Ontario Garden Railway in the backyard of his city home simulating in miniature scale the Belleville to Ottawa link.
And given the scope and 500 feet of mini-railway track he has built, Birkett, 78, is welcoming other rail fans interested in the hobby to come aboard and help him run his network.
Over his lifetime of collecting, retired electrical engineer Birkett now owns 10 engines and about 115 railway cars.
“There are many model garden trains, but very few operating railroads, where visitors don’t just watch, and take pictures, but actually run a train. Operating garden railroads are extremely rare. Ours operates a scheduled freight service between Belleville and Ottawa,” Birkett said.
“I dearly would like to have more operators – the railway can keep up to eight train crews busy simultaneously. Regular operating sessions are on Tuesday mornings, and Sunday afternoons, but other times can be arranged on request. ”
Birkett said he has once again organized what he calls his annual “Invasion of Friends” from Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto and the United States to join him Aug. 18 for the day operating his Garden Railway.
At past such events held at his home, Birkett said “people from both coasts of Canada and in between, the USA, and even Ireland come to run trains, since there are so few opportunities to do so in North America.”
“The only requisite for attending that event is that a person must have run a garden at least once, somewhere,” he said. “The main goal is to have fun, and there is never any charge.”
Birkett said he first caught the bug for his miniature-train hobby as a young child growing up in Brantford when he became fascinated at the sight of full-sized trains rolling through the city.
“The Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo Railway was my inspiration. When I was 4 years old, I could hear the diesel crossing the end of my street in Brantford on the way to Massey Ferguson and Koering Watrous, and mommy would take me down to see it,” he said.
To learn more about Birkett’s Garden Railway, he can be reached at [email protected].
To view his railway, log on to: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AEDg57lAc%5FAsXsk&cid=4275D0234272929B&id=4275D0234272929B%2145917&parId=4275D0234272929B%2145916&o=OneUp