RHJ Rail

RHJ Rail is a large HO home layout influenced by Western Canadian railroad operations. One of its goals is to collect, preserve and restore railroad equipment of historical significance.

June 2022: Once again railfans gather to get their first glimpse of newly restored 2922, a CPR locomotive used on fast passenger trains in the last days of steam. RHJ Rail recently acquired this classic locomotive as an addition to its historical collection. Fast, but not particularly powerful, the 4-4-4 is a Jubilee
class F-1a steam locomotive.

January 2022: CP Heritage Unit 7013 (SD70ACu) makes its first appearance on RHJ Rail to the great interest of railfans gathered at Bow City East to get their first glimpse of this totally rebuilt locomotive.

2021: A new condo development, Eagle Vista at Barhill, was completed in the rural village of Barhill, increasing property values and interest in this picturesque locale which overlooks the famous winter ski village of MARS Valley. more ...

New in 2020 was the British Columbia Railway Royal Hudson 2860 which pulls a consist or British Columbia Railway passenger cars.

See PHOTOS > Layout Over The Years for more details on the development of the layout.

Layout Highlights

Location Names

It was found very early on that, in order to schedule trains, the various locations on the layout had to have a name. Considerable effort was put into this but it was found very worthwhile for everything from timetable development to city, town and village names, track names, train scheduling, and many other purposes. The layout has about 27 named locations. Each location is identified with its name lettered on the layout fascia

Historical Park (Arrow Park)

Still in operation is a set of replica cars, based on the real ones as they appeared at Heritage Park in Calgary 20 or more years ago. These were “kit-bashed” and painted by RHJ Rail some two decades ago. The train with these cars shares the single-track Arrow Park subdivision with another train which operates there the rest of the time and automatic procedures enable the swapping of the two trains when required.

Arrow Park is also home to an amusement park with rides, music and lights. An historical village occupies part of the Park and various historic road and railroad items are scattered throughout the Park.

Telegraph system

The telegraph system permits Morse Code messages to be sent automatically to any one of fours stations on the layout or to a full-size, real telegraph key from a century ago. Messages are sent automatically and custom messages can be written as required.

Seasons

The layout has areas representing all four seasons; an historical park with rides, animation, lighting and music; several train yards, including remote storage and staging areas; finished scenery; many special effects; nighttime operation; a collection of restored railroad equipment of historical significance and many other features.

Signal System

The semi-prototypical signal system monitors trains and adjusts the signals around the layout as necessary. The signal system is controlled by the Automated Operations Control Centre and sets signals around the layout as trains run. Details of how this works can be found at Technical 8. Signal System

Automatic Operation

The layout is operated automatically by the Automated Operations Control Centre (AOCC) which runs on a Windows computer using JMRI, a model railroad computer interface which integrates a number of specially written scripts to provide reliable operation. To get an idea how this works, you can check out the Technical section of this web site.

In general, automatic operations have proven much more reliable than manual ones, but of course when visitors are present, this doesn’t always apply!

New features are being implemented all the time, so be sure to check the web site for the latest additions.

top of page

Unless otherwise specified, photo credits: Richard H. Johnson