From the Dome Car: Train 12 Track 5 (Aug.-Sept., 2003)

 

The 2003 SARS epidemic was one of the most disruptive public-health crises Toronto had experienced in decades. It was relatively short-lived—roughly March through June—but it had consequences for hospitals, health-care workers, tourism—and the Maple Leaf 2003 NMRA convention. For younger readers, SARS was a coronavirus, like COVID, except it wasn’t worldwide. Toronto became a hotspot that year; 44 people died. It came in two waves, with the second occurring in May. The World Health Organization issued two travel warnings, lifting the second one in early July. By then, the damage had been done to the Maple Leaf convention. Many convention-goers, especially Americans, cancelled their trips to the convention. Most exhibitors also pulled out of the national train show. The convention still went ahead, but the NMRA cancelled the national train show. It was replaced by a much smaller locally organized show. Although the convention was severely impacted, it still ended up being a great gathering, and led to the creation of the Canadian Association of Railway Modellers (CARM) later that year. Morgan gave convention organizers a shout-out; see below. 

It's no surprise that Frank Steele and Doug Jarvis, of Toronto Show Promotions (TSP) fame, took control of the national train show for the Maple Leaf 2003 NMRA National Convention after the folks at the NMRA/MRIA cancelled out due to the SARS scare in the Toronto area. 

With only a couple of months to prepare, TSP put together a first-class train show with plenty of things to see and do for both convention goers and the public alike. Our hats are off to both Frank and Doug for doing such a marvelous job while under such extreme stress and a time constraint. 

And a big 'thank you' goes out to those manufacturers, displayers and layouts that chose to join the show on such short notice; without you, there wouldn't have been a train show! It was a terrific show and one that will be remembered for some time to come. 

And congratulations, too, to the folks of the Niagara Frontier Region of the NMRA who were responsible for organizing and putting on the NMRA National Convention. They worked tirelessly and under tremendous stress to bring the NMRA National Convention to Canada. It's very unfortunate that, due to the SARS scare, many U.S. conventioneers and several major U.S. manufacturers decided not to come to the convention; they were certainly missed. 

But sometimes these things happen and, when they do, we need to find alternate ways to carry on. Congratulations again to all those who volunteered their time and effort and to those that chose to join us in Toronto—thank you for coming. 

And when it wasn't the NMRA National Convention taking the spotlight, it was Canadian Pacific Railway's Empress steaming its way across much of Canada on its Breakfast for Learning promotional tour. What a sight it was! The fully restored 2816 H1b Hudson made the two-month long journey from Calgary, Alberta to Windsor, Ontario and return. Thousands of spectators saw steam on the CPR, likely for the first time in their lives. 

The last CPR steam engine to make a journey like that was back in 1978 when Royal Hudson 2860 went on a 'discovery' tour from Vancouver to Toronto. 

We'd like to commemorate 2816's historic journey at CRM. We want to publish a collage of your railfan photos that you took of the trip. We are going too put together a two-page colour pictorial in an upcoming issue; we ask that you send us three or four of your best photos of 2816. (We know there were thousands taken at nearly every location along the way!) 

Photos should be of the 4x6-inch size (as from the photo lab) and contain your name and address and the location on the reverse. If you have digital photos, put them on a CD or have them printed on photo paper and submit them that way. Once we have a sufficient number to create a 'collage', we'll print them and credit all those who submitted photos to the project. 

And so ends another journey in the dome car. Please have a safe and fun remainder of the summer—we'll see you in the next issue. There can be no doubt that railway modelling is the world's greatest hobby!




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