Three Visitors to the Hanley Spur!

Vince, Heather and Laura

The pandemic has a way of elasticizing time and making everything seem longer and slower. So it was with a special visit today that was envisioned over two years ago. Laura Murray, a Professor of English at Queen's University, has been spearheading the Swamp Ward and Inner Harbour History Project (SWIHHP). This multi-faceted project documented the personal stories of the people who lived and worked in the part of town that I model here on the Hanley Spur, utilizing community-based and oral history. Laura had seen this blog and was intrigued. Today, we managed to finally arrange a visit!

Along with Laura were two other interested visitors who had worked with her on the SWIHHP. Vince Perez is Art Director for The Skeleton Press, a most interesting 'Neighbourhood Focused, Pulp-Based Journalism' serving McBurney Park and surrounding area. I've been enjoying Vince's work mostly online, but also in two paper editions.  Heather Home is a Public Services/Private Records Archvist at Queen's University Archives, a place I hope to return later this spring. Heather and her staff have been very helpful, and are integral to my research

Of course I was so pleased that my visitors were readily able to point out models of various prototype buildings that they recognized! And that they could imagine themselves strolling the streets of the industrial waterfront of Kingston as HO-scale visitors.

We kept our visit COVID-friendly (save for a brief unmasked moment for the top photo). That didn't inhibit my visitors' enthusiasm and their insightful inquiries. After a chance to see all parts of the layout from the aisle, I emplaced the continuous-run option so I could demonstrate switching industries on CN and CP trackage. This added much to their appreciation not only of the modelling I've done, but also the prototype-based operating system used on the layout. In other words, how the prototype industries were served by the railways, and how I've replicated it.

I look forward to following up on some intriguing ideas we discussed:

• making my digitized images available to others through the Archives
• digitally preserving this blog also through the Archives
• linking oral histories in a multi-media nexus to parts of my layout
• other ways to take my layout 'outside the basement'
• returning to the archives to follow up on some leads I have uncovered

Watch for more on the current issue of The Skeleton Press upon its release, with Vince's work and my interview with editor Larry Scanlan.

Heather looking over Kimco scrap