The Red Island Railway Journal documents Prince Edward Island railway history, the research behind it, and the work of recreating that railway in miniature.
Born and raised in the agricultural province of Prince Edward Island, I’ve always been naturally enthralled by the charm of rusted-out tractors, sooty diesel engines, clunky square-body trucks, and dusty red dirt roads. Looking back now, it only makes sense that I would eventually find model railroading.
After spending more than a decade on the road with various punk, rock, and country artists, I’d had my fill. Finding something else to occupy that artistic space was difficult until, one day while walking along the Confederation Trail, I found a railway spike.
The railway on Prince Edward Island wasn’t something I knew much about then; it had been abandoned by the time I was born. Finding that spike sparked my interest, and it wasn’t long before I was obsessed with learning all I could about the Prince Edward Island Railway and, eventually, recreating some of its character through modelling.
This journal grew from those questions. It now documents both sides of the work: original research into the Island railway and the prototype-based modelling that grows from it. The site is organized so readers interested only in history can stay in that lane, while modellers can follow projects and the research behind them.
Research here draws on photographs, employee timetables, maps, archival records, field visits, and the knowledge of other railway historians and modellers. Where a conclusion is an inference rather than a documented fact, I try to say so.
Thanks for reading along.
Calvin M.
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
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Links & Reading
Railway archives, research resources, and blogs worth following.
Have a correction, source, photograph credit, or question? Get in touch.