Edmundston man brings love of trains to life on a tiny scale

Forrailroad hobbyistGuy LaForge, thereis nothing quite like riding the rails - even if the train is only a miniature.

LaForge is the personbehindDuRelau Miniature inEdmundston,a train interpretation centre he'sbeen running for the past four years.

There have been 6,800 pieces donated to DuRelau Miniature and the only thingLaForgesays he tohad to buywas a sledgehammer for $2.

The centrealso has ride-onminiature train operation,complete with atrain that isone-eighththe size of the real thing, and atrack thatloopsbetween little creeks,meant to representthe St. JohnandMadawaskarivers.

"We're not really a museum, we're really more a railway interpretation centre." saidLaForge.

"Themain difference is we're allowed to do mock-ups to show people [when] we don't have the pieces ...we're going to show you what it looks like in that time."

LaForgesays he is constantly adding and updating the site, so the site is always changing to show a new aspect of the railway, and the workers or families that made their lives around it.

The maximum speed of the minitrain is 16 mph, sothe ride takes a breezyten minutes.And if the train should derail? Because it's so small,LaForge can just set it back up on the track.

Made of recyclable materials

Recycling is important to LaForge and his wife, Geraldine, who runs the centre with him.Almost everything on the site is recycled or reused in some way.

"We put a lot of emphasis on recycling, because my generation and the one before trashed the planet," he said.

There is a garden where plants are in pots made fromterracotta pipes from railways andslate left over from city projects.

LaForge said the couplesaved 50 trees and $2,000by re-purposingold railway wood for the museumbuilding.

The centrerotates exhibits every year and this year'stheme is containers, including vintage lunchboxesthat were used by railway workersof old.

900-foot model train

LaForgealso has a massive900-foot model trainlayout in the basement of his house that recreatesseveral areas ofNew Brunswick andrequires three computers and six people to operate.

The train layout is meant for fellow enthusiasts who want toplay engineer.

The detail on the model trains and the landscape is astonishing, right down to replicas of birds in the trees next to the tracks.

LaForgesays it took one artist up to 70 hours to properly age a model train by applying rust spots and graffiti.

Campground coming

LaForgesays heplans to buildanother track to resemblethe United Statesside of the border, complete with a customs office and a no-technology-allowedcampground.

"Tablets, cell phonesare not allowed, because we don't want you to type to people, we want you to talk to people," saidLaForge.

Visitors will park their cars, buy a train ticket and ride the train toLaForge'sU.S. border, where they will stay in eightbyeight-footshanties around the train track.

There will be cold water showers, gazebos and fire pits, and a mile-long walking trail. The shanties won't be big enough for mattresses, soLaForgesays hewill usehammocks for sleeping.

"Since a good canvas hammock costs around $80, we decided to recycle. We recycled 2,500 pairs of jeans to do our canvas."

The campground is under construction but won't be ready in time for this season.