This award winning model railroad was constructed by the two well-known model railroaders Leo Bettonviel and Walter Huijboom from the Netherlands. They call their HO scale modular layout “The Sodumb & Gamorrah Mining and Navigation Company”. The model railroad layout depicts an old forest railway line on Vancouver Island in the twenties and the thirties of the last century. A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felled logs. Vancouver Island is in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, and it is part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. In the last century in the mountains of Vancouver Island, ore was found, and the railroad was used to transport the ore from the mines to the coast, where it was shipped for further processing.
In addition, also wood was transported by rail to the harbor. As with many mountain railroads there are tracks along rivers, over bridges and in curves through the mountain valleys. The rolling stock and the locomotives must be able to withstand all possible conditions and obstacles along the way, for example on steep slopes and in sharp bends. Therefore, geared steam locomotives are in use. This type of steam locomotive uses gearing - usually reduction gearing - in the drivetrain. This gearing is part of the machinery within the locomotive and should not be confused with the pinion that propels a rack locomotive along the rack between the rails. The geared steam locomotives are built for conventional tracks; famous types are the Shay locomotive, the Climax locomotive or the Heisler locomotive.
