Riding the rails in Battersea

Jeff Green | Aug 21, 2014

Keeping the steam engine heritage alive

There is a small, rough dirt road next to the pristine Battersea baseball field that leads to an overflow parking lot for the Battersea Pumpkin Festival. Last Sunday about 15 cars were parked in that field, which opens up to reveal the raised and ground level tracks that have been built by members of the Frontenac Society of Model Engineers (FSME)

Members of the society, along with some of their compatriots from the Ottawa Association, were enjoying their monthly session running their miniature steam trains along the two tracks. The FSME owns a train that runs on the ground tracks and is becoming familiar to Frontenac County residents. It has been brought out to Canada Day in Sydenham and the Verona Festival to run on portable tracks and take children (and their parents) on rides.

On this Sunday the train was running on the track that the FSME has constructed on the site. The track lacks one section to become a complete loop so the train was running to the end of the line and then backwards to the start, taking some visitors on rides in the afternoon, as the sun peeked through the clouds after a long stretch of rainy weather last week. FSME members are hoping to get the track finished by the time the Pumpkin Festival rolls around this fall.

In the centre of the field, three men were working on their smaller trains on side tracks, making sure all the elements were operating as planned before setting off on the loop. When the coal was burning hot, and the steam was ready to push the pistons, the men climbed onto the seats behind the locomotives, let the throttle out and off they went around the track, slowly at first but eventually at a brisk clip around and around the track.

The FSME began building their tracks and using the Battersea location about four years ago. Before that they were affiliated with the Steam Pump museum in Kingston but found they had to move. They approached the Township of South Frontenac and came to an agreement. They have the run of the Battersea site, and in exchange they are an attraction in at least two township events each year. They have followed all township guidelines, even undertaking an assessment for the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority before building their rail bed and track at the site.

The hobby incorporates a love of making things mechanical along with a fascination with steam engines, which were a fundamental technology not that long ago in Frontenac County, and in Canada and the rest of the world - a technology that is gone but not forgotten by model engineers.

One of the priorities of the FSME is to bring new people into the hobby. Members are keen to share what they have learned, and the club owns its own train so it is not necessary to spend money buying a train or building one from a kit before joining the club.

Graham Copley, one of the engineers who came out to Battersea on Sunday from Ottawa, where he is on the executive of his own club, described the appeal of the hobby in an article he wrote for the Ottawa Citizen earlier this year.

“Members have an enormous range of skills and so here’s your chance to build something, for example an engine or an item of rolling stock. The hobby of model engineering can be delightful and fulfilling. There is a very wide scope of opportunity for you to join like-minded souls and maybe it’s time to revive your long unused wood-working or metal-working skills. Or you can take advantage of the knowledge and experience of the diverse membership. If that’s not your bag there are still lots of other non-technical things for you to get involved in. Model engineers are a social bunch both at the track in the summer and at winter meetings in members’ homes, all of which fosters a great sense of camaraderie.

For further information about the FCME contact the club president, Phil Ibbitson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.