Meet the Guy Who Built a Train in His Basement

Hey! Good to see you today! Keeping well, are you? Help yourself to a mug of java juice and a virtual treat. You've got time. It's not as though you have to catch a train, eh? Now I think having a hobby is a good thing but speaking of trains...

Canadian Jason Schron loves VIA trains so much that he actually spent four and a half years and $10,000 building his own genuine replica of a 1980s VIA train cart, accurate down to the tiniest details, right in the basement of his home, in Vaughan, Ontario.

“The train is where I feel most at home,” Schron says. It’s where I feel most at peace. Especially when it’s hurtling along at 85mph with the snow and rain pelting down outside – it’s the perfect place to be.”

But since he could’t really ask his family to live in a real train, he settled for the next best thing – building his own VIA train cart replica in the basement of their house.  ”I’ve always wanted to have a VIA train in my basement since I was a kid,” the Canadian rail-geek admits, so when it was time for him and his wife to buy a house. he would always say no if the place didn’t have a basement big enough to accommodate his dream replica.

And after they found a suitable space, he dedicated around 2,500 hours over the course of four and a half years to getting every detail of the 1980s VIA cart just right. Making it look authentic was as difficult as you can imagine, and Jason says he had to scrap everything and start over three times, but it was all worth it for the model train company owner.

Now he’s known as the “the guy with the train in his basement” and he even posted a video on YouTube showcasing his impressive replica.

He had to scrap it and start over three times, eh? Maybe VIA Rail ought to take a lesson from Jason. They tried for years to get their Turbo high-speed link operating along the Toronto-Montreal corridor but it was always breaking down and finally scrapped. Then they gave up.

Well, a high-speed train serving Toronto-Montreal is badly needed but the only way VIA is ever going to get it right is to import Japanese know-how and start by completely rebuilding the rail bed. Wouldn't it be great to have a Shinkansen bullet train plying the route in three hours instead of six? You bet but...don't hold your breath!

See ya, eh!

Bob