ASSINIBOINE VALLEY RAILWAY INC.

3001 ROBLIN BVD, WINNIPEG, MANITOBA

PH-204-837-1305 OR 786-4882 OR 782-7090

E-MAIL  iceman@swedenfreezer.com

IN MEMORIAM

IT IS WITH A GREAT DEAL OF SORROW THAT WE ANNOUNCE THE PASSING OF ONE OF THE CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE AVR WHO HAS NOW GONE BEFORE US. PETER ABEL WAS ONE OF THE CORNER STONES OF THIS CLUB AND THE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HIGH STANDARDS THAT ARE PRESENT ON THE RAILWAY TODAY. HIS SKILL AND VISION AS AN ENGINEER PAR EXCELLENCE WILL BE LONG FELT BY ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE CLUB. WE HAVE LOST ONE OF WINNIPEG'S MOST AVID AND KNOWLEDGEABLE RAILROADER AND A BEST FRIEND. 

A MEMORIAL SERVICE WAS HELD IN PETER'S HONOUR ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12TH AT 3:30 IN THE AFTERNOON AT THOMSON'S AT 669 BROADWAY AVE. The Rev. Robert Campbell officiated. Please address all notes of condolence to iceman@swedenfreezer.com and they will be given to Peter's brother and sister. In lieu of flowers The Grace Hospital Foundation was one of Peter's favourite charities or to one of your choice.

THE ENGINE HOUSE HAS BEEN DEDICATED IN PETER'S HONOUR AND A NEW PLAQUE HAS BEEN HUNG ON THE DOOR.

A MEMORIAL PICTURE PAGE TO PETER

EULOGY TO PETER MacDonald ABEL

Presented October 12^th, 2006 at 3:30 pm Winnipeg

By Bill Taylor

I would like to welcome you all to Thomson’s today and thank you for coming on behalf of the Abel family. We have gathered here to honour and remember the life of Peter Macdonald Abel, Brother, Uncle, Dear Friend, Model Railroader, Gardener and Co-Worker.

Peter was born in Winnipeg on June 10^th. 1928 as the third son of Colonel Peter Macdonald Abel who had distinguished himself with the Order of the British Empire and held a Batchler of Science degree in Agriculture which fitted him for the position of Editor of the Country Guide and Mary Ethelyn Eneta Knight who had earned a diploma in Home Economics.

Peter had older brothers John Knight Abel who passed on in 1980 and Murray Keith Abel and younger sister Mary Ethelyn (Abel) Thompson along with ten nieces and nephews and a large number of great nieces and nephews and even a few great greats. Peter’s largest group was his extended family, as he never married. Peter adopted and was adopted by hundreds of people who he knew and got involved with through Hydro, Model Railroading, Gardening, Love of music and a number of other areas. Peter always had a place to go and a family that would take him in.

The Family lived in St. James and Peter attended school there, finishing at St. James Collegiate. At a young age he showed his talent of being the very best at what ever he put his hand to. In fact it might be easier to list the things that he did not excel at. Lyn recalls that when he was in cubs at age 9 he took on the job of presenting a play, “The Wizard of Oz”. Lyn was Dorothy; three friends were the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion. Peter was all the remaining characters with quick costume changes, Glinda the good witch, the wicked witch, the wizard and finally Aunt Em. Peter spoke all the rest of the lines with changes in voice as best as a nine year old can. The group got a standing ovation. Next season Peter put on “Snow White” with Marionettes and provided all the voices. In high school Peter was the treasurer on Student Council. 

Peter loved classical music and in grade 9 at age 14 he started to take piano lessons and in three years he could play most of Chopin’s works and many other classical pieces. He would practice an hour every night just for the fun of it. When he started work he found less time to keep it up. In 1966 he visited Lyn in Peru and was still able without music, to give a great concert. I have experienced this in our own home when Peter and his mom would come for Christmas. Once Peter put his hands on the keyboard the music would flow out of his mind and fill the room. While Peter was at University he spent a summer in Churchill, Manitoba. He was asked to put on a concert but the only piano available was in terrible tune. He discovered that the US base had a tuning kit so he got it and tuned the piano himself and the concert was a hit. Peter continued to attend musical concerts including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the Westminster Organ Series. He also loved live theatre and attended the Manitoba Theatre Centre with his good friend Bill Buhr for many years. 

Peter attended the University of Manitoba first earning a Batchelor in Commerce with Honours. Next came his BSc in Mechanical Engineering and finally his Masters. His thesis was on the Peace River water flow. Each summer he would work and as well as Churchill, he spent a summer at the McPhillips sub-station on night shift. One job included cutting its large lawn with a push mower. He worked as office boy at Swift Packers and after that always used Swift’s bacon and encouraged his family to do the same.  

Peter never married because he just never found a girl who could live up to his high expectations. In recent years he admitted that it might have been better to not have such high standards. He was after all a perfectionist but a nice one because he accepted the rest of us with our various imperfections. When Peter was younger he did date but on one such date, he was confronted by the girl’s father at the door and Peter was given such a stern warning about how to treat the man’s daughter that Lyn thinks it scared him to the point of not dating for some time. Another date was a disaster. While coming home the weather turned bad and snow was building so Peter decided to try a short cut he knew and soon found himself on a deserted railway grade. The car was swerving around. Though he was dressed up in a tuxedo complete with silk socks, he got out letting his date take the wheel with him pushing and the car coming dangerously close to falling off the narrow path. They eventually made it home very late. Peter never wore silk socks after that experience. In recent years Peter toured and explored both Europe and North America with his very dear distant cousin Cathy from Scotland. On his numerous travels around the world to Europe, South America, Russia and China just to name a few, he most enjoyed seeing new and marvellous places and then showing them to others. Peter liked to be with people and would share his vast knowledge base on so many subjects with them.  

Peter was generous with his time being involved in many projects but he was also generous with his resources and had a number of charitable organizations that he supported like the Grace Hospital Foundation. The list was quite large and spanned a great number of organizations. He liked the Conservatory and Prairie Public Television as well. I could never keep up with them. He was also a hard working friend who would pitch in if there was a need like helping Jock Oliphant put on a new roof, Lorne with a home project, Don McKinnon with a cottage repair and me with a new house extension. The list goes on and on. At William Neelin’s he once to fill time, cut out all the dead wood from an apple tree. Peter liked to stay busy and was not afraid to work hard. 

Peter had inherited a love of gardening from his family and given the opportunity he like to plant flowers and care for his yard. At one point he was contemplating the building of his dream house and had a lot outside of Winnipeg where he raised thousands of lilies. He was also active in the Lily Society and the friends of the Assiniboine Park Conservatory. Peter’s greatest love and passion in life was railroading and it may have been born during the summer he worked with the Canadian National Railway on a weed control train out is Saskatchewan. He along with a crew was assigned to a caboose to live in for the summer. After each day’s work they were parked in a different siding and spent the night. When Peter got the opportunity he built a replica complete with interior of that caboose. Ken Simms helped with the building along with other AVR members but Peter was the master craftsman whom we all learned from. That caboose is here today so take a look as you leave the chapel. 

I met Peter when I joined the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club as a junior member at 18.  My father had left for Chicago when I was 16 and Peter became a father figure for me in those early years. As I grew up we became life long friends. I knew that Peter was special. He would take the time to lead you through a project and to spur you on to success. Until very recently Peter would judge school science fairs because he loved to see young children using their brains. He would often talk about the fairs and some of the special projects that young kids would create. He could challenge you to reach deep with in yourself for that little spark of genius that lies in all of us. 

Peter was the oldest regular member of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club but due to circumstance was not a charter member. He attended the very first meeting held at Westworth United church but he was still a student and money was tight so he was not able to pay dues until a little later but all through the years he was a staunch supporter of the club weathering both the good and bad times. Peter contributed more to the club over its 51 years than any member. He entered contests and has his name on many awards. He helped with judging and executive duties. He made displays and for most of those years was the unofficial archivist of the club. He rarely missed a meeting and especially a meal after the meetings. 

In my 44 years as Peter’s friend I think I had well over 3,000 meals with him. After that much time you get some feel for a person’s eating habits. He complained about restaurants that used too much garlic. He liked a good salad with lots of goodies in it and he liked lots of vegetables but for the last 20 years that became a sore point. Restaurants have forgotten how to actually cook vegetables and now serve them just a little warm. He would tell the waiter that he liked them cooked but I can attest that many a time the beans or carrots would go back to the kitchen because they were hard as nails. Some restaurants did not know how to cook them when they came back. Peter was always careful to eat a balance meal with lots of fruits and vegetables and even eating alone at home he took the time and trouble to eat a well balance meal. 

I was a good match for Peter because I was born as a terrible speller and Peter spent years correcting my writing but he would complain about changes that people were making to the English language. He had lots of pet peeves about word use but his most vocal was the creeping use of "myself and yourself" into the language. Any waiter or waitress saying “and what would yourself want” was sure to get a response from Peter with something like. “I want you to get it for me I DO NOT WANT TO COOK IT MYSELF”. Just for the fun of it Peter would proof read every restaurant menu and pick out the spelling and grammar errors. 

Peter was a prolific writer and wrote volumes on a variety of subjects. His Masters thesis is bigger than the yellow pages and completely professional. No doubt for Hydro he wrote copious volumes but I will let Len Bateman tell you about that. For the Railroad hobby he wrote countless articles for the local WMRC “Lantern”, The Thousand lakes region “Fusee” and the CN and CP sig magazines. Most of his articles were on the historic prototype railways. Such as the Kettle Valley Railway and the various parts of the Great Northern Railway which as far as Peter and I believe still exists to day. It just kept buying bankrupt railways and is today the BNSF. Peter’s work was always well researched and documented. He received his author’s award for the NMRA. 

Peter was also a master craftsman when it came to building HO models and entered and won many contests. One time using actual CPR blue prints he built an operating lift bridge for someone’s railway. After following the plans exactly he found it would not work. Puzzled he analyzed the problem and made several modifications to the plan and it worked. Still puzzled he checked with the CPR and found that when they built the full size bridge it would not work either and they had to make the same modifications that Peter had made. I bet they wished that they had got Peter to build the model first. 

About 35 years ago Peter was asked to join an operating group called the United Lines, which worked on each members’ railways in rotation. During that period Mary-Lou and I were married at Westminster and Peter, Lorne Brady, Alan Graham and Fred Headen were my attendants. That was 32 years ago. For a gift I gave each a Campbell bridge kit and I believe that Peter built most of those bridges and they are now on various layouts. Over the years Peter has worked on more Model Railways than anyone in Winnipeg. After the NMRA national convention in 1983 Peter was awarded a certificate for working on more layouts than anyone. Before my time he worked I believe on Frank Digby’s layout, the Gateway Western, The CBC display Layout and more that I have long forgotten. In my time he worked on my basement Layout right up to the time we started to build the Assiniboine Valley Railway. He worked on Don McKinnon’s, Lorne Brady’s, Allan Graham’s, Fred Headon’s, Bob Menzie’s, Ed Mulhallan’s, and Brian Schuff’s. Peter did not just give a little assistance; he put part of his heart and soul into each and every project he took on. I know I have forgotten some names and there are more in Winnipeg that he contributed to. 

When the United Lines operating group ended Peter continued with a small group consisting of Len LaRue, Barry Atkinson, Brian Crow and me on my basement railway and in 1995 when I started clearing bush for the AVR Peter did not ask if he could help, he just jumped in with all his vast knowledge of engineering and railway building skills and went to work.  I wrote a speech in 1997 as the Lt. Governor drove in the last spike on phase one and I will quote a small part. 

THE SECOND PERSON I NEED TO THANK IS MY GOOD FRIEND PETER ABEL. I FIRST MET PETER WHEN I WAS ONLY 18 AND JOINED THE WINNIPEG MODEL RAILROAD CLUB AS A JUNIOR MEMBER. PETER WAS ALWAYS EXTREMELY INTERESTED IN MODEL RAILROADING AND A CAPABLE MODEL BUILDER. IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE DREAM HE WAS ALWAYS INTERESTED IN MY LONG TERM PLAN. WHEN WE WERE AT CONVENTIONS WE ALWAYS WENT OUT TO VISIT EVERY 1/8 TH. SCALE RAILWAY WE COULD. KNOWLEDGE WAS STORED FOR SOME TIME IN THE DISTANT FUTURE. IN 1995 WHEN PETER DISCOVERED I WAS STARTING TO ACTUALLY CLEAR BUSH FOR THE RAILWAY HE JUST JOINED RIGHT IN WITHOUT BEING ASKED. THIS RAILWAY AND THE GLORY AND SATISFACTION OF THIS DAY BELONGS TO PETER AS MUCH AS ANYONE. PETER HAD RECENTLY RETIRED AS AN ENGINEER FROM MANITOBA HYDRO. BUT ONCE AN ENGINEER, ALWAYS AN ENGINEER AND HE PUT ALL HIS SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE TO WORK ON MAKING THIS A SUPERB RAILWAY. WITHOUT PETER’S INPUT AND HOURS OF WORK THE RAILWAY WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE TODAY AND THE FEATURES AND ACCURACY WOULD NOT BE AS HIGH. PETER SET A HIGH STANDARD AND MADE US ALL WORK TO ACHIEVE THAT STANDARD. WORDS CANNOT FULLY EXPRESS THE GRATITUDE FOR PETER’S UNFAILING DEDICATION TO THE TASKS AT HAND. AS I INDICATED BEFORE (THE ASSINIBOINE VALLEY RAILWAY) IS AS MUCH PETER’S AS IT IS ANYONE ELSE’S. I FEEL IT BELONGS TO THE GROUP AND AS SUCH SHOULD BE SHARED WITH THE COMMUNITY WHERE POSSIBLE.  

Peter had dreamed of building a railway most of his life and collected much material to do this but with the AVR his dream could be played out. After 1997 and the golden spike ceremony we carried on and from the original 1800 feet we have now well over one mile of track and Peter has already surveyed the next 200 feet. We will not let him down. Peter loved to build models and over the last several years he has completed three more show cars including the stock car that is on display. It is complete with cows and a sound system that lets you know that cows are in residence. We all kidded him that we needed to gather cow pies so it would be truly complete. Peter shared his dream. Those cars were built by the AVR car crew which was a much better legacy than just doing it himself because now the group of us that were Peter’s apprentices have had some of Peter’s heart and soul given to us and we can continue on and keep his memory alive into the future. Peter you are going to be missed by us all. You left big shoes for us to fill but you gave us your knowledge, enthusiasm and your love of hard work.