After 18 years of enchanting Osoyoos with their whimsical world, the Pedersen family is finally closing the Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad to enjoy their long-awaited retirement.
The owners of the beloved attraction announced last week that they will be closing permanently on Sept. 7, following the September long weekend.
Ulla Pedersen explains that their decision to close had two factors: the various difficulties that operating a business during COVID-19 brought on, and wanting to retire.
For nearly two decades, Ulla and Poul Pedersen, along with their daughter Lotte and son-in-law Joe Mendes have been the sole operators of the business. Open six days a week, all year round, the family has kept busy not only running the place, but continuing to add to the model over the years.
In terms of COVID-19, between travel restrictions, limits of crowds, masks, and social distancing, being a business owner has been a struggle, she said. Poul, who has some difficulty with his hearing, says he also struggled with masks especially as it made it hard for him to understand and hear people.
“We are also well past retirement age,” says Ulla laughing. “I think we’ve done our dues and worked as many years as we possibly can.”
Poul and Ulla opened Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad back in 2003, though they’ve been living in town now for 40 years after moving from Europe.
Magic in Minatures – the intricate model is 4,000 square feet with thousands of model homes and buildings as well as over 26,000 hand-painted little people. Neha Chollangi photo.
The “miniature wonderland” is 4,000 square feet of miniature streets, buildings, mountains, intricate scenes with people, and of course, trains running through the landscape. Ulla has painted over 26,000 little one-inch people and 2,000 model houses in a myriad of detailed tableaus spread across the European model.
If you walk through the space briskly without taking the time to crouch down to a child’s height, it may be easy to miss many of these small but precious moments created by Ulla and Lotte, who were the creative minds behind the scene-building.
Each square inch breathes with life. You’ll find a sea of concert-goers dancing and swooning in the mosh pit as a band jams on stage; three men stumbling on the streets, arm in arm outside a bar in a drunken haze; a woman running to catch the metro on the orange-lit underground platform.
With a cheeky sense of humour, Poul points out the Amsterdam-inspired area of the model complete with it’s own Red Light District where “negotiations” happen on the streets, and cops chase pimps.
Winding through the space, he speaks of each building, each train, each scene with a level of intimacy close to knowing the corners of one’s home.
Ulla explains that some model railroads in Europe, including one in Hamburg, Germany which is massive and employs over 200 people, focus primarily on the mechanics of the trains whereas the Pedersens took another path.
Neha Chollangi photo
“They concentrated on the electronic part and the moving parts, whereas we concentrated on the detail parts,” says Ulla. “So one little scene with us is jam packed with details; you can almost read the little story just by standing and seeing what’s going on in the houses and around it. It’s just a different approach, but the same idea.”
When asked about why they decided to not sell the business, the couple said that because the place is a highly specialized business, it would first of all be difficult to find anyone with the certain set of skills needed to keep running it.
“It’s just too intricate to run the trains, and there’s too many things that can go wrong, and that they need to learn. So it’s not just that you can learn a few things, and then you will know how to do it. It’s very complicated,” says Ulla.
Additionally, she mentions that it’s a great deal of physical labour to maintain the systems which run the trains.
Neha Chollangi photo
“It’s also the fact that all the wireless systems are underneath the train so Poul and Joe, they have to crawl on their knees underneath it to fix potential problems. And when you’re 80, that’s just not the greatest option to have to crawl around on your knees for a long period of time,” says Ulla.
“That’s the way I get my exercise,” Poul jokes.
With 45 trains running through the model all day, Poul adds that, “we have to be prepared for almost any situation, it’s always different, it’s not the same problems every time.”
He said there have been a few people that reached out with interest in taking over the business, however, the family has decided against that option for now.
The family also has their living quarters set up in the same building which is set up to be accessible for Ulla who uses a wheelchair. Therefore, “it’s not going to be easier just to sell it and then find another place for us to live,” says Ulla.
For both Ulla and Poul, one of the best parts of running the business was meeting people from across the world and having the pleasure of seeing them enjoy their life’s work, and leaving a smile on their faces. Over the years, they’ve had visitors come back to visit them every year, and watched their children grow into teenagers.
“We want to thank all the people who faithfully come to visit us every year on their holidays,” says Ulla.
With the satisfaction of sharing their incredibly unique creation with the world, Poul and Ulla are thrilled to spend their days in retirement relaxing and finding time for themselves.
All aboard!
