Our Newest Member - John Johnston at Ottawa Train Expo 2012

This past weekend we were at the Ottawa Train Expo in Ottawa, Ontario of all places.  We left Friday morning and on the way we picked up our newest member, John Johnston from Grafton who brought out his excellent first modules. (Notice I said the word first.) They are based on an area in the Haliburton region of Ontario and consist of a bridge over a river, a farmer's field where the farmer is baling hay and a road overpass.   Firstly, welcome John!

Before we got to the show, we went to Paul Raham's for lunch and a small operating session.  Paul models 1910 era in southern Ontario in S scale.  It is a wonderful S scale layout and I got to run a very nice CPR consolidation that Paul had built from an Omnicon.  I saw Paul's helix in action and now I am rethinking my layout design.

The following are shots of John Johnston's modules.

Here is a night time shot of the beautiful bridge over the river.








Here is an early morning shot showing John behind the module. That is a very slow moving train as it took all night to get across that bridge.  John is a great guy, an excellent modeller and has more hair than I do.  John also uses a really great method for legs.  He utilizes plastic pipe which I will try to emulate since my legs take the longest in set up and take down.


The next two shots are of the farmer's field, harvesting hay.  I love that wooden split rail fence.  Jim Martin's famous back is in the second shot.

The next part of the modules is the bridge crossing the the country road.  There is a cute little stream alongside.

As per usual, the 3 musketeers, Jim., Pete and myself were there.  I guess we can call John our d'Artangan.  The show was held in the Field Room of Carlton U.  The floor was kind of spongy which saved our knees, backs and feet.

Paul Raham and Simon Parent came up on Saturday and helped to run the trains.  Simon showed off his excellent locomotives, including the now famous GT USRA 0-6-0.  You were missed on Sunday, Paul and Simon.

I am not sure about the numbers but the show seemed to be well attended.  I was impressed with the crowds as they crowded around our set up.  We did not use our stanchions but I still think they are necessary.

Alex Binkley was there as well building an Altoona Works Canadian Grain Elevator.  Greg Shrubsole showed me a thermal plastic casting procedure that can work in your oven (not mine) at 350 degrees.

Jim, it was great travelling with you and I hope that I didn't bore you with my stories.   The renting of the van was necessary.

I believe that we all had a great time and I am looking forward to Springfield, Oregon the home of Homer Simpson.  Just kidding...Springfield, Mass in 2013.

cheers, eh?