Five members of the S Scale Workshop - Simon, Andy, John, Jim and Brian - put on a killer show this past weekend at "
A great passion for model trains", the annual train show at
Exporail - Canada's railway museum in Saint-Constant Quebec.
(Click on each image for a larger view)
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| An overview of the S Scale Workshop layout as set up at the museum. The two-day show was very well attended. |
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| Simon runs a train past the Great White North brewery on Andy Malette's module. |
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| Andy runs a passenger train while John waits for clearance. |
The show is unusual in that there are no vendors - just exhibitors. That said, it was very well attended and there's nothing like having beautifully preserved examples of the real thing on site to make a train show special. As Jim put it, "It was totally cool to look over my shoulder from the layout duties and look down on two icons beside each other: Royal Hudson 2850 and Gresley Pacific, The Dominion of Canada."
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| The view from the layout. Not bad, eh? |
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| Another view of the hall. |
The layout ran with few issues and the DCC system worked almost flawlessly. There were some eager young show-goers who pushed buttons and accidentally threw switches under trains - but no harm done.
The show was also the public debut for two new pieces of equipment on the layout. Simon showed off his recently-completed CNR 4205 - a scratch-built 2-10-2. Meantime, Andy fielded CNR 2526 - a 2-8-0 that started life as a Missouri Pacific consolidation but had so much work done on it that it might as well be scratch-built, too. Both are exquisite as the photos attest:
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| Simon's 2-10-2 easily handled a 26-car freight, including a dozen brass hopper cars. |
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| CNR 4205 crosses the bridge on John's module. |
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| The 4205 is an imposing sight, even at a distance. |
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| CNR 4205 drifts past the brewery with a long cut of hoppers in tow. |
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| Andy's 2-8-0 looks right at home as it prepares to switch the brewery. |
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| Andy in charge of his terrific locomotive kit bash. |
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| CNR 2526 with a cut of eight-hatch reefers, also built by Andy from resin kits he produced. |
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| CNR 2526: Andy has nicely rendered this handsome and versatile road engine in 1:64. |
Here are some more views of the layout at Exporail. We'll share some videos in a separate posting, too.
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| Jim's Culverhouse Cannery module. Each module has a sign describing what's being modelled and since we exhibit in both Quebec and Ontario, we post all signs in both official languages. |
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| A busy day at the brewery. |
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| A short freight in the hole, preparing to work the brewery. |
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| Another overview of the layout as presented at Exporail. |
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| The S Scale Workshop's modules include many small vignettes, like this one. |
Once again, the Free-mo-style modular format came to the rescue as some members were not able to make it - but those who did report it was a fantastic weekend so there's always another year!
