The Workshop at Exporail 2015

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)

An overview of the S Scale Workshop layout as set up at the museum. The two-day show was very well attended.

Simon runs a train past the Great White North brewery on Andy Malette's module.

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."

The view from the layout. Not bad, eh?

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:

Simon's 2-10-2 easily handled a 26-car freight, including a dozen brass hopper cars.

CNR 4205 crosses the bridge on John's module. 

The 4205 is an imposing sight, even at a distance.

CNR 4205 drifts past the brewery with a long cut of hoppers in tow.

Andy's 2-8-0 looks right at home as it prepares to switch the brewery.

Andy in charge of his terrific locomotive kit bash.

CNR 2526 with a cut of eight-hatch reefers, also built by Andy from resin kits he produced.

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.

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.

A busy day at the brewery.

A short freight in the hole, preparing to work the brewery.

Another overview of the layout as presented at Exporail.

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!