Simon

My name is Simon Parent. I live in the Montreal area. I have multiple hobbies and passions in life from model railroading, big mountain skiing, playing hockey, camping and nature photography to name a few and depending on time of the year, I’ll devote more time to one or the other.

My interest in trains started young when my dad bought a Triang train set for himself but pretended to my mom it was for me. My interest grew over the year and I was introduce to S scale by a drawings of an Alco diesel and CNR caboose in MR. I was never exposed to Gilbert AF in my childhood. My first S scale rolling equipments were a scratchbuild CNR caboose (from the MR drawing) and a Ye Olde Huff & Puff wood boxcar. My first locomotive was a FP7 from American model that I shorten to make a CNR F7.

 A few years ago, I sold all my diesels engines and backdated my modeling interest to late 30’s. While living in Quebec City and been a loner for many years, I have met and became friend with Denis Fortier (S scaler). He introduced me to Les Halmos, the founder of a local club, the Alouette division, a subdivision of the NMRA/NER. Les and I became good friends while attending together NER conventions. He is the one who introduced me to Free-mo. I joined the NASG in 1992, I have been a member ever since and attend a convention once every 2-3 years.

I always enjoyed scratchbuilding and as my skills and hobby money increased I was buying tools more than RTR models. I have started building steam locomotives in brass, a CNR Pacific was my first one (model of the month in MR in the mid-90's) and started but never finished to date, a CNR 2-10-2.

Meanwhile I became friend with Oliver and David Clubine from Ontario and they convinced me to put aside my 2-10-2 project to build a couple of CNR E10-a mogul for them. This is also how I met Jim Martin when all 4 went to London Ontario to measure and photograph CNR mogul number 86. That started a venture for me where I made another very good friend, Fred Rouse who at the time had recently bought S Scale locomotive & Supply. The Mogul project became a kit for SSL&S and this project has been a real learning experience for Fred and me. Over time, this little Mogul has enlarged my circle of friend in the S scale community (Andy M, Chris A, Trevor M. and many others south of the border to name a few). I belong to the S scale Workshop but because of driving distance and a busy corporate life, I have not actively participated in shows in the past few years.

I have finally started a new home layout last fall, 3 years after I moved to my current house. I am posting photos of my progress on my Picasa web album as I go. Simon's home layout

In the coming years, I planned to work on my home layout and bring it to a certain level of completion but will also continue making locomotives. Apart from a few brass bashing projects to convert a few commercial locomotives and kits I have into specific CN engines, I intend to complete the CNR 2-10-2 (former B&A USRAs) that I had started in the mid 90’s.