Photos from Pieter

Thanks to fellow S scale enthusiast Pieter Roos, who shared a couple of photos he took of the Workshop's exhibit at the Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield MA last weekend.

Here are three pictures used with permission: Click on each to see a larger version.

Enjoy!

- Trevor

Smiling Faces

The members of the S Scale Workshop who attended the Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield MA this past weekend sure look happy with their "Best in Show - Layout" award...

For those who could not attend, here's an overview of the modular layout...

Both photos by Workshop member Simon Parent. Click on each for a larger view.

- Trevor

Springfield - Well Done!

More info to come, I'm sure - but I just learned that the members of the S Scale Workshop who are exhibiting at the Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield MA this weekend will be coming home with a little extra hardware.

That's because the group that organizes this huge show have awarded the Workshop their 2013 "Best in Show - Layout" award.

Well done, guys!

Photo by fellow blogger and Workshop member Chris Abbott.

- Trevor (who couldn't attend this year)

See You at Springfield! (Jan 26-27, 2013)

Some members of the S Scale Workshop will be displaying their modules at the upcoming Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield, Massachusetts - January 26 and 27, 2013. This will be the first appearance of the S Scale Workshop layout at Springfield!

The group will be setting up in Section 166 of the Mallary Complex, co-located with the S Scale SIG (Special Interest Group). You'll find the Workshop near the bottom centre of the Mallary Complex, as shown on this floor plan.

Stop by and say hello - and if you take pictures, consider sharing them with us so we can post a few here!

Some early photos of the Workshop

I used to use a photo-sharing service called Fotopic, but it disappeared a few years ago (great service, but lousy business plan, apparently).

Today, however, I received an email from Fotopic that the company was opening its servers long enough for former users to recover their pictures.

I managed to recover all of my photos, including several I took of the S Scale Workshop's modular layout as it appeared at the 2007 Copetown Train Show.

Here they are - enjoy!

- Trevor

Jim Martin's Port Dover module...

Another view of Port Dover...

David Clubine's terminal. Electric equipment by William Flatt...

Another view of David's terminal...

Yet another view of David's terminal...

The beet loader siding module built by Chris Abbott (before we knew it was going to be a beet loader siding)...

Another view of Chris' module...

The swamp module with rock fill, by Andy Malette...

RBG Show

Today we finished up a two day show at the Royal Botanical Gardens Dec. 1 & 2, 2012.  John Johnston, Pete Moffet and myself were there.  We had Pete's Webb's Landing, John's Burnt River, my Great White North Brewery and the Great Green Fuzzy Corner.  Pete also brought both of Jim's turntables.  It was a well attended event with lots of other layouts.  Tons and tons of kids.  John actually let some of the kids run the trains.  John Johnston of the CARM organized it and invited us.  I would do it again in a flash.

As usual we had some technical difficulties but this time we had to deal with the humidity and the heat of the gardens which cause misalignments, warpage and inconsistent derailments from all the steamers except the most tempermental one!  I even ran the beer train backwards without a derailment with that loco!  Murphy's Law again. 

Our version of the Canadian Pacific XMAS Train made its debut today and got a lot of attention, especially Rudolph's flashing nose and the Gift car.  I wish I had bought more of these cars when they were available.  Now they all command collector's prices of up to $200 a car if it is lit.  The caboose actually is an undecorated one with XMAS stickers on it.  Kind of tacky (pun intended) but for this type of crowd it worked.



Check out the nose!

 

Even hobos get gifts!

Santa getting a brew.

 

Crossing Burnt River



At any rate, all things do pass and it was a great time, guys.  Happy Christmas to all, Andy.

A Great Day Out

Yesterday was a day well spent.   Jim, Oliver, Connor, and myself spent the day on the HOMES Hamilton layout tour.  Although there were no S layouts to visit, there was some incredible modeling to view.

We started the day at the late Rich Chrysler's CNR Hagersville Sub HO layout.  This is simply Canadian Prototype modeling at its best.   Rich's son Geoff, along with a talented group of people consisting of the Ontario and Eastern modeler's and others, have spent countless hours in the past couple of months bringing the layout to a point that countless new scenes and details could be seen.

The rest of the layouts we stopped at happened to be narrow gauge O scale.  Not that we had specifically planned it that way, it was just the modelers we wanted to visit.   Among the interesting things we saw, was the use of RC helicopter servos, and Tam Valley electronics to through switches. This is worth some investigating.

I have to say the layouts we visited had excellent modeling, and every stop left us with more ideas.  The modeling juices have been renewed and each of us went home planning our next modeling moves.  Connor even got an invite to an operating session at a later date on Craig Webb's On3 Algoma River layout, I just hope Craig doesn't mind his Dad and Grandpa tagging along!

I almost forgot to mention that on the tour was a visit to the Mt. Albert Scale Lumber workshops.  A fastinating tour, that included them showing us every operation to making an O scale 2x10.  A new appreciation was gained to the work that goes into the incredible basswood scale lumber we have all come to love.  A great stop on the tour.

Thanks to the HOMES club, and all the layout owners for putting together an enjoyable day, and letting us tour their pride and joys.