Great to see two old friends!

I was a member of the North Shore with Wally and Steve before I relocated away from the area and it was a very pleasant surprise to see their names and pictures in this article.  I distinctly recall those Brady Construction hopper cars making their way around the North Shore layout many, many times.

Congratulations to Wally and Steve for their excellent work on Wally's layout and keep up the great job!

Wally Brady's CN Plymouth Subdivision

The article looks great and Wally and Steve are excellent people to work with. I was disappointed to see no mention of the photographer, Doug Scott. Mike Tylick wrote the article and did the photoshop work with the images, but Doug Scott took the pictures

Some clarifications on the Sweep

Thanks for the great layout tour. I enjoyed the article. However, I'd like to offer a few clarifications on the locomotive featured in photo 11 (page 13 of the feature).

This is not a one-of-a-kind locomotive - there were eight of these, numbered 7100-7107. They were built by the CNR's Pointe St. Charles shops in the 1980s - not from wrecked GP-9s, but from surplus GP-9s. They use an SW1200RS cab and frame, with the hood, generator, cooling fans and traction motor blowers from a GP-9. The railway designated these units as "GS-413".

CNR retired these units in 2000, but they were sold to leasing company Canac, where they're used to switch large industries (elevators, refineries, and so on).

As for the comment that the model may be the only one in existence - not by a long shot. CNR enthusiasts have been kit-bashing these almost since the day they hit the rails, and Overland did them in HO scale as part of a run of SW1200RS models in the mid-2000s. Here's an example:

(click on image for a larger version)

Visit the CNR Historical Association online for more information about the railway's SW1200s and Sweeps.

Cheers!

- Trevor

From Mike Tylick ...

See the layout in person

Kudos to all four of you. Wally and Steve for great modeling and Mike and Doug for telling the story with photos and words. 

 Since Mike was kind enough to mention it, you can see Wally's beautiful layout in person on April 18th of this year along with about 10 other layouts on the annual  "Layout Tour" 15. (Southeastern Ma. , Rhode Island and Eastern Conn.). See our website at http://layouttour.com/ The final list of layouts that will be open this year is being finalized as I write this and should be posted in a week or two. There are photos of all the layouts including a few more of Wally's beautiful CN.. Wally is having extended hours so people can be sure and get there. See the website and final list ror details.

                                                                                                           Ray Schofield

That is a great layout. It is

That is a great layout. It is a pleasure to look at the photos.

Its great to see a CN layout,

Its great to see a CN layout, well done at that; so many model CP it refreshing to see our "other" railway.  Like many I look at layout pics for ideas to use on my own model RR; however most layouts are in the transition era, I'm contemporary.  I was impressed with backdrop structures, more contemporary industries and buildings, lots of inspiration for me.  I do scratch build and a number of structures in the photos provide a spring board for me to use and create my own unique building.

My only real complaint is that this layout isn't in Vancouver, BC.

Wally Brady CN layout

Wally Brady's CN layout is located in 19 Ryder's Orchard Lane Plymouth Ma Open house is April 18 2015  8AM/5PM   wallybrady@comcast.net

Nice layout, but...

How much of it is real, and how much is faked in by photo manipulation software?

In most pictures it looks like at least the sky is pasted in, but in others it looks kinda like the background is pasted in as well (photos 33 & 34, for example - the background hills look different though the shots are of the same structure).

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'd like to know what the actual, non-enhanced scenes look like, or at least know which parts of a photo are the modeling and which is software enhancement, maybe via a note in the text of the article or in the captions. Or is it there and I missed it?

It does look like a great layout. I just wish we got to see more of the layout and less of the photo manipulation skills of whoever did that part of the work for the article.

more of the layout

Well Mark go see it in person on April 18th . I have and it is a great layout.

                                                                             Ray

There are no life.

There are no people a layout should have people. all those vehicles should have people. Take fpr instance the dump trucks should have truckers standing yacking smoking a cigarettes..l

 There is life! Not even a dog.

people

If you look you can see people on the ore boat ,a person driving the convertable, people on the loading dock most of the life is around the town buildings and industry.  And yes there is a dog at the auto parts store.

Great layout, nice feature

 Good feature of Wally's beautiful layout. Thanks to Mike and Doug for sharing it with us. 

 For someone not from the

For someone not from the area nor familiar with distances can you provide travel info to visit all the sites on the tour? Also, is the time/date for the tours occurring with a local train show?

Carter

DISTANCES BETWEEN LAYOUT

Carter

 There are 9 layouts on the tour this year, Wally located in Plymouth is the furthest east, although we have a layout in Westport Ma. about 45 minutes from Wally. Wally is open early and staying open late for those who want to get there. Other layouts are located in Middletown, R.I ; North Scituate R.i. Cumberland R.I,  Attleboro, Ma., Holden, Ma.,  Pomfret Ct. and Plainfield, Ct. See our website http://layouttour.com/ foractual addresses and google maps for distances.

                                                                                                      Ray

Here you go ...

You've got your wish - check out the March issue bonus downloads for 20MB of unmodified photos from Wally's CN layout article - no Photoshopped in backgrounds!

Thanks for providing pre-photoshop images

Thanks for the pre-photoshop images.  The real images are far more interesting to me than artists renditions.  I like to see the details of a modelers work.

I can't believe anyone could string utility wires in a layout and have them look realistic.  I sure couldn't.

Thanks for sharing a great layout.

Steve