Lego!!

First up, while its not scale model railroading, it certainly has a following - Lego Trains.  These are electric trains, for those who don't know, and are somewhat to scale.  Each year, this group has more additions to the base layout that I first saw at the show many years ago.  A favourite with the kids, I have to admit, I still enjoy Lego, too.  And as you'll notice, I thought I would provide a courtesy by blocking out anyones face in the photos.  

First, a look at some construction equipment and a looooong look at the truss bridge:

Next is the Go Kart track with a side view of the bridge to the left.

Scenery, Lego style:

Hey, a train!

The passenger station:

The Amusement Park and what looks like the house on the hill above the Bates Motel:

And a parade down mainstreet:

Some smaller layouts

Here are a few of the smaller layouts on display.  First, we have an N scale layout that I took a special interest in as they had used EZ Line on their telephone poles, which I had planned to do.  It looks pretty good.

And here is a closer look at the EZ Line.  I'm glad it showed up in my photo:

And this N scale coffee table layout is being raffled off for charity:

The traditional Christmas tree layout:

One guy just had a display of a number of scales running on some plywood.  The S Scale is for Roy and those few S Scalers out there.  I still think S scale would be a great scale to work in.  The Kato Shinkansen is really cool up close, also:

Here is a trolley shuttle layout.  Fairly simple, but the buildings are really cool.

Saskatoon puts on a nice show

I went to this show a few years ago and was impressed. Thought about going this weekend but had previous plans for today and a 5-6 hour drive each way doesn't work well for me on a Sunday.

Waiting to see more pictures.

More smaller layouts...

Next is another N scale layout.  When you look at this show in particular, you'd almost think N was at least as popular as HO, but it demonstrates the value of N scale and the space it saves:

And from another angle:

And one more N scale layout before moving on.  This is by a guy that does custom train layouts or dioramas.  I think he had three all lined up together:

And another one:

And one last one:

Next, at the CN Lines magazine booth, they had a display of some HO equipment.  In particular, I liked this one:

And this O Scale 3 rail with some of my favourite road, VIA:

And around the other side of the O layout:

Now what I think was some O narrow gauge, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to discern and didn't get a chance to ask:

And from another side, it looks as though he is showing the different seasons on these two modules.  This also gives you a view of 1910 Boomtown, a full scale demonstration of what would have typically been a prairie town in 1910:

More to come...

The BiG Layout and the Museum Layout

The BiG Layout is a G Scale layout that a group of modelers put together quite a few years ago.  It always makes an appearance at the Saskatoon show, and I believe others.  Its a very nicely built layout that always has a lot of kids around with the details, animations and big locos with sound.  Here are a few shots of it:

The builders of the BiG Layout also built the layout in the museum.  I'm not sure if I've shown pictures of it here before, so I thought I would do that this year.  Its completely automated so kids can push a button and watch two trains run around, one at a time, in opposite directions, and includes sound through some speakers with good volume.  I believe its supposed to represent Saskatoon about 100 years ago, but I'm not certain.  Here are a few pictures:

You can see the push button in this picture that starts the trains going:

And you can walk in to the right of the above photo and see this behind it, kind of their staging yard:

Two Booths Worth Visiting

There were two booths at the show I really enjoyed.  First, of course, was the Pacific Western Rail Systems/North American Railcar Corp. booth.  They had samples of all their current and upcoming rail cars, which all are a big deal to those of us in Canada.  These are the best representations of Canadian grain, coal, potash and sulfur cars out there, in both N and HO scales.  Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of all of them as there were a lot of people around every time I went by, so I just got these two of the grain hoppers and potash hoppers:

The other booth I visited, I wasn't expecting to be there and was pleasantly surprised.  Jeff from Prairie Shadows was showing off the samples of his upcoming custom-built cars, as well as his current special runs from Intermountain that you can't get anywhere else.  I've bought a number of things from Jeff in the past and it was good to meet him in person and see the samples of cars that I didn't know about and haven't been officially announced yet, so this may be a world exclusive!

Its been more than a year since Jeff announced the Pointe St. Charles CN caboose in N scale, built by MRH sponsor, Rapido Trains, this caboose will hopefully make it to our hot little hands sometime late this year.  While I have now switched to HO scale, I still pre-ordered several of these if only for display.  They are really nice.  But Jeff also showed me samples of two other freight cars Rapido will be making for Jeff - a 70 ton bulkhead flat car and a 52'6" Gondola, both in N scale only at this point.  You can also see in the photo below some special runs for Prairie Shadows.  Here's the placards and special run locos:

And here are the samples for the upcoming runs made by Rapido:

You really need to see the detail on the caboose up close - it is fantastic.  If you model CN in the right era, you need at least a couple of these babies on your layout, and those freight cars will be great, too.  I believe these are to be announced officially in the next week, so I encourage you N scalers out there that model Canadian roads to have a look.  Prairie Shadows and PWRS/NARC, along with other MRH sponsors, Rapido and TrueLine Trains are really making the world a better place for us Canadian prototype people.  Check them all out!

More Tomorrow!

I've still got a few dozen pictures or so left, plus several short videos I need to process, but its now pushing midnight and I need some sleep.  Hope you've enjoyed what you've seen so far, and believe me, there is some great stuff still to come!

Thanks for the look...

Saskatoon does put on a great show and I really wanted to take it in again this year.  Sadly, the drive is more than I wanted to do on a day trip and staying over was not in the cards this month.

Are you going to get one of the special edition Sask grain hoppers that PWRS did for the Prairie Rail Workshop group?

Caboose

I looked at it and was thinking this would be a perfect stand in for the UTAH BELT caboose I need for my layout.  It has to look close to the Atlas EV but a little different as to not blend in with the other EV caboose on the layout.   The price is what killed it for me.  I'm not going to hack up or chop up a $49.95 N scale car. 

I feel bad for whacking up a $36 bluford caboose.  I still have not pulled one fully apart to start the mod.

Each line that roles in from the GS&M, UB, SP, ATSF & ARZC has a caboose that is a little bit different than the others.

Thanks Dave

Thank you Dave for posting pics and comments about the show in Saskatoon. Well documented and good shot.

Question Prairie Shadow: * Where are they from exactly?  * Any plan to manufacture in-house?

I agree with you:  Prairie Shadows, PWRS/NARC, True Line Trains, Kaslo shop, rapido etc.  are making  a world of  difference for us Canadian prototype people.

Will you be going to Supertrain in cowntown in April?

Cheers

Prairie Shadows

Prairie Shadows is based in Winnipeg and at this time have no plans to do their own in-house manufacturing.  Maybe down the road, but at this time, Rapido and Intermountain will almost certainly be the producer of their products.

I would LOVE to go to SuperTrain, but have to find the wife an excuse to go to Calgary, too, to make it worth her while!  Seriously, I have to check my schedule and see if we can swing it or not.  Never been and I would really like to go.

And still have lots more pictures to come, so stay tuned!

The Prairie Rail Workshop

Before I head off for church, I thought I'd post a few more photos.  Here is the hosts' N scale layout:

The Big Top:

Downtown:

The Industrial reverse loop:

A long look at the steel facility and just how long this layout is.  The part on the right of the photo is split off on a wye, so there are actually three reverse loops.  Its quite a trip for an N scale train.

The steel mill:

The trestle.  Also, you can see this is the wye section where it splits off, there is another whole section (where the big top is) to the left.

That's it for now, more to come later...

Thanks, Dave - an observation on EZ line installation

Just like the weather

The few, the proud, the S scalers!

More Photos!

Here is the Moose Jaw Thunder Creek Train Club layout:

I think one of the things, oddly, that I like to see is things like the unfinished parts of these layouts to show people how they start and how they develop into final scenes.

Lots o' Trees:

A refinery:

Another module in development:

The intermodal yard:

The big city:

I think this was my favourite module they have:

Gotta love the CP maroon:

Rick

I talked at length to the guy that installed it and he said he really struggled getting them to sag naturally, and then to get ALL of them to sag the same way required more patience than he had, it sounded like.  I think this is what he felt looked the best of what he could do without pulling his hair out, but that was just my impression from talking with him.

Roy

I asked him how he found getting stuff for S scale and he, a bit tongue in cheek, said, everything you see here is all I could find!  But he still loves S scale, anyway.

And still more...

These next photos are of a 1:24 scale trolley layout.  The presentation on this is fantastic.  I got to see a bit of the set up on Friday and looked forward to seeing it in place.  It is really nice and I'm not sure my pictures do it justice:

Here is a look down from one end to the other:

Here is the trolley car coming around the corner:

And here is a wider look at the shadow box display of the layout:

This was a fantastic layout I had not seen before.  Great to see so much variety of scales and types of modeling. 

Back to the show

I'm headed back for a quick visit to the show again and see what sold of my consignment items.  Videos are uploading to YouTube as I type this, so hopefully I'll be able to post them when I return, along with photos from one last layout.

Show

Great pictures, Dave, keep them coming.

Roy

Thanks Dave

I appreciate your photo and mention.

I just wish I could have been there to lend some encouragement to the poor guy < G>

A couple videos

So a couple photos I took of a G scale layout didn't turn out, but I did take a video of it, so I'll post it.  I wish I had a camera today as they had a couple F units pulling some stainless steel passenger cars.  All of these scales have their advantages and G is definitely in how you can detail things.  Here is the video:

This next one isn't really great quality because of where I was shooting from, unfortunately, but it was neat to see quite a large steam engine that was actually running (but going nowhere):

LaBaJa club of Edmonton

OK, so the final layout of our tour was the LaBaJa club of Edmonton (I think they are officially called the Edmonton Society of Model Railroad Engineers, but I'm not certain - someone can hopefully correct me).  This is a FABULOUS layout and a clear fan favourite with everything going on.  I knew I couldn't do it justice with just pictures, so I took some videos.  But let's start with the pictures.

The layout is in an L shape, this being the end of the bottom of the 'L':

This is the same location as above, but facing to the right of it:

This is the steel trestle that starts at the right most of the bottom track from the photo above:

And here is the trestle looking back toward the first two pictures (with the Rapido CP caboose/van on the tail of the train, shameless plug):

And this is the bridge that kind of reminds me of the Stoney Creek bridge in BC.  Its tough to see, but there is a helicopter "hovering" over the cliff, rescuing someone who is somewhere they shouldn't be (probably a railfan trying to get that great picture).  This is to the right of the picture above, along the very bottom of the 'L':

And here is the corner that heads straight to the top of the 'L' (which is actually a backwards 'L' now that I think about it):

I quite like this scene of the loco opened up at the service shop.  I didn't notice when I took it, but there is also a layout monitor on the laptop at the back which clearly shows the shape of the layout:

And this is a cool little scene of a school yard playground:

More photos in the next post...

More LaBaJa

Continuing on with the tour, this is a scene with some welding going on, which you'll see in one of the videos:

And here is a shot of an amazing work of electronics (more in the video):

And here is some typical Canadiana - Tim Horton's with a parking lot full of police cars (for those that don't know, Tim Horton's is a donut and coffee shop, the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin' Donuts, but superior in my view):

Here is a finally detailed interior of the Esso office building, look at the chairs, desks, computers, etc.:

The drive-in movie theater with the movie actually playing:

The intermodal/container terminal (that I believe has a functioning crane, but not positive on that):

And another shameless Rapido plug - the CN Turbo train at the station (unfortunately, it wasn't running on the track, but you could hear it idling):

Another shameless plug, but you also get a different view of the Northlander in the back, which is pretty neat, too:

And here is on the other side of the tunnel from the very first picture from the previous post:

And finally, the last photo I have is of the above scene looking towards the tunnel:

OK, so that's the photos.  I have to run out now, but I promise the videos will get up on here later tonight.  You have to see some of these videos if you like cool lights and animation.