Doubleheaders Tour 2008 pictures

[galt904]

Here's my pictures from the 2008 Doubleheaders tour in SW Ontario. Didn't see as many layouts as other years because I had 2 of my kids with me, and needed to visit the toilets at every place because my 2 year old was in her first week of being fully potty trained. So I visited several that I normally do, and several new ones I've never been to.

1st layout visited was Aberfoyle (tradition) no pictures of this one, I'd probably end up photographing the same things every year.

2nd layout (with no further ones in Guelph I wanted to see) was Waterloo Region Model Railroad club. Unfortunately it seems they are moving backwards in terms of progress, they have less track running than they used to, and no further work on scenery in the 5 or so years I've visited. Here's a couple pics of 1 of 2 nearly completed areas on the layout.

[galt904]

Next layout visited was Milo Shantz, in the St Jacobs Country Mill. This layout is excellently completed, with authentic scenes from the 50s in the St Jacobs area.

Note the covered bridge, it is a "flat" along the back edge, tapered from one end to other to create the illusion of perspective.

[galt904]

More pics from St Jacobs...

[galt904]

After lunch we visited Jim Nuhn's layout based on Goderich Ontario. I enjoyed this one, gave me some thought about the practicality of a double deck layout, with both decks being quite accessible. Also of interest was using the top of the helix (24" radius) as part of the layout so it doesn't seem to eat up quite as much room.

[galt904]

Following that was Dieter Engelmann's Norfolk Southern Southern Tier layout. Original layout is in one room, with staging expanded into a big loop around the basement. My girls loved watching the train come through the stairs. I was disappointed to see no further progress on this layout either.

[galt904]

Last stop in K-W was the Preston Model Railroad Society, with a sprawling anything-goes HO layout with nose-bleed upper deck, and also a large N layout. Here's some pics of the HO layout. I'm a sucker for CP diesels.

[galt904]

Then a quick jaunt to Cambridge for Jeff Pinchbeck's CP Sutherland Sub. Benchwork is all done, ready for scenery and buildings. Well researched layout. I appreciate building mockups to get a feel for the builder's intentions. Jeff's mockups appear to be original scaled blueprints on foamcore structures.

[MasonJar]

Thanks for the pics!

That St Jacon's layout is great - I recognize the main street!

Kids are great too - my girls no longer have the patience to go to trains with me. I get the occasional whirlwind tour as long as some of the other members' kids are there too...

Andrew

[galt904]

And the last one, Graham MacDonald's Ottawa, Arnprior, & Parry Sound. Some nice progress since the last time I was there, I only took some pics of the newly completed areas.

[cntown]

Pictures are amazing .thanks for taking so many,i know what you mean about taking the kids with you .I only had my 2yr old and he was a handfull but you had 2 girls also and no backup.The boss said I had to work 1 day over the weekend and with the Lakeshore Flea Market at Humber on sunday it won out.

[acsoosub]

Originally Posted by galt904

2nd layout (with no further ones in Guelph I wanted to see) was Waterloo Region Model Railroad club. Unfortunately it seems they are moving backwards in terms of progress, they have less track running than they used to, and no further work on scenery in the 5 or so years I've visited. Here's a couple pics of 1 of 2 nearly completed areas on the layout.

I don't know what makes you say that, there's definately no piece of track or layout that's been removed or taken out of service, so that part of your comment is wrong.

A lot of work has been done over the past year; some of it hidden, some of it fairly visible. We've completely rewired all the feeders underneath the main yard at Sudbury, a task that took a little over a year to complete. All the DCC components as well as some new electronics were moved into a new electrical cabinet by the yard. A lot of electronic work was completed at the staging yard on the control panel and optical detectors on each staging track.
Some scenery work has been done, but admittedly it's been a little slow since we've been putting a lot of work into other things right now.
On the visible progress end of things, perhaps you failed to notice the fairly major new construction in the middle of the layout? What a year ago was a big empty space now has a new wall, a set of stairs and an upper level walkway, a new ceiling and flooring for upstairs, the start of new benchwork shelves, new lighting, part of a new helix, and some new track forming a hidden ramp between levels. Some more of this construction is along the aisle by the staging yard. All this construction is part of our push to expand the mainline length for more operation. As well, some cracks and defects were repaired in the backdrop on the rear wall behind Subdury and the entire thing repainted.

Here's three shots taken in pretty much the same direction of the same area:

May 2007 (after the last Doubleheaders Tour)
http://www.wrmrc.ca/graphics/construction1.jpg

August 2007:
http://www.wrmrc.ca/graphics/construction2.jpg

January 2008:
http://www.wrmrc.ca/graphics/construction19.jpg

We're constantly fighting the perception that the layout doesn't change much from year to year; but this year has frankly had the most progress, especially with the new construction, and we've completed a couple major electrical projects, with a few more still getting attention. Unfortunately the electrical projects take a lot of time to complete and are completely invisible to visitors. And with only about a half dozen members actually putting in the majority of the work, a few hours once a week, sometimes certain projects can stall a little when there's something higher priority (in terms of operability) to complete.

Anyway, nice photos, glad you came out on the tour, I just felt I had to defend the club's side here, especially when we really have made a lot of progress this year compared to the last few years.

[spitfire]

Thanks for the great pics! I'm mad at myself that I missed the tour - it's a great one, and have always enjoyed it a lot!

Val

[viperman]

My favorite is the St Jacobs. The creator seems to be somewhat on the same ideas as me, where the layout is based on the scenery, wth the trains running through it

[galt904]

Chris, thanks for the inside info. I thought there had already been stairs on the south? side of the layout the first time I saw it 5 or so years ago, but I may be wrong. I seem to recall seeing a lot more second level of the layout before than what was open on the weekend. I didn't see it last year at all, but I did see it 2 years ago.

Viperman, I agree. That St. Jacobs layout is superbly done in terms of scenery and detail. I believe most of the structures are scratchbuilt.

[acsoosub]

There's a half set of stairs on the south side, at the back of aisle where the staging yard is, which doesn't really go anywhere yet, but we've started putting in the joists for the floor of the middle level walkway it goes to. Another half set will go from there to the second floor at the back of the layout. A completely new set of stairs and a whole new middle level walkway was built in the centre. As well as the ceiling joists above and the flooring on those for the second floor. All that structure had to go in before we started the new trackwork, since the one helix fits under the stairs from the middle level to upstairs, and another helix will eventually go through the ceiling nearby. That helix that's in progress there has about 3 or 4 things wrapping around it, so it's really the key part of the expansion that needs to happen first, even though there's 200+ feet of track that goes between it and the nearest existing section of the layout...