Brantford Area Layout Tour

The Bronx Terminal on display at Fast Tracks.

On Saturday Peter Mumby and I attended the Brantford area layout tour. The last time we did the tour it was 2011 and a lot has changed since then. Registering in Paris we checked out the rail yard and photographed one train before heading to Pt. Dover the home of Fast Tracks and Mt. Albert Lumber plus some really nice layouts. We also beat the biker there as this Friday is the 13th and gathering day for thousands of biker in town. We took in six layout in the Pt. Dover and Brantford area...enjoy the views...George Dutka

Located in Paris Ont. with a nice backyard view of the CN main line, The Grand Valley Division is a N scale layout that is basically an oval in the middle of a lower level room. What I found interesting was all the signage around the walls.

A view of Gord King's double deck layout featuring many scenes from Southwestern Ontario operating big steam.

The model of the CNR coaling tower which once stood in London, Ont. Gord is now working on modeling the roundhouse. Gord grew up in London and his father was an engineman who retired a year before I hired on.

Tim Warris filling us in about how the Bronx Terminal operated. We had a nice tour of Fast Tracks and Mt. Albert Lumber.

The Brox Terminal's only transfer was by ferry service.

Peter and I got a tour of the plant. Gerry shows us the machine used to make the copper ties used in the Fast Track jigs.

Roger Chrysler gives his train some extra help. He models a traction line that ran through his hometown of Brantford. The Lake Erie and Northern Rwy. is a very nicely laid out line following the prototype. Roger is an extremely talented modeler.

On Rogers layout there is drawer track which makes handling transfers much easier.

The new home of the New York and Seven layout. This layout is a joint effort by a husband and wife team of Greg and Gail Whayman. Gail is an excellent craftsman kit builder. This layout is still in their early stages of construction but will be a must stop in the future.

Greg has got the stop lights up and working on this module which came from their old layout. The layout will be operated by Railroad Company Software 9 Gold...which means everything will function without any help from an operator if required.

A four deck layout was on the tour built by Ted Black. Peter and I though we better check this one out which modeled the Brantford, Ont. area. I have never seen someone attempt that many levels. The top deck was just above my head and I am 6 foot tall so the duck-under was simple and the lower lever is below knee height maybe a foot and a half off the floor. In reality only the two middle decks Peter and I could view easily. The lower deck holds a number of passenger trains, 16 are reported down there.The passenger station on the second from bottom deck partly hidden by the stopped passenger train is the Brantford station.