Brantford Layout Tour - Area Railfanning

The New York and Seven layout built by Greg and Gail Whayman was a treat to see. They love building structure kits and running their layout view a computer program. In this view is one of the new scenes that has a face board made from barn board now available at Home Depot. The rust stains Greg added using PanPastels. The guest book is located at this end of the scene.

Saturday Peter and I took off to the Brantford, Ontario area for their annual layout tour. It was a sunny day so railfanning was also on our mind. As it turned out we spent more time as railfans then layout tour participants...pictures tell the story...George Dutka

Barry Silverthorn was Greg's helper at the New York and Seven and he brought along a few of his Roomettes as displays on areas that are yet finished on the layout.

Another view of the New York and Seven. This layout is less than two years old and has a lot of completed scenes.

The Brantford Model Railroad Club's layout was a pleasant surprise. It has been a number of years since I last visited this layout. It is located in a steel sided former garage which holds some really interesting scenes and a lot of nice trains that I had not seen run in the past. They had a NS road-railer train set that both Peter and I took a close look at. In this scene a Ford plant is actually just a building flat that  has a track into it which hold a few hi-cube boxcar and a loading facility for multi-levels in the foreground.

The Brantford group also did a nice job emulating a Timmies.

Peter pointed out this Canadian road name air slide that I was unaware of.

At the Brantford VIA station a trio of vintage CN 9400 and 9500's are seen. When was the last time you saw three of these together. Not bad for engines over 40 years old. Note that the station still has their 40th anniversary signs up.

CN 9427 appears to have been set up for belt pack operations recently.

Our day began with a stop at Paris Jct. and as usual almost no time for setting up a shot. As we pull in next to the track a train shows up requiring us to bail out of the car really quickly to get this view from the cars doorway. We were shooting into the sun to boot. I guess you take your shots when you can as they might be the only view of the day.

Peter and I had our lunch at the Brantford VIA station and caught number 72 which was on time. Think I caught Peter in the photo also.

One of the 40th Anniversary engines was on the tail end of VIA 72.

After checking out two more layouts we returned to the VIA station to watch number 73 arrive and depart. Once again another 40th anniversary engine leads the way. By this time the sun has departed for the day.