On a recent visit up to Canada, Brian had the opportunity to revisit a few home layouts. Excellent layouts included Justin’s, Walter’s and new this year, John Johnston’s. Justin Parry’s layout is featured above; John Johnson’s is featured below. These layouts all illustrate the craftsmanship and hard work that goes into building a quality model railroad.

The layout featured above can be seen at Credit Valley Railway, the hobby shop located in Mississauga, Canada. The layout illustrates what can be done with available supplies, of which the hobby shop carries everything needed to build this fine layout. On a recent visit, Brian found the selection at the store was wonderful, the help most gracious, and prices reasonable. Many hard to find and unusual items were readily available and easy to find in the well organized store. If you are in the area, do not pass up an opportunity to visit this fine Canadian hobby shop.

FUNTRAK continues to expand the size of the club layouts displayed for the public. Again this year the t-trak layout got larger and the new HO t-trak layout was included at the Fonda Fair, thanks to one of FUNTRAK’s newest members, Greg Brockway. The week-long train display draws many visitors and fascinates observers as they watch multiple trains traverse the many routes available on the numerous different scale layouts on display. The hard work of the members of the clubs involved pays off in the many smiles from the public to the people presenting the great model railroads at the fair.

Here are a few pictures of the handiwork of our Canadian friends, Justin Parry and David King. As with most model railroad layouts, these are all a work-in-progress. It is always interesting to follow the progress of a layout as it grows, and moves toward completion. Of course, no layout ever seems to be “complete!” Justin’s layout is a large N scale layout with numerous modern features that are being developed. The electronics involved are truly mind-boggling, but they sure make operation interesting! David’s layout is a smaller On30 layout with a reduced version of similar controls to Justin’s. David usually tries something on his layout and then incorporates into Justin’s after testing and evaluation. The smaller layout provides a “test bed” for trying new things before going upscale to the larger layout. David is doing all these electronics while at the same time scratchbuilding most of the structures for his layout. Retirement contributes to much of the time required to do all these things, but even then things do not go as quickly as one might imagine. FUNTRAK will continue to follow the evolution of these railroads as we overtake the future.

This post is a tribute to our Northern neighbors in Canada. Brian recently visited with longtime
friend David King in Hamilton, Ontario where he was fortunate enough to visit a few home layouts,
including David’s. One of the interesting layouts he visited is pictured below, the Credit
Valley Railway based in the company store in Mississauga.

in store layout at Credit Valley Railway

Besides the HO layout, which this and the other pictures below were taken on, there is also a Lionel layout as well as a small O gauge diorama. All these displays are well done and are a big asset to the hobby shop. The layouts illustrate what can be done with available supplies, of which the hobby shop carries everything needed to build these fine layouts. The selection at the store was wonderful, the help most gracious, and prices reasonable. Many hard to find and unusual items were readily available and easy to find in the well organized store. If you are in the area, do not pass up an opportunity to visit this fine Canadian hobby shop.

FUNTRAK club member Clayt Farrall cheerfully presents Brian Curry with a T-Trak basic module

FUNTRAK was extremely pleased to give this module to Brian in recognition of his accomplishments and contributions to model railroading. Of course, there is a catch. With the upcoming annual Picnik, FUNTRAK will be setting up a small T-trak layout at the Picnik and expects Brian’s new module to be the star of the show. The August cover will tell the story. We’re all rooting for you Brian!

Brian Curry was kind enough to invite Funtrak members to visit his exquisite N scale home layout. This layout will provide inspiration to anyone who has even the slightest interest in model railroading. See his exquisitely detailed layout below.