Super train 2015

[tossedman]

My son and a friend joined my wife and I on our annual pilgrimage to Supertrain, Canada's largest model train show that is held every spring here in Calgary. There are over 100 exhibitors with lots and lots of layouts. It's always great to see what's new and what's been around for a while.

 

Here's a fella's T-Trak layout with a twist. He uses extruded aluminum for the base. It's pretty cool but not the cheapest way to do things. These T-Trak modules are the only ones I saw here. The scenic half is made by a fella in Canmore which is about an hour west of here and the other half by a fella in Edmonton which is about three hours north. You can see they've made larger modules.

 

 

Here's what the bottom of his corner module looks like. He's got two corner modules in one here, 180°. They're very rigid and he uses a plate to join the modules together making alignment pretty straight forward.

 

 

Saw a new standard (well, new to me) for the little ones. W Trak! It's wooden railroads for little tykes. Well thought out and well used. Lots more information at wTrak.org.

You can download a copy of one of his books here.

 

 

This exhibit was packed. Great place for the little ones to get a chance to do some hands on since almost every other exhibit said "hands off"!

 

 

Of all the trains and layouts on display there were only two Japanese trains that I saw. One was a Lego train and the other was none other than Spaceman Spiff's. Here's the Shinkansen that he had out at the moment. He had others behind the scene as well. He was down from Edmonton with the Edmonton N Scalers.

 

 

And finally, since Noah's birthday is next Friday we stopped at HobbyTech's display (our LHS that carries lots of Japanese and European rail) and picked up a Kato N700A Shinkansen. Noah was pretty excited to get train show pricing even though I paid for it. Go figure eh! Somehow I foresee an expansion pack being asked for in the future. Here it is beside his Kato E5 Shinkansen.

 

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited July 9, 2023 by tossedman
Re-uploaded missing images

[cteno4]

Todd,

 

Ohhh looks like you guys had fun!

 

coming home with a new train, bet someone else other than Noah was excited to put it on the rails!

 

interesting Wtrak standard, have not seen that!

 

I like the extruded aluminum base! It was funny i was just talking to one of the club members this week about jrm 3.0 layout ideas and we were thinking about what to use for module bases to deal with the warping we had on the last modules due to the top getting painted and slowly pulling the tops up (no horrible only a mm or two but annoying that paint could do this!). We were thinking of just doing the same 1x1 frame but epoxy and screwing thin aluminum L stock on the insides or along the front and back edges to stiffen it up.

 

we have used this stuff in portable exhibits before and its handy stuff with lots of accessories, but you are right it aint cheap! but its something to think about and look at.

 

jeff

Edited April 19, 2015 by cteno4

[tossedman]

It definitely was fun. It's a great show every year. Had a good chat with lots of different people about a lot of different things. Learned a lot. When I was talking to the fella about that T Trak set up I mentioned that my son and I like to model Japanese trains he says "Oh, there's a forum dedicated to that". I laughed and told him I was already on that forum.

 

Some of the craftsmanship at these shows just blow me away. It's always good to see what I have to aspire to.

 

Todd

[bikkuri bahn]

When I saw the post title, I first thought it was about a remake of this LOL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertrain

*I was a second grader at the time it was broadcast...

 

thanks for the report.

[cteno4]

Yeah it was the same here, but figured it would not be "the super train"! It was senior year of high school for me, and at first I had hopes it would be something great, but alas it was only classic late 70s disco drama... A sinister love boat... In the backdrop of classics like MASH at the time it was dismal.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4417N3qvnyk

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WvF7dIVVKGQ

 

Jeff

[tossedman]

I've added a link to the train show to my initial post. Jeff, I'm from the same era as you and have absolutely no recollection of the show. Couldn't have done well.

 

Todd

[cteno4]

There is a reason you probably don't, I think 9 episodes total, major flop!

 

Jeff

[spacecadet]

There is a reason you probably don't, I think 9 episodes total, major flop!

Yeah but it was awesome anyway. The train had a pool!

[cteno4]

If for not the horrid production it was an interesting idea! But anyone knowing ROR in the us it was a fantasy, the thing was like 30' tall. And wider than double track spacing! But these were the days of the original battle star galactica on tv. Their drama/suspense was pretty lame compared to classics like mission impossible that was filmed on about the catering budget of supertrain! Now mission impossible was a classic that is timeless. $100m movies could not touch how cleanly the old simple tv series was done! Goes to show how you push things too far and it misses that sweet spot!

 

Jeff