This year's Saskatoon Train Show featured our largest travelling display, at 25 foot by 30 foot. It included the final viewing of Laszlo's 17-1/2 foot suspension bridge, a new addition of a 17 foot arch bridge modelled after a bridge in Saskatoon, and Drew's bridges over a river valley. Also new to the display was Don Parnell's early 1900's replica version of the Misericordia Hospital in Edmonton. One view of that even shows the corridors inside the hospital, which would give you a sick, high fevered mini-fig's perspective :).
Other additions were John's mountains and Andrew's skyscrapers, featuring the Peace Hills Trust and Enbridge towers. Also new were the working Ferris Wheel, functional Merry-Go-Round (the horses do indeed go up and down) and the dual helixes which allow the trains to spiral to any of four possible levels.
Our display was a great hit with young and old alike, and the typical question was "Is this all really LEGO?" We had at all times four moving trains on three separate loops in the display, all using Lego analog power. The double spirals had a lot of comments from other railroaders and exhibitors. Only one accident was recorded over the two days as a 2-1/2 year old grabbed the moving train going down one of the spirals.
Travel has risks, and we lost a few structures and spent over 6 hours upon arrival in repair mode instead set up mode. That didn't allow for detailing to the degree we had hoped. :(. We did get the trains running for the show opening the next day at 10 o'clock sharp. Over the 2 days, we had over 2,500 people view the display - a great turnout for Saskatoon. This year's show was held at the museum with indoor showings of an old prairie town, and car and train displays. It was an incredible must see for any model train or vintage building fan.
Videos taken show the workings of several key elements. The largest video is of the longest train we had going. The train ran for over 2 hours and consisted of 40 cars and 3 locomotives.
Special thanks go out to Drew and Don for their help in putting on the display. For three people, it was a lot of tiring fun and a labour of love for Lego and trains.
Laszlo Szojka
