A Visit to Patrick Gagnon's Home Layout/Diorama

Well, so much for the thought of a weekly blogpost...but for now it is remaining regularly once per month, baby steps!

I contacted Patrick Gagnon, an excellent modeller, awhile back about paying him a visit and seeing some of his models along with his small, yet impressive layout in person.  He kindly obliged, and I made the trek to Saint-Leonard, NB yesterday.  Of course, as a railfan I had to check the west-facing home signal at Saint-Leonard immediately after crossing the border, which showed a very clear indication of no westbound trains for awhile.  So it was time to follow Patrick to his house, and see the layout and the models that awaited my camera!

Upon arrival at Patrick's, he and I walked downstairs into his basement and as soon as he opened the door to his layout room, I seriously didn't know where to look first.  Everywhere I turned there was either a finished, gorgeous looking product, or a project in the works.  This was the first scene that I saw as I entered the most impressive room.

Impressive workbench featuring Saint-Leonard Irving sawmill in behind.

I am being completely serious when I say that it took me a solid 10-15 minutes to just look everything over right in this spot.  I was truly impressed as I just looked everything over with drool ready to just drop right out of my mouth...okay so maybe not, but you get the idea!

Any type of pre 90's North American diesel locomotive and chances are, he has either 1) started and completed a kit/kitbash of the model, 2) is in the process of building the model, or 3) plans on getting the proper detailed parts to complete the kit at some point.  Let me just say that this guy knows how to model, and model well!  The assortment of half-completed, fully completed, no where near completed projects lay all over the workbench, each one was impressive in its own super detailed way.

After getting my eyes back in my head, it was time to clean the rails a bit and run some stuff!  As Patrick's layout is arranged as a diorama, there isn't much running to do, but for the little that is available, it has very good scenery.  The first order of business was to bring one of his GP40-2W's out and so after playing with the QSI sound functions, I snapped a couple photos.  I will share a few photos below here to show just how detailed a portion of his fleet is.  I say a portion because I could've spent a full week there photographing each individual model.  The portion where I mainly staged the trains for the photos is in a portion of what Patrick is portraying as modern day Longley on the CN Napadogan Subdivision, located in northwestern New Brunswick.

CN 9637 coupled up to another GP40-2W, staged at CN Longley with a scratchbuilt SGE signal.

With the shoot of the GP40 wide cabs out of the way, I brought out something from the yard that piqued my interest a little bit more, CN 4105, a GP9, and parked it right on the crossing for its 'photoshoot'.

CN 4105, a GP9 idles at the crossing with an impatient driver of a Midland truck on the other side.

There were a variety of more units I 'played' with, I'll share these photos below.

CN 2000 backing down from the crossing.

VIA LRC in run mode awaits a clear signal at CN Longley, with a MOW crew preparing to relay track.

CN 1124, a GMD-1, custom painted blares the horn as the lone unit approaches the busy crossing.

CN 9674 has a train in tow as the light engine movements are done for the moment, allowing a 'real train' to get rolling!

I'll take a few minutes now and discuss how Patrick's yard is set up.  He says that he originally planned to model a small BAR yard, such as Northern Maine Junction, (NMJ), located in Hermon, Maine. However, now he says it could be a representation of either NMJ or Edmundston, New Brunswick.  Regardless, I figured rather than just explaining it, I should document it, so I will have more ideas for my future yard someday, and so you all can see for yourselves! :)

NMJ or Edmundston?

You may notice that there are a collection of cabeese in back...one being a new-to-Patrick, Overland Models kit.  There really is not much else to say about the yard, other than the fact that he says he may add a couple more tracks in time to accommodate better switching.  Also, his 'siding' at Longley will be his yard lead in time.  I was beginning to get short on time at this point, as I had previous commitments, so I wrapped up the day with a couple shots of some 'rare' visitors to Canada ;)

Sister's BAR 85 & 86 sit dead after going into emergency, having just left the Saint-Leonard mill.

MMA 8592 comes to the rescue to pull the two BAR units out of the woods, and return to American soil.

And that about wrapped up the tour of Patrick Gagnon's small but impressive layout/diorama with some truly epic models!

After leaving Patrick's, I took the old highway on the way back to Grand Falls and intercepted CN 305, a manifest train, just west of Grand Falls.  Since I really was strapped for time, I observed it as I met it awhile driving and did a quick mental inventory of the power...of course I jotted it down when I got a chance :)

Hope you enjoyed reading about Patrick's layout, and if you are ever in the area, I am sure he would be open to more visitors.  Thanks again Patrick!

- Caleb