Tommy Hood's Canadian Northern - A Railfan's Dream

Tommy Hood certainly is a busy man! When he's not running his successful business CDS Lettering Ltd. he can be found in the basement of his sprawling bungalow running his trains! Who could ask for a better life?!

The Friday Night Group paid a visit to Tommy's home to help him put the layout through the rigours of a train running session. Let it be known now...Tommy's passion for the hobby is focussed on running trains and not necessarily "operating" the layout in the terms of the "train ops" that the Friday Night boys conduct in their basements. As Tommy says, "Some day I'll set up for operations...but I love what I'm doing here for the time being!"

Nothing can be farther from the truth. It is a true pleasure seeing the joy on Tommy's face as he makes up a train in his sprawling yard...a train consisting mainly of boxcars lettered from the dry transfers his company produces. Tommy is proud to hand the train to one of the Friday Nighters and he is most content to sit back and observe it as it rolls through the countryside...and, yes, there are many countless gorgeous scenes along the right of way.



This layout is a railfan's delight. Trains in care of beautiful Canadian Northern locomotives pass numerous industrial areas, a northern swamp that is the envy of us all (Tommy credits Carl Swail here), through rugged mountainous terrain, across lengthy trestles and into little "out of the way" locations where a meet or a pass can take place. A couple of larger yards are encountered along the route as the train meanders the countryside. A one way excursion on the layout typically takes well over a half an hour, depending on any meets (or railfan run-by's) encountered by the crew.



I didn't ask Tommy the dimensions of his layout, but I would approximate it at being at least 60'x30'. One section, but a mere fraction of the layout, holds the major hub at line's end where the classification yard, engine servicing facilities and city are located. This area alone is much larger than most layouts around. Tommy asked the builders of his house to pour a foundation under the garage...yes, under the garage so he could make his layout bigger. I would love to have seen the expression on the contractor's face when that request was made!

What's this about no operations, Tom? We operated the layout and 14 fellas had a ball bringing the Canadian Northern to life! It's amazing how 14 gentlemen can get lost in this basement...the layout seems to "eat us all up"! Except for those pesky photographers (grin) you never sensed a crowd in any of the aisleways at all. Indeed, some of the fellows enjoyed operating the main yard and engine facility while others enjoyed setting up imprompto meets and passes out on the high iron.

The images in this posting demonstrate but a small clip from the action last evening. They are indicative of the beautiful scenery evident throughout the entire layout. Closer examination of the photos will show the detail and handiwork evident across all areas of this massive layout.

The odd diesel locomotive pairing was spotted trackside in care of a train hauling a consist of stock cars. The green and gold of the CN colour scheme is certainly one of the finest applications in the North American rail network.

That's the edge of a rather large swampland area we see trackside in the image to the left. This is one of the key railfanning locations along the route.

Tommy has a number of on-line industries that are already in place whenever he chooses to focus in greater detail on operations. A number of his crewmates have made structures for him and Tommy always makes sure that they are given credit for their work and accomplishments on his layout.

Tommy's industries are varied. This will enable him to run a variety of rolling stock across the pike. In fact, a number of the images in this posting display a coal drag handled by one of his many Canadian Northern locomotives.

As mentioned earlier, Tommy loves his boxcars. His company, CDS Transfers, has helped thousands of modellers worldwide recreate the boxcar of their choosing. Tommy's yard is full of examples of his company's lettering jobs on these freightcars of the past!

As we all know, a railroad is never complete. Tommy is working hard with some of his crew to complete the city scene illustrated here. This large section (a fraction of the entire layout) is situated below his garage!

Tommy apologizes for what he considers a lack of operations on his layout, stating, "With a little planning, the online industries will someday be brought to life and I will truly operate the layout." Well, in our books, the members of the Friday Night Group truly operated one of the finest layouts around...Tommy Hood's Canadian Northern!

Cheers, Mike H.