I attended my first SuperTrain this year! SuperTrain is Canada’s largest train show, and is held in Calgary, Alberta every April. This year it was in the Genesis Centre, a spacious facility in the northwest part of the city.
My friend Brian Schuff and his lovely wife Deana offered me a lift to the show, so we drove from Winnipeg to Calgary in one very long day. I didn’t drive at all but I was the navigator! We met a friend of Brian’s for dinner Friday night, then retired to a nearby hotel.
On Saturday morning, we arrived bright and early.
My first impressions of the show… overwhelming. Busy. Huge.
The Genesis Centre has two hockey rinks in the centre, with large gymnasiums on either side. The show occupied them all.
I appreciated that the rooms were fully occupied but they weren’t jammed full. There was enough room in most cases to walk around. One of the gyms had a few child-related activities in one end, so it was pretty jammed with families most of the time.
I spent a lot of time at the CNR Historical Association booth. I knew a few people there from submitting articles for publication in CN Lines and from other correspondence. It was great to meet them in person and also meet a few new people there.
The Canadian Pacific Historical Association was also present and I had a good chat with them.
On to the layouts!
This layout came all the way from Thunder Bay, Ontario. I thought we drove far. They drove in a bus!
There were several Free-mo layouts at the show. This one had some nice scenery on it. I have to say that it was a little disconcerting to see “plywood Pacific” layouts at a train show of this size.
This was a very popular layout. I snapped my photo near the end of the show when the crowds were thinning out.
This Prairie convert really liked the grain elevators that graced many layouts.
There were several British layouts and vendors selling British trains, which was surprising – and great! This was from the Calgary British Railway Modellers Club. I also noticed a Japanese (?) layout.
Vendors
There were many vendors at the show! Some were manufacturers, like Rapido or ScaleTrains, some were hobby shops like Trains N Such and Otter Valley, and some were private individuals. You could buy almost anything there…
I managed to avoid buying too much. I bought a couple of equipment boxes from NAFTA Scale Models and a pink Gunderson boxcar from Aurora Miniatures.
LEGO
I was really enamoured with the LEGO displays at the show. There were a few that were really extensive. This one by the Calgary LEGO Train Club looked a lot like a “real” model railway, and I guess it is – just in LEGO.
Not Trains
I was glad to see that non-train modelers were represented at the show too. They were doing some modeling live, and I had a good chat with a few of them. Bravo!
Conclusion
I loved SuperTrain 2024 and I’m glad I went. I met a lot of people, talked with a lot of old friends, and saw a lot of great layouts. It’s well worth a visit.