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Showing posts from 2017

North Toronto Layout Overview

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I promised in my last posting to post some pictures of the recent progress on my layout. At this point, I've given most of the layout a basic coat of scenery, with the exception of a few of the team tracks themselves. Also, I have yet to build the brick warehouse/office type building that will inhabit one end of the layout. At this point, though, it seems that it may be a while before any more progress occurs, due to circumstances beyond my control. Anyway, the scenery that I have completed was mostly finished this August, but I haven't got around to posting until now. I may end up redoing part of the scenery, as I've found vintage  aerial photographs  of the area from the period I'm modelling, which show the CP main much closer to the team tracks than I originally thought. These photos come from the excellent  City of Toronto Archives online collection  which I've recently become aware of - providing a fun way to spend a few evenings.  The whole layout, in

Video: North Toronto Team Tracks in Operation

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Sorry that I haven't posted in a long time, so here's a video of some operations on my layout. There is no sound, and the video is short - but trains are moving and you can see some of the scenery that I've completed on the layout. This is posted on youtube - you can probably view the video in a larger format there. Also, if for some reason you can't see the video on the blog post, here is the link to watch it directly on youtube:  https://youtu.be/GYr-ned2Ez0 I'll try to post some photos of the progress on the layout over this weekend.

CP Rail Storage Shed

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The left hand section of my new layout depicts the modelled industrial spur running parallel to the CP main, and on the plan I pencilled in a small railway-owned storage shed to add some visual interest to the scene. The shed wasn't based on any particular building, but instead was to be a sort of combination of various similar structures around Toronto.  As I don't have any foam core board yet to proceed with layout construction, I decided to scratchbuild one of the two buildings that should be necessary for this model railway. I hadn't scratchbuilt anything for a while, so I decided to build the storage shed first before tackling the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company building that is the focus of the right hand layout scene, as well as a rather large building. The shed was not built with any particularly interesting techniques - I used Mt. Albert scale lumber clapboard sheets for the walls and styrene sheet for the roof, which was then covered with masking tape to represent

A New Layout?

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This does not, in any way, mean that I've abandoned the North Toronto Team Tracks layout. However, I've run into a bit of a problem as I can't move forward on construction for the layout until I can purchase more styrene strip in order to make curbs for the streets on the layout. Until then, though, I plan to work on a project that is feasible with materials I have on hand. Recently, I've been looking through the old posts of Chris Mears' excellent  Prince Street  blog. While looking through his blog, I came across his ideas for a model railway with tightly controlled viewpoints, showing only small scenes within a very large overall fascia. My explanation doesn't do the idea justice, but  here is the link to his original post on the concept.  At the time, I was quite intrigued by the idea, and as I had no layout at the time, I considered building a version of it. However, I was unable to come with a viable prototype for such a layout, and I eventually moved on

Staging Plans

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Quite a bit of progress has occurred on my model railway over the past few days, including the installation of all track on the primary two modules of the layout, though I have been remiss about posting about this progress. However, the next major project for the layout is the staging module. This is necessary before I proceed any further, mostly as I can't operate the layout until the staging module is attached as it serves as a yard lead/tail track. While the main part of the layout is now semi-permanently installed, the staging module has to be detached from the layout after each operating session, as it blocks the door to the room. The idea for this staging module comes from Rick De Candido's Fillmore Avenue Roundhouse blog. Specifically, I plan to use the idea for the tray assembly from his Staging Cassette Mk1  post to form the main part of the staging area. I also plan to use cassettes of some sort to finish of the staging area. I did, however, make a few modificatio

Progress...

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A condition that has been all to rare recently on my model railway. Slightly over a month ago, I finally came to a workable layout plan and posted about it. After that, I made some small progress towards constructing benchwork for that layout, and then stopped working on almost anything model railway related. Now, though, with the start of summer break from school, I have a great deal more time to work on the layout, and should start getting things accomplished (or so I like to tell myself, though I'm not sure how true that is...). It turns out that the two main layout sections fit nicely in the center of the storage room between two closet doors. There is, in fact, a fair amount to show in terms of progress from the last week. I managed to finish benchwork for the two main sections of layout, as well as attaching foam board layout surface. Additionally, I assembled a kit for a Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo railway 40 foot hopper, which I plan to use for gravel service

An Idea - CPR North Toronto Team Tracks

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After quite a while thinking over numerous aspects of the hobby, and spending a while on layout design, both in terms of type of layout and location to be modeled, I've finally arrived at a plan that I think will work and serve my purposes for a layout quite well. This location modeled, the North Toronto CP Rail team tracks, will allow me to have some limited operation and an interesting layout, while the layout design is practical to fit in what space I have, thanks to the  Model Railroad to Go  concept. Over the last week or so, I've drawn up plans of the prototype location in google maps, made a track plan on my online prototype map, and most recently, I've drafted a paper plan for the actual layout as I plan to construct it. Before I elaborate on the aforementioned layout plan, there have been some rather noticeable changes made to this blog. I had grown somewhat frustrated with the typical blogger layout that this blog has used for over a year now, which I've fou

An Idea?

Perhaps. Recently, I have been trying to come up with a way to have a decent layout despite the fact that I have essentially no space for a permanent layout in a traditional sense. For reasons I've explained previously, I do not have the space for a traditional shelf layout or a module along Free-mo lines. At the same time, I've also had somewhat of a difficult time coming up with practical ideas for a location to model. Part of this problem is a result of my desire to model a specific prototype location - thus, I've closed off the easy way out of this problem by freelancing a small area to fit a small space. In the past few weeks, however, I think I may have come to some sort of solution and compromise that would allow me to build a layout that would fit my needs. First, I think I've found a good solution to my space problems, thanks to Rick De Candido and his  Fillmore Avenue Roundhouse  blog. A short time ago, he shared a layout idea called the  Model Rai

Moving Closer to an Idea

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It's the mid 1970's in a downtown industrial area in a big Canadian city (most likely Toronto, but perhaps Hamilton, Vancouver, or Montreal), and a run-down CP Rail S2 pulls a single 50 foot boxcar to the last industry on the industrial spur. The car sways wildly over rundown track as it trundles past empty industrial buildings and across, and sometimes down, streets. The train barely even gets to five miles per hour. It's very clear that this branch does not have much time left to live. This is the sort of feel that I want for my next layout. While I haven't decided on a particular location, I am sure that I want a general theme of a run down industrial spur for my next layout. Most likely, I'll end up modeling the CPR Toronto terminals, or rather, some small section thereof. The most appealing part of the Toronto terminals, in my opinion, is the waterfront wharf areas around Queen's Quay. There is a good article about the area  here  (scroll to the bo

Thoughts About Model Railroading and Layouts

I have not managed to post anything o the blog in the last month. To be honest, in  this time, I haven't interacted at all with the world of model railroading. I've let my subscriptions to Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman lapse, and have not spent much time looking at model railroad blogs, at least compared to how much time I used to spend. I'll try to explain why this is. For the past eight months, I have not quite had an active layout project. I dismantled the Norway, Maine layout that I had built over the summer during last October, when I moved houses. While I have since written a fair amount on this blog, most of it has been largely inconclusive stuff about half-baked layout design ideas that have not lasted a week even as a working plan, much less gotten to something approaching layout construction. While I started something in November and again in January, they were in fact very bad ideas and I'm not quite sure why I started working on them, oth

Wordless Wednesday #26

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Lac Frontiere P.Q. - Layout Design

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Research for my next layout based on Lac Frontiere, P.Q.has proceeded much more quickly than I expected. Quite a bit of time this weekend was spent on attempting to figure out the track arrangement in Lac Frontiere, and despite the fact that I'm not completely sure of the track arrangements, there seems to be enough information to start moving forward to layout design for this layout.  As far as I can tell, most of the operation and railway facilities in Lac Frontiere were concentrated in an area that was about three-tenths of a mile long and around 300 feet at its widest point. The railway facilities appear to be across the main road (named Rue Principale, according to Google Maps) form the center of town in Lac Frontiere, such as it is. This fairly small area should make designing a layout around Lac Frontiere less difficult, as less compression of the railway facilities will be necessary. Also, along Rue Principale near the station area there are an assortment of older houses

Lac Frontiere, P.Q.

I've finally come to a decision about what location to model. This doesn't necessarily mean that I have any concrete idea as to a layout plan - in fact, I have no particular ideas as regards layout design for this. Nonetheless, it's good to have finally concluded where to model: Lac Frontiere, P.Q. (I use P.Q. to abbreviate Quebec rather than QC). Lac Frontiere, for those who do no know, was the end of a Quebec central railway branch and is located right along the border with Maine, near the headwaters of the St. John River, and next to Lac Frontiere. You can (hopefully) see a map  here. Lac Frontiere was at the end of a branchline of the  Quebec Central Railway , which was later bought by  CP Rail  (Canadian Pacific at the time). By the mid 1970s, my era of interest for the layout, the QC was operated with CP Rail locomotives and rolling stock, which fits well with my interest in CP Rail. Lac Frontiere was never intended to be the terminus of the line - rather, the line

Wordless Wednesday #25

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Wordless Wednesday #24

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Layout Design Thoughts - Part 2

In my last post of any substance, I wrote about my thoughts to rebuild my previous layout based on Norway Maine. While I still think that that is the most likely prototype for my next layout, even if that's only because I have a lack of other ideas. Grand Trunk New England lines seems like that it would be the best choice overall for a layout, but I'm still rather tempted to model the Bangor and Aroostook instead. On the whole, I'm rather disinclined to devote a large amount of time and resources, as well as a fair amount of space, to a layout idea that I'm not sure about. I did, after all, disassemble the Norway layout the first time, and at the time I decided to move on to something else, which makes me doubt that Norway is really the right prototype for my next layout. At any rate, nothing that I build will probably survive very long, as I tend to not get very far into building a layout before I disassemble it. With all these factors, it's rather hard to actually

Wordless Wednesday #23

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Norway Revisited?

Longtime readers of this blog (are there any?) will know that I at one point had a layout based on the Grand Trunk New England Lines (GTNE) branch to Norway, Maine. This layout was built in modules but was disassembled when I moved in October. Recently, I've been thinking about layout design, and I've been trying to decide on a new layout to build. Yesterday, when I was looking through my phone at some of my older photos, I came across some photos of my layout based on Norway. Looking at them, I decided that I had a fairly good layout in that, so I've decided to revisit that layout and that prototype as a possible prototype for my next layout. You can find the original post on the track plan and layout design for my previous layout  here.  Or, you can access most posts on the topic of the GTNE by clicking on the Grand Trunk New England Lines category on the categories sidebar, though that may not get you to that particular post as it may have been posted before I added ca

Wordless Wednesday #23

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Scratchbuilding a Potato House - Part 5

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On Monday afternoon, I finished the potato house. There wasn't much work left to do on it after what I described in part 4 of this series, and it only took about two hours of work to finish off the potato house. I would have finished it Sunday evening, in fact, but the Patriots were playing in the Super Bowl, so that was more of a priority than model railroading for me. At any rate, all that was left to do was to paint the roof and weather the structure, and neither of those things took very long. The roof was simply painted with black acrylic paint, which covered fairly well, or at least well enough so that I did not have to add a second coat of paint. I then weathered the entire structure. I did not do anything elaborate on this building, as it should look like it was well maintained and the site of a fairly prosperous business, rather than a pile of rotting wood on the verge of collapse. Too often, I think you see structures that modelers have weathered to such an extent that it

Wordless Wednesday #22

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