Cause of delay

Last Friday, the 6th, Debra and I took an afternoon train to Montreal to attend a concert in the evening. Soon after we got to the station the board showed our departure was delayed an hour, which eventually turned into 1-1/2 hours, and the train scheduled to arrive in Ottawa from Toronto was delayed 3 hours. This video shows why the system was congested: a CN freight train collided with a truck stuck on a level crossing at Stoney Point Road, east of Brighton, Ontario. FYI: no people were injured.

Father figure

My father always took the bus and subway to work.

As I've been tidying up the workshop it dawned on me I need to have a completely different design method if the Taronna layout is ever going to see the light of day. My usual approach has lead me to a dead end that has lasted for years. Instead of overly fixating on track, like on Inglenook Lake, Taronna needs to fixate on people and places. Ok, well, places, ok, I do fixate on them a lot in my layouts, but the people in them are always generic, and usually are thought about last. 

No, he didn't work at Canadian Press, I just thought it made a good photo background
This close up I see corrections I need to make on the figure.

As I was getting my figure collection put back into some sort of order I came across one that, if repainted, would look a lot like my father waiting for a bus to take him to work. So, I got out my paints and went to work: grey pants, black leather shoes, black top coat, black briefcase, and grey-black hair later, I had a credible likeness. In the world of work he was an Organization Man who had worked his way up from hard scrabble Depression Era circumstances. 

I have toyed with 'personal prototype' scenes in the past.
This scene on the Alta Vista TC was based on one of my mother's family photos,
although the figures weren't customized.

Taronna will be a collection of scenes stitched together with a streetcar line. Most of its buildings won't be generic, so I thought I should do my best to have non-generic people in the scenes, well at least a few so I can build proper stories. Taronna won't really be a layout, but some sort of memory object made from 'layout stuff'.

To shoot the test photos I pulled out an old ground board that was originally made for the Alta Vista TC as well as some buildings and accessories. I think having these things out, examining them again, and arranging them into a scene for the photos got my brain stimulated and thinking again about how to proceed with Taronna. At one point I had a brain flash on how to build a model of the old Simpsons department store that was at Cedarbrae Mall. I'd been struggling with a design for a long time. I quickly hunted around for a sheet of paper and made a sketch while the idea was still kicking around fresh and new in my brain.

Rough sketch for the Simpsons Cedarbrae model.
I think I've found the right compromise for changing a large building on a sloping site
to something buildable that retains the key features memorable to me.

So, I'm thinking maybe I'll keep the old ground board out for a while and play with scenes to see what pops into my mind. Maybe that is the way to design this thing.

Stop whistling at Coteau Station

No space hopper in .....

.... Montreal, or ...

... Coteau.

Grilles: 15 year servicing

Cleaned and repaired Grilles at its new home on the Way Out Layout

I'm cleaning up the Way Out Layout and getting it ready for showing off at Christmas. I want Grilles (yes, it's apostrophe challenged as is the sorry way in our world) to be on the layout, but over time parts have broken off, and it has accumulated a lot of dust in its 15 year life. 

Grilles in its sorry 15 year old, pre-cleaned, and pre-repaired state.

I collected up the loose parts, glued them back on, and then removed as much dust as I could. This low effort activity breathed some new life into the building, and it doesn't look too bad on the layout. So good in fact it shows its neighbours need some cleaning too!