Scarboro Square Station - Basic structure

I've had the book XS: Big Ideas, Small Buildings by Phyllis Richardson on my shelf for a long time and it's a favourite for browsing. Back in November I latched onto this train station, called 'curving linear', shown on pages 98 to 101 - designed by Shuhei Endo Architect Institute, made from corrugated metal sheets.


I've got a lot of leftover curved panels from the S/R/Sv2 project, and I had recently bought some Campbell HO scale corrugated metal sheets, so I thought I had some parts that I could use to build a structure inspired by curving linear for Scarboro Square.


I decided not to replicate the length and subtle curving of curving linear and go with something more prosaic - it is Ontario after all :) - and fitting with the parts I had on hand. The platform and parking lot are sized to fit the open space in Scarboro Square, and allow for one of my double-decker GO passenger cars to pull into the station. Also, the height of the station is set so that the roof is on the same level as the top of one of those GO passenger cars.


I'm about mid-way through construction and so far itís been a very pleasant build. I need to add detailing and washes to the structure, platform and parking lot to bring it to life.

Scarboro Square

It's interesting, when I first located the place for the urban area on the layout I had in mind some scene with a number of 30s style buildings, a gas station and a car-wash. But, I guess it never grabbed my imagination enough to see through its construction. Later I started kitbashing these retro-future buildings and, well, they seemed more interesting to build a city around, albeit one that never existed and never could or will exist. Is it sci-fi, retro, fantasy, or just plain wrong for a model railroad that isn't a model railroad - can't say that I know, but it seems interesting and I'm curious to see where it goes.


The Square is built on a piece of 1/4-inch acrylic cut to fit the opening defined by the roads and track roadbed. I used acrylic because of its dimensional stability. The railroad is in the basement and it's subject to variations in humidity, so the acrylic provides a solid base that will resist those fluctuations. The part of the train-table where the base will be placed had some circular holes drilled in it so the sheet can easily be removed pushing up through the holes. I may add some smaller ones later to accommodate lighting.


Using this way to build the town it is possible to have several towns that could fit in the same place as long as they had the same shape base. This makes for lots of photo possibilities for new ideas.


I've started with the Deroalow, Amtronic ranch and Art Deco Chapters as the cornerstones of the Square. They're attached with small drops of superglue to hold their bases to the acrylic. I figured if the drops were small enough, they'd be securely held in place, but could be sliced off at some later time if I wanted to change things up. Well, it turns out I made a mistake in the placement of the Deoralow and had to test my theory and slice it off. It wasn't too hard, but I did damage one corner of its base in the process - nothing that can't be cleaned up when I do some more scenicing.

The remaining big empty space is going to be filled with a station for picking up passengers.