Street construction continues along the Alta Vista TC

Alta Vista TC street construction continues though the future suburbs of the Gladstone and Grove loop.

The streets, sidewalks, curbs and building sites were built up from layers of styrene sheet of various thickness. Roadway surfaces are 0.040 inches below the curb which produces a fairly realistic curb height.

It's going to be a little tricky to install road between the rails through those curves, so I though I'd build everything outside the rails and tackle that job later. That way it'll seem that things are coming to completion as each new piece as installed - hopefully it will be incentive to keep going and finish the job :-)

This was the main street on the LOL: Ocean Boulevard. 

Some of the colouring is ok, but I wasn't happy with the overall model, although when taking photos I could arrange things so that everything looked just fine. In person though, not so good. The streets on the Alta Vista TC are much better.

I wanted the sidewalk outside the World's Biggest Bookstore to look something like the real thing, so brick sheets, with squares cut out for trees, were installed near the curb .

It's not an exact match, but captures what it was like. That shot below is the same street after the legendary bookstore was demolished.

I'll need 11 trees to plant in those squares.

Many of the sidewalks have been scored, and a few have also been sanded to create some subtle grooves in the panels. Once things are painted it'll be easier to see the street detail compared to the white-on-white of the raw styrene.

This work was a bit of a trip down memory lane. These days just about all the legendary Toronto bookstores have fallen to insane real estate prices and the ongoing destruction of the brick-and-mortar retail sector. Take the Albert Britnell Book Shop, which had been at the same location near Bloor and Yonge since 1892, but today is a Starbucks. It was a regular stop for me at one time, and maybe it will be once again somewhere on this new layout. 

Given the 1892 date on Britnell's, it's a candidate for a E. L. Moore style retro build. That large window on the second storey, along with the large street-level windows, would allow for some interior detailing and make for an impressive model when lit up - I think Vince is getting ready to suggest I build it in at least 1/48, if not 1/24 :-)

And speaking of E. L. Moore, while I was in the mood for moving layouts around I boosted the EVRR's Workmate to a more convenient 40 odd inch working height from the piddly 33 inches ...

... and rotated the Alta Vista TC so the Neville Park Loop is under the main workshop lights and ready for streetscaping.