Kicking 2021 to the curb

In the middle of Thrifty's construction

I’m never quite sure where to begin these year end retrospectives, but I guess listing the 10 most viewed posts in 2021 seems like a good place to start. So, here they are, from the 10th most viewed to #1:

#10: Repairing E. L. Moore’s Central Warehouse

#9: Cardboard thoughts in The Art of Architectural Modelling in Paper by T. A. Richardson

#8: Master index for the “E. L. Moore’s Legacy in the 21st Century” series

#7: E. L. Moore’s Ma’s Place: Original vs Kit

#6: Mr. Rogers meets E. L. Moore at the Ramsey Journal Building

#5: Did E. L. Moore’s track plan actually work?

#4: E. L. Moore’s Legacy in the 21st Century: HOJ-half-POJ

#3: The Art Metropole is finished… well, sort of

#2: E. L. Moore’s Legacy in the 21st Century: The Elizabeth Valley Railroad

#1: Was E. L. Moore’s Enskale & Hoentee RR inspired by the Gleish Valley RR?

Balancing the Pietenpol Air Camper

My special interest is making miniature buildings, and I finished a few this year, although not as many as I thought I would back in January:

Steinberg’s supermarket that was located in Cedarbrae Mall (ok, this was one I started in earnest in late 2020 and finished in the first couple of days in 2021, so even though it’s in the list based on a technicality, I like it, so here it is :-) )

Thrifty’s jeans store that was located on Yonge St.

The Art Metropole, also located on Yonge St.

The 30Squares HQ, which isn’t on Yonge St, and only exists in my mind.

Bachmann’s Contemporary House was built straight from the box.

Ocean Lookout built from an Atlas Elevated Gate Tower kit

Gluing down the roof of the Contemporary House

Like 2020, I’ve posted a lot, what with the pandemic encouraging me to stay home, or at least in nearby wilder parts of the province. Other than the E. L. Moore model restoration work, and chasing down the elusive Space Hopper, I’ve felt my heart wasn’t in many of this year’s posts or projects. However, over the last few months I’ve felt my interests coming back to life. I’m finding layout building and pursuing odd projects quite pleasant. I’m hoping I can bottle whatever caused the change (I think the pages of Voie Libre and the videos at Boomer Dioramas had something to do with it) and drink from it in the new year whenever my spirits are lagging. That’ll be good to have on hand for the wintry pandemic months ahead.

Gluing the 30Squares HQ's walls together

Although, I don’t think even guzzling down the entire elixir will perk up my enthusiasm for the E. L. Moore book project. I’ve tried a few times to work on the manuscript, but whenever I do I have a sense I’m wasting my time on a lengthy and expensive project for which there’ll be little interest. But, I will continue to work on the E. L. Moore dioramas as I quite enjoy that, and I think photos of them will help further show what good work E. L. Moore did. If Google shuts down Blogger, and the E. L. Moore posts disappear along with all my others, then so be it.

Creating the cliff face on the Loonar Module

Predictions for the year ahead are always troublesome, but I’m hoping 2022 will be The Year of the Layout(s) and I’ll continue riding the wave of layout inspiration started in 2021.

Well, that’s it for me. Thank you for taking the time to drop by here throughout the year. Best wishes to you and yours for 2022!

Happy New Year!

A loop around the Unitram block

The week between Christmas and New Years is always an odd one, and this one is no different. I've had the urge to wrap up loose ideas I've put off looking at throughout the year. This is one. 

While working on motoring the Atlas Hong Kong tram, and again while drawing up the new layout, I wondered how the HO tram on an N-gauge power unit would run on the Kato Unitram track in an HO scale urban setting. It turns out it runs quite well, but I don't think trams could pass each other going in opposite directions without colliding on the centre line. These trams are just a little bit too wide for the track.

But, I think there's a layout idea in there somewhere. Maybe something with a pair of switches to create a second loop so the layout is divided into two parts. I have wanted to do something with a city part and a part similar to Ottawa's Central Experimental Farm. But, not right now. It's just an idea to play with this odd week.

I saw that

Although this may look like a setup for an E. L. Moore tall tale, I can assure you it isn't. That's not Cousin Cal between those serious saws, it's my grandfather, who, as it turns out, I'm named after. He died long before I was born, but in photos I've seen he does appear to have been something of a cutup :-) I guess this photo proves the point.

I have no idea when this picture was taken, although I guess it was likely in the 1920s or 1930s. Where? I have no idea about that either other than it looks like somewhere in the vast wilderness that is Ontario. I'd like to stage this scene on the Loonar Module. The saws shouldn't be hard to find, but figures could be a problem. Stay tuned.

Another Peter-Austin Mystery: Etch A Sketch

Back in November when I was investigating the Peter-Austin / Kenner Girder & Panel Set mystery I came across a Peter-Austin manufactured Etch A Sketch on eBay. My sister and I had one of these when we were kids. I clearly remember that distinctive box. This particular one is in excellent condition: still works, no damage, and the box is in good shape. I plopped down $40 and bought it. No shipping on this one as luckily enough it was being sold by Toy Heaven in nearby Smiths Falls - ok, to be picky, there was gasoline consumption involved :-)

What's the mystery? First, the Etch A Sketch Wikipedia entry makes no mention of Peter-Austin manufacturing this toy, only Ohio Art. The Wikipedia Talk section for the Etch A Sketch entry notes that this statement was removed:

Though, Austin R. Kelk - fmr. Chairman of the Kelton Corporation - also claims to be the creater of the Etch-a-Sketch.

because:

Google shows no non-Wikipedia-derived hits for "Austin R. Kelk"; Kelk etch-a sketch; Kelk Kelton corporation. There's also no mention of any claim from Kelk on any of the linked resources. Kelton Corporation appear to have marketed etch-a-sketch in Canada, but that's all.

Here's where things get a bit mysterious. On the back of my box it says,

ETCH-A-SKETCH
Patented Canada 1960
Great Britain
Patent No. 915,371
Trade Mark Canada
and Great Britain

There's no mention of a US patent, and all it says about licensing is this:

Mfd. in Canada under License by Kelton Corporation
For Peter Austin Mfg. Co. Toronto 

On the back of the Etch A Sketch though the story gets a little more complicated, and has this to add:

No. 505 "Etch-A-Sketch" R Magic Screen

Made under license French Patent

U.S. Patent Pending

Canadian Patent Pending

Trademark Reg. Canada and U.S.A.

That Wikipedia article says that Etch A Sketch was invented in France by André Cassagnes in the 1950s, and was first publicly shown at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1959. Ohio Arts was said to have taken a pass on the toy at that show, but when they "saw it a second time", they went for it. I don't know what happened between 1959 and 1960, but from what's printed on the box it makes it seem like this is a purely Canadian product, but looking at the back of the toy, one can see that there's probably more to the story. 

Hieroglyphics adorn the box

I looked up Canadian patent 915,371, and apparently it's for a Feather Plucking Device ! A search of UK patents yields nothing for that number. I tried doing various general searches for Canadian, UK, and French patents, but couldn't find one. Maybe it has been bought and sold over the years? No doubt, answering these questions are what keeps patent lawyers employed, and I don't plan on trying to find the patents :-)

To finish, according to our friends at Wikipedia, these days Etch A Sketch is owned by another Canadian company, Spin Master, who's also headquartered in Toronto. I suspect there's an interesting story of Etch A Sketch's journey from France in 1959, to Peter-Austin in 1960, through Ohio Art, to Spin Master in 2021. The question is: Is there anybody still around who knows what it is?

[28 December 2021 afternoon update: Vince did what I should have done and found this post that lists the various Etch A Sketch patents. Much thanks Vince !]

Buzz-A-Rama

"I run a tight ship here."

Trimming the fat, er, foam

After trying out a few different building arrangements I felt confident that the track plan and general organization of ground features was suitable for a layout.

I think the problem I was having was that the TD Centre mockup was too tall and too black. It dominated the skyline and put everything else off kilter. Once I removed it, and did some adjustments to the placement of the other buildings, things seemed better.

I also found that the one-way street that separates the urban from the open shore should be angled a bit, and not run strictly parallel to the main downtown street. I can't say why, but angling did improve the feel of the layout.

I tried a few more arrangements just to see how other building placements made things feel. Yes, that's a Kenner Girder & Panel frame in the scene. I think with some custom panels it might make for an interesting feature, both from modelling and sentimental perspectives.

I then traced the major landmarks onto the board with Sharpie pens. The board was now ready for trimming.

First, I rough cut the perimeter with a drywall saw, and the cut close to the line with an old Japanese Dozuki saw. Finally, a sanding block with a medium paper was used to clean up the edge. I've still got a little sanding and finishing to do, but the general shape is done.

Jakub Blank’s: Bill Blaine - a walk around the house

Bill Blaine - A Walk Around the House from Jakub Blank on Vimeo.

"A lot of people out there that have fantastic, super detail ability. They can make a reflection of a fly’s wing in a droplet of water and whatever else. And you can get very, very super-photographic almost. Drawing shouldn’t be a photograph. Ultimately, I think it avoids the mystery. There’s somehow the mystery of the image has been sucked out somewhat."

Rock on

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks, big, medium, and small were added to the shoreline. They were placed in several sessions, and glued down with a 50/50 mix of matte medium and water.

Once they were firmly stuck down I continued applying layers of thin paint on the landforms until I got the shades I was after. I wasn't concerned if the paint flowed onto the rock as I was attempting to blend the modelled and the real.

But I stopped painting just before I got to the cliff face and bridge. I needed to glue on some rocks, and then work them into the scene with Cell-U-Clay and coarse modelling paste. 

I thought this job would be somewhat laborious, but it turned out to be rather fun. It was sort of like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, but in this situation I had to choose my own pieces - rather flat ones from my stash of pounded rocks - and then glue them down into some sort of interlocking pattern. Once that was done, the gaps and edges had to be blended into the overall landscape. Once the new rocks and scenery were dry, I continued painting.

It turns out the rock on the lower right of the rock face wasn't as flat as I thought, and had a corner that struck out dangerously close to the rail. I put a rock grinding tip in the Dremel and ground it back. Adds a nice touch of practical realism :-)

The floatplane is an HO scale Dehaviland of Canada DHC-2, Beaver. It's a laser cut wood kit from Osborn Model Kits. You may recall I built their Piper Cub kit back in 2016. The Beaver is awaiting paint, as is the balsa dock it's parked beside.

The dock measures 24' long by 8' wide, and is set in the water on 2, 8'x8' cribs. All the pieces of lumber are cut from balsa sized to be close to dimensional lumber. 

Neither the Beaver nor the dock are glued in place. I probably should have waited until later to build them, but I was curious to see how this scene was going to work. So far, so good. I think the bridge will be the next project.

Christmas Greetings!

On Friday the Christmas cards we mailed out were returned. Debra intercepted the mailman as he was trying to stuff them into our mailbox, and asked him what was going on. He said likely the sorter, it wasn’t clear if the sorter was a human or machine, couldn’t read the recipients’ addresses, rejected the envelopes, and sent them back. I don’t know how Canada Post works, but the sorter seemed to be able to read our return address ok, which was written in the same hand, with the same pen. Anyway, the mailman recommended sticking a big, white label on the centre of each envelope, writing on the recipient’s address, and popping them back in the mail. This is the first time this has happened, and although only a minor headache in the grand scheme of things, seems par for the course in 2021.

I took this as a signal to post some non-returnable greetings, and wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Scale model houses from Cucuteni-Tripolye culture circa 4100 to 3300 BC

Each family unit invented its own slight variations on domestic rituals, reflected in its unique assemblage of serving and eating vessels, painted with polychrome designs of often mesmerizing intensity and made in a dazzling variety of forms. It's as if every household was an artists' collective which invented its own unique aesthetic style. Some of this household pottery evokes the bodies of women; and among other items most commonly found within the remains of houses are female figures of clay. Model houses and tiny replicas of furniture and eating equipment also survive - miniature representations of lost social worlds, again, affirming the prominent role of women within them.

The above's a passage from Graeber & Wengrow's 2021 book, The Dawn of Everything, on artifacts found in some city houses belonging to people of the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, located in Ukraine and adjoining regions, dating from around 4100 to 3300 BC. 

This is another example that highlights constructing miniature buildings of one sort or another has been around for a very long time. Also, I find it interesting that these model houses were found in regular, everyday residential houses, not tombs, religious sites, or other ceremonial places. The authors don't exactly know what these model houses were for, if anything, and later speculate that maybe we'll never know their story. This 'we may never know' assessment is an all too common phrase I use here at the blog.

Painting & piling rocks

First layer of paint & shore rocks - argh, the photo's colours don't seem right! 

After a lot of avoidance behaviour I steeled myself and applied the first layer of paint to the landforms. First though, I spent some time trying to figure out what colours I needed to use to mimic the terrain this layout is representing. What follows are some notes on colour mixes, which I admit are likely boring for most readers, but it’s some documentation to help me recall what I did.

I’m told the rocks in the region are skarns that are about 50% magnetite, which accounts for their dark grey, nearly black colour. Magnetite is an iron ore, so one often sees rust on these rocks. It’s not unusual to see highway rock cuts that are just huge walls of rusted rock. Over the summer I picked up some samples in the bush and by the roadside so I’d have some colour references went it came time for layout building. Although I took a lot of pictures, I think samples are important because the colour doesn’t always come through in photos.

Rock collection & paint tests

I fiddled around a lot with colour mixing to get matches to local colour. Here’re the main ones I’ve found useful so far:

Basic magnetite skarn rock formations:

Revell Aqua Color 36178, Tank grey, mixed with a small amount of 36137, Reddish brown, and 36162, Mossy green. The red and green are to tone down the slightly metallic grey. 

Straight from the cube, the Revell paint has a consistency close to runny pancake batter. To make it usable I mixed in a considerable amount of Revell’s thinner. I wanted my mixes closer to the consistency of water so not to obscure rocky detail.

Weathered rust:

Tamiya XF-84, Dark Iron, mixed close to 50/50 with a run-of-the-mill acrylic Raw Sienna in a tube. The tube paint was thinned with water until it was runny.

Driveway gravel & road:

Revell Aqua Color 36175, Stone grey, mixed about 50/50 with Tamiya XF-19, Sky Grey. I don’t know if the chemistry of the two brands is suitable for mixing, but it seems to work out ok.

Concrete steps:

Model Master Aged Concrete Flat mixed loosely with Revell's Stone grey and Tamiya's Sky Grey. All the Model Master paints have been discontinued, but luckily I have a small cache of their Concrete and Aged Concrete Flat that'll do me for awhile. However, I've been experimenting with substitutes, and it's looking like Revell's Aqua Color 36189, Beige, might be a good alternative in my usual concrete mix when I run out of Model Master.

Lake water:

Tamiya XF-26, Deep Green, toned to a very dark shade with Tamiya XF-1, Flat Black. I think my mix is a little too black and should have a more greenish tinge for water close to shore. I probably need to change my colour mix.

I may not have stated it in each mix, but the paints need to be thin when applied. All are more-or-less too thick straight from their containers. Also, I’m still finding my way with mixing and painting, and I can see lots of areas that are going to need correction. Don't take anything I say for gospel. At this point I simply wanted to get over my reticence to applying paint to a blank surface. 

Once the first layer was down and dry, which took a few days of on-and-off work, I thought I should add rock before anymore painting so that when I painted further layers the rock and surroundings would blend.

Most of my rock samples were far too large for the layout so I took a few outside and gave them a good pounding with my sledge hammer and rock pick. As well as a sore shoulder, this produced a variety of smaller rocks. Once my shoulder's better, I need to have another round. 

I dropped a few on the shore and glued them in place with a 50/50 mix of water and matte medium. More rock of various sizes need to be added to get the effect I'm looking for. This is to simulate the rock that would have been blasted out and dumped along the shoreline to create the track's roadbed. In real life this would be highly illegal, so it's a good thing this is just a model :-) 

I also glued 3 rocks in the lake near the bridge to simulate a small offshore island. These sorts of small islands aren't unusual. They're made from rocks that fell off retreating glaciers. Mine needs a bit more work as I lack the sculptural subtly of a moving mass of ice from 23,000 years ago.

I should backup a bit and note that before starting on the rock layer, I placed a few figures and a tree armature to have a look at scale. As for HO, I'm thinking there might be space for two or three small sheds on the peninsula, but not much else. After all, it's just a proving ground for locos and such, not a tourist destination :-)

"...more like town planning than railway modelling..."

That metre stick represents a sidewalk

It's more like town planning than railway modelling, but it's probably the part of the hobby from which I get the most pleasure.

Jools Holland on track planning, from the article on his layout in the January 2019 issue of Railway Modeller. 

I seem to go back to that article on Jools Holland's railway a lot. It's inspirational in its ability to blend together disparate places into something that seems right. I especially like the photo of the section that combines both the English Channel and River Thames.

To my mind a model of a real place creates a personal take on history. Photographs can provide the stimulus but cannot evoke that special atmosphere in a way that models can. 

Jools Holland on his inspiration.

Before the action started

At present I'm simply arranging buildings to see if I can achieve the composition and feeling I'm after. Building placement isn't final, it's just to see if one particular arrangement can produce the right vibe. Right now I'm thinking it's not too bad. I like that density over on the right. It's packed with restaurants, residences, and a museum. But I must admit I'm feeling some irritation with the area over to the left.

I think it has to do with the placement of the World's Biggest Bookstore: it's too long and uniform. I rather like the variety and bumpy rooftop skyline of the buildings behind it. I think there's a need for more variety in the buildings that face the shore. More thinking with models ahead.

Space Hopper Distorts Space-Time Continuum

Space Hopper image soured from Google Street View

Galen sent me a message mentioning that the Space Hopper could be seen in Google Street View's images of the Havelock yard. 

My photo

And that wasn't all. The string of cars was the same, as was their arrangement and yard location, as those I showed in my photo.

It turns out I took my photo on 28 August 2021, and posted it on 31 August 2021. The Street View image is simply dated September 2021. So, maybe the cars sat in the yard for awhile, and were still there when Google's camera vehicle drove by in early September.

But wait, here's the part for all you X-Files aficionados: as you use Street View to move from the Space Hopper in the west end of the yard, down along highway 7 towards the station in the east end, you'll notice the date stamp on the images changes from September 2021 to August 2021 somewhere in front of the Circle K. And once you've crossed into August, in that mass of Saturday afternoon traffic you'll see a vehicle that looks all too suspiciously like mine! The 30 Squares Security Chief has advised me, out of an abundance of caution as they say, not to reveal which vehicle so I don't alert authorities that we've discovered a breach in the space-time continuum outside the Circle K in Havelock :-) Is the Space Hopper a space-time hopping vehicle from another dimension? No wonder those aliens used a hopper car. The truth is out there, but it'll have to wait 'til next summer.

Simplicity thy name is not Loop

Maximum dimensions are about 65" x 43"

One might think a loop requires no thought at all. In response I'll simply say that this one incorporates a lot of thinking about what I want from my 'layout'.

There's a long straight run along the back for a Toronto-like street scene. It'll be easy to photograph scenes there since the track's along an edge.

The curves at the end of the long straight are of 9" radius, which is a comprise between prototypical streetcar track realism and the practicalities of running HO scale streetcars.

The wye passing track down near the shore is similar to those used on the old Morecambe tram line my great-grandfather worked for. The wye configuration allows for two or three streetcars to be on the layout at any one time, while keeping an uncomplicated streetcar-like feel to the track.

Weirdly, on the old LOL I had a railroad-like passing track along the main urban street! It seemed cool when I built it, but it turned out to be a royal pain. It was located at the back of the layout so it wasn't convenient to use, its view was blocked by tall buildings, and it was hard to justify in a built-up urban scene. Although the new layout is designed to be viewable from any side, I didn't want any switches at the 'back' in the long straight section as they'd be hard to reach, not to mention look odd. When the layout is in the basement, which will be most of the time, the long straight track edge will be along a wall, so any casual use will be degraded with hard to reach switches.

There's lots of untracked real estate for buildings and scenes - urban, suburban, and open country - which are my main modelling interests.

The track plan isn't loaded with switches and railroady-like track features. I'm not much interested in operations beyond running streetcars around the loop now and then, so I didn't want complex track work to needlessly get in the way.

An earlier iteration - note longer passing track

Considerable time was spent getting the track plan down to a minimum size. I want there to be a density of buildings in the urban area, and not leave me with the tedious job of making buildings just to fill space. Creating buildings and scenes is pleasurable for me and I don't want that to change. I also wanted the overall layout size to be manageable for me to carry it upstairs for showing off, or toting around in the CRV.

As shown by those yardsticks in the photo on the right, there'll be some sort of one-way street that runs parallel to the long, straight streetcar track, although that perpendicular offshoot will go. That road caused something of a philosophical dilemma. All good planning advice says there should be diagonals to create interest and draw attention to a focal point. But, I realized that the linear park and parking lot at the Havelock yard is etched in my mind and I want something inspired by it on my layout to separate the urban from the open country by the shore. It seemed running such a street parallel to the long track in the urban area was the thing to do. Hmm. It'll be included, but maybe I'll angle it a bit to make it a little more dynamic. Grid? Diagonals? What's a planner to do? 

Don't let anyone say designing a loop is simple :-)

Foam for home so I can roam

4' x 6' x 4.5" styrofoam layout board

I've spent some time over the last few days gluing together the all styrofoam base for the new HO streetcar layout.

This slab is made up of 1.5" x 14.5" x 48" sheets of cheap styrofoam held together with wood glue and transfer tape to form a 3 layer board measuring 72" x 48".

Three layers of 1.5" styrofoam

The board is quite straight, but it took a rather laborious process of overlapping and gluing sheet after sheet on the layout table to get the alignment right. 

Rigidity is good too. Back in the summer I did some impromptu static loading tests on a little loop layout I had built from glued up foam sheets that suggested such a board could easily handle the minuscule loads from a train layout.

You'll notice in the load tests pink foam sheets were glued to the bottom of the layout board, and this no doubt provided an extra measure of strength.  The plan is to add a 1" thick pink foam layer to the bottom to give the board that little bit of extra strength, and make it somewhat more robust.

Gluing the layers together

It's far lighter than an equivalent wooden frame, and it'll continue to get a bit lighter as the final outline will be a smaller kidney shape that I'll cut out once the track is installed.

I'll admit to an anti-wood-frame agenda :-) With this layout, as well as with the Loonar Module and the E. L. Moore dioramas, I'm going all out to see what building layouts without internal wood framing has in store. 

I have some thoughts on how to secure the layout to the support frame and install wiring, but they haven't yet been finalized. 

Another thing to be resolved is how to give the edge a bit of impact resistance. It'll need some sort of trim glued on to help minimize dings and dents.

The whole idea here is to make the base light enough for me to carry up to the living room by myself for showing off at Christmas and such, and allow it to be easily loaded into the back of the CRV. So far so good, but I've got to be diligent in keeping the weight in check.

Three diorama panels

 

I've been doing some work on the E. L. Moore dioramas. Mainly getting the five blank bases painted with a white acrylic primer coat and gluing the styrene trim pieces to the backs and sides. However, I did go ahead and add the front trim piece to the backwoods shortline yard industries diorama. It's a length of 1/16" sheet balsa painted with some thinned Tamiya green that I thought was close to one of the shades of Moore Green. Speaking of green, this one is ready for some greenery and figures.

The second and third dioramas are just in the initial placement stages, although as I mentioned above, the bases are now primed and ready for scenery. I'm tempted to add a built-up AHM Ma's Place kit to this one just across the street from the original Ma's Place. 

I'm not quite sure if I've got those two large buildings on the third diorama with the correct sides facing the track. I need to check on that. 

Hitch your wagon

Michael tipped me off to some interesting model train work in Alfred Hitchcock's 1937 movie, Young and Innocent. It turns out I have a copy in a DVD box set of Hitchcock's films from the 1920s and 1930s I bought at Movies 'n' Stuff for $5 in the summer.

I guess I didn't need to watch the whole movie as some enterprising person sliced out the main model shots for a youtube video, but I'm glad I did. It's a good movie, and I should note that the somewhat washed-out print I watched made the model scenes blend in better. They still jump out as being modelled, but everything appears better integrated. Maybe it's because I was so engrossed in the story by the time these scenes appeared, it all came across as rather seamless.

Seeing those scenes reminded me of the opening model shot in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes from 1938. 

Model Train Room

"Our obsession is to express the over crowdedness of a big city."

ST 2's true identity

ST 2 on page 13 of Kibri's 1965 HO & N catalogue

It turns out ST 2 is a Kibri kit and appeared in their 1965 HO & N catalogue. 

From the picture you can see that mine is missing a few parts, which includes a low-rise extension and a roof-top railing on the main building. I'll likely add the railing when I get to restoration, but the rest of the work will focus just on cleaning up the model, and probably adding a strip of LED lighting to that greenhouse.

ST 2

Today we took a drive out to Smiths Falls, and stopped in Merrickville on the way home. There's a model train store in Merrickville I haven't visited in nearly 2.5 years, what with the pandemic and all, so I popped in for a quick look around. 

There were a lot of assembled HO scale buildings for sale, likely from a few estates. I saw 7 (!) fully assembled E. L. Moore Machine Shops, which must be some sort of record for the most completed examples of that kit in one place. Well, in amongst those relics I saw ST 2 and couldn't resist buying it. It's clearly European, but whether it's a kit or kit-bash, I can't say as there're no identifying markings. But, it's cleanly assembled, not a glue-bomb, even though the paint job is a bit rough. So, it'll be restored, or at least spruced up. At any rate, that office furniture in the skywalk greenhouse is worth more than I paid for this intriguing structure, so no loss whatever happens.

Loonar inspirations

Beginnings of the Loonar Module project. A layout for trying scenery building techniques, and test running 9mm gauge railway equipment in a variety of scales. The track loop has an 8” radius, and the layout’s footprint is 24” x 24”. Inspired by Frédéric Mottet’s Plage Bel Air, Bob Telford’s Falcon Rock, and Ontario’s backcountry. 

That was to have been an Instagram post to briefly explain the origins and influences of the layout, but I thought, what's the point? To me Instagram seems more like advertising. Ok, Blogger is too to a certain extent, but it appears to still have the potential for non-trivial engagement as writing isn't shifted to the back burner.

So, influences. I wanted a little layout for trying scenery building techniques for use on the E. L. Moore dioramas, the Elizabeth Valley RR, and the LOL Mk II (if I ever get around to building it). While wondering what shape such a layout should take, I came across the Plage Bel Air and Falcon Rock layouts in Voie Libre. Plage Bel Air had a lot in common with my old LOL, and I was impressed by the Falcon Rock concept (which also appeared in the October issue of Railway Modeller). Into the mental mix-master they went, along with thoughts of modelling Ontario backcountry scenery, and eventually the Loonar Module popped out.

One unexpected result so far has been that this little thing has taught me a lot about the fun of building a small and simple layout. It's easy to try new things, and no tasks are too onerous, time consuming, or expensive. For reintroducing me to the pleasures of layout building, I'm most grateful.