Bark & Root

After a lot of frustrating trial and error I think I finally got some bark on the tree to be planted outside of Vickis Veggies that looks more-or-less like bark.

The trick seemed to be to coat the armature with generous dollops of Golden Molding Paste and use a fairly stiff, 1/2" wide paint brush to shape the glop into a bark-like mass. In earlier attempts I was far too stingy with the paste, and didn't have enough on the wire to shape or properly cover up the under structure.

I also lengthened the support wire that will root the tree in the layout. The short stubby thing wasn't going to properly support the massive tree above. I took 3 lengths of 18 gauge wire and then wire wrapped them to the original root, followed by a generous application of white glue to help hold the whole thing together.

So, now it's onto painting and foliage. The end is in sight!

Book Talk

To the left, Hilton's book; On the right, Mindheim's

I recently discovered there was a new book out called The Art of Railway Modelling by James Hilton. I found the title provocative, what with starting off with ‘The’ and all. To my ear it sounded as if this book was aiming to be the definitive work about art and model railways. This implied assertion piqued my curiosity. 

The question as to whether model railroading is an art, or can be approached as an artistic discipline, seems to come up periodically in forums and blogs. I find these discussions to be rambling, somewhat tiresome, and they usually wind up going nowhere. Even so, I’m interested in the subject because I consider model railroading a hybrid of a fannish consumer activity and art, well, at minimum a folk art. The proportions of each seem to vary from person to person and era to era. 

As well as Hilton’s book, Lance Mindheim also published one back in 2018 ostensibly dealing with art and model railroading called Model Railroading As Art. I didn’t buy it at the time because I thought it was going to tread the same ground as those aforementioned forum and blog postings - it turns out I was wrong about my preconception, but more on that later. Now with what looked like two major new books on the subject in circulation I thought I’d buy both and see for myself what was going on. 

Books like these don’t exist in a vacuum, even if their main topic is relatively new. When I read any book dealing in some way with models and miniatures I’m usually in one way or another comparing it to others in the field. When it comes to models and art, Smith and Ellison’s Elgin Park: Visual Memories of Midcentury America at 1/24th Scale from 2015 is my favourite. It focuses on the works of Michael Paul Smith, so it doesn’t look at an entire field, but it’s especially appropriate to me as Smith’s work could also be viewed as a hybrid of a consumer activity (collecting large scale diecast model cars) and folk art (communicating his impressions of small town, mid 20th century America where he grew up). Also, like Mindheim and Hilton he was a professional model maker, at least for a time. The book focuses on the artist, his background, hopes, messages, inspirations, and goals, with just a smattering of how-to for the interested reader who is also a model maker or miniature photographer, or would like to be. So, it does lean toward art as opposed to craft. And most importantly, it’s full of beautiful photographs that powerfully make the case for art that the text alone can’t do.

When it comes to model railroading my goto art oriented book is A Treasury of Model Railroad Photos by Dave Frary, Malcolm Furlow, John Olson, and Paul Scoles that was published in 1991. It’s light on text, but it’s full of excellent colour photos by its four distinguished authors that illustrate what model railroading could be. It does have how-to on the creation of photos like those shown in the book, but the photographic technology it discusses is somewhat dated now even though the general principles applied and results shown are not.

No doubt there are readers out there who could note many books and articles I’ve failed to mention that would be excellent examples of artful approaches to model making in general, and model railroading in particular. I do apologize for those omissions, but in a way that helps shore up an important point: since the beginning of model railroading there have been many contributions by many individuals to the artistic aspect of the activity. These include the works of Aldo Cosomati, John Ahern, John Allen, Francis Lee Jaques, George Illich Stokes, George Allen, Frank Ellison, E. L. Moore, Ben King, John Olson, Malcolm Furlow, Paul Scoles, Mark Henley, Jack Burgess, Dave Frary, Bob Hayden, and on and on from people from many eras and many countries who have made contributions large and small. An overview book on the subject doesn’t exist, and probably never will, but, again, it’s important to note that so far no particular book or article has yet to be a definitive work on the subject.

Ok, well, fine, look, I bought Hilton's and Mindheim’s books to learn from them. I consider myself a student on some sort of self-directed path to learn whatever it is I need to learn to be more effective at communicating what I want to communicate. I feel there is something beyond craft techniques I need to learn - ok, my model making techniques need improvement of course, but I’ll set that aside for now - to get closer to what I want to create. In my clipping file I have this quote, which I unfortunately can’t find who to attribute it to: “Someone once said of Magritte, that it was a blessing that he was not a better painter, since then he would have been a much worse artist - another Dali, all effects and virtuoso fakery, shallow rather than haunting.” I think haunting is what I’m after.

Hilton’s book showed up first in the mail, so I started with it. It’s a calm work that makes its case with brief chapters about a few key artistic principles that are beneficial when applied to model railways, and provides many photographs of layout scenes that illustrate those points. There’s also a collection of small layout plans, sketches, and notes to further illustrate the principles. There’s nothing how-to or prescriptive in this book, which I think is a plus as it helps push down how-to noise that might distract from the larger point Hilton’s trying to make: that the careful application of some artistic principles will vastly improve the look of your model railway, and allow you to get closer to expressing what you want to express.

The principles Hilton presents are the bedrock of traditional artistic practices, but one rather unusual one - well, maybe just unusual in the context of today’s model railroading scene - is the use of creative writing to further one’s imagining about how a layout could develop and what to incorporate. Creative writing as a modelling ‘tool’, especially in the form of fictional stories, has ebbed and flowed throughout model railroading’s history, but seems to have run aground in today’s very pragmatic scene. Seeing it revived in the book is encouraging, and I should add that the 2-page photo opening its chapter is particularly haunting.

Design-wise the book is thoughtfully laid out on high quality paper with lots of white space and large, clear photos, which I think helps implicitly strengthen its argument. I like the classic horizontal formatting and clean, spacious design. My only quibble is I’m never too thrilled to see business-school-speak creep into general use, especially into my hobby reading, so stumbling over phrases like ‘case study’ and ‘worked examples’ is irritating. 

Although I’ve gone through the entire book a few times I can see myself coming back to it often because I don’t think one can appreciate all its visual messages in just a few sittings. I’ll see what the coming year has in store. 

Mindheim’s book arrived the day after Hilton’s. After a few go throughs I think the book might have been better served if it had been titled something along the lines of Advanced Scene Creation Techniques for Model Railroads as it’s mainly a how-to on creating a better scenicked model railroad using concepts and methods from the world of visual arts. This is a good thing as it provides a fresh perspective on an old subject for people actually building layouts. I expect I’ll be dipping into this book for practical advice often in the months and years ahead. 

The examples and model railroad photos are from Mindheim’s own practice and appear to focus on layouts that have a modern day urban theme located in southern parts of the USA, although there are a few examples from other sites and eras of American railroading. Hilton’s book includes photos from a few modellers, and several eras of British railroading. Surprisingly, there are also some examples based on the Canadian west! That’s nice to see. 

The layout of Mindheim’s book leans more towards business-school-speak than Hilton’s with many page layouts looking a lot like Powerpoint slides and bulleted lists. I know my distaste for these artifacts of the corporate world is just my own personal quirk, but I thought I’d let you know in case they’re yours too - it turns out I like to use lists, but not in a Powerpoint way.

I was glad to see that both works encourage their readers to express what they need to express and not focus on contests, peer pressure, doing the ‘accepted’ thing, tradition, appearing in magazines and shows, and so forth. I can imagine James Carse referring to this focus as being engaged in the infinite game approach to model railroading. Each author pursues this in his own way: Hilton through visual inspiration and Mindheim through instruction. The infinite game focus is very folk art in nature.

Some books to start a comparison

Both books are worthwhile buying for those looking to improve their work. I hesitate when I say ‘improve’, because I think maybe the word I’m looking for has something to do with ‘looking for a path to better expression of whatever it is you want to express’ not the ‘your work will impress friends, editors, and judges’ type of ‘improve’.

Both books are also good contributions to the ongoing discussion about model railroading practice and its relation to art; however, neither is a definitive statement on the subject. Now, you might ask me if I would know such a statement if I saw one? Well, I’m not quite sure, but I think I’d like to see a serious inquiry begin with looking at photos of layouts or layout scenes, or layouts themselves if possible, from the entire history of the hobby to the present that people think are artful and mean something to them in some way - haunt them maybe ? -  and discuss those images. This would be a big task as there would a lot of images to study given that they would span all eras of the hobby. For now I’ll leave ‘artful’ undefined so as not to limit the investigation early on. So, there it is: start with meaningful images, lots and lots of images from the present to the beginning of the hobby, and discuss them. And while you’re at it try to deepen the discussion by comparing those images to ones found in other arts that make use of miniatures. It’s a beginning. Where this will lead I have no idea right now, you'd just have to see what the images might suggest.

Before I call it a day and go get coffee let me leave you with these thoughts on what art is with respect to Aestheticism according to Mark Greif’s essay The Concept of Experience that appeared in his 2017 book, Against Everything. If you’re stubborn and of the opinion that you absolutely must firm up a definition of art or artful before embarking on an image quest, Greif’s essay might get you going beyond thoughts of merely considering art to be something that you like (italics are Greif’s):

“Aestheticism asks you to view every object as you would a work of art. It believes that art is essentially an occasion for the arousal of emotions and passions. You experience a work of art. You go into it. Not just a calm onlooker, you imagine the figures in the painting, and relish the colors and forms, the style becoming as much an object of experience as the content; you feel or taste everything; you lust for it, let it overwhelm you, amplify it to titillate or satisfy or disgust you; you mentally twist the canvas to wring it dry.”

Streetcar Clip #4: King at Church

Streetcar Clip #3: Somewhere along King

If you watch carefully you'll see me in a Hitchcockian cameo.

Insectary 75D

Left: Insectary 75C | Right: Insectary 75D

"During World War I, there was an increased need for information for farmers in all regions of the country, to help them protect their crops and maximize production for the war effort. Other insectary sheds were built. In the 1930s, "only the unparalleled problems of drought and soil drifting outranked the trauma that resulted from insect pests." Entomologists were in great demand. By the end of World War II, with a lot of research being conducted outside Ottawa, the insectary was closed and the largest of the buildings demolished. Others remain as outbuildings or sheds (Buildings 75A, 75B, 75C, and 75D),..." Some history about the smaller Insectary buildings at Ottawa's Central Experimental Farm from the highly recommended 2021 book, Building Canada's Farm: An Illustrated Guide to Buildings at the Central Experimental Farm.

Earlier this year I had a go at creating the many windowed Insectary 75C. 75D was next on my list but I lost my desire to build it then because for some unarticulated reasons it struck me as a difficult project.

Insectary 75D is now a garage

A week or so ago I was going through my farm photos again and began to think 75D was going to be far simpler than I had first considered. If I dropped thoughts for a removable roof, operating garage door, and an interior, well, it was just a rectangular box with a roof.

However, it was going to need a little selective compression and feature adjustment to make it fit into its location on the layout.

Basically, my model is shorter, the side with doors is on the left instead of the right, and the walls have a freshly painted glow with only slight weathering.

The walls were cut from a piece of Evergreen styrene clapboard siding left over from making the office for Cal's Lumberyard. It looks like the prototype used some sort of tongue and groove siding, but I didn't have any on hand.

The garage door is also an Evergreen scrap: a styrene piece with pre-scribed parallel lines whose product number is lost to time. The side doors are styrene scraps I scribed myself.

The windows are N-scale items from Tichy Train Group.

The interior stiffening walls are cut from 0.060" thick styrene sheet scraps. Once I had them glued in place I noticed the triangular roof supports didn't quite match up with the tops of the side walls and had to be sanded back in situ.

The roof is made from 2 pieces of 0.100" styrene for the substrate, and 2 pieces of brick sheet for the shingle layer. Yeap, the asphalt shingles are bricks. I was feeling a bit lazy and wanted to bring this model to a quick finish so I thought some scraps of HO scale plastic brick sheets looked pretty close to asphalt shingles when painted a few shades of black and grey thereby making them ideal candidates for speeding this project to completion. Since the roof will be somewhat obscured by the tree canopy, the bricks-for-shingles ruse won't be too obvious to the casual viewer.

Yikes! Once again the digital camera makes quite clear little defects that need correction. I see a painting problem on the back windows that needs fixing up.

Inside the windows I added a piece of Walthers chainlink fencing material to represent the security screen behind each pane of glass. The fencing fabric doesn't show up in the photos, and is a bit hard to see in person, so maybe that little detail could have been left off.

Well, this is the last building for the farm layout. The only other major item is the tree outside Vickis Veggies then it's on to adding the myriad of details I think will be necessary to bring the layout to life. That could take a few months, but it should be interesting work.

Streetcar Clip #2: Somewhere along King

What I did on my summer vacation

As any owner of a time machine will tell you, developing an understanding of the structure of time is crucial if you hope to become a master time traveller. If you accidentally skid on some banana shaped time and veer off into imaginary time you can slide into some weird time streams where so-called real time intertwines with fictional time if you don’t steer properly. I nearly slid into a knotted chrono-abyss this summer during my break when I took a banana-chrono-corner with no time to spare, and after some hair restoring retro-steering I wound up outside Frank Madwood’s office. He was still doing his radio gig, but had recently bought the old model streetcar magazine, wireLog, and was running it out of his workshop. Apparently an article of mine was in the current issue so he gave me a copy. I took it and got out of there quick because according to Frank I was supposed to be dropping by his office any minute to discuss a new joint project on time travelling space hoppers. I didn’t want to confront my chrono-double in case the chrono-contradiction ripped the space-time continuum. 

So, here’s all I have to show for skidding on some banana-time. Warning: I can’t guarantee Madwood’s ghosts won’t knock on your door while you’re reading it.

The Yost Six?

This is another one of those projects I've had in the back of my mind for a long, long time, but haven't made any progress on. A couple of weeks ago I decided to at least make a start by building the shell. I thought if I had the shell staring at me it would silently nag me into finishing it sometime in the new year when I was looking for a construction project to fiddle with.

And while I was making a start I was thinking that this model would be the Yost tribute theatre I've been hoping to make. The Walthers kit I had earmarked for this seemed much too large and staid. The Imperial Six seems very Toronto to me, and Yost and his Saturday Night at the Movies tv show was a very Toronto thing, so I'm thinking the Imperial Six is going to be the Yost memorial model. The Yost Six maybe? The name needs work.

Construction is much the same as used for Coles on Yonge

There's no detail on the back wall as that's going to be the canvas for an Imperial Six related decal much in the same way one was used on the back wall of A&A's for a ghost sign.

Let the nagging begin!

Streetcar Clip #1: Along King near Yonge

Let's Ride!

With Christmas come and gone it seems like 2023 is over regardless of what the calendar has to say. Here’s a little video I took a few weeks ago to see if the farm’s track was still operating. Still lots of modelling ahead on this layout, so fun times on the horizon.

Coles on Yonge: Windows & Paint

No, it's not distorted, my photographic technique is

Painting wasn't a complicated task: brick colour for the brick walls, concrete colour for the concrete out front, and some black for the black metal siding where the sign will go.

As per my custom all painting was done with acrylics and a brush.

Although, one thing I did differently was apply a wash of thin black paint over the bricks to give them a little bit of a gritty city look.

The window frames are painted an aluminum colour.

To make the front window wall I first drew the frame's outline on a piece of clear plastic with a black Sharpie, and then attached the frame's pieces on top of the outline. The frame is built up from strips of 1mm and 2mm wide by 0.020" thick styrene that had 3M transfer tape applied to their unpainted sides. The clear plastic has a 4mm border beyond the frame's edge so that the unit can be glued, well, transfer taped, to the inside edge of the window opening.

Hmm, I see a little scratch on the corner of the back wall that's going to need some touch up.

And I need to think about colours for the back doors. I recall Coles bags used to be yellow with black printing so I'm thinking yellow back doors. 

Well, touch up and doors will be left for a future round of painting. I think I'll move onto signs next.

Last post for this year

Merry Christmas 

and 

Happy New Year

Thanks for stopping by throughout the year. I'll be back online sometime after Christmas or in the New Year, but I'll be around. If there's any breaking news I'll put down the egg nog and post about it here.

Now, where did I put my snowshoes?

Armature for Vickis tree

I worked up the branch structure on the tree to be planted between Vickis Veggies and the street. Now it's on to barking :-)

Coles on Yonge: The Shell

Left: Coles on Yonge St. near Edward circa late 60s to early 70s | Right: Its HO shell

I've wanted to make a model of this building for quite a long time. I recently realized I was stalled on modelling this building because I was fixated on the problems associated with making the Coles sign. The building itself is rather easy to make because it's basically just a box much like the one the A&A Records model is based on. So, I decided the way to kickstart myself was to go ahead and make the building's shell and worry about the sign later. I may eventually regret this approach, but I thought it was better to get started than to continue pondering.

My father took me to this store many times in the late 60s and early 70s. I seem to recall it was located on Yonge St. near Edward. I think it closed sometime in the late 70s when the company that owned the Coles bookstore chain opened the World's Biggest Bookstore a stone's throw away on Edward. I admit that the above geographical and chronological memories are on the sketchy side, so if you have more accurate information please leave a comment.

I thought I'd go digital with this project and draw up the facade in Inkscape. However, I got frustrated with all the hoops I had to jump through and graphic designer minutiae I had to master just to draw a simple white rectangle surrounded with a black border that I gave up, apologized to my T-square for abandoning it, and sat myself down at the drafting table and got to work.

I searched the internet and downloaded what images I could find of the Coles facade. I enlarged and printed them so I could measure and draw on them as my understanding of their overall dimensions developed.

To begin the sizing process I assumed the entry doors were the average size for these sort of commercial items: 36" x 80". I used that to figure out dimensions for the rest of the building. It was an iterative process of estimating proportions and sizes until I had laid out the major lines in a drawing.

I arbitrarily decided the building would have a square footprint. I'm only interested in the facade, signs, and some of the interior, so the rest of the model is fabricated straight from my imagination to make the building seem plausible under casual examination.

The walls were drawn on a sheet of scrap 0.060" thick sheet styrene. In the past I've had a bad habit of making my walls too thin. I felt 0.060" was thick enough to be substantial and strong for this relatively small model, but not too thick to cut and shape with my trusty #11 Xacto knife.

One can never be too experienced to make a newbie mistake and that photo proves it!

I was in such a rush to cut out the openings for the lower sign and front windows that I broke the facade at its weakest points. This was no cause for tears. It was glued back together, and since styrene glue actually welds styrene, it's as if the break never occurred. Well, ok, the facade needed to be handled carefully until it was glued up into the complete structure, but in the end it's as if the break never occurred.

The inside corners and top support edge for the removable roof are 0.080" x 0.080" styrene strips. I used Revell Contacta Professional glue on this structure, and use it for all jobs where styrene needs to be glued together. I find it bonds quickly and the resulting joints are very strong

At this stage the structure is quite rigid, but it'll firm up even more once the interior box and braces are added in a future step.

The final task was to glue textured styrene surface panels to the shell.

The top half of the facade and the sides are surfaced with Evergreen Scale Model's product #4529, Metal Siding. This styrene sheet is 0.040" thick, so the model is now rather thick where these panels are glued on.

You'll also notice that the side pillars below either end of lower sign opening have been faced with pieces of 0.020" plain styrene sheet.

The back wall and the lower halves of the side walls are panelled with sheet brick styrene.

That door on the back wall is one of the leftover pieces from the melted Superior Bakery. Stylistically it really doesn't fit in here, but I liked it, and liked having a piece of the Superior Bakery on this model.

If you look inside you'll see that I've built up the frame where the street windows will eventually go. The prototype photos indicate those windows are set back a little from the main plane of the facade.

To finish off, the top and bottom on the model were carefully sanded against a large sheet of sand paper placed on my workbench to even them off. This helps the model to sit squarely on the ground, and gives the upper edge a more even look.

Now I just need to find a source of miniature books :-)

Kelley's Folly and E. L. Moore in 1977

Left: Karl Osolinski's interpretation of Kelley's Folly | Right: E. L. Moore's original model

Back in July Paul sent me some photographs of a masterful interpretation of E. L. Moore's Kelley's Folly project by Karl Osolinski. Karl granted permission for me post his pictures here. 

Well, longtime readers will know I was on an extended hiatus in the summer, and when I returned to the saddle in September I had forgotten about Kelley's Folly. A few days ago Paul reminded me, and I started to feel bad that I had ignored this stunning model.

But, you know, I'm thinking it might have been good that I put off this story until now, even if it was caused by forgetfulness, because Kelley's Folly is a 1977 story. And a major one at that. Here's the headline:

Kelley's Folly was the last story E. L. Moore ever submitted to RMC

1977 was at the end of Mr. Moore's publishing career. He only submitted 3 articles to MR and 2 to RMC that year. The first one to RMC was The Firecracker Foundry, which became his very last published article appearing in the July 1980 issue, and the second, his last submission, was Kelley's Folly, which was published in the January 1979 issue. 1978 only saw one submission, and that was the North Conway Depot article to MR. E. L. Moore died in August 1979.

Hey, since we've come this far, let's take a trip back to 1977 to get a sense of how Kelley's Folly came to pass.

As I mentioned, Mr. Moore submitted the manuscript for the Firecracker Foundry to Railroad Model Craftsman sometime in 1977. There isn't a cover letter for this project in the archive even though the original typescript still exists. However, it looks like it was submitted in the spring of 1977. Later, on 26 May 1977, he sent a letter and photos off to Tony Koester at RMC to see if there might be any interest in the Kelley's Folly project: 

May 26, 1977

Tony Koester, Editor,

Railroad Model Craftsman,

P. O. Box Drawer 700,

Newton, N. J.

Hi Tony . . . . . . . .

Well, looks as though my "swan song" got side-track somewhere along the way. Anyway I'm sending you in somewhat abbreviated form, a resume of the beginning of KELLEY'S FOLLY, 2200 words, three photographs and four sheets of drawings, to see what you think of it.

My goddamed legs are going to remain numb but I can get around pretty well . . . worse is my numb finger tips . . . I gotta watch the keys pretty closely and still make mistakes . . . but I manage.

Why the hell do I have to spend all the time I do on those cussed drawings (except in the interests of accuracy) when you have them done over anyway. Still it ain't really work, just tedious, since I can sit in my easy chair and do them. But dammif I gotta move around a lot to photograph the stuff and printing the pictures is a helluva strain on the gut. I type a couple of pages then go lie down a while, then type a couple more but they eventually all get typed. It's much more fun writing longhand in bed. But hell, I got no complaints, much, I eat well, got plenty of leisure, lots of books and don't get up until I get damned good and ready . . . except to feed my cats. When they get hungry they won't let me sleep.

E. L. Moore.

525 Oakland Ave., Apt 3

Charlotte, N. C. 28204

Enc. 3 photos, resume on backs.

I believe the 'swan song' to be the typescript for the Firecracker Foundry. Mr. Moore was 79 when he wrote the letter.

On 10 June 1977 Tony Koester replied with a postcard filling in E. L. Moore about what happened to the Firecracker Foundry and expressing an interest in Kelley's Folly.

June 10, 1977

Dear E. L.:

We are indeed interested in the Kelly's (you said Kelley's?) Folly material. Frankly, after the MR piece on the fire, the other recently received material from you is too close at first-glance to publish right now. I will thus be happy to have something which is entirely different. The signs of weathering and age are also of interest.

The accuracy of your drawings is appreciate [sic], in that we can usually trace them directly. You could do them only in pencil, however, and save the inking time.

Thanks for keeping us in mind, E.L.

Tony.

The 'MR piece on the fire' is the infamous Cannonball and Safety Powder Works that appeared in the April 1977 issue of Model Railroader - yes, 1977 was a curious year for E. L. Moore.

Once Mr. Moore heard of RMC's interest in Kelley's Folly he sent off the complete article:

June 16, 1977

Tony Koester, Editor,

Railroad Model Craftsman,

P. O. Drawer 700

Newton, N. J.

Hell, it's not my fault M R chose to publish that thing in their May issue . . . they've had it in their files two, three years awready [sic] yet.

Anyway here's KELLEY'S FOLLY, 2200 words, three photographs, four sheets drawings . . . they ain't got nothing similar to this, although they've got stuff dates back six, seven years . . . . 

Hell man I couldn't send in a drawing just done in pencil . . . take these for instance . . . they wouldn't look right except in good black and white . . . so I guess I'll stick to pen and inking 'em.

You're steadily making improvements in the old magazine . . . it's come a long way in the past few years . . . more power to yez!

E. L. Moore

525 Oakland Ave., Apt 3

Charlotte, N. C. 28204

That stuff that dates back six, seven years I believe he is referring to are what we now know as his lost articles. 

E. L. Moore signed his Kelley's Folly model on the bottom

It's great to see what Karl Osolinski has done with this classic E. L. Moore project from '77.

As I keep saying, 1977 is the year that keeps on giving.

Trefoil knot as trackplan?

Since writing about Bill Schopp's investigation into trefoil layout boards I've been looking online now-and-then for information about trefoils.

One interesting page I found was this one on trefoil knots. It got me thinking that trefoil layout boards are all well and good, but the important thing is having an interesting track plan running on them. I started wondering if any of those knots could be the basis of a trackplan. Clearly they  would need to be adjusted to account for the physical realities of track. They also might have a bit of the 'rabbit warren' about them, but for something like a Mt. Lowe inspired layout, that might be a good feature to have. 

Anyway, I parked those thoughts until last week when Voie Libre #115 dropped in my mailbox. Inside there's a gorgeous HO-9 circular layout - size unspecified, but it might have the same diameter as an extra-large pizza - by Frédéric Blandel whose trackplan seemed to me like a variation on one of those trefoil knots. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the layout's trackplan against one example knot:

Left: One possible trefoil knot | Right: M. Blandel's trackplan

M. Blandel's trackplan is not a pure trefoil knot, but it certainly appears to be in the spirit of one. It's ingenious and allows for both continuous scenic running as well as a little switching fun for when the mood strikes. And there doesn't appear to be a need for overly complex wiring as there are no reversing loops. This layout might be thought of as a trefoil knot trackplan on a circular board. It might be interesting to see what a trefoil knot based trackplan on a trefoil board would look like.