A sketch for the structure at Inspiration Point

I've started to work on the sketches for the buildings for the Mt. Lowe layout. That one is for the observation structure at Inspiration Point. The real one is much larger, more sprawling, and has a few more features. I've had to try and capture a few of its key styling cues in a structure with a far smaller footprint. I haven't put in all the details as these will be dealt with during construction, but I think I've figured out the shapes and sizes for starting a model.

Experimental Farm layout in January 2025 issue of Continental Modeller magazine

News Flash from the 30Squares Shameless Self-Promotion Department: The Experimental Farm layout appears in the January 2025 issue of Continental Modeller magazine! Six scintillating pages illustrated with 18 glorious, never seen before colour photographs! Just in time for Christmas: makes an excellent stocking stuffer for mom, dad, hubby, wifey, the kids, and that hard to buy for uncle! On sale now wherever fine model railway magazines are sold! Don't delay, get yours today!

Oh, no, I've worn out the ! key!

But seriously, I'm very happy that the editor at Continental Modeller published the story. Back in the 1970s when I was model railway obsessed I would often make the long hike from our house to the W H Smith in Scarborough Town Centre to peruse, and sometimes buy, English model railway magazines. That's how on one such mission I became familiar with Vivien Thompson's work in an issue of Model Railway Constructor.

To the best of my knowledge W H Smith hasn't had any stores in Canada, well, at least here in Ontario, for a very long time. But, my English cousin who lives in Solihull tells me there's one near his house and they stock Continental Modeller. It's quite satisfying to me that my first full length article has been published in an English model railway magazine and is for sale at Smith's. It's one of those 'circle of life' things :-)

As built geography, track plan, and route map

One design principle that I try to adhere to is to think about the routes that can be travelled through the layout's space so people can get to the various areas. It's related to using sight lines as a design principle that I discussed earlier this year.

I like to have the roads, tracks, sidewalks, trails, and so on mapped out and understood how they connect up the layout's areas. As I'm working on that I try to make sure these things have fairly realistic dimensions as they're being laid out. The roads can't be too narrow, the walking gradients can't be too steep, and so on. Thinking about these things helps me keep the scenes within the realm of possibility. I often think getting the routes through the space physically right is more important than detailing, well, at least as important. 

Shown above is one such route map. It isn't the only one of course, but thinking about it helped me a lot in developing scenic possibilities.

Mountain views

Future site of the Circular Bridge

Granite Gate Pass

Inspiration Point

Parked at Poppyfield Flats

Approaching the Circular Bridge 

The Trefoil Layout: A must have mid-century modern home decor accessory?

In the mock-up room at 30Squares Labs. Second in a series.

The Mt. Lowe inspired micro-layout at year end

All the mountain shapes have been worked out, and their surfaces have been primed with gesso. In the new year it'll be on to painting a base layer with acrylics. Right now I'm trying to work out the mix of colours that best match Mt. Lowe's.

Studying my reference photos suggests the colours are a mix of coloured greys in the exposed rocky areas. Earth tones enter into the mix where rock, trails, and vegetation come together. It isn't the usual slathered on neutral grey one sees on many layouts' rock formations. I went through a similar exercise with the Loonar Module, but this time I don't have any rock samples for reference. I'm relying on photographs, which introduces another layer of approximation. Understanding what's going on colour-wise is taking awhile, but it's an interesting exercise.

Sketch for an updated journey status display

Ok, come to think of it, after our last trip there is one thing that should be easy for VIA Rail to update since I assume all that's involved is computer programming (oh, is that all :-) ): the in-car journey status display. You can see them attached to our car's ceiling in the photo above.

Here's a close up. Yeah, the clarity of my zoom isn't the greatest, and there's a bit of in-car motion to further shake things up, but the key thing is clear: the static VIA logo takes up a lot of space and crams the important upcoming destination status information to the bottom of the display. Also, that little arrow supposedly showing where we are doesn't move so it doesn't actually give an indication of where the train is. The train's speed is almost illegible in the lower right corner. 

That's my black-and-white sketch for a slightly updated journey status display. The little red arrow is meant to move as the train gets closer to the next station, and ETAs are shown under the upcoming stations. Lots of refinement is possible and needed of course, but that is the basic idea to make the display a little more readable and a little more informative. 

Before I go, this wouldn't be one of my VIA posts if it didn't include a video. This time though I'll mix things up and leave you with a TTC video that'll take you to the far reaches of Scarborough:

No, wait, we were made to love the way we move

We made a short trip to Toronto last week to visit a friend and Christmas shop. As usual we took the train. And we loved the way.....

...but the speed, not so much.

I was going to go into a whole nerd-a-palooza thing and analyze the bejesus out of our trip's distance, speed profile, average speed, top speed, trip time, delays, and so on, and so on. Forget that. Let's just say the quality of the trip was excellent - again, we loved the way - but our arrival in Toronto was 45 minutes late, and our return was 43 minutes late. Average speed either way, 88 km/h.

Sadly, this is not that out of the ordinary in our experience, even before VIA imposed speed reductions. However, nothing serious caused those delays, just the usual slowing for level crossings, waiting for other freights and passenger trains to pass, and we even stopped for the CPKC Holiday Train (ok, that was a pleasant stop). I eventually went with the flow and used the stoppages to squirt post cataract operation eye drops in my eye instead of trying to do so while the train was in motion, which invariably resulted in me squirting more drops on my face instead of in my eye. Who woulda thought those delays would have medical benefits :-)

And the other thing that's not out of the ordinary in our experience: good onboard service, good food, a friendly crew, and a good environment. And no, I'm not paid by VIA Rail to say that. So far so good in this department.

Look, maybe those VIA Rail commercials I don't like actually work. From my completely anecdotal, unscientific eavesdropping I heard some interesting comments from neighbouring passengers. Outward bound there was a small group of twenty-something women on a business trip, and upon arrival in Toronto one asked another, who apparently was riding the train for the first time in her life, what she thought of the trip. Her reply was an enthusiastic, "It was relaxing." On the return trip a twenty-something businessman told his seat mate this was the first train trip he'd taken since childhood, that he splurged to ride business class and was quite happy he did. Ok, so maybe VIA Rail does know its target market. I hope they can convince lots of young people to take the train using whatever messaging they think will work.

If anyone from VIA is reading this, look, you've got to make the travel time thing reliable, predictable, and so set-your-watch-to-it boring that every passenger takes arrival times for granted. You've got a lot of the other pieces of the puzzle in place, but that big one is one you desperately need to figure out. 

On cataracts, E. L. Moore, VIA Rail, and Gino Vannelli

In an April 20, 1975 letter to Railroad Modeler editor Denis Dunning, E. L. Moore had this to say about his recent cataract surgery:

Right now I'm trying to get used to wearing cataract glasses . . . had one eye castrated, (and at the price, $1250, the expression is apt), and now one to go.

I recently had cataract surgery on one eye. I'm fine. And now one to go.

And speaking of going. Continuing in the vein of retro ad campaigns  for VIA Rail, might I suggest the legendary Gino Vannelli be given the marketing portfolio. It's a passenger rail service after all, and an excellent slogan is built into one of Mr. Vannelli's greatest hits: People Gotta Move. His qualifications include appearing on Soul Train:

In this rare footage Mr. Vannelli explains how he got the Soul Train gig, and got to work with Stevie Wonder:

VIA's Ready?

I saw this VIA Rail ad pop up in my YouTube recommendations yesterday. In some respects it's charming, but in others it's ripe for satire. It comes at a time when VIA is experiencing considerable problems with its new train sets, the ones being promoted in the video. The most chronic being that travel times along the Québec-Windsor corridor are longer because the trains have to reduce speed on the approach to many level crossings in order to trigger the signals. According to VIA's website they say this translates into a 15 to 45 minute delay, although I have experienced longer ones because the problem with triggering crossing signals isn't the only event that can cause delays. Eric Gagnon has written extensively about VIA's woes and his posts are worth reading if you want all the details (see here and here for example; all his VIA related posts can be found here).

Into this troubled scene the federal government recently announced they want to introduce high-speed rail to Canada. Given the state of passenger rail travel in Canada, from VIA on down to numerous city rail systems, combined with the lack of seriousness in the elite classes, I'd be surprised if high-speed rail appeared in my lifetime, if ever. Believe me, I would very much like to see high-speed rail here for many reasons.

And I would very much like to see something like what's shown in this ad by Japan Rail that Galen forwarded to me not long ago.

I've enjoyed that video more times than I care to admit. Even though I don't understand Japanese the message is loud and clear. On the VIA side, this video is typical of its messaging:

People who know us know we take VIA a lot. Most think we're crazy to do so. The ones who are curious don't ask us how VIA is dealing with society's ills, but things like how much do tickets cost, how long does a trip take, have we ever been stuck in a remote area in a broken down train, is the Wi-Fi any good, and so on. Whether young or old the questions seem to be the same.

VIA usually emails me a post-trip survey, and I even recently received a questionnaire about services they should offer in the future (and how much extra I'd pay for them!). The questions always focus on amenities and social problems, never on the things I'm actually asked.

Well, I know all this is marketing and messaging on VIA's part to counteract the not wholly undeserved negative press it's getting. Is it working? I have no idea. 

My preference is for more subtle, positive, forward looking, or even sentimental ads instead of the bonk-you-on-the-head while proselytizing ones we're getting. Something with vision. Only slightly tongue-in-cheek might I suggest something based on either of these Aretha Franklin masterpieces:

Or if you're looking for maybe a more train-like rhythm, I suggest this instrumental by Thom Rotella. You could cut and mix sections from it to create a video called, 'VIA's Ready', but only if you are :-)

Cutting a mountain down to size

Before

I've been spending a lot of time just looking at the mountains. Something just didn't sit well with me. I finally realized I didn't like the tall rock outcropping over the tunnel portal on the right. And it was just a couple of weeks ago I thought it was too short and raised it!

After sawing

Yeah, yeah, wasted effort on my part. All I can say in my own defence is that why should I look at a constant reminder of a bad decision and grouse about it when I should get out the saw and fix it. Luckily I have many saws to hand :-)

After re-shaping

In retrospect I should have created the Granite Gate first - to the left of the shortened outcropping - and then examined the entire scene before adding height over the tunnel portal. Live and learn.

I learned another thing during this exercise: the papier mâché is very hard. Sawing though it wasn't easy. That's good to know. It gives me added confidence that the rest of the mountain is fairly solid.

Track still works

I was spending so much time working on the mountain I started to get concerned that the track might be in bad shape, so I took the trolley out for a spin. Luckily, things are still running.

Lessons learned while mountain building

A latex mold filled with paper mache pressed against the mountain

Back in September I tried two different methods for making rock castings: 1) filling a mold with papier-mâché and pressing it against the mountain while still wet, and 2) spraying Great Stuff foam into a mold and then pressing it against the mountain. The first method worked, but took awhile to harden, the second was a messy failure.

Later I tried filling a mold with papier-mâché and letting it harden in the mold before gluing the dry casting to the mountain. That seemed to work ok too. 

Masking tape holds still wet casting in place

The problem I found with making additional stand alone papier-mâché castings was they had a tendency to break before hardening because I failed to provide them with proper support during the drying process.

After some humming-and-hawing I settled on the first method of taking a mold loaded with papier-mâché and pressing it against the mountain while still wet. Sometimes masking tape had to be applied to hold everything in place while drying.

One modification to the process I made was to peel off the mold from the still gooey papier-mâché after around 8 hours. By that time the goo was firm enough to withstand the mold coming off without damage, and the now exposed surface allowed the casting to dry much faster.

Much faster? Hmmm, well, in my basement drying time of an air exposed casting could be anywhere from overnight to a few days depending on the thickness of the casting, the water content of the papier-mâché, and the workshop's humidity, which I attempt to control at this time of year with a dehumidifier.

Rock casting at Inspiration Point

I applied about 7 or 8 molds to the mountain to give rock-like three-dimensionality to large flat surfaces. Once they were hardened a lot of time was spent blending them together with carefully slathered on papier-mâché to create a unified surface. Surface detailing still needs some work, but the shapes seem to be ok. Well, except for the Granite Gate. I still haven't settled on the shape for that feature.

The Trefoil Transform

In issue #119 of Voie Libre there's a story about a fascinating O-14 layout called The Boidon-Cuncou Wire Drawing Mill. When I saw its trackplan it seemed like a trefoil to me even though it's more like a triangle with rounded corners - it's likely another case of me seeing trefoils in everything :-) So somewhat tongue-in-cheek I applied The Trefoil Transform to trefoilize it. Well, the trefoilization was not that effective as I think the trackplan would require further modification if it were to be used on a trefoil layout board. But, that inner trackage provides an interesting starting point for a trefoil based layout that is something other than a simple tour around the perimeter. 

6 views, not 3

Ok, I've finally finished the first round of mountain surfacing.

I've decided the next step should be priming the surface with gesso to even out the colour to look for areas needing improvement. 

When I sat back to look at the thing I realized the trefoil planform offers 6 basic views, not 3. I was fixated on the lobes, of which there are 3, but completely ignored the negative spaces, of which there are also 3.

Well, look, even 6 views isn't the limit. There are an infinite number of views, but there are 6 basic viewpoints.

Negative space. It's easy to overlook.

Well, I need to head back to the grotto to see if there are any more spaces that need looking into. I'll leave you with The Belle Stars:

Thoughts on: In Search of a Dream

I’ve admired the Pendon Museum for a long time and have wanted to visit for an equally long time. Finally in 2019 we made plans to go there in March 2020. It turned out that month they were holding a class in modelling buildings. That seemed perfect: I could visit the museum, take in a class from one of their master modellers, as well as tour Oxford and the nearby regions. 

Well, as we all know, March 2020 was when covid was beginning its onslaught. We cancelled our trip once it became clear covid was a global pandemic and not just a blip on the medical radar. The only good thing that came from that cancelation was the airline did eventually refund our tickets. Like everyone else we hunkered down for the long haul, and 2020 became a banner year for 30Squares posts. I hit an all time high of 287. 

We thought 2024 would be the year for visiting Pendon, but personal events conspired against us. Maybe next year. In the meantime though I went ahead and bought a copy of In Search of a Dream edited by Stephen Williams that was published by Wild Swan Books in 2022. It’s the story of Roye England, Pendon’s founder, and his account of his life and the museum’s creation and development. I had been holding off buying this book as I thought it would be nice to purchase it at Pendon when I visited, but with my questionable travel track record I thought I should just go ahead and buy one online from their shop. I’m glad I did since after reading it I think I’ll have a bit better appreciation of the museum if we ever do visit.

I thought this might be a rather dry and clinical book. I was dead wrong. It’s mainly Roye England’s autobiography supplemented by a large collection of fascinating photos, additional text by Williams to explain and elaborate on some of the more obscure passages in the autobiography, along with chapters by Williams to fill in missing information and update us on events after Roye’s* death. 

Roye was a very engaging writer and I found his accounts compelling. His autobiography reads almost as some sort of adventure story, which I guess in a sense it is. Although at times I thought the book’s title should have been In Search of a Dream and Money as creating what would become the Pendon museum often seemed like a constant struggle for money. Neither Roye nor any of the protagonists were flush with cash. It required tenacity over the decades to bring Pendon to life. There were no wealthy benefactors with big bags of moolah in this story, but there were plenty of good people who helped and contributed in many ways big and small, and sometimes with a bit of cash.

It strikes me that Roye was something of a charismatic figure as well as being a world class model maker. He seemed to have a way with people that got them to believe in the idea of Pendon as he did and attracted them to participate in its mission. However, he didn’t seem to be a scheming entrepreneur, but simply a good person with an authentic dream and a determination to realize it. The people he encountered seemed to sense that. Although the down side seemed to be at times he was taken advantage of and his honest authenticity brushed close to naiveté.

In Search of a Dream is also a story about model making of the highest standard and of the folk art buildings approach to modelling. This may seem like a contradictory combination, but it isn’t. I think part of the problem is that the common association with the term ‘folk art buildings approach’ is with backwoods bumpkins hacking out models with junk found on the back forty. As I’ve discussed before, it’s actually a person’s desire to communicate about one’s environment, built or natural, current or past, and one’s feelings towards it, using materials one can access. It’s ‘folk’ because these people aren’t necessarily trained professionals, just people from all walks of life that have the desire. Let me emphasize: it’s about desire and communication, not strict adherence to certain materials and signifiers. Roye seemed to have the folk art buildings spirit in him from birth to death, but he always wanted to express it with the highest standards of modelling, standards that were far from common in his glory days. He demanded it of himself and of others he worked with. And many worked with him to those standards.

This summer I also read Linn Westcott’s book, Model Railroading with John Allen, published in 1981. Allen and Roye were contemporaries of a sort. Allen was born in 1913, and Roye in 1906. Both created in the mid-century era what would become two of the 20th century’s most famous and influential layouts. Unfortunately Allen’s would be destroyed by fire soon after his death in 1973 leaving behind only a few relics. Roye died in 1995, but Pendon continues on. I have no idea if Allen and Roye ever communicated, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew of each other’s work, at least through the model railroad press.

It’s tough for me to think too deeply about Allen’s motivations for building the G&D as Westcott’s book doesn’t contain Allen’s autobiography - I don’t think one exists? Autobiographies can provide an important view on a person’s life from which patterns might be discerned. But, I will note from the layouts and modelling work, both Allen and Roye were committed to high standards, both were determined, and both took model railroading beyond what had been the norm for hobbyists. Allen’s project was more of a private undertaking; Roye’s a more public one. Allen didn’t seem to struggle for money for the G&D as he lived frugally on good investments; Roye had a constant financial struggle to bring Pendon to life, but he lived frugally too.

Needless to say, I highly recommend In Search of a Dream.

---

*I am taking the liberty of referring to Roye England as “Roye” as it seems odd to me to keep writing “England did this and England did that”, and using the full “Roye England” seems cumbersome.

Even mountains evolve

After

Even though I'm deep into surfacing the mountain and casting rocks I still spend time just staring at the thing from different angles.

I began to think the portion of the mountain on the parking lot lobe that partially obscures the track going to the inspiration point stub needed to be taller. If I left it as it was it was going to be the same height as the granite gate, and that I didn't want. So, I glued some foam pieces on above the portal to make it taller. No doubt it'll undergo some revision as I continue shaping, especially once I put in the granite gate.

All this is just to say that I keep revising the mountain even at these later stages. The idea that once a phase of construction is done it's done for good and I move onto the next is fiction. 

Before

Found while searching for Rolliam photos

I stumbled across this old film footage of the Grasse River Railroad, the owners of the Rolliam (the inspiration for E. L. Moore's Spumoni Club Coach), while looking for pictures of the vehicle that might help in modelling a motorized version of Mr. Moore's creation. It's fascinating to watch even though there are no up close and personal shots of the Rolliam. However, there are a few places in the film where there are blurry but tantalizing shots of a boxy, Rolliam-like vehicle parked on a siding like these two screen captures:

There might be more and better images out there hidden in the backgrounds of obscure films. The search continues.

More Coming Attractions: Motorizing E. L. Moore's Spumoni Club Coach

Left: My build of E. L. Moore's Spumoni Club Coach | Right: BD Concepts drive unit with my base attached

If you are a longtime reader here you may recall I've had it on my to-do list for quite awhile to motorize E. L. Moore's Spumoni Club Coach project. If you follow that link you'll see that back in 2016 I noted that what E. L. Moore, Lucious Beebe, and Charles Clegg thought was a regular old coach operated by the Grasse River Railroad was actually a self-powered vehicle called the 'Rolliam'. Since finding that out I've been toying with the idea of motorizing the coach, but have never gotten around to doing it.

BD Concepts HO gauge (16.5mm), 28mm wheelbase drive unit

Recently the magazine Voie Libre has been promoting some drive units manufactured by a company called BD Concepts. I found their motor bogies intriguing and thought one of them may be a good choice for a motorized coach.

Mr. Moore notes in his article that he used a passenger truck from Central Valley that had an 8' scale wheelbase. I didn't have such a truck on hand, so I used one with a 8'-6" wheelbase that John generously gave me. BD-Concepts has an HO-gauge drive unit with a 28mm wheelbase, which translates to 8 scale HO feet, so that seemed a good choice for the project. I bought one from here, and the instruction sheet can be found here.

There are two ways one can attach the drive to a body: using a screw through the centre post, or by clipping on a flat base by way of those 4 sprung protrusions near the centre top of the unit (there are 2 on each side). I chose to use the second method as I think it's more appropriate for this project. 

0.040" thick, 19' x 8' styrene base with a 21mm x 12.5mm rectangular hole in the centre

The BD Concepts instructions note that if you're using the second method, the base needs to be 1mm thick, with a 21mm x 12.5mm rectangular hole for accommodating the top of the drive unit. The 1mm thickness translates very closely to 0.040". E. L. Moore notes his base is 19' x 8', so I cut a piece of 0.040" thick sheet styrene to that size with the recommended hole cut in the centre. You may recall Mr. Moore used a scrap of yard stick for his base, and so did I, so this is a big change!

The base fits the drive quite well and is held in place very snuggly by the little clips. I was chomping at the bit to give this thing a try, so I went ahead and got it ready for a test spin on the Way Out Layout.

I put a piece of electrical tape over the centre opening because I didn't want my weight shorting out the motor. The instructions say that for the unit to run reliably it needs a little weight, so for that I used a 1 euro coin, which the internet tells me weighs 7.5 grams and seems appropriate for this test. I used some household tape to attach it to the base.

The BD Concepts instructions say the unit's operating voltage is 0 to 12V, and not to exceed 15V. To be on the safe side I ran the test with my Rokuhan RC-02 battery powered controller. It only puts out a maximum of 10V when the batteries are fresh, so the recommended maximum can't be exceeded. As well, I did some loops of the track simply by pushing the terminals of a new 9V battery against the track. In this video of one lap of the track, the Rokuhan controller is set to about 2/3 maximum.

  

The unit runs quite well and I think it will be alright for the Spumoni Club Coach, er, Spumoni Club Rolliam :-) This is another project awaiting the snow to fly, but in the meantime I need to think about whether I'll just replace the truck on the coach I've already built, or build a new Spumoni Club Rolliam specific body. The current body doesn't have an interior control station, or a place for a driver, and I would suspect there'd need to be a radiator out front as the Rolliam was powered by an automobile engine. Well, these deep questions need lots of coffee :-)

Tunnel portals

I think I'm at the point in mountain surfacing where I need to install the finished tunnel portals so I can blend them in cleanly with the rest of the mountain.

The portals are cut from some fine grained, 1/4" thick Midwest brand foam sheet I bought many years ago. The year carvings are some plastic numbers I had in my scrap box. I've given the portals a basic painting before installation, but weathering will be done in situ with the rest of the mountain when the time comes for that.