You won't find omnivagant in the spaghetti aisle

Omnivagant interurban layout designed by Bill Schopp*

Omnivagant: A track plan that goes everywhere and connects everyplace.

Usage: Each neighbourhood on his omnivagant streetcar layout had a least one car-stop.

Source: The word was first used to describe a trackplan in a story about a layout design called the Decatur, Jackson & Newton by Linn Westcott in the May 1940 issue of Model Railroader magazine.

A prominent editor in the model railroading press once suggested to me that the use of omnivagant in Mr. Westcott's article was a mere typographic error of the time. However, the line where it's used in the story, Provision is made for point-to-point, once-around, triple loop, omnivagant (wandering anywhere and everywhere), and switching operations, suggests that it was no error as Mr. Westcott included the accepted non-railroading definition in the sentence. Also, it's noted that although omnivagant is an archaic word, it has a history and evolved into our extravagant.

Omnivagant is not to be confused with spaghetti, which is a trackplan created for the sole purpose of covering a layout with as much track as possible to maximize train, engine, and car carrying capacity. Spaghetti layouts often become so through unrestrained additions of track over a period of time.

Omnivagant track plans are often characteristic of electric street and electric interurban model railways. When applied to traditional steam and diesel layouts they can devolve into spaghetti trackplans. Not all electric street and electric interurban model railways need be omnivagant.

*This plan appears in the 1957 3rd printing of Louis Hertz's The Complete Book of Model Railroading.

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 1st ed.,1959.

Layout panels

Those two future N-scale layout panels have been hanging on the wall waiting for a lull in the action on other fronts. The one on the left is the foundation for a replica of E. L. Moore’s Elizabeth Valley Railroad. Other than adding a cork base layer with the lake and stream cut out, it’s on hold for a little while. The gentleman who has the E. L. Moore manuscripts and letters I’ve been posting excerpts from recently has some photos of the original layout, and I hope to see them when we visit to get a better sense of what this layout was about. The panel on the right is for a streetcar and city block test track tortuously called Tor-N-to. Both panels rest on some pegs I screwed into the wall. It’s easy to take the panels down for work or play, although I wouldn’t recommend this method of hanging in an earthquake prone region.

The omni-circulatory streetcar layout

In the past I’ve posted a bit about the omnivagant model railroad concept first proposed by Linn Westcott back in the May 1940 issue of Model Railroader. To me it’s an interesting way to look at building a layout that incorporates trolley, tram, interurban or streetcar elements. All of the posts in the omnivagant series are tagged with the word and can be found here.

[Some slotcar layouts seem to exemplify the omnivagant concept more so than model railroads - to maximize the fun :-) This ad appeared in a 1960s issue of Boy's Life.]

I find that the word ‘omnivagant’ often trips people up. Like myself when I first encountered it, I thought it was spelt wrong, and was sure it should be omnivagrant, with an ‘r’. With omnivagant being an archaic word even when Mr. Westcott first mentioned it in 1940, that missing 'r' seems like a natural mistake. Some internet searching cleared things up. One of the more interesting findings on omnivagant and its relations is at The Inky Fool which has a post on noctivagant (wandering around at night), omnivagant (wandering absolutely everywhere) and extravagant (wandering around outside), and suggests how Shakespeare had a hand in changing the meaning of extravagant from its original one of ‘out-of-bounds’ to today’s ‘out-of-budget’.

[Not to be satisfied with merely a flat, omnivagant slotcar layout setup on the rec-room floor, Glen Wagner in the Nov. '66 issue of Boy's Life showed how to build this multi-level twister through mountainous terrain.]

Vagrant also has the connotation of not having a home, job or any fixed connection to a place or activity, as well as wandering. That makes being vagrant somewhat different from merely having a penchant for wanderlust. A railed vehicle can indeed be vagant, but it likely follows its geographically wandering path with a purpose, and repeat it in accordance to a schedule. It would hardly be vagrant.

[This is the Flat River Railroad and Union Traction Co. that appeared in the Feb '57 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman by 'the layout doctor'. This layout is the most omnivagant setup I've seen published so far. It's got streetcars, interurbans, trolley buses and a railroad all in 6 x 14 foot space. Linn Westcott's Union Bay Railway is still the most stylish and best thought out omnivagant layout I've seen. the layout doctor's layout pushes the boundary between spaghetti and omnivagant setups, but it stays in the omnivagant envelope and excels in sheer scale, density and integration. Sophistication of integration of the various transportation systems being modelled is what distinguishes the omnivagant from the spaghetti. ]

This is especially true for an urban streetcar system. I was thinking about how Mr. Westcott’s concept applied to a setup like the one in Toronto where streetcars plied streets laid out on a grid. In the Decatur, Jackson and Newton layout where Mr. Westcott introduced omnivagancy, the setting is small town and rural, and the tracks and streets conform to the terrain. In grid cities the geography is more-or-less beaten flat and sliced up into a Cartesian plan. There’s still omnivagancy, but of a particular kind.

[This is the Toronto Transit Commission's streetcar network in 1973 (sourced from Transit Toronto). It weaves together many streets as does an omnivagant layout, but it does so in a way that more-or-less conforms to the street grid.]

The omnivagant plans I've developed didn’t quite get to the core of what the particular kind was. Streetcars were going everywhere and making all kinds of places accessible as a good omnivagant layout should; however they didn’t remind me of the streetcar lines in Toronto. I guess they couldn’t. Classical omnivagant designs seem better at integrating pre-1950’s North American rail transport where interurbans play a big role along with passenger train service. 

[These postcards - by JBC Visuals - I bought at a train show a few years ago resonated with me as they succinctly summarized a lot of my memories of riding Toronto's streetcars. That rush hour streetcar traffic on the left reminded me of my trips downtown, and that image on the right conjured up memories of riding the streetcar with my mother to visit my grandmother. Yes, those are PCCs, but the TCC ran them until 1995, and in the '70s they were still the backbone of the fleet.]

My omnivagant designs weren’t passing my personal nostalgia test. There were many non-Toronto elements I wanted to include – experimental farm, observatory, ocean beach, archeological dig, etc – but the core, the long straight streetcar runs, that could hang a tight 90-degree turn when the route demanded, that I remember riding, weren’t there.

[This is Toronto's street railway in 1921. (sourced from Transit Toronto) More extensive than in '73, but the long gone pieces were still following the city's grid.]

I failed to consider the grid and that the streetcars circulate through the grid. The element of that grid most amenable to compact modelling – that is, via a shelf layout -  is the long, rectangular loop, which was often short-cut with smaller, inner loops. It circulates amongst all the streets; so, it's omni-circulatory.

[A late-19th or early-20th century idealization of the most basic streetcar circulation system for a large urban area (sourced from somewhere in the Street Railway Review)]

I suspect the ‘ideal’ streetcar layout for me has some sort of omni-circulatory, rectangular loop in the urban core, and a more free-form omnivagant arrangement on the outskirts.

[This is a Walther's ad from the 1950's. It's true that a setup should go beyond the simple loop, but for certain omni-circulatory layouts, a square loop would be a better starting configuration than a kidney :-) ]

Kato Unitram track isn’t the perfect medium for building an omni-circulatory layout, but it’s pretty good. On the plus side, the track is high quality and precision made, so it has the quality needed for use in kitbashing projects.

[This is the Cincinnati streetcar route map. It's simple and has the basics of the omni-circulator with a twist around Twelfth and Race that makes it a simple figure-eight.]

Unitram track is excellent stuff. I suspect for its intended use – modelling Japanese street trackage - it’s ideal. What I have in mind – old-fashioned Toronto and more North American style layouts – is outside the intended market for this item, so it’s no fault of the product. So far I’d say the most significant downside is that the curves are rather wide for Toronto, whose streetcars must be able to negotiate a 11 m radius turn (around 69 mm in N scale) . The Unitram curves have a 180 mm radius. Using Unitram means approximations to the look of the streets will be in order. But, I think with the long runs that N-scale makes possible, this shouldn't detract from making the thing omni-circulatory.

On the other hand the layout shouldn’t be just a land of nostalgia. I’d like to have some space for playing and thinking about things. Layouts are great for that sort of activity.

The lead photo for this post isn't my layout, the one above is. The lead photo is just digital trickery to use what I've got to figure out where I'd like to go. I think some creativity is going to be needed to keep costs within reach.

A couple of final thoughts. This whole omnivagant vs omni-circulatory rambling is likely obvious to professionals who design these things, and modellers who pay closer attention than myself, but it seemed important to me to try and wrap my head around what makes a streetcar layout different from a model railroad. Also, although Unitram might not be ideal for a omni-circulatory North American streetcar layout, it might be perfect for a Launch Pad Layout. :-)

Kato Unitram and Omnivagancy

I bought a couple more pieces of circular Kato Unitram track to fiddle with. I was thinking that even though the variety of streetcar trackplans that can be constructed with it appears limited, it does seem a rather easy way to build some sort of omnivagant streetcar layout. Given that I'd also like to try making some larger buildings, this comment about scales by Linn Westcott that appeared in his December '72 Model Railroader At the throttle column entitled, The Hobby with a Heart: Scale Model Railroading, seemed very insightful to this situation.

Don't adopt a scale. Traditionally modelers classed themselves as "N scalers", "O gaugers", "Trolleymen", and so on. This caused more friction than it did good. Instead, choose scales for your models that solve whatever problems you have with them - but remain full-sized yourself.

It's an interesting column and I have Vince to thank for pointing it out to me, and Debra to thank for providing me the DVDs so I can peruse all this interesting stuff at my leisure. 

Bachmann PCC + Kato Unitram = N-scale TTC?

I bought a few sections of Kato's Unitram track to see if Bachmann's N-scale TTC PPC streetcar would run on it. The answer is yes. It runs quite well on both the inner and outer tracks. The Unitram track would need to be painted for it to look closer to the streets of Toronto, or many other North American cities where streetcars run or ran. 

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

[My guess at a track plan for E. L. Moore's Elizabeth Valley Railroad]

While I have had well over a hundred letters requesting track plans of my 4 x 6-foot railroad as the result of photographs published in MODEL TRAINS, nary a one has queried about anything electrical, but dozens have commented on the fact that scenery was their big bugaboo. [E. L. Moore outlining the reason behind writing his article Let’s build a mountain, in the January 1962 issue of Model Trains]

[This seems to be the best overall photo of the EVRR published. It's from the 2nd edition of HO Primer by Linn Westcott, published in 1964 by Kalmbach. The 1st edition appeared in 1962. This book seems to be staple of resale tables at model train shows, but even though a lot of its content is dated, it's still an interesting compilation of some MODEL TRAINS material. I've added the letters to this picture, and a few others in this post, to identify various buildings and articles they appeared in. The list mapping letters to articles is presented in [1]. ]

[9 October 2016 update: A photo of the EVRR was found that shows a clearer view of the trackplan and will cause some updates to the layout drawing shown in this post.]

[12 March 2017 update: A photo of one of E. L. Moore's postcards with the EVRR trackplan drawing on one side has been found.]

Even though E. L. Moore received all those requests for a track plan to his Elizabeth Valley Railroad, it doesn’t appear that one was ever published. However, there were enough photos released over the years to allow for a little archeological work to suss out what it might have been. That’s my attempt in the opening sketch. 

[This is another shot of the lakeside area, but here the main station is clearly visible and you can get a little better idea of the track along the front edge of the layout. This photo was included in the first appearance of the EVRR in the photo-spread called the Elizabeth Valley RR in the March 1955 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.]

First, some caveats. My track plan is based on pictures of Mr. Moore’s layout that were published between 1955 and 1962. Even in those photos the layout appears to have developed over the years, and it likely underwent more development after ’62. For example, in his article, 3 in 1 Engine House, in the February 1963 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, Mr. Moore states that, “I have long wanted an engine house but on my little 4’ x 6’ pike, the Elizabeth Valley Railroad, there simply wasn’t room for one. Recently I managed to acquire some additional acreage so, ...”, which hints that the EVRR underwent an expansion in ’62, or maybe ’61. 

[This appears to be the only published picture of the mountainous region of the EVRR. It was a part of E. L. Moore's Let's build a mountain article in the January 1962 issue of MODEL TRAINS.]

As well, I don’t think the published pictures form a complete record of the layout, so some parts I’ve inferred from the evidence available. For example, I wouldn’t be surprised if the stuff along the ‘front’ edge is inaccurate because that’s where I did the most guess-work. If you see places where I’m way off-base, please leave a comment so I can make the necessary corrections.

[The content of Let's build a mountain is dated, but the article does have this inside view of the mountains that shows what the track plan looks like.]

Over his long career Mr. Moore wrote many articles about how to build various types of industries for model railroads, but his own layout seems to have been purely a tourist and passenger line set in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s - it might have had some logging operations in the mountain region, but they weren’t extensive. It first appeared in print in a 2-page photo-spread called the Elizabeth Valley RR in the March 1955 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. There also were likely some photos in Model Trains from that period as Mr. Moore suggests in the opening quote, but I haven't yet found them

The track plan is loop-based and small – the layout is only 4 feet wide by 6 feet long - which is somewhat out-of-fashion today. Some might dismiss it as a beginner’s layout of ‘spaghetti-bowl’ design [2]; however, I’d suggest it’s more sophisticated in its execution than a cursory viewing might suggest.

[This overall shot of the lake area is the 'day' scene from The light fantastic in the Fall 1959 issue of MODEL TRAINS. In it Mr. Moore shows how to build a low cost light fixture that provides both day and night light (via a blue bulb). It also has a clear view of the 'Red Eye Saloon']

In fact, its loop structure strikes me as rather ingenious as it allows many different routes, as well as long continuous runs, through the terrain and helps establish several scenes: a railroad town, a cabin and swimming hole down by a lake, a remote depot, a mountain cabin with a trail up to it, as well as numerous bridges.

[This very grainy scan is the night scene from The light fantastic. The white box I've added at the bottom is one of best shots I've come across of the spur behind the main station. The blue night light prevents the scene from being too dark. Also you can see that as well as the buildings being illuminated, so are the passenger cars on the train at the back that is just starting across the bridge.] 

To get a better understanding of the track plan’s structure I made a couple of sketches where I backed the plan down to its spine. In this first one, shown below, I took the upper most level - which is basically a reversing loop - unfurled it, and stretched it out using some tracing paper over the plan.

[That lobe on the far left is the uppermost level unraveled and extended.]

I then removed a couple of pieces and discovered the basis of the track plan to be a strip of track with reversing loops at either end. The pieces taken out were a short-cut to the reversing loop, a passing track, and a siding.

[In this tracing the passing siding, spur and reversing loop shortcut have been removed to show the basic underlying tack plan.]

With these two tracings it’s a little easier to see how the track plan might have been developed: it started with a length of track with reversing loops at either end; a siding, passing track, and reversing loop shortcut were added; it was finished by twisting and elevating sections to conform with the mountain and valley.

By today’s standards, the EVRR would be considered dated. It’s elements are almost stereotypical of what might be thought of as a small beginner’s layout: a mountain in a corner, a lake in the centre, quaint stations, lots of grades [3]. The difference between the EVRR and the stereotypes is in the level of integration between these elements which turns the entire layout into a coherent whole instead of a collection of unrelated areas: a stream starts in the mountains, crosses a plain, and empties into a lake; a mountain trail leads from the lake, passes a cabin, and climbs up the mountain via a number of switchbacks to a remote cabin; there’s a fancy central station, with a hotel / saloon across the way, for tourists planning to enjoy the lake for a day or two; the lake has boats, fishermen, swimmers, and a lake-side cabin; there’s a remote station up on the far plateau for those venturing into the mountains; there’s a full backdrop, carefully blended in style to the layout, giving the impression of even more distant mountains; there’s trees and vegetation in the lower lands where water collects and little to none in the mountains; and there’s a lighting system to simulate both day and night situations - with illuminated buildings and passenger cars too! And in classic E. L. Moore fashion there’s plenty of people and animals around doing appropriate things. That’s a lot of careful consideration of coherence packed into 24 square feet.

Of course, the scenery construction methods are more-or-less completely obsolete. Mr. Moore wrote an article called Let's build a mountain in the January 1962 issue of Model Trains describing how he made the mountains, but newer methods produce more credible results. Although, that article gives an excellent view into the track plan through the mountains and was a cornerstone in trying to figure out the EVRR track plan. The point is not to get too hung-up on superficial appearances.

One other thing I noticed while perusing the photos with a magnifying glass is that all the buildings have associated outhouses - 'backhouses' in some parts of the world. I’m surprised some magazine didn’t commission a one-pager on those one-holers*** :-)

I think what may have made the layout popular in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s was that it embodied a relatively high degree of completion and overall integration, all within a layout that was achievable for a wide range of readers. The call-out in the ’55 RMC article is the key to its popularity: “E. L. Moore has packed plenty of action and interest into his compact and well executed HO Elizabeth Valley Railroad”.  Lots of action and interest. Today, for a layout to land in the mainstream press, the call-out would need to say something like, “...plenty of operational possibilities and switching problems...”. On the EVRR, the focus wasn’t on the simulation of actual railroad operations, but on interesting scenes, train movement, lighting, and some rudimentary operations. That’s where the ‘action’ was, not in the simulation of railroad operations.

The obvious care that was lavished on this layout makes it clear it’s the embodiment of something Mr. Moore held dear; a nostalgic view of a personal utopia perhaps. Many model railroads are to some extent an expression of a personal utopia. They embody something their builders love. They want to create their dream, play with it [4], share it and communicate with it. That’s what can - can, but doesn’t have to - push these things into the zone of art. It’s a kind of outsider or folk art mainly [5]. That’s not meant to be a derogatory statement. It’s meant to convey that it’s an art undertaken outside the normal institutions and markets that constitute mainstream art. There is some insider art, but that's a relatively small branch in comparison to where the main action is taking place.

I’m ok with proposing that E. L. Moore’s work - layout, buildings and rolling stock - were a form of folk art. I’m basing this on how much was scratchbuilt, organized, photographed, repurposed, presented and storied in accordance with his personal vision. Now, this doesn't mean I'm pigeon-holing him and his work. No. Any individual can embody many things at the same time. Mr. Moore was certainly a type of folk artist, but he was also a straightforward hobbyist, a teller of tall-tales, an accomplished how-to writer, draftsman, photographer, and a master of a model railroading genre, among other things.

Unfortunately, these utopias - whether or not they are some sort of ‘art’ - rarely outlive their builders. Most are eventually destroyed. No doubt the Elizabeth Valley RR was. Preservation of any personal model railroad is unusual. Maybe it’s fitting. Nothing to get upset about. They’re personal. Why should they persist intact when the individuals or groups who were most interested in them no longer exist. On the other hand, the spirit in which they were created, their ideas, their concepts, can live a bit longer in publications, or the online universe.

One final note, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of E. L. Moore articles where he mentions another model railroad of his called the Eagleroost & Koontree. It was apparently an HOn3 layout. I looked and looked and couldn’t find pictures of it - although there were many photos of scenes allegedly shot along the E & K’s right-of-way. I’m not sure if it was a complete layout, a short-line on his EVRR, a dual-gauge portion of the EVRR, a diorama for photo shoots, or just something totally fictional. If any reader has thoughts on this, please leave a comment.

[Update, 21 May 2014: I learn something new every day, especially since I haven’t yet read everything for this series. It turns out that the E&K was indeed a dual tracked portion of the EVRR. Gordon Odegard states it was in his interview with E. L. Moore that appeared under the title, A visit with E. L. Moore, in the Bull Session column of the September ’75 issue of Model Railroader. The missing bit is that it’s still not clear exactly which portions were dual tracked with HOn3. There are clues in the old magazines in which the E&K is mentioned. For example, I recently obtained the September ’61 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman that contains Mr. Moore’s article Slim Gauge Carriage. The introductory photo is quite charming, and also full of clues. It shows the dual track on the main trestle that divides the lake region from the mountains, and later in the article Mr. Moore speculates, “Right now I’m wondering what’s going to happen when that HO engine pushes its little caravan to the end of the double tracked portion of the trestle. The lead carriage is HOn3, the second one HO, the flatcar with canoe and equipment is HOn3 and the engine is HO. Some scramble”. Well, the hunt continues. I’m not sure if there are enough scattered clues to reconstruct the entire E&K route, but I’ll post updates if I find more.]

This is the 9th instalment in the E. L. Moore’s Legacy in the 21th Century series. An index to the series can be found here.

Digressions

[1] I’ve made an attempt to identify some of the E. L. Moore articles that correspond to the buildings and rolling stock shown in a few of the layout photos. This is what I’ve found so far.

A,  Branch Line Station, Railroad Model Craftsman, April 1964.

B, Easy to Build Cottage or Cabin, Railroad Model Craftsman, December 1963. (This building appears to be the cottage, or a building very similar to the cottage)

C, Down by the depot, Model Railroader, December 1964.

D, Old-Time Log Buggies, Model Trains, March 1960 (I’m not sure if these are the same log buggies, but they look close).

E. The little red caboose, Model Trains, December 1961.

F. This building is very close to the log cabin in Easy to Build Cottage or Cabin in Railroad Model Craftsman, December 1963.

G. ‘The Red Eye Saloon’ presented in the article Civic center for Boomtown in the March 1963 issue of Model Railroader.

H. A close-up of the water tower is in the opening photo of Union Pacific windmill in the September 1962 issue of Model Railroader.

[2] Maybe from the point-of-view of a model railroad that is meant to be viewed instead of accurately simulating railroad business, a loop-based track plan where views are partially obscured is more realistic than one meant for operation where the entire setup is clearly visible. This type of unobscured view is rarely possible in ‘real-life’ other than from some high vantage point. 

The loop, and its variants, is a much maligned form. Maybe one reason is that it cuts too close to the humble roots of model railroading: the child’s train set and the guilty pleasure of simply watching those little trains run. I can’t imagine Gomez Addams having nearly as much fun with a non-loop layout :-)

Or it could be that many people like to see the trains run though complex patterns. Whatever the reason, there is some fundamental fascination with just watching trains run, and sometimes that fascination is taken to extremes with the loopiest of layouts: ‘spaghetti’ track plan.

It looks like the spaghetti track plan has been the butt of jokes for quite a long time. While reading some old Model Trains magazines I came across this example in the July 1956 issue.

[The classic spaghetti track plan joke via the July 1956 issue of MODEL TRAINS. The cartoonist is R.O. Gilbert]

The March 2013 issue of Model Railroader had an updated take on the joke, but in that example the cartoon track plan struck me as an almost viable candidate for an omnivagant streetcar layout. I guess that version of the joke was more elbow macaroni than spaghetti :-) The track follows a large number of densely packed paths, but looks like it was laid out with pieces of elbow macaroni rather than strands of spaghetti. 

[This is a track plan of the Toronto Transit Commission's streetcar network circa 1973. It's far more rectilinear than its cartoon spaghetti counterparts, but it's just as convoluted with its myriad of possible paths. This illustration is sourced from the excellent Toronto Transit].

For an urban North American streetcar setup, this is only natural because the tracks are in the streets of a city, and those streets are usually laid out in a grid. But, in this situation the derided path density of the macaronified spaghetti layout makes a bit of sense. The trick is preventing the track plan from jumping into the ‘Way-out Layout’ zone.

[This excellent slot-car layout - designed by Mr. David Vollrath - is the 1st place winner of the 3rd Wayout Layout contest presented in the November '72 issue of Car Model magazine.]

Back in 1972, Car Model magazine ran a contest whereby its readers were challenged to create ‘Way-out Layouts’ – layouts suitable for ultra exciting slot-car races  - from a collection of pieces of HO Tycopro slot-car track. Looking over some of the winners from the point-of-view of avoiding streetcar macaroni syndrome is quite interesting. All the twists and turns, relieved in places by high speed straight-aways, might make for thrilling racing, but urban streetcar operations are likely more sedate with long straight sections terminated with tight, street conforming turns with little stomach-churning twistiness along the route for the sake of the paying passengers.

[These are but 2 of the many examples of Peano curve generators (on the left) and generated iterations (on the right) shown in Benoit Mandelbrot's The Fractal Geometry of Nature.]

Those elbow macaroni streetcar lines and Way-out Layouts remind me of the mathematical oddity called the Peano Curve that I stumbled across a long time ago in Benoit Mandelbrot’s book The Fractal Geometry of Nature. Dr. Mandelbrot shows all sorts of Peano curve generating algorithms – whose math takes me awhile to work through, but at least there are lots of diagrams to illustrate the processes - for producing what seem like special forms of Way-out Layouts.  I suspect those Peano Curve generators could be enhanced with some sort of ‘streetcar line rules’, in addition to some randomization, to create streetcar track plans that could possibly enter the uncanny valley of actual systems, and might also incorporate some surprising variations. But, on the other hand, the end result might be in the same vein as those bland crossword puzzles that are cranked out by computer algorithms.

So, I think a streetcar layout would be somewhat more spaghetti or macaroni like than a realistically designed train-based layout, but it needs to avoid the Way-out Layout zone if it’s going for some sort of urban realism. On the other hand, if extreme streetcar operations is your thing, maybe the Way-out Layout is just the ticket :-)

[3] These 2 pre-fab layouts from Fleischmann are interesting illustrations of beginner layouts of about the same size as the EVRR.

[The ad for this 3 x 5 ft pre-fab HO scale layout appeared on the back of the January 1962 issue of MODEL TRAINS. That was the same issue that E. L. Moore's Let's build a mountain and Central Pacific snowplow appeared. The looping is simple and doesn't appear to present its owner will anything more difficult wiring-wise than attaching the output leads from a power-pack. No headache inducing reverse-loops.]

[This one is even simpler and appeared on the back cover of the Fall 1961 issue of MODEL TRAINS. E. L. Moore's Open-air excursion coach appeared in that issue. This layout is merely all elevated ridge surrounding a valley - very evocative of part of the EVRR.]

I only present them as illustrations of what was marketed as ready-to-run beginner style layouts of the era. Although E. L. Moore's EVRR has many similar features, its track-plan and structure was far more sophisticated even though it had only a slightly larger footprint.

[4] I’m not using the word ‘play’ as in the common put-down of “playing with trains”, as a regression to juvenile activity, but in its broader free-ranging and restorative sense as in Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephan Nachmanovich. An activity outside the normal imperatives of day-to-day survival and practical activity. I’m using ‘play’ in the sense of freely and fully engaging in an activity of one’s own interest without regard to rules or social strictures. Not the things promoted by the mainstream popular media. The other side. The deep exploration side. Pursuing the trail of one’s interests without a blessing from a tv show or what-not to guide the way. It’s a positive activity that, in bland prosaic terms, furthers the development of an individual in deep ways that are meaningful to them. 

[5] Is it great folk art? I can’t say for certain. I recall reading somewhere that there is no great art without great invention. Great invention in model railroading is whole other subject.

*** [6 May 2014 update] I stand corrected! I finally got a copy of the November 1975 issue of the NMRA Bulletin which contains E. L. Moore's A Mighty Relaxin' Job. It's a complete thesis on how to build a wide variety of outhouses :-)

A book, a magazine and a Mt. Lowe trackplan

What time I’ve had for hobby pursuits I’ve been continuing on the Thaddeus Lowe trail. Last week I stumbled across Stephen Poleskie’s book, The Balloonist: The Story of T.S.C. Lowe - Inventor, Scientist, Magician, and Father of the U.S. Air Force, published in 2007. It looked interesting, and I ordered a copy from an online used bookseller.  Chapter 4 is entitled, “A New Balloon, an Ascension in Canada, and a Boast of Flying the Atlantic”, and it did indeed have a discussion explaining what brought Thaddeus Lowe to Ottawa in 1858. It turns out some Ottawa ballooning enthusiasts heard about an ascension Prof. Lowe made in Ogdensburg, New York, and they invited him to come to Ottawa to fly one of his balloons at the 1858 festival celebrating Queen Victoria’s decision to make Ottawa the capital of the Province of Canada – Canada didn’t become a country until 1867 – and the laying of the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. Apparently his Ottawa flights went very well, and the event was instrumental in establishing his place as a leading balloonist of the time.

As well, I’ve been reading lots of old issues of Model Trains magazine since I’m also still on the E. L. Moore trail. I came across an article called The great Pacific Electric, by William D. Middleton in the December ’58 issue. It’s a 5-page overview of the Pacific Electric Railway that contains an excellent drawing of a well thought-out, although greatly distilled, HO-scale trackplan of the system suitable for a 20.5 x 34.5 foot room. And much to my surprise, the Mt. Lowe Railway is represented in one corner of the plan. Here’s a snippet of the Mt. Lowe section above the incline railway, from Echo Mountain to the Alpine Tavern.

My measurements of that segment suggest it’s around 16 x 5.5 feet.  It’s a somewhat larger footprint than what I had in mind, but it would make for an interesting setup. Also, the whole 20.5 x 34.5 foot plan is one of the few streetcar layouts I’ve seen that embraces Linn Westcott’s omnivagant concept, which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising since the real Pacific Electric was very omnivagant from what I can tell. It’s good that Mr. Middleton seemed to have captured that in his plan.

And one last point. The Thaddeus Lowe trail has been full of random coincidences. Here’s another: his balloon ascension in Ottawa was in 1858, and the trackplan for the Mt. Lowe model railway was published in 1958, close to exactly 100 years later. Yes, my careful picking and choosing of the ‘coincidences’ make them seem more significant than they are :-)

Edward St. track plan starts to gel

My previous doodles with blue track templates and MacDraw pictures weren’t getting me where I wanted to go. They were too squiggly; more-or-less for the sake of putting a twisty closed-loop of track in a small space. Fair enough, but those plans weren’t omnivagant just because of the weird track paths. Basically, the track plan was dominant, and the buildings were still just sprinkled about as decoration. I think with this new variation where the buildings form a core so that the track takes people from a place at one end (the Experimental Farm), through the heart of a city section past houses and stores and businesses (down Idlewild and across on Edward St), to a place at the other end (Bluffer’s Park), and then back to the Farm on the other side. It’s starting to become omnivagant even though the overall plan is less squiggly: it’s starting to be more deeply integrated into the fabric of activities while still going everywhere. I’m not sure if it’ll remain without switches; more development is still needed.

Early planning on Edward St.

I've started to fiddle around with some ideas using the blue track templates for a very simple layout I'm tentatively thinking of as Edward St. The only thing I've more-or-less settled on at this point are three locations: The Central Experimental Farm at one end, an urban setting in the middle centred around the WSMoftheWBB, and Bluffer's Park at the other end. The Central Experimental Farm will be loosely based on the Ottawa's Experimental Farm, and Bluffer's Park will be even more loosely based on the Scarborough Bluffs - that is, no bluffs, just park and water :-) Addressing the transitions between these three areas to make them seem natural is going to be an interesting challenge.

My blue template experiment was a little hard to keep the pieces aligned while trying out ideas, so I went a little less old school and drew up some simple plans with an old version of MacDraw. In the above picture, a section of the experimental farm would appear in the streetcar turn-around loop on the left and the WSMoftheWBB would sit in that centre dip with some other buildings. Towards the right the scene would transition to a couple of townhouses and Bluffer's Park.

I'm playing around a bit with the templates just to see want might be built. In the above picture, Bluffer's Park is on the right and made to extend down into another secondary loop. Maybe there would be a pond and a picnic area in and around the lower loop.

There's the MacDraw-ized version. This of course lead to some 'loopy' variations.

Just tacked on a siding to that one.

And I got silly with this one. These are nowhere near finished plans; they're just a little exploring with the tools a this stage. These plans are too 'loopy', but after thinking about that last picture it struck me that with some tweaking it might make for an interesting little N-scale setup running Kato RDCs in a rural setting. Anyway, there is still a lot of refining to go.

This week the blog exceeded 20k views. I'd like to thank everyone who stops by for a few minutes every now and then for a read.

What does Omnivagant mean for trackplans?

[The magazine's logo letters seem to match pieces of an omnivagant trackplan :-) ]

I’ve started to wonder about this question. Looking for some answers I searched the Model Railroader 75^th Anniversary collection again and found that ‘omnivagant’ was used only once: in Linn Westcott’s Decatur, Jackson & Newton Layout of the Month I posted about last December. He never goes much into what he meant by that layout-wise other than stating, “wandering anywhere and everywhere”. 

I decided to look for ‘omnivagant’ in dictionaries to see if I might unearth more information. It turns out it’s a rather old-fashioned word and isn’t listed in modern dictionaries – well, at least the ones I checked. I couldn’t even find it in my father’s old Oxford Universal Dictionary (On Historical Principles), but I did finally find it in Sheridan Improved: A General Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language courtesy of Google Books. But, its definition, “wandering every where, or in all places”, only confirmed Mr. Westcott’s statement.

[The definition of omnivagant from Sheridan Improved]

While I was searching in MR’s collection for ‘omnivagant’, I came across another trackplan called the Frogville, Punkin Center & Western Electric RR. It’s an electrified interurban layout designed by R. H. Wagner that appeared in the October 1946 issue’s Layout of the Month feature. I rather liked that plan and wondered if it was omnivagant?

After thinking about this awhile, I’d say a definite, “sort of” :-)

[A snippet of the Frogville, Punkin Center & Western Electric RR]

I’m guessing here, but I figured omnivagant was meant to mean that all tracks went down all streets and roads, and accessed all industries, which they do in the Decatur, Jackson & Newton; with the most important aspect being that, since ‘omnivagant’ applied mainly to ‘traction’ or ‘streetcar’ layouts, there wasn’t a significant road or street or avenue or alley that a streetcar or trolley, or maybe even a small, light locomotive, couldn’t drive down in the urban parts of the layout. In Mr. Wagner’s trackplan, the only deficiency omnivagancy-wise, is that even though all the industries are connected, not all the main roads are tracked. The road into Frogville is only partially tracked, although it could easily be extended to go through to Mosquito Hollow, and switch down to Juniper. However, for the most part, the tracks run adjacent to the roads; hence, my wishy-washy “sort of”. Even though, it’s still a very interesting little layout. I like Mr. Wagner’s assessment of it, “A plain railroad that runs is better than an elaborate one that doesn’t.”

So, that’s why I classified Mr. Westcott’s Union Bay Railway layout as ’omnivagant’, but not Art Curren’s Break The Rules RR.  I’d also say that the Gypsy Trolley Line that appears in the May 2013 issue of MR is omnivagant even though it’s highly linear unlike those other examples. 

I don’t think omnivagant is just the much derided ‘spaghetti-bowl’ trackplan dressed up with a fancy word. It’s true that they both pack a lot of track into a relatively small area, but where the spaghetti-bowl has lots of track for the sake of having lots of track, the omnivagant trackplan is densely tracked because it needs to connect together lots of different places that are relatively close together since they are in an urban or quasi-urban setting.