Enter the Growlery: Dead Tree Edition

Post-derecho remains of a pine tree with a 23" diameter trunk as seen in 2026.
The internet tells me this tree could have been up to 115 years old!
That age is sobering.

'Sit down, my dear,' said Mr. Jarndyce. 'This you must know, is the Growlery. When I am out of humour, I come and growl here.'

'You must be here very seldom, sir,' said I.

'O, you don't know me!' he returned. 'When I am deceived or disappointed in - the wind, and it's Easterly, I take refuge here. The Growlery is the best-used room in the house. You are not aware of half my humours yet. My dear, how you are trembling!'

John Jarndyce explains the need for his Growlery in Bleak House to Esther Summerson (the 'said I' in the above); from Chapter VIII, Covering a Multitude of Sins in Charles Dickens' Bleak House.

Top piece of said pine tree that bounced off the roof my vehicle

On the May Victoria Day weekend in 2022 one of the most powerful storms in Canadian history swept through Ontario and Quebec, extending 1,000 km from Windsor in the west all the way to Quebec City in the east.

We were in a cabin in the bush when the storm blew through. We survived alright, but our vehicle didn't: the top 2 or 3m or so of a mature pine tree that was maybe 18 to 24 metres tall snapped off in the fury and bounced off the roof of our vehicle. Luckily only the top-most part of that log hit our vehicle, but that was enough to put a significant V-shaped dent in the roof, wreck the sun-roof, smash the windshield, and crush all the roof mounted electronics. I'll say this for Honda's CRV, it can take a punch as it was still drivable. Total repair bill: $10K. Luckily again, insurance covered it. 

Ignominiously being towed home as seen by me from the back window of the tow truck.
It was drivable, but the windshield was completely shattered and the cops said it would likely blow out at speed.
No, it didn't blow out while being towed, but why risk it? The interior was already covered in glass shards. 

Back in the fall of 2021 I had started to take a serious interest in trees and how to model them. Strangely, experiencing this event, and seeing all the smashed and destroyed trees, deepened my fascination with them. There was something about seeing how all these seemingly solid, eternal things, could all be destroyed in a matter of seconds struck a chord. Yes, yes, I have a couple of chainsaws, I've cut down trees and cleared brush, I've seen logging, but this was different: it was wild, violent, and pitiless.

Well, then spring turned into summer as it usually does :-)

I did a lot of sitting around that summer of 2022 because I had injured my left shoulder and it was taking a long time to heal. On the day in late July when the summer issue of Voie Libre arrived I was sitting under a tree in the backyard so I decided to read the issue as soon as the mailman dropped it off in the afternoon. This line in the editorial got me chuckling: "Issue 110 of Voie Libre is designed to be enjoyed sitting in a shady corner, with a few friends and a glass of cool wine. Just like a proper summer issue should be, packed with ideas for projects, or simply dreaming of projects, in case action is postponed until autumn." 

That's exactly what I was doing: drinking some cool red wine under the shade of a tree and thinking about layout projects now and then. 

And I got to thinking about how I hadn't seen a Canadian themed layout by a Canadian in that magazine even though I'd seen some excellent Canadian inspired ones by non-Canadians. They were a little on the stereotypical side in my view as there was something about them didn't properly say 'Canada' to me. That's when I decided as a bit of a lark to take some photos of the Loonar Module and send them off to the editor. One thing lead to another, and I was very happy to see the Loonar Module appear in the Spring 2023 issue of Voie Libre, and later in the Nov'23 issue of The Interchange, the OVAR's newsletter.

The very first construction photo of the Loonar Module from October 2021.
Positioning the island and track plan on 2' x 2' foam sheets.
At the time I didn't know this was classified as a micro-layout, albeit a large one.

The Loonar Module doesn't completely reflect the entirety of Canada either. No layout can as they are all reflections of how the builder sees and experiences the specifics of their piece of the country and translates that into a layout. The Loonar Module's terrain is based on that found in some of my favourite haunts in Hastings County, Ontario, which are dominated by tall trees, extensive wild forests, rocks, rocks, and more rocks, and lakes. Oh, and loons of course :-) The whole story about a narrow gauge experimental test railway run by the Ontario Department of Lands & Forests is completely fictional, but with lots of inspiration from the real government department. 

Final configuration of the Lost Ocean Line (dimensions in cms).
I must admit this was a favourite which the Way Out Layout has not yet surpassed even though it was meant to.

I consider The Loonar Module my first truly personal expression in layout form. The old Lost Ocean Line, and its descendant, the Way Out Layout, incorporated personal elements too, but they had a lot of outside stuff on them as well that steered the layouts towards being statements of style and whimsy. 

One of the first planning photos of the Centennial Experimental Farm layout from September 2022

Work on the Centennial Experimental Farm layout started in the fall of 2022 as my shoulder started to feel better. The layout is an homage to Ottawa's Central Experimental Farm, a place I would frequently visit on my bicycle, and incorporates many of the features I like about it. It turns out the farm did have a trolley line, so unlike the Loonar Module the rail aspect isn't completely fictional. I also consider this layout a personal statement. The Centennial Experimental Farm appeared in the January 2025 issue of Continental Modeller. 

Early design work on the Havelock Yard layout in July 2023

The Havelock Yard layout came about because early in July 2023 I became obsessed with building some sort of nostalgic tribute to the real Havelock yard that I've visited since the 1970s. The track plan is an inglenook with some display tracks added so I could show off a few models of freight cars I've seen there over the years. The layout is operable, but I haven't finished the scenery. Ok, strictly speaking, I haven't really started on the scenery. There's something too personal about this layout that gets triggered whenever I make a start on scenery that causes me to stop. Maybe one day I'll figure out what that is. So even though this layout is also a personal statement, it has some sort of negative charge associated with it.

After 4 days of part time work I had the infrastructure for the 3 pieces for my entry to
Le Grand Defi finished! A record of sorts for me.

I started my entry for LR Presse's 'Le Grand Defi' in late February 2024. Although it was for a challenge, I instantly had an idea for an entry based on VIA's Sudbury to White River line, complete with RDC. I considered this a personal response to the challenge, and not some stereotyped concoction for contest purposes. I was quite energized as I built this thing and finished in record time for me, completing all three pieces by late April 2024. I still have this extended diorama as I don't have the heart to cannibalize it for parts.

Starting to play around with objects to size the Mt. Lowe trolley.
Track planning came later when the trolley was finished.

I was on some sort of high at the end of April 2024 and immediately began work on the Mount Lowe Layout, which was a layout I've had in mind building since 2013 or so and now I finally had an idea on how to proceed. However, unlike the other personal layouts I didn't start with a track plan, but with building a vehicle inspired by Thaddeus Lowe's personal trolley. I needed it to help figure out the curve radii and grades on the layout. 

Ok, this layout isn't set in Ontario, but in a fictionalized version of California's San Gabriel Mountains. All I can say is I've hiked parts of the Mt. Lowe trail twice, have studied the railway for a long time, and have been charmed by it for a number of reasons. So, I'll claim a personal connection and this layout as a personal expression. If the world wasn't in the state it's in right now, I would return to finish hiking and exploring all the sections of the trail I haven't yet seen. The Mt. Lowe layout appeared in the Summer 2026 issue of Voie Libre.

Photos from the early planning days on:
Top: Community Garden | Middle: Tintin 2001 | Bottom: Inglenook Lake

Which brings me to today, almost exactly five years after beginning the Loonar Module in September 2021, which started me on the path I'm on now. Right now I have 3 little layouts on the go. I think the Community Garden layout will proceed and get finished. It'll be my first true micro-layout, and not one that pushes the outer size boundaries as have my others. It's both a personal statement on a place I quite like, and has a number of technical and modelling challenges I'm quite interested in working on. The Tintin 2001 layout might be stalled for awhile as I think about how to panel the monolith pit. Inglenook Lake will likely proceed as I think it's going to be a deeply personal layout, possibly with a more serious feeling to it than either the Loonar Module, the Centennial Experimental Farm, or Mount Lowe.

Yet another sketch for an MCM-7 Taronna (aka Toronto) layout.

The 500-lb gorilla lurking in the background is Taronna, my homage to the places and streetcars of Toronto that has yet to take off even though I've built many buildings for it, doodled many sketches, and acquired many streetcars. The Lost Ocean Line had some Toronto pieces incorporated; the ill-fated Alta Vista TC (for Transportation Commission) was a serious attempt at a Toronto layout, but it had so many design problems it was completely unworkable, and most importantly, was boring; and Taronna, the MCM-7 version of Toronto, is still just lines on paper. This layout continues to be parked. I have a Rapido TTC CLRV on pre-order to complete the streetcar fleet for this thing, so when it arrives in the far flung future I hope my thoughts will have settled on a way to proceed with the layout.

I think there are a few reasons why some layouts get finished and others stall out: 

Too much nostalgia is a killer. The Havelock Yard, Alta Vista TC, and even the yet to be started Taronna are soaked in personal nostalgia. Clearly, it doesn't sit well with me. I need to think more about Taronna if I'm going to actually build something that reflects whatever is going on in my brain about this layout.

No room for improvisation. I think at some level I perceived a lack of possibilities for improvisation in the Alta Vista TC and Havelock Yard that helped to kill the first and stall out the second. I explicitly consigned the Lost Ocean Line to the junk yard precisely for such a lack. I feel the improvisational lack creeping into Tintin 2001 too, and it certainly was a factor in stopping work on the N-scale homage layout to E. L. Moore's Elizabeth Valley RR. Well, that one was also stalled by the complicated wiring work involved. I'm not a fan of wiring and electrical work. I sometimes wonder if Mr. Moore had someone wire his layout for him because he noted in his writings a distaste for it, and the EVRR is relatively complicated wiring wise.

Trees. This one sounds strange even to me. It seems like if a layout has plenty of trees, interesting ones, not dull store bought ones, then it has a high chance of not stalling out during construction. Well, no stall outs so far.  As evidence I present the tree dense Loonar Module, the Centennial Experimental Farm, and Mt. Lowe. Look, both the soon to be tree dense Community Garden and Inglenook Lake layouts are on my construction tables while the tree barren Havelock Yard, Tintin 2001, and the EVRR, are off to the side in the workshop. Maybe this is a sign? I'm already thinking of trees and tree placement on Inglenook Lake based on my derecho and post-derecho observations of trees in Hastings County, and I haven't even finalized the track plan yet! 

Story. When it comes to story I think mine have to have one to be successful. Looking back on the story side of things I think I'm sort of a Johnny One Note in this regard. I have this one 'master story' in my head, and I all I do is write additions to it and variations on it. Every successful layout, even including the Lost Ocean Line and the Way Out Layout, are bits of that story. Well, except maybe Mt. Lowe, which is an outlier I need to think about more. Stalled layouts either have no story, don't derive from the 'master story', or are dominated by nostalgia. I'm starting to agree with Johannes Hofer that nostalgia is a deadly disease! 

More sketches for Taronna

I'm still trying to fully understand what that 'master story', that conglomeration of veiled personal statements in fictional form, is all about, but here are my thoughts so far. 

To get the best sense of where my mind is at regarding a ‘master story’ is to read the novellas I wrote and posted in instalments here at this blog. 

The first one was called Light Ray Blues. The inaugural instalment was posted on 6 September 2012 and can be found here. The last instalment was published on 13 August 2013. Most of the story was composed in my head on lunchtime walks away from the office. Strangely, this novella was the most popular series of posts at the blog until I started in on the long running E. L. Moore series.

The second novella was unimaginatively called Light Ray Blues, Series 2, and the first instalment was published on 6 June 2015. It can be found here. The series wrapped up on 30 October 2016 with instalment #20.

The third novella was called Abandonment and kicked off on 27 March 2020 after a long hiatus. This was a short series, and the 10th and final part was posted on 17 July 2022. Yes, over 2 years later! I was losing interest. At the end of the 10th post I include a post-script on abandonment in general and abandoning the series.

I tried to revive the series with a new novella called Tales of The Midnight Hobby Shop. The first instalment appeared on 2 September 2024. This series only ran for 3 instalments, but unlike the others it was left in an unfinished state. I left everything hanging in the 5 October 2024 episode. 

There were a few stand alone, single post stories too. One was written as an ersatz episode of The Twilight Zone where Ed Bryce visits E. L. Moore, another has Frank Madwood confronting three spirits in a Christmas Carol homage, and a third is a transcript from Madwood’s call-in radio show where he discusses the differences between model railroads and layouts with Professor Mary Ellesmere of the University of New Toronto’s Centre for Rail Guided Transportation.

I refer to all four novellas and stories in the series as Streetcar Noir, reflecting the dominance of streetcars in the series, and that they’re written in my attempt at a somewhat tongue-in-cheek hard-boiled noir style.

I wrote a little guide to the characters, places, and technology that appear in Streetcar Noir in the so-called ‘Understory’ that you can find at the bottom of the second instalment to Abandonment. 

I’m thinking the series ran out of steam with Abandonment and Tales of The Midnight Hobby Shop because of the pandemic, and that I was spending more and more time on layout dreaming, layout construction, and making things for those layouts. Maybe the ‘master story’ had formed enough in my mind by then that I could set it aside awhile and pursue it in model form.

Taronna thoughts continue to develop

The world those novellas take place in is a Canada in a parallel universe. Most of action takes place in a city called New Toronto, some of its outskirts, and nearby wilderness areas; however, the stories do move at times to Ottawa and British Columbia.

In this version of Canada electric powered rail guided transportation systems dominate the transportation landscape: electric streetcars, trams, trains, personal railcraft, along with some non-rail automobiles and trucks. There’s something called the Inter-Track system, which is vast network of many rail gauges and weights for all sorts of rail vehicles that runs through all cities, towns, villages, and wilderness areas. Ed Bryce has inherited a little trolley shed on a spur of one chunk of the Inter-Track System that runs through a forest area a few hundred kilometres from New Toronto. Telecommunications technologies aren’t that developed in this alternate world. A rudimentary internet-like system can be accessed through kiosks located near some public telephones.

The setting and tales are highly anachronistic. I mix technologies and styles from various eras according to my own likes and dislikes. There are handheld sources of cold fusion power, advanced electric-powered vehicles, and so on, rubbing shoulders with telephone booths and lunch counters and other accoutrements of our own world and its pre-internet predecessors. I freely take this approach with my layouts too. In my mind lots of eras exist in parallel so I have no problem expressing that. Maybe I believe that all time exists at once and its directedness is an illusion created by our physical being, but I’m probably wrong, but it sure often seems that way.

There aren’t any geopolitics directly discussed in the stories, but New Toronto is so-called because in its universe a big chunk of Toronto was destroyed in a brief continent-wide war and was rebuilt in the aftermath. Hints at what happened appear in some instalments. For example, in the first series Ed Bryce recalls how as part of an energy deal China built a cross-Canada mag-lev system. In the 3rd part of Light Ray Blues, Series 2, Frank Madwood explains how being injured in the war lead to his career in scale modelling, and the founding of his company, Model Investigations.

The characteristics of this long series of stories and the features of the layouts that didn’t stall out seem to be cut from the same cloth. Even the Mt. Lowe layout sort of fits given its highly anachronistic style, with its continuation of the railway into something approximating our era, much like the Loonar Module and Experimental Farm do. Story fragments pop up in construction posts from time-to-time, and upon re-reading some of them, they could easily form the basis of new novella instalments in the world of Streetcar Noir. Here’s a few: one, two, three, four.  On the other hand, the stalled layouts seem to all fall outside the concepts established in Streetcar Noir. Maybe one reason the successful layouts are successful is because they follow a prototype: the world of the ‘master story’, the Streetcar Noir story?

Hmm. This lengthy investigation may point to ways to pull the stalled layouts out of limbo. I’ll let you know. Thanks for hanging in until the end. I had no idea where contemplation of a tree stump would take me :-)

I returned to the scene this year to slice off the top of the stump for a layout base.
My chainsaw proved to be no match for the mighty stump :-(
(Also, the terrain was a bit too challenging for me chain saw wielding-wise.)

Return of the Happy Minimum Test

From left to right: 6", 5" (the HO equivalent of the tightest TTC curve), and 7" radius curves.

I'm having some trouble settling on a design for my Taronna layout. There are numerous problems. One significant one is figuring out what the minimum radius curve I can use that will not cause a problem for streetcars, and be reminiscent of the older, tighter curves in the TTC streetcar system.

I decided to revisit some tests I did back in 2017, but this time with an eye to making vehicle modifications, if possible, to allow tighter curves to be traversed.

Test results to follow, but until then this little video will give you an idea about what's bouncing around in my mind - I remember this well:

Way Out Layout Runabout, Part 3: The Friendly Ballaster

Track ballasting continues on the Way Out Layout.
Some rudimentary track weathering is up next.

I seem to have a strange relationship with the Way Out Layout. At one time I thought of it as an honest to goodness layout; a successor to the Lost Ocean Line. These days I view it as a test layout for helping me develop Taronna and the Community Gardens layouts, but I feel compelled to at least sort of finish it to bring it up to the concept I originally had for it. Ok, I admit, it's way more finished than the usual utilitarian test bed. 

Maybe what I'm testing is my resolve to get something more-or-less finished before diving into new projects.

Ballasting supplies laid out and ready for action.

As I've been ballasting away I started to think that maybe the Way Out Layout has a lot in common with The Friendly Giant's old tv layout.

The Friendly Giant's tv layout at the PumpHouse Museum.

Last year I went with my cousin to visit the PumpHouse Museum in Kingston. Much to my surprise they had the model railway used on The Friendly Giant tv show. 

It was in pretty good shape. I know, the Way Out Layout doesn't look like it, but they're around the same size, and neither are meant to be serious layouts, just a bit of railway pleasantness. 

Well, after ballasting, some scenic tuneup is in order and then it's on to new layout work once I've been suitably inspired.

Getting started on Taronna's TD 'Tower'

Plexiglas blanks for the TD 'Tower' model

Once the workshop re-org was finished I decided to do what I think is the most difficult job associated with building a version of TD Tower 1 for the Taronna layout: cutting the wall blanks from 1/8" plexiglas sheet.

Again, like cleaning up the workshop, there is nothing bloggable from the activity as it was mostly me practicing cutting plexiglas as my usual 'technique' destroyed many pieces. However, after considerable practice I was able to get the 4 blanks I need for the model building's walls.

I say 'Tower' because my model will be considerably smaller than a properly scaled rendition. In HO, a properly scaled version would be around 2440 mm tall and mine is 495 mm, and not quite as wide as the length of a PCC streetcar; however, when placed amongst the other buildings I plan on having on the Taronna layout, it will seem quite tall. I'm going to write a post on building heights for Taronna to explain my thinking on this, but for now it was important for me to overcome the psychological hurdle of cutting out the wall blanks for the model.

Layout planning tool for layout 585 3 aka Taronna

The advanced layout planning tool has been created!

Now that the Mount Lowe layout is done I've been starting to think more seriously about the Taronna layout. About the only constant that has washed through my mind on this has been that I'd like it to fit on top of the family room coffee table. That little table has been the support for all the small layouts I've built recently - well, other than Mount Lowe - that I've thought of naming an new layout genre after it, MCM-7 :-)

The basic, unlayouted coffee table.

The Taronna layout will likely take up the coffee table's entire surface, and maybe even overhang a little. Since the area of the coffee table is a little under 7 sq. ft., it won't classify as a micro, but that doesn't concern me as the goal is to have a layout representation that reflects my Taronna memories, not to have an 'official' micro version of them.

Advanced tracing process for creating the advanced layout planning tool.

It's going to be a very tricky layout to design. So far I haven't even come close to capturing the look and feel I'm after by just doing drawings in my sketchbooks. Instead I'm going to try 3D design with actual track and buildings and what-not to see if I can make any progress.

Test fitting the wilderness retreat mockup layout for size.

While I had things pulled out for making the layout template I tried having a look at the mockup for the wilderness retreat layout I made last year when I was learning how to use my new rail-bender. That layout is a micro, but I'm not happy with its design either.

Dissatisfaction with layout ideas I've been kicking around awhile seems to be a theme for me as I start the new year. I have a lot of things on the go and will write about a few here, so for some time the blog will be a hodgepodge of notes until something gels. You've been warned :-)

Revisiting the Sharbot House

Main floor stacked on basement. They aren't glued together.

Back in early 2017 I started work on building an HO scale model of the house I grew up in. I stopped once I had the foundation and floor made. I was getting bad vibes from the build and decided to set it aside for awhile. 

That awhile has lasted all the way to this late date in 2025. I thought if I'm going to build a Taronna layout it isn't going to be complete, or meaningful to me, without my old house somewhere on it. 

Left: basement | Right: main floor

I needed a different approach than I took with the first model. The plan with that one was to build it in a conventional manner, with walls built around a floor complete with a removable roof to showoff the interior. 

Main floor

While I've been revisiting a number of E. L. Moore posts during my AI investigations I took an interest in Mr. Moore's Clarabel Hotel project. It had a highly detailed interior, and its overall form was based on the fourplex he was living in. It seemed a shame though that its fantastic interior would be blocked from view most of the time.

The hotel has a roof that lifts off so one can look in on the second floor, and the second floor is removable to make the first floor detail visible. It also has an elaborate interior lighting system. I started to think, what if I built the next attempt at my house model completely from the the inside out, and when the interior was finished then decide if I should build an external 'wrapper' to enclose the interior or just leave it open. Leaving it open would be rather unconventional, but it's in the spirit of model buildings that butt up against a layout's edge that leave off the wall that would run along that edge so viewers can look in. I'm not sure how my house model's variation on this idea might turn out, but I'm going to pursue it for awhile.

Left: Main floor from 1st attempt | Right: All styrene main floor for 2nd attempt

I didn't reuse the floor from the first attempt. I liked the look of the wood flooring, but I didn't laminate it properly to the styrene substrate and the whole thing ended up warping like crazy.

Floor from the 1st attempt after considerable flattening!

I couldn't flatten the floor no matter what I tried so I decided not to reuse it. I simply cut all the pieces for the new model's main floor from sheet styrene: 0.060" thick for the floor and 0.040" thick for the walls. It'll be a challenge to paint the walls and floor, or add some sort of floor laminate, but all the pieces are more-or-less square and solid without warps, so at least the structure on this attempt is sound.

Basement

Unlike the 1st attempt this model will have a basement. I envision the layout having a below grade level with some sort of subway station modelled, so since I'm already in excavation mode :-) I thought why not try to incorporate the house's basement. It's going to be a challenge, but I'm game - for now :-)

Train Song performed by Holly Cole

The Brandywine Transit Co. and Me

After writing the post on the genesis of the Mt. Lowe layout, the project that took 10+ years from desire to finished layout, I got to thinking about how long I've been thinking about building a layout inspired by the TTC's streetcar network. So far it's been 50 years! 

From very early on I've been thinking about a TTC layout. Maybe from around '74 or '75, I can't say for certain other than when I saw the May '75 issue of Model Railroader at the local smoke shop newsstand with The Brandywine Transit Co. emblazoned on the cover I thought maybe this was the project to tell me what I wanted to know about building a streetcar layout.

It turned out I was rather disappointed.

So fast-forward 50 years. I went searching for information about The Brandywine Transit Co. online. There was almost nothing, but there were the usual AI findings at the top of the search results. They were rather sketchy though, not to mention pathetic and misleading. I decided to go and look up the BTC articles in my old magazines to properly get an idea of the big picture, and do a little reminiscing. The feel of the paper and the odour from the pages was enough to induce some mild time travelling :-)

I was surprised to find that the series was much longer than I remembered. There were 15 articles altogether from the May '75 issue to May '78. The first 10 dealt with construction of the layout, and the last 5 showed how to build some buildings and rolling stock. Here's the list:

May ’75: Part 1: Building the benchwork and plotting the plan

July ’75: Part 2: Beginning the tracklaying and overhead construction with the hidden interurban laps

Sept ’75: Part 3: Continuing with the tracklaying

Nov ’75: Part 4: Modeling the streets and sidewalks

Jan ’76: Part 5: Wiring the city division

Mar ’76: Part 6: Building prototypic controllers and wiring the interurban division 

May ’76: Part 7: Carbarn construction

Aug ’76: Part 8: Passenger terminal construction

Sept ’76: Part 9: Overhead wire construction for the city division

Oct ’76: Conclusion: Catenary construction for the interurban division

Feb ’77: Build a block of stores

Mar ’77: Old-time gas station

July ’77: Trolley-stop luncheonette

Feb ’78: Build a modern block of stores

May ’78: Build a trolley work train

I should also mention that there's a brief biographical note about the series' author, Walter R. Olsen, in the Aug '72 issue. He was an up and coming star at the time. Among other things he had written a popular series on how to build an N scale layout in a coffee table, called the East Glasstop R.R.. It ran in MR from Dec '70 to Apr '71. The biography also contains this rather interesting quote: "I don't care about operation at all. Once a layout is finished I usually run it only for visitors until it is torn up to make way for a new one." I'm more-or-less of the same mind, except for the tearing up part - ok, I have done that, but I like to think it's the exception and not the rule with me :-)

The BTC and series is a master class in how to properly build a traction layout with 1970s model railway technology and methods. I don't think I'd be exaggerating to say it was one of the best layout construction series MR published in the 20th century.

So why was I disappointed? 

In retrospect there was nothing wrong with the series. The problem was with my expectations. In Toronto the streetcar system was and is a fully operating, modern day transit system. The BTC was a somewhat old time system set in 1949 and wasn't urban. As well, it was too advanced and expensive for teenage me. The fit wasn't there.

Once 1977 and 1978 rolled around model railroading was slipping to the back burner. I had other things to do and other interests. These days I have the elements for a TTC inspired layout and some experience. There might be a fit now.

The old bank on Bank houses a new business

The prototype of this old bank model that I started in October and November 2017 and finished in February and March 2019 (!) has a new business in it. 

You may recall that the photos I shot and built the model from were taken in July 2016 when the building was up for sale.

July 2016

It's quite a deep building even though the facade it presents to the street is rather compact.

July 2016

It's so long that I had to do some serious compression on the model so it wouldn't overpower the layout I was building at the time and fit into the overall scene.

In 2017 the building housed a furniture store.

September 2017

The building is now home to the Sofia Vintage Motor Café. I heard they were having some sort of showcase preview event there last Sunday, so I walked over. I also learned that the concept of the place would be vintage, with a vintage car or two inside while one drinks one's coffee. So, coffee and vintage cars, I couldn't resist.

It's now the Sofia Vintage Motor Café

While I was walking there I noticed an unusual number of Porsche 911s converging in-and-around the area. When I got there I saw why: many, many high-end cars were parked nearby and on display. Obviously the word had gone out; the place was mobbed. There was a line-up to get in and get coffee and hob-nob. I don't have the patience to stand in lines at the best of times so I took a pass and will visit again during a regular weekday. I'm very interested in seeing the interior and sampling the coffee!

That deep side has plenty of room to show off cars!

I'm glad to see the old bank is being used for a new business and I wish them well. 

In the spirit of this new business, if I ever stage another layout car show I'll be sure to include this little old bank.

The Elgin Jazz Club Revisited

A couple last songs before closing.

It's well over 10 years ago the Elgin opened for business. The last set of photos taken there date back 9 years when it was located at the corner of Sinatra and Ocean Blvd on the Lost Ocean Line.

As I've been playing with layout design principle #1 I decided to dust off the Elgin, rearrange the figures, and try taking a photo or two. One of the uses of the Taronna layout will be to stage scenes for photographing so I figured I should try out that aspect while designing it. 

To create the effect of a spotlight on the singer I made a second roof for the Elgin from a sheet of 0.060" thick sheet styrene. I drilled a 1/8" diameter hole in the roof over the spot where the singer stands and set an LED flash light on top. The photos were taken after turning off all the room lights.

That roof isn't permanent. It can be swapped with the original whenever the picture taking mood strikes. Other buildings might get a similar treatment to open up other photographic possibilities.

Designing continues.

Experiments

Three A4 test layouts (from r to l): hand bent 9mm gauge loop; HO gauge loop; 9mm gauge loop using rail bender.
Yes, that's E. L. Moore's Yard Blacksmith Shop on the middle one.

You may have noticed that posts are way down this year. As well as working on the Mt. Lowe layout I've been doing some experimenting, but haven't been posting about it. Ok, well, the Moon Mail Madness diorama was an experiment I eventually posted about, as well as some thoughts I had later on the subject of dioramas and little layouts, but not so much on other layout related stuff.

Sometime in late winter or early spring this year I got interested in building a little loop layout on an A4 sized area, which is rather common in European model railway 'circles'. I wanted to give it a try. In the previous photo, and the following one, you can see my first attempt (it's the layout on the right): a 9mm gauge loop, curved by hand, and Transfer Taped to a thin stack of foam sheets cut to A4 size. I also ballasted the track.

I was also experimenting with layout heights.

Locos run alright around the loop, but the loop itself seemed like I used the outline of a lumpy potato as the guide to bending the track. I assure you I didn't! I first drew a track plan in my Leuchtturm1917 notebook (it's A4 size), pinned a piece of track down, and tried running a loco over the loop to see what would happen. It worked just fine! 

Using a Leuchtturm1917, 215 x 315mm, notebook as a track planning & testing tool!

But, I didn't like the shape I obtained by just hand bending the track. I figured if I was going to be serious about developing layouts with sinuous track plans I needed to buy a track bending tool, so I bought one of these Rail Rollers.

The YouTube channel Narrow Gauge Shop has a number of videos showing how to use a rail bending tool, and I watched just about all of them. The video above is one particular example that I found quite helpful, but I recommend browsing the channel as it's full of informative and interesting stuff.

Lumpy potato no more! An A4 loop of 9mm gauge track bent with a rail bending tool.

Even after my first attempt at track bending with the tool, it produced some quite decent results. As you can see in the photo above, not bad radius conformance, and there appears to be no residual stress in the rails that has to be fought against during installation as there was when I hand bent the track - that's what makes it lumpy.

And here it is!

I was also doing some experimentation with base thickness as I talked about in an earlier post. For this second attempt at an A4 loop I made quite a tall base from foam scraps. At the time I was inspired by the mid-century styling of the Clairtone stereo products and I started to wonder about building a little A4 layout whose base resembled some sort of wood grained piece of audio equipment from the 70s: a pair of wood gain ends with black wood sides, retro-styled control knobs and toggles, and so on. 

Definitely not pretty in pink.

It could still happen. For now though, I simply painted the sides black because the pink hurts my eyes!

The E. L. Moore inspired layout experiment in bending 16.5mm gauge track.
This is the middle layout in the opening photo.

After those tests with N-gauge track I tried my hand at bending some HO-gauge track to fit on an A4 area. I had in mind an E. L. Moore themed display making use of his Yard Blacksmith Shop. It would be some sort of Flyer and Coach repair area with a loop of track for testing rolling stock. That 'wooden' circle is a stand-in for a small turntable which allows repaired rolling stock to return to the mainline. On a 'real' layout I'd have a functional turntable - I think I could somehow squeeze one in. 

A first attempt at a more sinuous track plan for a wilderness retreat layout.

By this time I was feeling confident in using the rail bending tool and decided to try something a little more adventurous with 9 mm gauge track. In the back of my mind I have a layout idea for a wilderness retreat with a narrow gauge line that connects a house with a wood lot and a dock, with the basic track plan being something of a bent dog bone. 

Although I'm happy with the overall shape, the centre section needs to be a bit longer for what I have in mind. If I go forward and turn this experiment into a layout I'll explain why in a future post.

Experimenting with Taronna designs using salvaged Alta Vista TC modules

All this experimenting got me thinking again about the Exploratorium and a post from 2022 on how the principles it promoted for exhibit design could easily be applied to layout design. In their exhibit design pamphlet that I reviewed in that post I took their list of 10 exhibit design principles and substituted 'layout' wherever 'exhibit' appeared to see if the resulting modified list made sense. It did. Looking at it again though it seems to make more sense to substitute 'micro-layout' for 'exhibit', 'fellow modellers' for 'staff', and 'viewers' for 'visitors'. Here's what the new list, a list of micro-layout design principles based on Exploratorium exhibit design principles, looks like:

1. Basic research - just plain tinkering around with something for the fun of it - is an essential part of the micro-layout development process.

2. Micro-layouts are designed and developed by people who are interested in the phenomenon to be displayed.

3. To some extent, all micro-layouts are collaborative: many people make suggestions and contribute ideas.

4. The first stage of micro-layout design is the construction of a full-scale working prototype.

5. Micro-layout builders are responsive to comments from viewers and fellow modellers, testing layouts at many stages in their development and allowing reactions to shape the layout.

6. Micro-layout builders pay attention to aesthetic nuances, noticing what is fun to do, what is beautiful, what is intriguing.

7. Generally, micro-layout builders try not to restrict a viewer’s choice.

8. Ideally, viewers should be able to see the inner workings of a layout and make discoveries about how the layout works.

9. Most micro-layouts are set up on table tops, so that viewers can gather and use the micro-layout together.

10. Micro-layouts are often constructed of inexpensive materials, scrap, and found objects (or junk).

The fit is pretty good. These ideas don't seem too bad for micro-layout planning.

Another salvaged Alta Vista TC module awaiting experimentation.

Planning, design, experimentation, are all bouncing around in my mind these days. My 'ultimate' Toronto streetcar layout hasn't escaped their clutches :-) I've been mulling over how to proceed with that layout, the so-called 'Taronna' layout, for quite awhile.

I have in mind a small coffee table sized layout featuring Toronto landmarks that have significance to me, streetcars, a below grade subway station, and a bowling alley! It would be a huge project. I came to my senses recently when I realized it could take 3 or 4 years to build - maybe more knowing me. I want to build something much more doable on say a 2 year time horizon, but still try to incorporate the things most important to me. 

So, in the spirit of tinkering and experimentation I've pulled out the modules I salvaged from the misguided Alta Vista TC layout and have begun playing with them to see what I might come up with design wise for Taronna. I want to see if moving models around on the modules triggers any ideas. I've drawn little sketches of a possible layout, but I'm thinking maybe the full-size 'sketch' approach I took with the Moon Mail Madness diorama is the better way to design it: basically, applying Principle #1 of the Exploratorium guidelines.

3rd and last salvaged Alta Vista TC module waiting in the wings for design duty.

Well, that's the report from 30Squares Labs. I'll let you know if anything catches fire, but until then we'll crank up the time machine and go back to when the King of Spain was living in Taronna, er, Toronto: