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.)

Current state of the Tintin 2001 layout

I've been doing some thinking and planning, although no work :-( , about the next step on this layout. The trickiest part might be the walls in the monolith pit as I'll need a lot of wall panels, and they could be tedious to construct. More thinking, more thinking :-)

The Pit and The Pad

I decided to take some glamour shots with all the pieces
I've so far assembled to assess the composition.

Once I finished testing the track in the pit I decided to do some odds-and-ends work that I had been putting off. This included: finishing installing the internal stiffeners in the launch pad section, finishing installing the walls of the blast trench under the launch pad, installing the launch pad, priming the roadbed in the pit, and sticking down the pit track. Nothing glamorous, but all essential.

Business end of the blast trench.

It's more-or-less all scenic work from here on as I think the major structural and infrastructure components are now in place. 

A major discovery in the monolith pit!

And I think the scenic work will be quite interesting. At my usual snail's pace it could take a year or so to complete, but I've only touched on lunar scenery, so lots of learning ahead too.

Test run over the pit track

I spent some time over a few days installing the track in the monolith pit. I was surprised that it was quite a pleasant experience. I'd maybe work on it for a couple hours each day and almost immediately after beginning my mind would enter a flow state. I thought this would be a stressful job given the precision needed to get all the pieces to fit properly, but it turned out to be rather restful.

There are some minor alignment issues with the landscape, but they are easily corrected. After watching the loco climb the grade I think the loco still has enough - as my father would say - 'oomph' to pull a couple of cars.

I think the next task will be to do a little landscape cleanup.

Making a whole layout from 2 pieces

I joined together the launch pad and excavation pit portions of the layout. It was a little tricky getting the measurements right, but I'm happy that the result was a nice, smooth grade down from the left area to the right.

There's still lots to go, but I'm happy that this part is complete and not too bad.

Rising out of the pit

Track risers are mainly cut from 1" thick pink foam sheets

I've continued to work on installing the track risers that lead from the launch pad area down into the monolith pit. They're all in now except for some supports I need to add to the corner pieces to bank the track a little.

Shot during a mid-construction break

My reporting on how this square spiral is constructed has been a little skimpy as forming the pieces requires a little bit of junior high level geometry, and whenever I write about the math aspects of layout construction I see a lot of sad faces :-) I find that concerning; however, I figured I'd just present some in-progress photos so at least I have a record for myself on how the layout looked before scenery. And I suspect anyone who is serious about building something similar can figure out the geometry for themselves, and no doubt make improvements, from pictures of the components.

Laying track and joining the two little layouts into one big one are next. Stay tuned!

Laying track in the monolith excavation

Initial stages of installing the risers out of the pit up to launch pad level.

After completing the installation of track around the launch pad I decided to get going on laying track at the other end of the layout: the pit where the monolith is located.

A bird's eye view of the overall track plan before the hard work began.

It's a bit tricky installing this track as it needs to spiral out of the excavation, so it has to go around as it goes up. Design-wise, I've limited the grade to 5%, as I don't think the lunar loco will be able to pull more than one, maybe two, cars, and 5% will be quite enough grade for it to handle.

Stay tuned! More to come.

Test run of the launch pad loop

I installed the track for the loop around the launch pad and had to give it a test. Next up, installing the track down into the pit.

This and that at 30Squares Labs

I've been working on working out the details of positioning the track for the Tintin 2001 layout. It's very technical and mathematical and geometrical and doesn't make for fantastical posts, even though my arithmetical flubs can be comical :-)

I'm going to install the track in two stages: first in the landing / launch level, and then in the monolith pit, which will be much more challenging. The circular hole and rectangular cutout in the above photo are the excavations for the blast trench. It will be spanned by a bridge for the train, not to be used during launch or landing!

Testing, testing, testing

I'm also doing some tests to figure out the minimum turning radius of the RDC-M. It can handle the 9" radius curves on the Way Out Layout no problem, but it jams in the 3-1/4" radius curves on the E. L. Moore micro-layout. Some impromptu tests with flex track bent freehand suggest some radius between 9" and 6" is the limit. I'm hoping it's closer to 6 than 9, but I'll have to abide by whatever more rigorous testing shows.

Well, I'm off for coffee, and maybe a movie. I'm watching a lot of sci-fi films these days, what with being submerged in the Tintin 2001 layout and all. I hadn't seen Dune, so I gave it a try. There was one scene that seemed like a cross between something I had seen ages ago in Enter the Dragon accompanied by the old Blue Swede song, Hooked on a Feeling. I assure you I was only drinking coffee, but I nearly fell out of the Lazy-Boy laughing. Test it for yourself. Here's the song. Don't spill your coffee :-)

Shell for the Rail + Launch Control Building

For some time I've had an idea for a kitbashed building based on the Moebius Moon Bus kit to serve as a combined lunar launch control and rail control centre for the Tintin 2001 layout.

I've had this kit on my shelf for longer than I care to admit. I think I bought it when it was first released. At the time my intent was to build it up as shown on the box into a replica of the 2001 movie moon bus. At one time I did make a start on that, but lost interest and returned the partially started kit to its box.

That was a long time ago now, and it was dawning on me that I was never going to build a box-stock moon bus, and I should just overcome my reticence, get out the razor saw and grinding tool, and dive into the kitbash no matter how sacrilegious that seemed.

 As well, I wanted to check the size and shape of this fantasy lunar building in the layout mockup. The building has a row of windows along each long side so that one row looks towards the launch pad and the other towards the pit. That seems ideal for this setup. I should note the building will be slightly elevated, maybe around 25mm to 50mm above the surface of the launch pad, so it will look down into the pit. Overall, it's size, shape, and location looks just right to me.

I studied the instructions and parts until I had figured out how to make a start. I separated out the components I planned to use into a tray.

I started by assembling the passenger compartment according to the instructions.

I left off the flight deck and used the interior bulkhead that separates the flight deck from the passenger compartment as an exterior wall. It's an interesting piece because the molded on doors used to secure the flight deck are now exterior doors, which I intend to use as doors to a moon buggy garage.

After initial assembly I got out my Dremel motor tool, with a sanding drum attached, and ground off all the detail suggestive of this being a spacecraft fuselage that appeared below the belt line.

I then glued 0.040" thick styrene panels over top of the areas that had been ground down. More appropriate building-like detail will be added to these areas later.

The new, smooth panels were used as a guide to trim the bottom level. I should mention there was a lot of careful sanding and filing at this point to get the bottom even. The photo shows the side door units glued on. That step was done after the building's main walls were finished, as getting the door units shortened and levelled was a job unto itself.

And that is that for the shell. The next part will be to detail it and add an interior for the garage. You can see the opening for the garage in the photo above. Those doors would never withstand the pressure gradient between the inside and outside, but hopefully most viewers won't realize that, or will at least allow me artistic license on this detail :-)

The Superb 7

After making one 3" radius curve I was pumped and made another, and then another, and then another, and so on. In no time at all I had the seven I need for this layout.

And now some serious fun is about to begin. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, warm up your time machines and get some popcorn:

A 3" radius lunar curve

Getting ready to test the curve.

I'm going to need a few small radius, quarter-circle curves on this layout to both complete the loop around the landing pad area, and go down into the excavated pit where the monolith will be located. 

I need to make these bends as tight as possible, and it looked like a 3" (~76mm) radius was about the tightest turn I could get away with. So I got the track bending tools out again, and followed the procedure I used on the big loop around the landing pad to make this little turn.

Bent rail awaiting the installation of ties.

This curve wasn't quite as difficult as the first; maybe because I had some practice, and there wasn't as much rail to wrestle with.

Once the bend was made I had to test it. I wasn't sure if the lunar loco's wheels would bind going around the curve.

I was happy to see it handled the curve just fine. Now I need about 5 more - curves that is!

Starting with a humble semi-circle

It doesn't look like much, but this semi-circular piece of test track was a #$%#! to make. 

One end of this little layout will have lunar landing pads for the Tintin rocket and fellow travellers. At this end I wanted to have a loop of track around the pads and a stop for loading and unloading cargo. I decided to build a test loop using the track bending methods I used on the community garden layout and associated test pieces. They worked with Peco code 100 HO/OO flex-track and I wanted to try them with Atlas HO code 100 flex as I have a stack of odds and ends lying around I figured I'd use up on this project.

The flex-track rails were carefully pried from their plastic tie strip.
The rails were then curved to produce an 8" radius semi-circle.

It turns out the strips of Atlas flex-track are quite different than Peco's. On a piece of Atlas flex one rail has embossings on the bottom that make it impossible to slide out from the tie strip, so it has to be carefully pried out. Some broken spike heads do result, but not enough to render the tie strip useless. Those busted heads were later superglued back down once the curved rails were slipped back into the tie strips.

Since the curve forming technique I use requires the curved rails to be slid back into the tie strip I had to use my motor-tool to grind the embossed rail's bottom surface flat.

The curved rails are slid back into short pieces of tie strips.
The tie strip pieces were sprayed with grey paint
A truck is used to check the gauge.

The Atlas tie strip is also quite different from Peco's. The Atlas version as one side of its tie strip with just about all tie ends connected together, and the other side has ties connected in pairs, making that side quite flexible. I took a pair of sprue cutters and pruned the connections on the heavily connected side so it matched the connection pattern of the other side, making the entire tie strip quite flexible. 

This may sound like a simple, albeit laborious, job, but in fact it turned out to be a major headache. I don't recall the similar test I did with Peco track for an E. L. Moore micro being this difficult. In the end though I did produce a piece of free standing, semi-circular track which the lunar loco has no problem navigating. I probably should have done things the easy way and bent a piece of track by hand and just stuck it to the foam, which is what I did on the Way Out Layout, but I wanted to see if I could make a free-standing piece with no internal residual stresses.

Other rockets that may appear on the layout.

This end of the layout isn't going to remain flat. I have some ideas for three-dimensionalizing it with an elevated launch pad, flame/dust trench, and overhead track cover. These days I'm finding myself becoming more and more interested in working on landforms whether it's for this lunar thing, the community garden, or other dioramas I have in mind. I was bitten by some type of landform making bug on the Mount Lowe layout, so, you might see a lot of terra- and luna- forming ahead :-)

Assessing sizes

You may recall back in the post about building the lunar loco I discussed how to juggle relative sizes of things on layouts so that big things looked big even though they might be considerably smaller than their prototypes, and I also discussed scale considerations. After Debra finished building the Lego Tintin rocket I pulled out the lunar loco and the Tintin-ized Airfix astronaut to do a size comparison. Looking at the photo I'm thinking that proposing OO scale for the layout was the right way to go. The loco and astronaut do look small compared to the rocket, but are still recognizable and relatable.

Papa was a Tintin Astro

After the success of the Godzilla orthotic installation surgery staff at 30Squares Labs were emboldened to try the Airfix Astronaut to Tintin Astronaut (AATA) conversion.

To the left: Patient X, Vintage Classics 1:76 Airfix Astronaut; to the right: 3/16" diameter Acetal ball.

Warning: Those of you with a weak constitution may want to avert your eyes for the next bit. 

With the head-dectomy successfully completed we quickly move on to the installation of the new helmet.

Success! The helmet was slightly flattened on one 'side' and attached with superglue.

The life support backpack was modified with styrene scraps to become Tintin-esque.

The patient is expected to make a full recovery and live a long and adventurous life on the moon tending the lunar railway.

The staff of 30Squares Labs extends its apologies to The Temptations and highly recommend listening to this classic while they prepare for the next breakthrough in figure surgery.