Hitch your wagon

Michael tipped me off to some interesting model train work in Alfred Hitchcock's 1937 movie, Young and Innocent. It turns out I have a copy in a DVD box set of Hitchcock's films from the 1920s and 1930s I bought at Movies 'n' Stuff for $5 in the summer.

I guess I didn't need to watch the whole movie as some enterprising person sliced out the main model shots for a youtube video, but I'm glad I did. It's a good movie, and I should note that the somewhat washed-out print I watched made the model scenes blend in better. They still jump out as being modelled, but everything appears better integrated. Maybe it's because I was so engrossed in the story by the time these scenes appeared, it all came across as rather seamless.

Seeing those scenes reminded me of the opening model shot in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes from 1938. 

Model Train Room

"Our obsession is to express the over crowdedness of a big city."

ST 2's true identity

ST 2 on page 13 of Kibri's 1965 HO & N catalogue

It turns out ST 2 is a Kibri kit and appeared in their 1965 HO & N catalogue. 

From the picture you can see that mine is missing a few parts, which includes a low-rise extension and a roof-top railing on the main building. I'll likely add the railing when I get to restoration, but the rest of the work will focus just on cleaning up the model, and probably adding a strip of LED lighting to that greenhouse.

ST 2

Today we took a drive out to Smiths Falls, and stopped in Merrickville on the way home. There's a model train store in Merrickville I haven't visited in nearly 2.5 years, what with the pandemic and all, so I popped in for a quick look around. 

There were a lot of assembled HO scale buildings for sale, likely from a few estates. I saw 7 (!) fully assembled E. L. Moore Machine Shops, which must be some sort of record for the most completed examples of that kit in one place. Well, in amongst those relics I saw ST 2 and couldn't resist buying it. It's clearly European, but whether it's a kit or kit-bash, I can't say as there're no identifying markings. But, it's cleanly assembled, not a glue-bomb, even though the paint job is a bit rough. So, it'll be restored, or at least spruced up. At any rate, that office furniture in the skywalk greenhouse is worth more than I paid for this intriguing structure, so no loss whatever happens.

Loonar inspirations

Beginnings of the Loonar Module project. A layout for trying scenery building techniques, and test running 9mm gauge railway equipment in a variety of scales. The track loop has an 8” radius, and the layout’s footprint is 24” x 24”. Inspired by Frédéric Mottet’s Plage Bel Air, Bob Telford’s Falcon Rock, and Ontario’s backcountry. 

That was to have been an Instagram post to briefly explain the origins and influences of the layout, but I thought, what's the point? To me Instagram seems more like advertising. Ok, Blogger is too to a certain extent, but it appears to still have the potential for non-trivial engagement as writing isn't shifted to the back burner.

So, influences. I wanted a little layout for trying scenery building techniques for use on the E. L. Moore dioramas, the Elizabeth Valley RR, and the LOL Mk II (if I ever get around to building it). While wondering what shape such a layout should take, I came across the Plage Bel Air and Falcon Rock layouts in Voie Libre. Plage Bel Air had a lot in common with my old LOL, and I was impressed by the Falcon Rock concept (which also appeared in the October issue of Railway Modeller). Into the mental mix-master they went, along with thoughts of modelling Ontario backcountry scenery, and eventually the Loonar Module popped out.

One unexpected result so far has been that this little thing has taught me a lot about the fun of building a small and simple layout. It's easy to try new things, and no tasks are too onerous, time consuming, or expensive. For reintroducing me to the pleasures of layout building, I'm most grateful.