Meet me at the station

Even though the Aston Spur is a "spur" and not a candidate for passenger service, I wanted to have a station as the centrepiece for the layout.

And with the station would be support buildings for the local track gang to store supplies and play cards in when it rained. I've always had a fondness for scenery around stations stemming from my days growing up in Georgetown, when we'd visit "the yard" on the way back from my Dad's hospital errands.

After I built my display case for the Canadian, the next hobby re-entry point was to build structures. Kanamodel offered wood kits of many CPR prototypes at a reasonable price. At this point, I hadn't thought of building an actual layout, but the idea of building structures for future layout appealed to me.

Support structures

So...

Coal shed

"Speeder" shed

Oil shed (not appearing on the layout)

The pictures don't tell the story of how long it took to build these basic structures. While the Kanamodel kits are fairly simple, you still have to measure and cut little bits of wood and assemble them piece by piece. For example, the trim on the door to the Speeder shed. The lattice for the Oil shed dock (which I don't have room for on the layout) was also time consuming. The doors and windows also prove finicky since they needed to be painted and fitted to openings in the wood. The most shockingly difficult part of all was building some stairs using a plastic form. The form was warped and I was never able to get a satisfactory result.

I was careful to paint the structures in standard CPR colours to give them a family look. In retrospect, the grey colour made the doors and windows pop more than I wanted. I should have painted them brown. The CPR's "red" also varied - most structures have a more brownish red vs the candy apple or barn red I bought at the craft store.

I also built a freight platform with a canopy roof that sits in a closet waiting to be placed on a future layout.

Even though I made many mistakes the structures came out fairly well. Along the way I built the skills needed for the big project - Aston station.

The Station

Aston station front

Aston station back

Aston station is a Kanamodel kit based on the CPR's Meadowvale station which was located on the Streetsville/Orangeville branch line. For many years, I worked a few miles away from where the station must have been located before the era of suburbs and large featureless warehouses made it redundant.

I labelled the station my "Zen project" since it coincided with a stressful period in my life during which I had taken a sabbatical to recharge mid-career. Working on the project during the spring/summer of 2018 was diverting.

Some of the challenges in building the station were dealing with a warped base (made from resin) and shingling the roof. The roof shingles were challenging because they came in long strips that I needed to keep parallel with the roof edge. They also had a tendency to come unglued, so plenty of swearing resulted.

As I've mentioned previously, I've developed a great deal of fondness for the cottage industry that supplies model kits. Meadowvale station cost me about $60 - a very reasonable price for a complete kit. When I had a question along the way, I e-mailed the owner of the company and he responded within a day. And, as you may have gathered, I like the idea that my CPR layout has prototype CPR stuff on it. Without Kanamodel and other companies like it, my dreams wouldn't be possible.

Again, I made the mistake of painting the windows and doors grey.

Putting it all together

Two RS-18s in front of the station.

Once I test fit the structures, I weathered them with powdered chalk (with lots of white streaks for pigeon poo on the station roof). They are kept in place by wood forms. I built a curb around the station for this purpose.

One of the maxims of structure placement is that each structure should have room to breathe. In the real world, structures, especially small structures, are spaced apart, not crowded together. Moreover, you should leave room for your 1/87 scale people to access the structures, and 1/87 scale people are quite messy so leave room for lots of junk. A structure without junk around it looks as awkward as a sheepdog that has just had a close shave.

The station area is in front of my background blob. A retaining wall keeps the hill in place, providing room for a road that accesses the station and surrounding buildings. There is a small parking lot, made from smooth-it plaster on top of fibreboard. Off the parking lot is an overgrown cinder path for the crew to park their work vehicle (what self-respecting work crew parks in the parking lot?) while they access the coal shed and speeder shed. 

I bought an oil tank to store fuel for the speeder that lives in the shed and CPR work vehicles, and, ignoring the warnings of the insurance company, placed it next to the station. I loved building the oil tank - it was a lesson in how paint and weathering can make plastic shine (in the right way).

I added oil barrels, broken pallets and a scratchbuilt ballast bunker to give the structures more of a habitat. I boarded off a door to the coal shed figuring the structure wasn't in its happiest of days. And added lots of vegetation (including a shrub growing in the ballast bunker) to show that the Spur gets only the bare minimum of attention.

There is one very important detail missing from the scene - once I have access to a good printer again, I'll create an "Aston" sign for the station. That, in of itself, is a bit of a process because it involves figuring out the font the CPR used for station signs on Eastern Ontario.

I also have plans to add a mini-scene to the north end of the parking lot - probably a truck getting a replacement tire. But that will require more research. 

 

 Old and New

Evolution

I don't have many photos of the layout my father and I built when I was growing up. It was a large oval (about 20 x 20) with a centre blob containing a yard. There was a branchline and a second short branchline into the basement bedroom. We completed about 25% of the scenery but laid most of the track.

The track was Peco Code 100 and the Power was DC with power blocks. My father was very adept at electrical work so we had switch machines for most of the turnouts.

The rolling stock mostly Athearn - some kits and engines from the 1960's and some rolling stock I bought in the '90s. Some of the rolling stock such as Accurail boxcars still see service on the Aston Spur.

Anyway, this post is really just an excuse to post old photos.

Scenery

Trees and rocks

Base scenery on the old layout was window screen covered with plaster cloth (thank you GDH) and wallboard compound to smooth it out. I'd paint the plaster and apply ground foam on top.

Trees were dried goldenrod, spray bombed with green paint, with foam added and hair spray to seal.

Background "puffs" were either pillow case material spray painted or dyed lichen bought at the hobby shop.

A Budd Car headed down the branch

Rocks and cliffs were just plaster cloth/joint compound painted grey.

Rocks in the background

Everything has got better since the 90's. Some of the scenery basics remain (ground foam, puff ball background trees, plaster/wallboard compound). But:

1. "Super Trees" have become the standard for trees providing finer detail than goldenrod. Although the foliage method is the same (spraybomb, cover with foam and then spray paint).

2. Rock molds (which existed in the 1990s but I didn't use them) coloured with paint are far better than my old method. In my mind, the paint is much better now since acrylics are cleaner and easier to dilute than solvent based paints.

3. The insulation foam method for building a scenery base allows for more control over gradients than the plaster cloth/screen method. Moreover, it is much easier to incorporate rock molds into insulation foam because you just cut into the foam. I'm not sure how I would do it with the screen/plaster method.

4. While ground foam has improved, the real revelation is with grass. 

The above photo is not from my layout but it shows how fine grass detail has become. You can now simulate varying lengths of grass (i.e. wild grass vs a well-kept lawn) very easily using different grass mats.

5. Finally, although not scenery per se, artist chalks/powder have replaced paint as the go-to weathering medium. While I like paint for giving on overall effect (i.e. using a black wash to draw out rock detail), chalks and powder allow for more variation - and if you use too much, you can blot away with water and start again.

Rolling Stock

The Tenshodo F9's

Atlas S-4 (the boxcar on the right is seen below).

The best piece of equipment on my old layout was a brass F9A and F9B unit made by Tenshodo - a Japanese company. The engines are beautiful (I still have them) and ran well, although only the A unit was powered. There weren't accurate CPR units - there is a difference between a F9A (not owned by the CPR) and a FP9A (owned by the CPR) The Atlas S-4 wasn't as pretty, but could crawl along the layout at low speed.

The engines were also DC-powered. With a DC power system, only one engine at a time could run in a wired block, unless you ran them together in a consist (far from fail safe). No sound either.

With DCC, sound-equipped locos, the difference is stark.

                                                Rumble Rumble.

In terms of old rolling stock, it ranges from the generic...

Repainted Athearn Box

Accurail wooden boxcars.

...too pretty good actually.

I'll save a full descripton of the Aston Spur's rolling stock for a future post, but as with scenery, the options have improved significantly. CPR specific rolling stock is now available (at least on E-bay) which is a big morale booster.

Before I leave this post, the best picture I have from the old layout:

The Canadian 

How I got back into the hobby...

I had a model train layout when I was a kid.

I had a model train layout when I was in law school.

Through the years I kept my subscription to Model Railroader and Trains and stayed interested in the hobby.

One of the moments that hooked me on the hobby was seeing old pictures of the CPR's Canadian passenger train from the '50s. The Canadian is most famous for its dome cars designed to maximize scenery viewing. I rode Via's version of the Canadian several times (last in 2016) and it is one of those things in life that NEVER disappoints. How many things in life are as good today as they were 60 years ago?

Robert J. Sandusky photo.

But owning an HO scale model of the train, or should I say, an accurate model of the train seemed like an impossible dream. A sidebar here - in the glory days of passenger trains, railroads would often order custom equipment. It isn't like today, where an Air Canada A330 looks pretty much like every other A330 except for the paint. The Canadian cars were unique (and, at $40 million in 1955 dollars, a terrible investment considering the downward spiral passenger trains had entered). 

Shoreham Shops offered the train in Brass in the early '90s, but at $300 per car (for a 10 car train) and no prototype F units, that didn't bring the dream any closer.

...and then, in 2008, a Company called Rapido Trains - Rapido trains - announced that they would be offering a 10-car set, with prototype FP9A and F9B units for a decent price. Talking about Rapido is a whole other post in of itself. The company, which grew from very humble beginnings, has endlessly delighted Canadian model railroaders for years by introducing Canadian prototypes that modellers never dreamed of seeing (in plastic, at least). Steam engines. Rolling Stock. Special trains (the Tempo, the LRC). Diesel engines (my RS-18 fleet, FPA-2's, F units, etc. etc. etc.). All highly detailed (they actually put a toilet in one of their models - clarifying that it was non-operable). There is now a company that makes it possible to accurately model your favourite Canadian railroad during the time and place you wish. And they are genuine and fun (their YouTube product videos are worth a watch - for example, Display case.)

I placed my order. And waited. And waited. And waited so more. And then, one day in 2011, my set arrived. It was perfect.

A Chateau series sleeper.

Deluxe Coach

Only one problem. To display, even part of the set, would require 8 feet of wall space and I'd have to find display case to keep off dust.

This required some serious thinkin' because I'd have to create a display case from scratch.

I started with Ikea photo shelves. I added some track. There was no way I was going to leave the track bare, so I ballasted it and put it on foam roadbed. That meant trips to the hobby store.

I added Ikea strip lights.

Skyline Dome car

That wasn't good enough, so I added a blue foamboard backdrop (not perfect but it still works) because the peach coloured walls weren't doing it for me. To keep the dust off, I had clear acrylic side panels custom made and attached them to the Ikea shelves with velcro. They have never come off, and the train remains in its tomb. I do have two spare cars and a spare F unit in storage.

F-units

Pocket Streamliner on the layout.

Park Observation car.

Needless to say, the entire project (which took months) was extremely satisfying. I loved the problem solving. I loved the look of the track. I loved the visuals in my brain of what a perfect diorama would look like.

Which led to...the Aston Spur. 

 Adding a road to the Blob

One of the most amusing (or interesting) aspects of the "train hobby" is the number of disciplines and skills it can encompass. In building the basic layout, some knowledge of carpentry and electrical work is necessary. Track laying requires patience, a good saw and the ability to transfer measurements from a drawing to real life.

Aside from technical skills, the blob involved another skill - scene composition. Basic model railroad scenery theory states that the trains/track should fade/blend into the scenery. And in real life, trains are rarely the focus. So other things are just as important. Like roads.

The road

The geography of the road is that it links the (unseen) town of Aston with the station and Aston Growers. 

A basic rule of model train scene composition is to avoid having major scenic elements be either perpendicular or 90 degrees to the layout edge (either the front or the back). You want angles. 

Another concept is to not draw attention to places where you "cheat" to fool the eye. 

Finally, scenery should make sense - that is, if there is a bend in a road, you should include the thing that is the reason for the bend (a rock, a river, etc.).

Enough road/scenery theory.

To build the road, I first glued cardboard to the insulation foam to give myself a guide for the width of the road. I then cut small pieces of balsa wood to form the edges of the road. Then, I poured Woodland scenics "Smooth-it" plaster into the balsa wood form, smoothing the top with a crepe maker tool. The balsa wood acts as a guide for the crepe maker, ensuring the plaster is level. Still, there are inevitable dips and bumps and lots of sanding and some repaving is required.

I painted the plaster with "asphalt" paint and then used weathering chalks to tone down the paint. I didn't paint lines on the road because I didn't want to draw attention to the fact the road's width is not uniform. My theory is that this is not a major thoroughfare. I added some medium rock ballast on the side of the road and some posts (painted wood skewers) to keep motorists on the road. 

The posts took forever to make (there about 30 of them - chop, paint, paint again, drill, insert). But the details make the difference.

I feel like a dirt shoulder would have been better for the road. Over time, I've come to the gravel as too clean/white - such that it draws attention.

Road elements

What makes the road interesting?

1. The bridge.

The footing/base for the bridge can be seen.

Ready for installation.

In situ.

The bridge (a Rix products kit) was easy to assemble. The railings reminded me of the bridges in Glen Williams, where I grew up. I rusted the railings with burnt sienna paint and added (too much) grime on the surface.

As with many things on the layout, the challenge with the bridge is that it had to fit in with future projects - in this case, scenery blob #1 (the large blob at the back against the backdrop) and scenery blob #2 (in the foreground in the first picture). Here the pink insulation foam helped because you can make a precise cut in the foam for the bridge to fit in. 

I measured the fit countless time - both to bridge the blobs together and to ensure the clearance over the track was adequate.

Blob #2.

2. The curve.

The almost 90 degree curve vehicles encounter isn't very prototypical. In the 60's, with standard tractor trailer lengths being 28' to 34' (feet), I could see it being possible.

But here again, the art of distraction comes into play:

Hi visibility railings added by Aston county

Hiding the road.

I scratchbuild slightly over size warning railings to draw the eye and serve as an apology from the Aston county public works department for the sharp curve.

Here again the 3-D backdrop helps - the rock outcropping justifies the sharp curve.

3. The billboard.

Beauty.

So:

1. I'm a lawyer - signed, sealed and delivered being a common (albeit archaic) phrase used in contracts.

2. I kept on humming the Dave Dudley tune "Six Days on the Road" in my head as I built the billboard.

3. I work in the transport business (and for a trucking company in the past) so I thought this would be an ad that appealed to that demographic. Bottles of scotch being a very common "thank you for your business" present to traffic managers back in the day.

The billboard is an easy-to-assemble kit (it took about 2-3 hours) from Blair Line. I painted and weathered it before installing it. The billboard illustrates many of the things that make the hobby rewarding. First of all, the MR industry has plenty of small Mom and Pop suppliers who make great kits just a click away. Second, the effort/reward here is considerable - the billboard adds a lot of visual interest and it only took a short time to build. And I like the colour (muted yellow) as it goes well with the warning railings. Three, the billboard, in a small way, takes you out of 2021 Toronto as you look at it, back to the 50's and 60's.

4. The disappearing act. 

As I mentioned at the top, a golden rule of scenery is to avoid 90 degree meets between foreground scenery (i.e. a road) and the backdrop. Of the oldest tricks in the MR book (literally - I saw this in a scenery book from the 1950's) is to have the road crest right before it hits the backdrop so the eye can't see the meet. The dip also avoided the problem having the road plaster mess up my picture backdrop. The road actually stops about 1/8 away from the backdrop.

Narrowing the road also gives the illusion of distance.

And I added a curve.

If I really wanted to be cool, I would have added N-scale guardrails (a smaller MR gauge than HO) to create "forced" perspective - that is changing size to fool the eye into believing something is further away than it actually is.

The finished scene.

The narrowing is very apparent.

In a future installment, we'll see where the road comes out. But next, I think we'll take a brief side trip.

 The first scenery blob (part I)

Wither Blob?

With track and a backdrop in place, the next step was to model scenery (this was around April 2019). I wanted a ridge with a road in the back for visual interest sake since the track was dead level. I also wanted some Canadian shield rock. One of my favourite train pictures (from Signatures in Steel) is of the Super Continental passing through a rock cut in cottage country. And when my Brother, Uncle and I go fishing every summer, I spend many peaceful hours staring at rocks. So rocks.

The blob, mostly done.

I can be very Type A. This trait is not helpful when it comes to making progress because the fear of failure causes inaction. Pretty sad when we're discussing a hobby that is supposed to be relaxing.

And again, I hadn't modelled for 20 years and was starting all over again.

So how to avoid making a permanent mistake? Another complication is that with the backdrop in place, I didn't want it getting covered in plaster.

So...

I built the blob on foamboard. Foamboard is easy to cut, sturdy and lightweight. It does warp over time but this wasn't an issue because it was going to be glued in place. The blob guts are insulation foam - again, easy to cut (with the hotwire tool), lightweight and plays nicely with plaster.

For rocks I tried making castings for the first time with plaster and rubber molds. This was one of the most rewarding moments - taking the rock out of the mold and seeing the texture and detail. Colouring the rock with various tints was also very enjoyable. Although I tend to like my rocks grimy rather than the pure grey we think of when we hear "rock". As I've mentioned before, I'm not an artistic person. But the end result looked great and it was easy. Woodland scenics (and YouTube) make it dead simple.

Rather than blather about the process, I'll share pictures:

Fitting rock castings

Coloured rock castings - love the detail.

Rock castings set in place with plaster.

My train room is a little dark. Because the blob was mobile, I could paint the rocks on my kitchen island (in natural light). You may also note the aluminum oven tray used to keep things tidy. 

I put a road in (which I discuss in Part II). Once that was in place, I added scenery. The usual stuff - ground foam, dirt, foliage clumps, cotton puff shrubs, Heki static grass and some bramble. I also had to ensure that I cut out room for a bridge before setting the blob in place.

The next challenge was to blend the blob with the backdrop. I wanted to add additional height and give the road a reason for its sharp curve. 

One suggestion I had seen for backdrop transitions was to use green scouring pads to add a distant tree line. I experimented with it and the result was meh. Instead, I went back to the foamboard and build vertical scenery on it with the intention of gluing it to the backdrop. As with the main blob, this method enabled me to make mistakes away from the layout. It was also easier to attach rock molds and to create a textured tree line from foliage foam with a mobile blob. 

The method was - 1. Spraypaint the foamboard green. 2. Add castings 3. Cover the rest with foliage (including the top and sides of the foamboard). The result was a 3D blob that fit between the road and the backdrop.

Backdrop blob:

Building the backdrop blob. Note the foliage "framing"

Shrubs for the backdrop blob.

The backdrop blob in inaction. Look at those lovely True Line boxcars!

It isn't clear from my photos how long this took, but I think the blob was built between April and November 2019. I was learning and problem solving along the way, and the slow pace worked in creating an end result I was (and am) happy with.

In the next post, I'll write about adding the road, bridge and further details to the blob.

A Backdrop for the Aston Spur

With the layout resting on top of the cart, it was now time to add a backdrop. By this point it was April 2019.

Now, I didn't take very good notes in the early days of building the layout. But I believe I went with High Density Fibreboard for the backdrop. I wanted wood that would not warp and could stand up with little support. 

I opted for a free-standing backdrop. I could have mounted it against the wall but that would have kept the layout stationary. What's the point in buying a cart with wheels for a stationary layout?

I secured the HDF to the layout with 1 x 2 studs. The studs were screwed into the layout base (on the studs used to frame the plywood). I then glued the HDF to the studs with clamps. For a few weeks, my clamps were my favourite tool.

I compromised and had the backdrop on the "north" side (the side against the wall) and the "east" side (the industrial end) meet at a 90 degree angle. With the light blue paint, the meet doesn't stick out. I did not have the space to curve the backdrop.

The challenging bits were keeping the HDF level and flush with the layout. Joining the back and side sections was also a challenge. As you can see from the photo below, I did get some warping at the back but it is not noticeable at the front. A pleasant bonus was fitting the side backdrop between the foam and the side trim giving it a strong base.

For paint, I went with CIL "Clear blue sky" flat matte. An unremarkable colour. I didn't paint clouds on the sky (perhaps a future project). I can't remember if I primed the HDF first or sealed it. What I do remember is that the paint rolled on remarkably smoothly and the finish was perfect.

A few pictures:

Making a mess. I don't remember what the staple gun was for.

A close up of the corner.

The studs. Note the warp.

One last note - I intend to add a partial roof to the layout. The purpose of the roof is allow me to add overhead lighting (likely from Ikea). The lack of light is a problem in the area behind Aston storage and Generic Canneries - the area is scenicked but with no light you cannot tell. I hope that the studs will help support the roof, but as you can see from the warp in the photo, this is probably wishful thinking. 

Painted and photo background

Much like the rug in the Big Lebowski, a subtle background ties a scene together. 

I went with both a painted background and a (purchased) picture background for the spur. If I was doing it again, I'd go with a picture background for the entire layout. At the time, I had read that picture background had a tendency to "bubble up" from a HDF backdrop and I was intimidated. There was also some confusion about what kind of adhesive to use - spray adhesive? Photo adhesive? I went with Heavy Duty Contact Cement from LePage. It stinks (smell-wise) but I've found it to be about 90% effective. The key is to use a lot of glue. A lot. And spread it with a brush. I flattened the photo against the backdrop with a crepe spreader (a very useful tool). There is a small section of the layout where the print has come loose but it is not noticeable. 

Anyway, the lesson for me from all of this is to just have faith. This was my first time playing with a photo background and the results were nearly perfect. 

The Painted background

Meh.

I spraybombed the backdrop with dark green paint to create a distant hills look. As you can see, not very pretty. And the sheen shows up in photos (I discuss building the hills in a separate post).

The painted section covers about 3 feet.

The Photo section

Much better! The tree in the upper left hides the painted/photo transition.

I purchased my backgrounds from railroad backdrops. They weren't cheap and took a while to deliver, but I'm happy with the end result.

A few other notes about using photo backgrounds:

1. Obviously, the right time to apply the photo background is before adding scenery.

2. I cut out the sky from the backgrounds and used paper hole punchers to round the photo edge. I ran black or green paint over the top of photo to blend it in.

3. You do end up "wasting" a fair bit of the background if you put high scenery in front of it (hills, for example). I accepted the waste in favour of keeping the background level. In one place (behind Aston Growers), however, I added an additional photo blob to prevent the structure from being framed by the blue sky. I should have done this with Generic Canning.

4. At the 90 degree corner, the two background colours do not match. You see it in the photo below:

I still love this picture though. And it is before Generic Canning was placed so the clash is not as noticeable now.

The point of all of this is to say that I'm really happy with how everything turned out. It isn't perfect but I'm amazed at how it turned out for a first try. My only real regret is that I didn't have enough confidence to try a photo background at the outset.