Vince Valley - Applying Lessons Learned From the Circle

The originating  story of this post goes back as far as last October when I was exploring weathering techniques on old plastic kits, many of them Revell. Exploring the American Southwest sure was an excellent way to be immersed into an ubiquitous presence that have always been there in this hobby.

And let's be bold. If I wasn't modelling Canadian National and its adjacent themes, I would either model 1870s 4-4-0 trains or simply the king of model railroading: ATSF. If you have grown up looking at box art like me for hours as a kid, you have been saturated with Santa Fe locomotives and cars. Geeps in dark blue and yellow, F-units in Warbonnet and classic big steamers like the 4-8-4 and the 2-10-4. I blame Bachmann for that, but Life-Like and Model Power didn't help. It's iconic, it's in your face, it's powerful, it's glamourous, it encapsulate everything about cool model railroading.

Classic ATSF steam at Raton Pass in 1954 (credit: Ed Olsen)

The idea of modelling the Southwest grew on me when I was thinking of transforming the Monk returning loop as an American themed shelf layout. Imagine, the main layout is CN and the hidden staging in the other room is Colorado or New Mexico. The idea didn't go far, but then, I explored it again as a lightweight shelf layout in my office room. Would be cool, but cumbersome. Then Merkiomen made me superdetail cheap kits using SP and UP... and ATSF, colors and details. Later, Merkiomen died and it resurrected from its ashes as my childhood friend Vince's long gone old layout. It had been built by is late uncle and decorated with sand to replicate the Southwest with a classic dry riverbed with a low trestle and the ubiquitous Arlee Station.

My friend's original layout track plan

Having collected by accident a few Union Pacific locomotives that were supposed to be kitbashed as CN locomotives, I had a head start... but then, I started to collect a few BLI ATSF steamers. Second hand for some, but also looking at refurbished one. Having seen pictures of the ATSF Fast Mail Express, I had some ideas in my mind. I waited for almost a year until I found the exact BLI Blue Goose (1950s appearance) to recreate that iconic train. I was settled.

Playing with elements to get the feeling right

As I said, I had that idea to recreate my friend's layout because I kind of liked the pragmatic yet versatile track plan. A station on a side with two sidings and a long passing track, and a classification yard on the other side, both separated by a scenic divider that was nothing more than a low kraft paper hill.

We derived countless hours of operation out of that simplistic layout, but let's accept the fact it was quite straightforward and made with brass snapswitches in a classic sectional track approach. Forget about easement, smooth transitions in the yard, superelevation or anything else related to quality track. It was an issue back then, it's even worse now that my standards have been significantly raised in 30 years.

I had to make that layout more jazzy, more curvy, more natural... more grounded in reality. Since ATSF was in my mind, I quickly thought about Raton Pass on the New Mexico border. Far less impressive for railfans than Tehachapi Pass, but quite inspiring for people interested in subtler scenery possibilities.

At Raton Pass, the line follow the river (credit: Eugene Diller)

At that time, a few months ago, I was using extensively AI and Copilot to flesh out the concept, including town names, operating schemes, train consists and even scenery. It was new, flashy, exciting and... full of blatant errors. I had to quickly acknowledge I was fed garbage 50% of the time. Some ideas were cool, but nothing to write to your mother. The sycophant aspect of AI was showing off and at the end of the time, it was just saying what I wanted to hear. A pure definition of an echo chamber... so AI got the boot and the project stalled for a little bit.

Switchlist lore generated by Copilot

That said, some work happened on the layout, including making foam splines and exploring a few ideas. What really changed my approach was that I came by to my Gosford railway explorations which used the same footprint and mainline shape.

A twisty previous version of Q&G

A particular picture of Lake St. Joseph station struck my imagination. I put it in a double S-curve and it worked magic. That's an old trick, but I recall seeing it on a beautifully designed small Japanese HO layout and felt it was worth trying again.

Lake St. Joseph on QLStJ Railway (credit: BAnQ)

Tracks follow valleys (credit: BAnQ)

I added these curves to the Vince Valley, my project file name for the layout, and it started to bring life to what was just a typical 4' x 8'. I had a hard time figuring out what to do with the riverbed and it was left as just a small ponctual feature in a corner.

Building something from scratch

I recall Copilot provided names such as Toluca station and Haskell yard for the main feature. I my mind, it was to be a helper district with an engine house and some sort of facilities to replicate mountain railroading. The creek and pass got named Ringtail as a nod to Raton Pass, though it never congealed perfectly into the concept.

The revised concept was still quite crude

Fast forward to last week and it was time to revive the Vince Valley concept. Once again, I started to play with the Gosford. Archives pictures shows that line followed closely rivers and valleys, curving here and there to conform to the topography. It opened perspectives but closed others. That was clearly resonating with Chris' ideas on the circular JNR layout concept. I thought it would be worth it to use the river not as a scenic feature, but as the backbone of the layout.

Revised Quebec & Gosford with the river on a paper towel

The track would follow the river as long as it could to explain with the railway was so curvy and twisted. Hills would frame that river to make it geologically plausible and realistic. I really liked how the JNR design closed the ends of the layout with higher ground instead of treating it as opening space. It was now two large scenes, back to back, that curved on each side in a realistic fashion. The scenes were neither approached in a frontal way, but rather diagonally. In Toluca, it was all about standing by the river and looking upstream. You could see the train emerge from the treacherous valley/pass, curve around the meander, stop at the station and continue its route. It also helped to frame the area in from of the station. With the long river crossing the entire scene, it made it cohesive and the "distant" hills really started to make sense. Small rural stations located at a river crossing are one of the classic thing in railroading. It emphasizes the depot as a nodal point point around which everything radiate. No need to model the village, we know it isn't far away...

Revised ATSF Vince Valley design without the bulges

At Haskell, the yard was no longer a contrived set of parallel track, but something flowing into the topography. There was a small natural plateau where the railway built the yard and it made sense.

How scenic bulges are framed (credit: Chris Mears)

All these interesting features would also be accompanied by a free form fascia that follows the scenes and expands where needed rather than framing the 4' x 8'. It's all about breaking that sheet of plywood and it's linear nature. Where the eyes and camera requires a larger foreground, it does expand. The perimeted created alcoves and bulges that are naturally responding to the layout with the goal, at the end of the day, of fooling us believing these is more than meet the eyes.

As for conclusion, the last lesson learned was to use watercolors (highly diluted acrylic paint on my desk!) to shape layout designs. It's incredible how the fuzziness of a brush is much better at grasping scenic ideas than anything else and in just a few strokes.

Going Around In Circles - A Japanese Layout

Over the last few months, I finally gave up and acquired a few 1:80 Japanese trains. Most of them of the late 1960s-early 1970s when steam was in its twilight. I could resist these fantastic videos showing double and triple steam headers pulling boxcars and cement cars during the construction boom. Kato has recently released a newly tooling D51 (their largest Mikado ever built domestically) and I was able to find an excellent deal for a pair from a shop in Kobe.

A D51 mikado visiting the QSSR

As expected, a recent discussion with Chris Mears pushed us to explore what could be a railfanning layout based around that material. Something that is made to gaze from a given perspective and immerse you into a surrounding experience. The idea sprouted from observations made about Japanese railways which typically follow deep valleys, crossing several bridges and tunnels to find their ways. In these valleys, your line of sight is generally obstructed and you stand in what could be best described as an alcove. Truly, you are a spectator and following the train along would be, in most cases, very difficult. In some ways, this way to appreciate a layout is much closer to how Japanese modellers experiment it. Lack of space for intricate permanent layouts and their focus on passenger trains make their approach quite different from how Westerners and North American in particular, enjoy their trains.

Rural lines in Japan are often both dramatic and small scope

Such an observation lend itself to a few interesting conclusions. The layout offers glimpses to capture and you are surrounded. These two facts make size almost irrelevant as long as your trains can use a comfortable minimum radius to not look silly. Hence our decision to explore the possibility to develop a scenic layout that would be nothing more than a circle! Yes, the little train circling around the Christmas tree.

Original idea about a scenic loop with a foldable side

A recent video only posted by Rob Waller of the Bron Hebog layout kind of cemented our idea of a layout built only for the express purpose of railfanning and sure, the pencils started to draw designs around it! We originally started the process by exploring a foldable oval with a visible and scenic part. Not uninteresting but not that efficient at the end of the day.

A second iteration

A second iteration was to make it a compact circle and implement a curved staging that could provide some variety while running the trains. Not a bad idea, but once again, the effective surface of scenicked layout was rather limited. It was a classic scene between two tunnels and maybe a curved bridge.

The classic 1970s Life-Like foam runaround layout

Then it dawn on us how close this design was to the classic Life-Like foam layout baseboards of the 1970s. I use to have a similar custom built layout and I recall that from a railfanning perspective, it had some fascinating potential, albeit generally not exploited correctly! What could be done from such a shape? We at least had the grade to replicate the steamers fighting the grade to pull their heavy load over the mountains. That was an excellent start!

Chris' final concept

That's where the magic of Chris Mears struck with this lovely circular layout implementing two scenes. One outside the loop that provides a mainline run along a river valley and an immersive inner loop where you can look at trains fighting the grade. Both scenes are seen from a different perspective, offering both the outside and inside the curve perspective. In such a design, you never really can see where the train originates and goes. Not that it is concealed, but rather that it simply fades away out of your field of vision. It's all about perception. Note that the descending grade is on the outside radius, providing a gentler slope and limiting the runaway effect. Also, it is where the radius is the largest, which is aesthetically more pleasing when looking at cars from the outside. Inside the loop, the grade and radius are tighter where we want to see a real struggle from the train. The tighter radius is mitigated by the fact model trains look better when seen from inside the curve. All in all, this is a very pleasing concept.

As you can see, Chris also modulated the foreground scenes according to the point of view. Where viewblocks or deep perspectives are warranted, the layout expand organically to achieve the desired experience. You will see more of that on other designs to be published in the following days.

Built using Kato R=22.5" and R=28,75" track

The beauty of all of it is the layout could be folded in two sections to save space. Also, it can be built using exclusively Kato Unitrack components, ensuring the circle is geometrically perfect. To be noted, often with small layout, the transition between small radius curves and straight lines are visually jarring. It never works and looks toyish. By removing completely the straight parts, we get a consistent look with no weird motions that break the illusion. All in all, I really love that design and thanks for Chris granting me the autorization to publish his wonderful drawings!

More to come about the ATSF and Quebec & Gosford layout ideas evolved from the lesson learned from that JNR experiment!

Lacasse Feed Mill - A New Way to Model Asphalt Shingles

I've kept a lot of articles under wrap this year because I wanted to post when they would be fully complete or because I thought they would make good magazine articles (I've still to make good from Otto Vondrak's requests). However, the more I wait, the less the process is clear in my mind. Sometimes, writing must be parallel with the craft in fear of losing its teeth.

One such project was the barn... but there was also the water tower, then the feed mill on Monk Subdivision. All that was drown in the ATSF layout exploration and other ideas.

Old shingles on the Lacasse feed mill in Armagh, QC

The feed mill is an interesting fellow because it required a paradigm shift and learning new techniques to commit to it. In the spring, I cut the styrene wall to build the core, but couldn't find a way to replicate the multicolored asphalt shingle wall siding. Using laser cut shingles didn't make it. It was too pristine and required extensive repainting. I needed something imperfect, replicating old weathered shingles. And that took quite a while.

Scribing painted black construction paper

When I started to revisit my US style railroad structures, I had an Eureka moment when I learned new technique to create tarpaper roofing. The most popular way was to start with black construction paper, spray a light coat of paint, then wear down the edges with sandpaper. It was clear I had found what I needed, or at least, some clue.

Weathering the edge with sandpaper

My idea was to spray an entire sheet of paper with the correct colors, overlaying effects with my airbrush and sponges. When the texture and color was right, I used a straight edge and started to scribe lines with a flat screwdriver at every 3.5mm (or 1 scale feet). These lines would mark each individual shingles. The sheet edge was weathered with coarse sandpaper, then a 5 mm slice of paper was cut perpendicularly to the lines, effectively creating a row of shingles.

Cutting rows of shingles

It was then a matter of simply redoing these steps again and again. Certainly time consuming, but not boring and giving quite a convincing look. Gluing however was a labour of love and took several evenings over two months.

Pencil lines make your life much easier

I started by drawing parallel guide lines at every 2.5mm which would be used to align the shingle rows consistently. Then, using some canopy glue, each strip was glued in place. Canopy glue grabs the construction paper quite fast and dry in a few minutes. No need to wait, each strip follow the next one. Once every wall is cladded, I trimmed the excess material with my hobby knife.

Cladded walls ready to be trimmed

The method was simple, 100% hand crafted and accurate. Black paper with pigment, that's essentially what real asphalt shingles are. Varying the degree of erosion with the sandpaper was useful when I wanted to replicate some specific patterns of weathering seen on the real structure. Shingles located on the highest parts were usually in very poor state while the ones closer to the ground or protected by eaves fared better. But I won't lie, scribing the lines wasn't as easy as it may look and I had to deal with paper tearing, stubborn paint and other issues.

A completed wall

Once again, this is a rich year in learning about modelling. Every new building brings discoveries and just for that, even if the layout didn't really progress, makes my day.

Foam Is Not Your Friend

We see a lot of people using foam to carve out layout. It has been a popular material for decades now, but it comes with a few serious caveats that must be addressed. I learned them again recently when building the 4' x 8' layout and was forced to start again. The issue was simple, the 2" inch pink foam didn't provide a level surface to run trains. At first, I tried to shim my tracks or use spackle to make it level, but it wouldn't be a very good long term solution. I felt I had poorly glued the foam sheets to the plywood, hence making it warp.

The spirit level never lie... This is a significant dip here.

However, after removing the foam, I did some detective work and started to measure each panels. The thickness varied greatly from panels to panels, with discrepancies worst at the edges. Just to be clear, the panels weren't flat slabs, but having a bulge in the middle like loaf of bread or a cake. The variation was also more important than I thought. After ripping the panels in 2" wide slices on the table saw, I found the following dimensions.

On the edges, for maybe 8", each the panel was 1 15/16 inch thick, then it raised to 2 1/16 in the middle. That was a 1/8" variation across less than 12" (given the "summit" was right in the middle of the panel). No wonder my track was wonky and large wheelbase steam locomotives derailed on the turnouts located near the edges.

The front spline is 1/8" lower than the back one...

Since I had elected to rebuild the layout using foam splicer similar to Woodland Scenic ones, I decided to rip an entire panel, then compare all the strips. I kept the ones closer to 2" and rejected the other ones, they would serve for yard or simply scenic work.

While making the foam splines I tried two methods: kerfing them on a single single and kerfing them on both sides (like Woodland Scenics). The strips that are kerfed on both side are much more flexible and work better, so I went with that method. Kerfing on one side results in stiff and less flexible splines. They are OK for large curves, but aren't that great when dealing with 21" and 18" radius curves. So I would stay stick with alternating kerfs on both sides.

Installing foam splines is a breeze and creating easements too... 

Kerfs on each side are spaced by about 1 1/4" so when taking in account the blade thickness, the foam web width is never less than 1/2". The same principle applied for cut depth which is also set to leave about 1/2". It's no science rocket, just take your time and do it. It may take 1 hour at your table saw, but the versatility and time saved at the layout is significant. And you also do waste material at all, which is always a nice thing.

What I learned from the Merkiomen

No cool pictures in this blog, but a few thoughts about my recent adventures in model railroading.

The Merkiomen experiment has been short but eventful... even fruitful. While I knew I wouldn't complete it, it was a fascinating project to learn about others, myself, railroading and modelling. I didn't want to be a copycat, but reverse engineering someone else layout was a big lesson because it forced me to do model railroading in a way that isn't mine. I was literally in the skin of someone else, trying to understand what forces were at play when it came to the world. It was going back to these days when the only knowledge we had of layouts were a track plan and a few pictures in a hobby magazine. Gazing for hours, trying to figure out every single details out of that minimalistic content.

Among the most enduring aspect of this project was the discovery of how fun it was to revisit old classic model kits and push them to the limit. It started with a Walthers speeder shed, then Atlas shanties, Life-Like trackside structures and even the venerable Plasticville freight shed. But as good as these models were... I was drifting. Drifting from the East Coast toward the West Coast. For some strange reasons, my modelling took a UP/SP/ATSF flavour I didn't expect in my wildest dreams. And sure enough, a large BLI ATSF 4-8-4 made its entrance in my life for free.

ATSF Super Power is... cool.

I couldn't believe Ebay would fail me so spectacularly. A month ago, I ordered a large BLI steamer from a well known seller. Everything went smooth until the parcel stopped moving, was labelled misrouted and never got updated. After almost two weeks without any news, I contacted the seller who referred me to Ebay's International shipping. Sure I did and in a matter of 12 hours, I learned my package was crushed and destroyed during transportation, but that I would get a full refund for my purchase. While a little bit sad, I thought to myself: Oh well! Nothing lost and back to Monk Subdivision... until two days later there was a parcel in front of my door in pristine condition. A little puzzled, I opened the box, expecting a wreck and discovered the locomotive was there and in excellent condition. Hard to say what I think of Ebay. In some way, I can't say I'm not happy getting the locomotive for free... but I wonder if they really tried contacting the courier at all. After all, it was indeed misrouted, not crushed.

However, having the loco in my hands and a large 4' x 8' plank ready for a new project to replace the Merkiomen, it was a logical choice to try something West Coast once for all. While fiddling with ideas, I came back to my high school friend who had an old plywood layout. It was probably some variation of an Atlas Snap-Track design. One little yard on one side and a station and an engine terminal on the other. Diminutive, but highly practical and with a good balance of realistic operation opportunities.

The Merkiomen taught me I kind of hate straight tracks parallel to the fascia. I have the same aversion toward the yard in Villeneuve. Could I funk the little layout up just as I did with my Stanstead module? Implementing diagonals and sweeping curves to break the illusion of going around? Well, I think it's possible!

Curves and diagonals create a dynamic scene

Finally, the last lessons of the Merkiomen are very practical and basics. The kind of things you learn again and again, while trying to debunk them. All of them ensure your trains run smooth and you aren't frustrated, so let's list a few of these things the next layout will implement or avoid:

- Curved turnouts are a no go as much as you can. Prototype railroads rarely use them and for a good reason: they induce geometries that locomotives don't like. You can get away with it when running diesels but steamers absolutely hate them. So save you some trouble and stay away from them except if you want to handlay them and control every aspect of geometry. Your mileage may vary, I've decided that I will not use any that aren't PECO #7 curved turnouts.

-Easements and superelevation are your friend, really. No one should lay curves without them. I was able to get a BLI 4-8-4 to navigate without too much issues a 20" curve that was laid properly. Running through the forsaken cruved Walthers turnout was another thing though...

-No more crossings for me... Seeing trains wobble over them is aesthetically unpleasing. Not for me.

-No straight tracks parallel... already talked about that point, but it's never back to repeat again and again. The goal is to see you trains under their best angle and having them on curves or diagonals is much more impressed and visually pleasing.

-Never use turnouts with hinged points. They are electrical nightmare and even if you solder jumper wires, they are still crap. I'm starting to see the virtue of using handlaid turnouts. As for Walthers and Shinohara turnouts, I used to hate them... now I hate them with a passion. Not for me!

I already started working on the new layout. It will reuse a lot of old plastic structures I've been restoring and Peco code 83 #6 unifrog turnouts with solid rail points. The concept will be based of ATSF in the early 1950s, loosely inspired by Raton Pass, with big steamers and classic diesels. I had some fun finalizing some details using Windows Copilot and it was surprisingly helpful. Sure, it doesn't design for you, but it's quite excellent to sift through old forums and historical societies. I felt is was a neat sounding board to test ideas and refine them. It's also a practical way to generate consists and switching lists for a simple operating scheme. A word of caution, I felt it was much less reliable when trying it on Monk. Copilot was clearly regurgitating information from Hedley Junction in a garbled way. ATSF being far more documented, the information was much more reliable and it shown.

More about that project in another post, but I'm quite fascinated at the idea of modelling something I never did.