Today's Forecast: Clearing Skies

(Workshop member Jim Martin checks in...)

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Merry Christmas everyone, and best wishes for a healthy, happy and productive New Year.

It’s been a while since my last report. Unlike my prolific blogging and modelling pal Trevor Marshall, I’m afraid I work only in seasonal spurts of energy. However, a quiet Christmas season this year is affording me the opportunity to move ahead once more on my home layout.

I have returned to work on the other end of the layout, the Simcoe staging area.  Track work is well along, but before proceeding any further I wanted to get to work on painting the backdrop.

In this location I want the skies to look colder and more threatening. I’ve been inspired by the cloudy backdrop paintings on Troels Kirk’s Coast Line RR On30 layout in Sweden. However, Troels is a professional artist - and I most assuredly am not. Nevertheless, with a photo album of cloudy skies on my tablet, I set out to make the heavens angry. 

After a number of hours of noodling around with dollar store acrylic paints, I came up with what you see here:

To my way of thinking it wasn’t totally awful... but then I set the buildings back in place:

First, I noticed how the distinct cloud patterns betrayed the presence of the large mirror at the end of the layout, thus shattering the illusion I wanted to create with the reflected structures.

Second, my wife Cheryl confirmed what I already feared. “Shouldn’t I be looking at the layout first?” she asked. That was it. Out came the broad brushes wielded in long, horizontal strokes:

In this photo, the scene is way more pleasing to my eye, yet still holds the threat of rain. I still have to do a line of autumn trees behind the buildings. Then I’ll decide whether or not that low cloudbank stays.

The forecast: Clearing skies but changeable conditions for the foreseeable future.    

Two CNR 2-10-2s (Exporail 2016)

A long coal train is headed by a pair of CNR 2-10-2s, built by S Scale Workshop member Simon Parent. In this video, the train does an end-to-end run on our exhibition layout, during our group's appearance in August at Exporail's annual model train weekend. Enjoy if you watch!

(You can also view this directly on YouTube, where you may be able to enjoy it in larger formats)

F-units at Dunham Jct (Exporail 2016)

Andy Malette's CNR F-units lead a freight through Simon Parent's Dunham Junction module on the S Scale Workshop exhibition layout. This video was shot during our group's appearance in August at Exporail's annual summer model train show. Enjoy if you watch!

(You can also view this directly on YouTube, where you may be able to enjoy it in larger formats)

Cab ride at Exporail 2016

A video from this summer's appearance at Exporail. Enjoy if you watch!

(You can also view this directly on YouTube, where you may be able to enjoy it in larger formats)

Double-headed 2-10-2s at Exporail 2016

A video from this summer's appearance at Exporail. Enjoy if you watch!

(You can also view this directly on YouTube, where you may be able to enjoy it in larger formats)

Workshop in S Scale Resource magazine

The S Scale Workshop made the cover of the current (October-November 2016) issue of S Scale Resource magazine! The F unit is by Andy Malette, and is posed on his Great White North brewing company module.

The Workshop is featured as part of the magazine's report on the 2016 NASG Convention in Novi, Michigan. To read the coverage, go to the S Scale Resource website, where you can download the issue for free.

Thanks to Daniel Dawdy for including us in his report!

Ontario Loops

When the S Scale Workshop goes to shows, the layout we exhibit is determined by the modules that each member brings. That means that our exhibits vary widely based on who can participate.

But operationally, we tend to set up in one of two configurations. Most of us are in Southern Ontario but if Workshop member Simon Parent joins us from the Montreal area, we set up in a loop-to-loop format - as we did at Exporail in August and at the Copetown Train Show in March:

However, if Simon can't make it, we typically set up in a point-to-point configuration, as we plan to do at the upcoming Brampton Model Railway Show:

The two configurations are very different from an operations perspective - and it's fair to say that most of the members prefer the loop-to-loop arrangement. It's easier to keep trains rolling during an exhibition when they turn themselves. More importantly, the use of loops instead of short (4' long) "train length turntables" means we can run longer trains. Much longer.

Loops allow us to run long trains, like this coal drag behind a CNR 2-10-2.

Without the loops, our trains tend to be only a few cars long.
That said, short trains look just fine behind small steam power.

But Simon can't always join his friends in southern Ontario - not at every show, anyway. And since the current loop set is also part of his home layout, we can't expect him to leave the loops in our area.

So, as we conducted our post-mortem on Exporail, Simon volunteered to build a pair of loops for the group in southern Ontario. We'll pay for his materials and the group will own these collectively. Since many of us already have home layouts and/or modules, the loops have been designed to take up as little space as possible when stored. They'll be based on construction techniques that Simon has proven on his own modules so we already know they're going to work well.

Our initial plan was for a simple loop at each end. But after some discussion, we decided that adding a double-ended siding within each loop - similar to Simon's "Staging Loop", but with only two tracks instead of three - would not take up much additional space.

The advantages are definitely worth it. The second track will provide us with some much-needed additional flexibility for exhibits. We can store a train at each end of the run, or use the loops as sidings for meets.

Here's the current design for the Ontario Loops*:

Both loops will be identical. If I recall, the trapezoid section at lower left should be reversible so we can bend the loops in either direction. The two wide sections will get very basic ground cover, while the loops themselves will be unscenicked - just like the loops we currently use.

Simon's three-track staging loop, with scenery on the junction sections
and bare wood on the staging portions. Shown at Exporail 2016.

Of course, if Simon is joining us and bringing his loops, then we'll be able to attach the two Ontario Loops to a variety of positions - perhaps off one branch at Dunham Junction, and off the second route through the interlocking on Simon's single-track loop. Now that would be quite the layout...

Thank you, Simon, for volunteering to build these (in your spare time, of course). Your friends in Ontario are in no rush for them, but we look forward to putting them to good use...

(*"Ontario Loops": Not their official name - yet. But I had to call them something for this post...)