When my
friend Jérôme told me last summer operating Harlem Junction wasn’t very
practical given his available space and time, we started to discuss what could
be an interesting small layout that would capture prototypical operation, be
visually engaging, relatively simple to build and manage. On top of the list
was also minimal track maintenance and ease of staging impromptu operating
sessions lasting anything between 30 minutes up to one hour. It is also
interesting to note he favors short trains with a branchline flavour, which is
quite useful for our purpose.
While these
parameters are rather simple, they can make or break a deal quickly. Unreliable
electrical pickup and too much track to clean can easily turn a nice idea in a
nightmare. We’ve all experimented how small electrical failures can sour the
most optimistic operator on earth, particularly when dealing with low speed
switching. Furthermore, the more complex a layout is, the harder it comes to
stage efficiently and quickly an operation session. This is another deterrent
that should never be underestimated in the context of short solo operation.
A Premise
Jérôme
being a real life railroader, he likes to take up operation challenges and find
ways to accomplish a task. But don’t be fooled, it’s not a matter of complexity
for the sake of it such as a switching puzzle like John Allen’s Timesaver. He
prefers situation when you have to perform optimal moves given normal life
limitation just as real railroads do. His request was timely because at the
time, I was exploring ideas for a small HO layout at home based upon the same
general ideas.
What’s
interesting with Jérôme is that he knows what he wants, what works for him and
what doesn’t bring him fun. For years, he bothered with grain cars until I
built a large replica of Quebec City’s Bunge (now G3) elevator. It was a few
weeks before we changed the club layout focus and thus, our grain cars never
saw action since we purchased them.
It is also
interesting to note Jérôme operates frequently our layout (and others too)
which helped him to shape his personal approach to model railroader. It means
he won’t ask for impossible things and knows how much action he can expect from
a given design. It’s not a matter of speculation but rather taking decision
based on experience.
A Prototype
Since last
summer, I’ve been exploring the possibility to replicate a stretch of ex-CP
track that was operated by the ill-fated Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway
in the 2000s in Saint-Pie, QC. Called the St-Guillaume Subdivision, it used to
link Stanbridge, Farnhman and St-Hyacinthe. What MMA operated was only a
remnant of yet another former grandiloquent 19th century trunk line
linking the St. Lawrence River and the United States to bring hay on New York
City markets. It was destined to fail, which took about 150 year to happen.
The last Quebec
South Shore Railway project was indeed based on St-Pie which is a small rural
community with a feed mill and an impressive concrete grain elevator. This
prototype is interesting because it is really focussed in terms of traffic,
rolling stock and industries, while being easy to replicate in HO scale in a
very standard spare bedroom. Among the prototype chief features are a nice
Pratt truss double span bridge, a weed-infested right of way, short siding and
a passing track that can barely hold more than 5 grain cars. If you add to that
a sharp 90 degrees bend, you get something that can be reasonably be modeled
without too much compromise.
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| St-Pie, QC (courtesy Google Earth) |
You can have a better appreciation of the prototype with these excellent pictures shot by fellow railfans Jean-François Dumont and Frank Jolin before the line demise.
Most of you
can recall I mentioned last summer I had another layout concept in mind that I
would like to share with you. It was this project. A few reasons prompted me to
develop this idea beyond just wanting to model Southern Quebec.
While
Harlem Station is a neat layout, it proved to be quite overwhelming to operate
for a single person, namely Jérôme. It also takes up a lot of space in his
office room, making it not the best way to optimize available space.
Furthermore, most of the time, you want to operate about 45 minutes or 1 hour,
maybe less. Harlem Station is quite complex, but a small rural community is
something you can interact with on a more frequent basis. Lance Mindheim often
advocated smaller layouts were indeed more engaging to operate regularly. I
fully agree with him, knowing how much my original QSSR layout has been to
operate. When you put all that together, it’s no wonder I believe Jérôme
deserves a layout better suited to his need.
St-Pie is
thus interesting because it was located on a short branchline connecting
St-Hyacinthe and Farnham, two large railway hubs in Southern Quebec. It served
several farming communities along the road, including several grain elevator
and feed mill. In fact, it was almost exclusively a grain hauling line.
Pictures and railfanning trips helps us to understand trains were short, very
short, often between 5 to 15 cars, but generally closer to five than fifteen.
It was often operated with quite weathered and faded ex-LMX GE B39-8s.
Another
interesting aspect of this prototype is how it is naturally framed in such a
way it is visually interesting. You’ll notice most of the action is near the
layout center portion which is well-framed by the bridge and the smaller feed
mill. Track ends are also hidden in tree tunnels that are a both end of the
layout, making for a natural way to hide them without complex contraptions.
From an
operation standpoint, the line can be operated westbound or eastbound.
According to Jérome’s recollections and pictures, St-Pie’s customers were all
switched on northbound and southbound trips. This is interesting, because it
meant the runaround had to be used half of the time. Better, that passing track
was often clogged with extra cars waiting to be spotted. No need to say what
seems to be a very simplistic layout can quickly turn out to be more than meets
the eye.
A Project
To test the
idea, we decided to “draw” the layout benchwork on the floor with masking tape.
It was the best way to fine tune how track and structures would work together. Using
turnouts, flextrack and foamcore structures, it also helped to compose scenes
in a way they will look better and more realistic. Let’s be honest, you can
fiddle with 2D and 3D planning all you want, but at the end of the day, scene
composition has to be in real. With scale model or full scale. Somehow,
perception with our eyes always differs from virtual perspectives. Though my
training as an architect helps me to anticipate how things look in real life,
it’s always a tricky exercise. Better work with real stuff, particularly when
the design process has an artistic nature. Picture's subpar quality is due to a serious lack of adequate lighting in the room (which will have to be addressed when building the layout).
As for the
layout itself, it will be built in three modules (left, corner and bridge)
supported by legs. Since we hardly know the wall composition and don’t want to
risk messing up with insulation and air barrier (this is a basement after all),
making a self-supporting shelf isn’t the best solution in our case. Since
Saint-Pie is a relatively flat “urban” setting, a flat benchwork will be more
than enough. Water putty, papier-mâché mud and other such products will be used
to add some relief to the scene. Noteworthy, MMA track was buried in the ground
with almost no ballast remaining in sight. It was a common occurrence on MMA
trackage, which was generally plagued with serious speed limitations. While a
serious issue on the prototype, this makes our benchwork and track laying
process simpler. I certainly wish to build up on experience gained when add
ballast and weed to Villeneuve yard recently.
Overall,
this layout is quite focussed yet has some interesting challenges. The project
small scale make it suitable to hone my scenery and structure building skills
while providing Jérôme with something he can be proud of. To my knowledge,
nobody ever attempted to create a MMA layout and given the company’s abject
reputation after Lac-Mégatic events, it’s arguably everything except a popular
road. That said, it still has a lot of character from a modelling standpoint,
which is why I think the St-Guillaume Subdivision is worth a try.
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| Track plan with real structures |
Help Needed - In Search of... Motive Power
By the way, we are actively looking for an Atlas HO LMX GE B39-8 (or B-40) with the red nose to operate this layout. They are quite hard to source, but I wouldn't be surprised some are sitting indefinitely on collectors' shelves or in unsold inventory. If you have any information regarding that model, let me know!
Notice
I’m not
planning to turn this project into a regular feature of this blog. Coverage
will be sparse and it’s not my goal to unveil it until it reaches a level of
completion I’m proud of..
