Ciment St-Laurent - All Structures Done... Almost!

The loading building is more impressive than I recalled

This for some “real” Hedley-Junction updates about the Murray Bay Subdivision. Over the springtime, our efforts focussed on completing the Ciment St-Laurent structures. These buildings are both huge and somewhat complicated. This is the last big signature piece of the layout and as such, cutting corners isn’t an option. We also tried to install a working rotary beacon on the GE 44-ton switcher, but this is a story for another time!

The visual impact over the yard is quite dramatic

The cement plant silos are a complex assemblage of PVC drain pipes, MDF and dowels. Louis-Marie outdid himself with his carpentry wizard skills. Honestly, I’m surprised he succeeded so well given the complexity of this structure. The result is an impressive and almost overpowering entity that towers over Villeneuve yard. For sure, that’s only the outer shell and asbestos cladding, railings and gangways will need to be added to finish the model.

The bagging plant structure was completed, albeit missing its weathering. Fascia and canopy supports were added to complete it. I’m really pleased with this somewhat mundane but useful structure that adds interesting operation opportunities.

Cardboard mockups are your friends in case of doubt!

We also built a MDF core for the office and laboratory building. It was the brain of the plant back in the days. However, this structure will require more attention to its finishes since it was built in typical 1950s style with curtain walls and yellow brick. It is a project that can only be achieve from the comfort of my workbench.

Testing the spacing between the mock and siding

The final structure is the workshops which were located east from the laboratory. It was used to repair trucks and machinery. Originally, it was rail served, but in our era the siding had long been pulled off. This building is also very mundane but required a good level of scene composition. Jérôme made a cardboard mockup and moved it around until it looked right. The layout is too small to replicate the full structure, and it was several dozen feet away from the yard. We really wanted a small access road to run along the shops as seen on the prototype.

The final MDF core in place

A MDF core was then built, and we then again tried to nail down the exact dimensions. We found out that if we removed about 3/8” at the back of the building, it would look perfect. So, the entire structure met the table saw and lost some deadweight! As usual, the asbestos cladding was done with fine corrugated cardboard.

The core was too close to the track... thus we had to cut it!

With all the plant structure cores done, it’s just a matter of adding finish, painting and weathering. That will probably be a big project that will need to be done at my home.

Structures for Monk Subdivision - The French Canadian Cottage

In early April, I started to build the structures that would be installed in the future farmstead scene on Monk layout.

As expected, it was a no brainer and should be a traditional French Canadian cottage. These distinctive houses dot the province along the St. Lawrence Valley and are unique in North America, making them perfect to set the layout in the right geographical area at a glance. Armagh is full of these houses, though most of them have been renovated on the cheap, losing their attractive trims, their elegant casement windows and their wood siding.

A typical farmhouse in Armagh

This specific model is based on an extremely widespread prototype that can be found in Quebec City area. It is 24' x 24' and these were built from the early 1800s up to the early 1900s. The window location on gable end is typical of  the South shore along the old NTR track and the lack of dormers is generally associated with poorer and more recently settled areas. Dormers were indeed generally a sign of prosperity and would be added later on when the attic was converted to living space.

Villa Hamel-Bruno in Quebec City(source: Trip Advisor)

The highly attractive curved eaves were inspired from a South Asian-inspired fad that was very popular with villa owners from 1790 to 1850. Regular people started to apply it to every building, including French houses, barns, sheds, churches, schools, mills, fatctories and whatever you can think of. In old 19th century contracts, it was referred as "Chinese roof" but that expression is no longer used and almost nobody is aware of the blue chinaware influence it came from.

Orientalism was, unsurprisingly, very popular in New France and endured until the late 19th century. You often find very old Asian wallpaper in farm houses with pagoda and traditional Chinese landscapes (foggy hills with trees) with many often made and imported from the Orient.

Back to the model! For the sake of making the future farm scene looks larger and deeper, I'm experimenting with a 1:100 house. The barn will probably be N scale so I can park a pickup and a tractor by it with N scale cattle. If it works well, I will build the rest of the civilian buildings at a smaller scale and keep 1:87 for trackside structures.

I started by drafting my house on Evergreen novelty styrene sheet. These houses were so much codified you can build one from the ground by only having the ground plan.

Cutting the walls from Evergreen Novelty siding sheet styrene

Siding is distressed and windows added later for ease of construction

Details such as casement windows were made by heavily modifying Tichy sash windows. Decovative trims with fronton, a very popular style in Quebec, were also added. Most of them find their origin in pattern books written by American architect Minard Lafever. His books were quite popular in Quebec and provided a lot of reference pictures and template for woodworkers. Local architect Thomas and Charles Baillargé used extensively this style, particularly Charles who had an obsession with Neo-Greek architecture. In Armagh, most household were too poor to afford elaborate versions of these trims, so they simply used planks cut with a fronton but omitting the mouldings altogether.

Making Neo-Greek casement window trims from bits of styrene

A completed gable with its two attic windows

I've developed my method of assembly structure over the years and can do it fast nowadays. Never forget your internal bracing!

In need for a roof, the house is almost complete

Gluing soffit (tongue-and-groove siding) ad fascia is key to realism

As I did with the speeder shed and Langlois station, every bit of styrene has been distressed with a razor saw to make the weathering process easier which should be quite straightforward. I repeat myself, but texturing any surface you plan to weather is one of the most crucial step in making your modelling shine.

A typical French Canadian cottage ready for paint

QSSR Mk. VI - A Preview

As a few of you probably know, I've been working again on my QSSR Mk.VI layout. This time, the goal is to finish is, get proficient with scenery techniques and make something upon which I can add up. With no surprise, this is the originator of the Monk Subdivision, so it's normal it serves as an experiment ground. 

I've gathered a lot of information while building this layout and will probably share a little bit of it here. So let's start with the station by the rural road. It's fully scratchbuilt in styrene and cardboard and based on a CPR style of stations that could be found in Southern Quebec. I really wanted that kind of scene because they set the interface between the railway and ourselves. This is the point of contact between two worlds that operate on different scale.

A rural scene in Southern Quebec

Structures for Monk Subdivision - Langlois Station - Part 1

On March 22, after taking a break from work that would last two months, I went to Armagh, QC. The goal was to gather dimensional data on a few old NTR structures preserved in a regional park, namely the Langlois Siding station and Armagh speeder shed.

Langlois station has been tastefully restored a few years ago

With temperature over 0, a bright sun in the sky and very little snow on the ground, it was the perfect day for a road trip and to survey without getting your fingers numb from the cold.

Distressing styrene adds texture for weathering

I thought I would 3D print the station a few months later, but I started to cut novelty siding and two days later, the station was finished, except for paint and shingles. It was one of these so-called "portable" designs, so the structure is very small to fit on a railway flat car.

Doors were build plank by plank following prototype

Later in life, the baggage room was enlarged due to high customer demand around Langlois which served a feed mill, a saw mill and was surrounded by a few workers' houses. The big particularity of this build is that I distressed all the styrene components to add wood grain using a razor saw.

The station ready for paint

I wouldn't do that on well kept structures, but old pictures show this station received minimal care during its last few decades of service and the wood was badly altered even in the 1950s. Another advantage of that technique is making the paint effects, washes and drybrushing much easier to apply.

Compared to a normal station, it looks tiny!

I joined a comparison picture of my kitbashed Atlas station just to show how small this one is.

Silence, work and more...

I’ve been quite quiet over the last few months. Health issues and exhaustion at work pushed me to take a break. Surprisingly, it translated into an extremely efficient period for my modelling work. I built several structures for Monk, experimenting new techniques, but also weathering several freight cars and even restarted my scenery work on the QSSR module. We also have greatly progressed with  All in all, a fantastic output, but for some reasons, I was not motivated to write about it. It was not a question of not sharing, which I will do in due time, but to immerse myself into a positive activity without any obligation. It was also an occasion to experiment with points of view and photography. As expected, my attention shifts constantly from Monk to QSSR but both are the same subject at the end of the day.

I’m also documenting my work with the goal of eventually publishing some article in the hobby press. The QSSR is also an occasion to re-explore the infamous Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway which is always a fantastic source of inspiration. When we think of granger lines, we generally think about the Prairies and the Midwest, but truth to be told the MMA lines in Southern Quebec were exactly the same, including the fantastic diversity of covered hoppers serving the dozens of feed mills and elevators of the area.

So in expectation of future publications, let’s look at some of the work done recently.

The feed mill concrete foundation and other details

Railfanning the old school way

The GE 45-tonner struggles to pull 3 loaded cars...

Hoppers as palimpsest showing their true color

Utter clutter!