Some Work on Monk Subdivision

It was time that things start to move. As things stand, I had the choice to continue working on various diorama projects that clutter my space and will be dead on arrival when its time to run trains, or simply put these same exact efforts on Monk instead. I could wait for the room to be perfectly ready, but it won’t happens soon and it doesn’t means I can’t progress elsewhere.

The real river makes a sharp bend which is perfect for a layout

 Sure, the Armagh section is currently dismantled and need rebuilding after the water pipes will be moved around, but the Langlois Station and Abenakis bridge areas are perfectly suitable for building, track laying, wiring and scenery. I thought to myself, well, better put some work there and get somewhere than wait and get crushed by the need to build everything at once.

The river bed is defined with old cork salvaged from Vince Valley

Using salvaged cork and cardboard boxes, I’ve started to build the scenery by the bridge. Nothing fancy, but general shapes to give an idea about what it will look like. The river shores are defined by old piece of cork that have been in rough shape. This is perfect to replicate eroded terrain.

Cardboard is intuitive and easy to work with... and forgiving

Then I decided to work on was the bridge backdrop. It needed to be put back in place since I transformed the swing gate last year. Some cutting was required, but it’s now back in place. The backdrop is also getting repaired in the room corner. It used to be a sweeping curve made of MDF, but it took too much space, and the geometry was awkward because of the two tracks form staging. I decided to use a wooden cornice molding glued in the corner to merge two pieces of MDF. It was a trick once published in MRR a few years ago. I really like how neat it now looks. I recall James Hilton once told me about how very small coving could have a really big impact. I agree! Can’t wait to finish, prime and paint the backdrop again!

It doesn't take a lot to alright give a sense of the place

Later, I placed the bridge back in place and put a locomotive on it. I must say Mission accomplished. That’s exactly that look I was after and I know the spot has a lot of potential to become one of my favourite.

Not too shaby, but a trio of Big Alcos would be even better

I have yet to figure out a few things about DC and DCC operations, but that will be in the future. I’m seriously thinking about simplifying greatly my staging schemes and removing the crossover. Simplicity and reliability seems to be more important than a reversing capability that could lead to potential issues.