Monk Subdivision - Laying Track & Summer Vacation

Progress has been slow but steady on the Monk Subdivision this summer due to a long road trip on Quebec North Shore, Manicouagan, Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Some real classic trains were witnessed without being scheduled into the program, which made it a nice serendipitous discovery. More on that in a future post.

Otherwise, I have adopted a 1-hour per day work schedule. It's long enough to progress while keeping my mind sharp and not compromising on quality. No idea about when I will complete the entire loop, but I'm far enough that I can run a train from Armagh to Langlois.

As a matter of saving some money and not encouraging overconsumption in my hobby, I've been reusing old Peco track from the previous layouts. Some had been painted, none ballasted. Good sections are reused, bad ones discarded. It's all about ensuring a smooth and reliable geometry for mechanical and aesthetical enjoyment of trains.

I'm working slowly, but steadily, following that old army motto of "slow is fast". As an example, I used masking tape to implement superelevation in my curves. That tape is a little bit unreliable when you stretch it around curved lines. Some was simply ungluing itself due to tension in the tape. My trick is now to lay it in place and cut it later with my hobby knife at 3-4 inches intervals. It removes all the tension and makes sure things stay in place.

Day by day, the loop is closing

It's a little bit weird to speak about so little progress, but at the same way, it demonstrates another point. I generally considered these steps to be technical hurdles to overcome as far as possible to reach the real hobby (paint, ballast, scenery, structures, etc.). With the slower pace I implemented in my life and the reduction of useless time spent online, these less savory steps are now the hobby itself. Laying track carefully is a mind soothing process and an exercise in precision. There is joy in doing that just for the sake of doing it.

Also, having finally discarded a lot of my big dreams - or should I say, delusions - it's much easier to reach to the basics that counts. I'm no longer focussing in laying all the tracks or wiring in one go, having the staging yard figured out right now is basically irrelevant, even the sidings are. As long as that loop of track is built in such a way it can be refined, expanded and modified, the main goal is reached. The rest is just gravy when the current steps will be done.

A small train is enough to give it life...

I used to be extremely nervous about having it all figured out with the layout, down to the type of screws holding the fascia in place. It's all irrelevant. It led to two undesirable outcomes: the accumulation of a lot of stuff thought to be required to "build the layout and motivate me" and worst, the loss of motivation when the proof of concept was going to far. Over the years, I have found out that projects I plan in minute details reach that point where my mind has built the thing in virtual in my mind. It has been figured out and made "real". Under such circumstances, building the real life layout is just a repetition of what happened on paper and in my head. No challenges, no fun, nothing... It's just a sterile repetition. On the other hand, if the planning process gets the basics done but don't go to deep into the details, my brain still has many motivating problem solving opportunities to keep interest high.

At this point in my life, I'd rather build than dream. Monk Subdivision proved me since early this year that making mistakes in that hobby isn't the end of everything and it's generally a matter of spending one evening correcting the situation.

I can't promise when trains will run on that loop, but I'm already having my fun making my mock passenger train longer and longer as flextrack is added everyday!