Quebec South Shore Railway - Mark V: Framing a Subject

Once again I'm at it, revising years old layout designs to implement new ideas picked up here and there and based on my experience.

Many years ago, I built an experimental layout based on Quebec South Shore. It was about the end of an semi-abandoned fictive line by the 80s serving a feed mill and some various customers at a team track. It was basically designed on the fly, using track and structures on a baseboard until I got a visually interesting result. It was surprisingly interesting for what it was, but when I tried to expand it, it failed.

Original QSSR with its extension

The failure was simple to understand. It was a matter of outreaching too much. The layout was originally conceived to be a single visual unit about the length of a hollow core door. Now it was two door long. The extra length was necessary as it acted as a staging track and to provide a runaround. However, it was poorly implemented from a visual standpoint.

Fortunately, Neil Schofield has recently posted a lot of pictures of his lovely New England based layout set in the 1980s CP Rail Newport Subdivision. Neil does something not many people do when they think about designed scenery: he hides the trains. Be it behind structures, roads, barns, embankments, cuts, viaduc, he always find a way to create a playful and visually dynamic game of hide and seek. It creates various vantage points that grounds the trains in the topography in a very realistic manner.

Raised foreground enhance the sense of distance (credit: Neil Schofield)

Another source of inspiration has been British modelling. Brits are "blessed" often with ingrate spaces and rooms to build layouts. A strong tradition of dioramas, cameos and self-contained layouts has existed for decades and take advantage of it. The interesting things about their designs is the way they stage their trains and how they enter the layout. Clever use of tunnels, bridges, overpasses and buildings create various scenic dividers. If done well, you end up with an immersive scene that feels like a block sawn out of the real world.

Illusion of depth to frame an entrance (credit: Chris Nevard)

Equipped with these design ideas, I tried to revisit my Quebec South Shore layout again. I also draw inspiration from my various railfanning trips done in New England last year.

The new design is basically what I would call a typical "railway unit" all over North America: a passing track, a siding to a local business, a team track and a depot. Using dimensions from a British chap having built a similar switching layout, I decided to use a 5 x 50ft car long runaround track with a switching lead long enough to not require a cassette. Based on my experience with my previous layout, I decided to base the design on a feed mill/builder supply to provide switching opportunities (I've drawn two sidings but one could suffice). This industry is probably the most ubiquitous along railways and Tom Johnson made a name for himself by simply modelling these all over again. It is also a common occurrence to see such a row of aligned wooden/steel clad structure on rural branch lines.

A staging track lies beyond the overpass (credit: Mike Cawdrey)

Once these basic choices done, I had to take into account two big flaws: create a sense of trains coming from somewhere and hiding how the main line disappear at both end. Here enters Neil Schofield. On my previous layout, there was an overpass with a long road leading to it. It worked well but everything beyond was alien. I had no need for two separate scenes. Thus, it came to me that the track beyond the overpass should be considered staging. When the train is beyond the small overpass, you can't see it anymore. It also creates a sense of distance. However, if you can see directly the train beyond the overpass from the aisle, the effect is lost. Similarly to my East Angus paper mill design, My idea is to make the track curves toward the front and place a forested hill in front of it. Not only it gives a plausible reason for an over pass, but it effectively acts as a visual block.

Revised Quebec South Shore track plan and frame

To some extent, this visual block could be an extended fascia joined with the valence, similarly to how Brits hides their fiddle yards on exhibition layouts. The only view possible would be when standing it the front scene and looking at the curved track disappearing behind the overpass and heavily forested hill. A distant photobackdrop would provide enough deep to enhance the illusion.

At the other end of the layout, the situation is a little bit cramped, but nothing is lost. Here, I would use the tree tunnel tricks. Once again, the foreground trees would be on a small embankment which would hide the track as it hit the wall. An old depot with a road would creates the other side of the "tunnel". Once again, this structure could only be seen from the access road, creating an interesting sense of distance and hiding the fact the poor thing is put against the wall. This structure and background trees would also provide a good way to make the gravel road disappear in a convincing way.

 Caribou, Aroostook County, Maine, October 1940 (source: Jack Delano on Wikipedia)

Once again, as we can see, it is possible to expand a layout operability without overreaching. There is always a danger to add too much and in this case, I believe the focus should stay where the action is: between the access road and the overpass. Visually, it is a 7-8 feet long scene that we can embrace in a single glimpse. As I once said, everything over that length is generally completely lost to our humane senses. It seems to me designing scenes and transitions on a layout must take into account that "visual bubble". 

Also, more layout design ideas will soon be published. These are designs developed during the lockdown and one was commissioned by a regular reader. I think it could be interesting to many people because it basically deal with redesigning an existing layout to improve operations, realism and make place for a more relaxed environment. And don't panic, Hedley-Junction isn't left in rest. A lot of work is happening in Clermont & Wieland and the CN Woodchip Cars are entering their final design phase.

Hindsight 20/20 Virtual RPM 3.0 on September 26

 This Saturday is the third virtual edition of Hindsight 20/20 RPM (Railroad Prototype Modelers meet). This event is a great opportunity to stay in touch with talented modellers and share knowledge, experience and approaches to the hobby. Interestingly enough, while it was supposed to be an expedient in time of lockdown and sanitary measures, this new format is proving successful. In fact, I'm probably not alone to watch the various clinics while actually doing some real modelling at the same time. It is a great way to keep both learn and try.

Registration is mandatory but free throught Speedwitch Media website.

Backdrop Time!

With the lighting in place and most roads and structures in their final location, it's finally time to finish the backdrop for Clermont. I waited many years before doing it because, well... it's not my cup of tea. But if we want to move forward with this part of the layout, we can't postpone any further. If fact, we waited far too long to finalize it.

The original photobackdrop in Clermont dates back to July 2014 and was never replaced with a permanent version. However, it did fit well with the scene and I only slightly retouched my photos to make it a little bit large. The biggest challenge was to merge together early Spring and late Autumn pictures together. In that regard, I suspect we should have set the layout in late Autumn to get rid of that problem and have the opportunity to use dead leaves and vegetation all around to add texture and depth to the layout. That is something I could indeed put in action in the future.

Rivière Malbaie

Many years later, we added a photobackdrop in Wieland. It was a test printed on a cheap laser printer. Nothing fancy, but it was a neat test bed. Basically, it looked neat and we thought we could expand on that idea. After a few trips in Charlevoix, I now had enough panoramic pictures to sew them together. A lot of artistic license was required to stitch them in a way that would compliment the layout. Trying to be 100% exact would have been a foolish endeavour. My main concern was adding much more buildings and junk into the backdrop to better represent the transloading operation in Wieland. Another key element was providing a well-detailed backdrop near General Cable siding. This area is extremely narrow and don't provide enough space to plant trees and bushes in a realistic manner. For this reason, most of the visual effect must be done with photographs.

Wieland backdrop

I hope to print these background this week and expect to start putting them in place by next week if everything goes as planned (which never does!).

I'm also working on the last structure required at Donohue. It is quite a technical challenge but most of the largest parts are now together. This is a much more complex building than we ever thought it was. Each time we look at pictures, we find new details that could affect railway operations in a significant way.

Railway Operations Under The Sun

Clermont yard as rarely shown in full action

Hard to believe yesterday was our first "real" operation session since probably last December. COVID-19 kind of threw a monkey wrench at us and when lockdown rules eased out, our minds were focused on improving the way we display the layout.

A few cars, a switcher, a derail and you've got a story going on

Now, all the fluorescent fixtures are in place, which creates an even light all over the place. It is great from a technical point of view, but certainly looks industrial and not artistic. Fortunately, Louis-Marie is building a set of baffles that will help to conceal the fixtures and reduce glare. But with that said, I would not be surprised a LED spot here and there at key locations will be required to provide more dramatic effects. Good candidates for such an improvement would be Rivière Malbaie, the grade crossing in Clermont, and probably the yard throat in Wieland.

Simplicity can tell a lot is done with subtlety.

However, before doing that, we need to address the big challenge of designing and installing the photo backdrop. All elements have been assembled and now only the final touches are required to make it work. The goal of the backdrop is not only to provide a prototypically correct environment for our trains, but also a way to create a sense of depth. This depth is required to prove Murray Bay Subdivision is an isolated line running up a large valley. It will probably be quite a challenge, but we are ready for it.

Lighting: Almost Done...

The peninsula end has always been dark... no longer.

Yesterday, we completed the installation of new fluorescent fixtures on the larger layout room. Finally we got rid of shadows and yellowish lighting.

Fixtures installed along the fascia for optimal lighting

I've read my share of "how to light correctly a layout" over the years. Most end up beingcumbersome, complicated, costly and taking a huge amount of time to put together. As I said in a previous blog, we tried many things over the years and at the end of the day, keeping things simple was the solution for us. I'm not advocating on cutting the corners, but rather to be pragmatic in consideration to your needs. Our layout is quite large and not operated on a frequent basis. It would be foolish to go overboard. On another hand, a different type of layout smaller or larger could benefit a lot from a more fancy lighting rig which could enhance some aspects. This is not the case with Hedley-Junction and if something must be done, it could on a per case scenario.

Half the new fixtured turned on.

I've been impressed with the new lighting. Colors are better, many shadow zones have been addressed and the sky is bluer than ever. In my eyes, the big improvement is how orange rolling stock, particularly CN stuff, looks now more vibrant and realistic. 

Bright CN orange hoppers now stand out at Wieland shops.

Certainly, our installation is quite crude and causes a lot of glare. Next time, we will install baffles to reduce this undesirable effect. Some test were done with prepainted mouldings and it looks promising.

Wieland transload now looks much better.

So now we can go back to working on the layout and cleaning rails and wheels covered by more than 6 months of oxidation.

The alcove is no longer dark like a cave.