Hedley Junction

[Canadian Atlantic Railway]

great progress Matt. The area where the track was lifted looked good enough to stay as a recently pulled up line.

[sailormatlac]

Thanks PEIR!

me to survey the entire layout as it stands after the rebuilding process start more than a year and half ago. Actually, the trackage reflects what was envisioned back then and I’m glad Jérôme can now confidently say lower track density doesn’t mean less fun. As he observed last session, you’re better off with only one realistically longer siding than 3 short sidings.

D’Estimauville (MP 1.2)
D’Estimauville is where trains are staged before operation sessions and where they disappear at the end of the day. It is made of a very long two-ended siding that folds around itself as a returning loop. As far as operation is concerned, I observed the returning loop is seldom used. The only time it is handy is when you need a third track to build up a train and do some switching moves. I don’t know if it will survive, but it could be replaced with a stub-ended siding and it would be even better. By the way, that’s exactly how the prototype worked back then. On a positive note, the sweeping broad curved and bridge scene worked far better than expected.






Villeneuve (MP 4.4)

This is probably the larger industrial district on the layout. The entire scene is more than 20 feet long and very little compression was used thus the tracks are quite prototypical. Operations at the cement plant are numerous and varied: bulk cement, bagged cement, gypsum, coal and machinery. Each needs special procedure: shoving many cement cars, individually unloading coal and gypsum hoppers, spotting boxcars and flat cars and managing the small yard. The plant is so huge you can’t handle all the traffic in one train, which helps to ensure variety. With its 17 feet long siding and large traffic, this is the only place you can run long and heavy trains similar to the prototype. A 20-car train bound to Villeneuve is not a rare occurrence and push the locomotives to their limit (each car weight about 8 to 10 oz.).







Montmorency Falls (MP 5.6)

Montmorency is home to the oldest and original customer on the line: Dominion Textile plant. The place used to be a busy industrial district full of track, locomotive facilities and a wye, but CN takeover and early 1980s economic slump in Canada due to modification in import tariff is slowly killing the plant. The area smells like decay with the decrepit turn-of-the-century brick plant, abandoned passenger station and powerhouse ruins. The low volume car traffic no longer command a special switcher to switch the plant and it is only an occasional stop when the train returns from Clermont to drop a few U.S. cotton boxcars and spot a sporadic chemical tank car.





Charlevoix (MP 38.6)

The peninsula represents the scenic area along St. Lawrence River. Just like the prototype, the track follows the capricious topography which command successive and treacherous sharp S-curves. This harsh landscape induce a lot of stress on trains both real and model thus running speed are far slower. Don’t underestimate the effort a locomotive needs to pull a heavy train around Cap-Brûlé because it has nothing to do with Villeneuve flatlands. Charlevoix is also the only part of the layout where scenery reaches any significant level of completion.









Clermont (MP 92.1)

Clermont is a typical backwood industrial boom town that developed in the early 20th century when a paper mill was built in the middle of a pre-existing rural community called Nairn Falls. It is the line terminal and home to various large and small shippers. Most traffic handled is related to farming, high tension cable, wood products, cement and gas. In real life, Clermont’s trackage is quite large and diversified. However, we had to reduce that to the minimum. On the layout, Clermont is nothing more than a relatively short two-end siding (eleven 50ft cars) and a team track. It works as a storage yard for the nearby paper mill as per prototype. Another prototypical feature that was kept is the yard S-curve profile which makes for interesting vista of trains.





Donohue

End of steel. Donohue is a large paper mill built upon Nairn Falls hydroelectric power which is accessible over a railway bridge crossing Malbaie River. This is the second most important customer on the line and the sole reason the subdivision is still economically viable. The plant was enlarged and modernized during the early 70s and provides newsprint to the famous New York Times. The mill scene occupies a 12 feet L-shaped shelf and follows the prototype trackage as close as possible even if some compression was used. Traffic handled includes woodchip, newsprint, chemicals and kaolin clay slurry. Switching the plant is labor intensive and needs good organization sense. For this reason, just like the prototype, Donohue does this tedious work itself and blocks the train for CN. From a scenery standpoint, Clermont got lots of attention as this is the only place on the layout to harbour custom-built structures. The bridge scene is quite an interesting vista and works quite well to separate scenes and different operation types. A large photo backdrop of the actual mill will soon be installed there.







All in all, Hedley Junction reached a point where I can affirm it offer a condensed but realistic vision of a typical Eastern Canada rural subdivision in the 70s-80s. There’s a good balance between large and active customers and dwindling industries. Traffic is still strong, relatively varied and many trains are needed to run the subdivision each day. What you can find on a mid-1975 CN timetable was effectively translated directly on the layout and that’s a plus.
From an operation standpoint, the layout is quite a success. We didn’t hold an official session yet, but at every meeting, some switching takes place between times spent building the layout. To me, it means we reached our goal. Even incomplete, it is possible to operate a specific industry, which is great to keep interest up. I can also say that the project motivated me enough to build, kitbash and weather lots of cars and locomotives. Having realistic operations is a good way to push yourself bringing your rolling stock to the upper level.

The next big challenge is to make our locomotives perform flawlessly.

Enjoy!

Matt

[Twist]

Hi ,
thank you for that walkaround. Fantastic work on that layout. Sometimes it´s good to make some improvements to a section or make some other changes. It looks like you will have a lot of switching fun. Keep up with the nice work.

Regards,Chris

[sailormatlac]

It was long due, but now Donohue's got its brand new photo backdrop. It was printed on heavy flat paper and secured with double-face tape. Nothing fancy here. We moved from a shelf to a paper mill just in a few second.



However, I can't say I'm 100% satisfied. First, I did some little mistakes when I stiched the original photos together. Nothing important, but it means I'll have to hide some mistakes with scenery later.



Also, it was evident that perspective works from some angles, and not from other. That's a short coming you rarely see on "official" layout pictures because people don't post those pictures. In fact, those discrepancies appears well in video. But there's almost nothing we can do about it. It was a set of ludicrously thin flat buildings or a realistic backdrop. Choose your poison and assume it. There's not perfect solution here.



The biggest problem is the paper we used can be easily damaged. It will need extra care when doing the wet scenery. It will be tricky, no less.



But whatever the issues, I think it's better to move forward at this point. There will always be room for improvement later. Stalling the project for such reasons would be stupid. So let's move on.



Also, we found out adding some 3D elements here and there in some key area really helps to bring life to the backdrop, hiding it's 2D nature. I can also say that I'll have to improvement my structure weathering to match the backdrop. Now I perfectly understand why color choice is primordial in creating a scene.



So, in the end, I'd say I'm 75% satisfied. We did an operation session later and it was quite fun to feel the trains was definitely going somewhere. More in that on another post.



By the way, track laying is now officially completed. The conversion to code 83 went smootly and we are now tracking down small little bugs here and there.

Matt

[faraway]

That is an excellent backdrop! The 4.th photo (yellow GE 44ton) is at the exact right position taken. Looks very three dimensional.

Is "Donohue" a company selling that and other backdrops? Did you get an internet link?

[sailormatlac]

That is an excellent backdrop! The 4.th photo (yellow GE 44ton) is at the exact right position taken. Looks very three dimensional.

Is "Donohue" a company selling that and other backdrops? Did you get an internet link?

Thanks Reinhard! Donohue is the paper mill depicted on the pictures. You're right, the backdrop looks fine when seing from that side. The discrepancies appears when you are looking from the bridge. But it's not that much a problem.

The photobackdrop was made using pictures I shoot on location. It was printed by a local printing company.

Matt

[Twist]

Hi,
The scene with the photobackdrop looks great and adding some small details for the 3d effect will be a good solution. Will there be some flat structures or other buildings on the left side or is this open yardarea? Maybe you can cut out some of the structures and glue them to thin cardboard and then mount it to the wall...I wish I would have some photos of the areas I´m building for my layout....

All in al it´s looking great.Can´t wait to see more scenery and details.

Regards,Chris

[sailormatlac]

Hi,
The scene with the photobackdrop looks great and adding some small details for the 3d effect will be a good solution. Will there be some flat structures or other buildings on the left side or is this open yardarea? Maybe you can cut out some of the structures and glue them to thin cardboard and then mount it to the wall...I wish I would have some photos of the areas I´m building for my layout....

All in al it´s looking great.Can´t wait to see more scenery and details.

Regards,Chris

Chris, two structures and a woodchip unloader will be located at left and will hide the discrepancies on the photobackdrop.

Matt

[UP SD40-2]

Matt, WOW!! I am floored on your background and mountains, your scenery is very impressive and your work is quite AWESOME!!!

[doctorwayne]

I agree with Deano: those backdrop photos are very effective.

Wayne

[sailormatlac]

I started to add a few temporary trees on the river embankment to see how this scene can evolve later.











Matt

[MLW]

.
The backdrop is simply perfect! It really blends in exceedingly well and is, after all, true to life.
Your rolling stock weathering is well balance too! I always drop here semi-regularly and just can't wait for
updates and progress pics.

Oh! Nicely done on the RS-18 fleet!

[sailormatlac]

.
The backdrop is simply perfect! It really blends in exceedingly well and is, after all, true to life.
Your rolling stock weathering is well balance too! I always drop here semi-regularly and just can't wait for
updates and progress pics.

Oh! Nicely done on the RS-18 fleet!

Thanks Syl! It really improved the experience. It's been about two months since we started to operate the layout at each meeting on a regular basis. It's really fun how changing the number of cars in a train can makes a session different from another.

Here are a few newer pictures:











I also started to build a track scale from styrene and a Life-Like bungalow:







Matt

[MLW]

Thanks Syl! It really improved the experience. It's been about two months since we started to operate the layout at each meeting on a regular basis. It's really fun how changing the number of cars in a train can makes a session different from another.

Really like the RS-18. My favorite! Nice vehicles too...look familiar

Yes operating the layout gives it a new dimension. Are you using a computer generated switch-list?
I'm using JMRI and it's great. I had a JMRI guru help me with this. Nice weight station too.
Another kitbash project that's becoming a craftsmen building

Again excellent work

[MasonJar]

Matt...

I've been following your harbour front Erie layout, but for some reason missed this fall update. Looks fantastic!

Andrew