2023: A Dystopia Year in Review

as 2023 draws to a close I want to take a few moments to review the progress I've made on the union project looking back over the last 12 months I can see that I've spent a considerable amount of time working on Railroad infrastructure and it's encouraging to note that this work has finally been completed moving forward I can now focus on the aspects of the hobby I truly enjoy modeling a dystopian landscape let's get [Music] started the year kicked off with a sense of urgency as I was set to host our local Railroad Club in the second week of February and I still didn't have a completed Mainline I realized that I had made some mistakes in calculating the elevation for the B's yard measurement and planning mistakes resulted in a too steep a grade of 4 1/2% I had to disassemble the upper deck modify some elevations and increase clearances wherever possible to reduce the grade to a more manageable 3% I also had to make decisions about track painting and ballasting as once the tabletop was installed I wouldn't be able to access that portion of track [Music] I also had to come up with a solution for mounting switch machines on the tabletop rather than the underside as I hadn't considered that the benchwork was going to interfere with some of the points with this portion of the main line complete I was able to now shift my focus to the passenger platforms at Union [Music] Station using Google Maps and Google Earth I set to work figuring out the dimensions for Union it was no surprise that the station was much larger than my available space and I calculated that I would need to reduce the station size by over 60% before diving into the actual station design I designed and 3D printed the iron work for the passenger platforms happy with the Iron Work size and spacing I printed various mockups of Union Station the biggest challenge was striking a balance between the need to reduce the stations length without compromising its height as these proportions are part of its character I worked on mockups for the Spadina and bathers Bridges a condominium Tower and the Aldershot station while the bridges turned out well the condominium Towers proved oversized leading me to abandon them additionally I would eventually forgo the aler shot station in favor of a completely new idea recognizing the sheer size of Union Station in the condominium Towers I had serious doubts about my ability to scratch built structures that big while I was confident in my ability to 3D print accessories printing structures of such a scale was beyond reasonable fortunately a solution presented itself when I stumbled on a laser cutting review by Steve's trains and I decided to invest in a low powerered laser cutter I started my laser cutting journey by recreating a small Maintenance building at the B's yard designing the structure illustrator I imported the wall and brick templates into my laser cutter after much trial and error I realized the laser cutter wasn't entirely suitable for styrene as it could Scorch the plastic and It produced noxious gases however I settled on a valuable compromise the laser did an excellent job of scoring styrene this allowed me to create kits that could be easily snapped along these lines while I wasn't using the laser cutter as exactly intended I was pleased with the compromise I had found the maintenance buildings turned out great I had a path forward with the laser and I was fairly certain I could model the larger buildings I next started working on the bridges at Spadina and BST during the planning phases I stumbled upon KO street cars named mini trams one of the models closely resembled the street cars of the TTC I decided to incorporate a street card line that looped from the Spadina Bridge ran behind the backdrop and reemerged on bather Street to create this new level I strengthened the bench work and tried embedding Cod 55 track into streets using plaster and styrene it was a challenging project because the street car tolerances required precise track work I next turned my attention to creating two distinct styles of bridge peers for Spadina I constructed the peers using Square and round dowels purchased from the dollar store while the ba Street bridge I used laser cut peers from Quin plywood the final step involved adding railings to the Spadina bridge and the truss and gerder systems for the bather bridge I designed a reasonably accurate faimly of the bather Street bridge and 3D printed the individual pieces assembling installing them along the bridge just like a [Music] kit during the summer I took a break from modeling and spent time rail Fanning on one such trip I visited the overpass near mimical station documenting the Via Rail and go transit maintenance facilities after publishing a video about the trip I was offered a tour of the vo rail yard and I enjoyed a few hours touring the facility I gained insights into the different areas of the yard timetable information and even got to explore some of the historical equipment inspired what I had seen I decided to abandon my original plans for the aloop passenger station and revised that area of the layout to include the Via Rail maintenance yard this was no small feat considering the yard spans over 100 acres and I needed to condense it into a shelf that was 8 ft long I designed the new yard capturing some basic features with a track plan that now provided additional storage from a Rolling Stock I opted for manual turnout controls for this yard as all the turnouts would be close to the front of the layout and I didn't want to invest time and energy into creating a new group of Arduino controlled points with this last piece of track work completed I finally was able to Clare the main line and all supporting sightings finished I painted and weathered the tracks wiped the rails clean with the rag and spent hours polishing and cleaning every inch of the rail until the trains ran perfectly the last major project for the year was the installation of the backdrop in hindsight I wish I had installed the backdrop earlier but I hadn't considered the layouts lighting and other details using different latex paints a roller and an airbrush I freehand painted the ominous and hazy Sky once again I turned to the laser cutter to create a series of differently sized stencils airbrushing various buildings across the horizon line giving the backdrop some depth since the backdrop it might seem like much of the layout progress has stagnated but there's been a lot happening behind the scenes soon I'll be installing the station platforms at Union Station constructing the station itself and tackling one of the largest background buildings I've ever worked on additionally I've been very fortunate to find a number of affordable plastic kits of urban buildings and I can hardly wait to dive back into crafting at dystopic city which is the core inspiration for this railroad the New Year promises a lot of exciting developments thanks for following along with my progress in 2023 I wish you all the best in the coming year and I hope you join the dystopia for 2024 see you next next [Music] year [Music]