Layout Update April 2024 - Modeling Toronto's Union Station: Challenges and Insights

when I started producing this video I had these Grand plans I was in Toronto for a few nights so I made my way to Toronto Union Station I planned my shots I recorded some video and I thought I had all the footage I needed to put together this month's update it turns out the audio didn't work nevertheless in this update we're going to talk about how progress on the layout has slowed and what I'm going to do about it we'll briefly touch on the double headers layout tour and we take a look at some purchases some gifts and some railroad memorabilia I've added to the train room here is the April 2024 update let's get [Music] [Music] started so as I mentioned in the introduction progress on the layout has slowed and it's not a lack of motivation that the layout has slowed it's a lack of information the challenge is is that many of the things I want to do simply aren't easy case in point my version of Union Station I have spent hours designing and planning this station and the original plan was to make a prototype inspired version of Toronto's Union Station and to match the Prototype as closely as possible but over the past few months what I've realized is the amount of planning and effort to go into trying to recreate the Prototype maybe isn't the approach I want to take while I am interested in Prototype modeling I'm also interested in seeing things completed and therefore I'm okay with compromise so with that I had a trip planned to Toronto and I decided I would spend one of the mornings downtown Gathering a bit more information about the Platforms in the train shed there were a few details that I wanted to research first how the rails were Bast it and how they transitioned into the platforms specifically platforms 3 and four where there was a double rail area without a center passenger platform this is fer representative of the station platforms that I'm building and I wanted to see how those tracks were finished the platforms themselves how the yellow warning areas were applied and how the end of the platforms transitioned into the yard ballast the roof supports these are one of the defining features of Toronto Union station and the principal element I want to model accurately I wanted to see how they were interconnected and how they were mounted onto the platforms themselves and finally the stairwells that took passengers from the platforms to below the station there's different examples depending upon where you are in the station and I wanted to find something that I could model easily and still be effective so some of the basic things that I learned the tracks were ballasted with dark Cinders the warning strips were well over a foot wide on each of the platforms forms and the end of the platforms just disappeared into the ballast at the yard ends there was many different modifications to the roof supports there were GDs that ran parallel to the station platforms and finally I wasn't going to model any of the stairwells based on what was in the station but rather I was simply going to model the stairwells based on the subway entrances outside of the station with these last few details confirmed I can finally settle in and start completing the station itself leading up to this station St visit I did work on the station Platforms in the surrounding area on the layout the station platforms needed to be elevated slightly above the rail heads so I added a smooth base of/ Quin plywood between the rails as well as the base of the station and the elevated area east of the Spadina Bridge the station platforms will be installed permanently but I want the station and all of the surrounding backdrop buildings to be mounted on removable bases so that I can work on the structures and the scenery at my desktop as opposed to leaning over the layout the concrete platforms themselves were made using sheet styrene I 3D printed some basic stairwells that don't descend the full depth of the Prototype but rather have five or six gentle steps that should create the illusion of stairs descending below the rails with decisions now made about the supports and having base material laid down for the station and surrounding areas I should be able to transition from thinking about the layout to working on the layout every April the double headers layout Club hosts a regional layout tour that features layouts between the woo region and the guf areas this year there was over 20 layouts and rather than do the tour myself I helped my good friend exhibit his layout for the day there was a steady flow of traffic throughout the day it was a lot of fun to meet some new faces and I was genuinely surprised by the number of people that recognized me from past videos we entertained visitors for well over 10 hours and people were genuinely impressed and grateful for the layout visit and that feedback was really appreciated because unfortunately this was the last time anyone was ever going to see Darren's Northland layout I have a number of friends who have seen some Life Changes in the past few months and this was no exception and so while visitors were coming in to see the layout that time was also spent selling off all of the Rolling Stock memorabilia and the layout in and of itself thankfully by the end of the day almost everything was sold and by the end of the following week the basement Empire was completely gone and the basement was returned to its original state I was very grateful for the opportunity to work with Darren all day long and I was very fortunate that I was able to get a few things from Darren's collection I now have a pair of CN lanterns a small Ontario Northern flag and two small red plaques from inside an engine capab interestingly the one sign has a small dent in the center of it which is actually a bullet hole that occurred while the train was traveling between Windsor and Detroit someone actually shot at the cab through the window and hit the sign behind the engineer's head maybe not a great story but an interesting story nonetheless and finally I was able to get a pair of Crossing signals for the layo room I have no idea how I'm going to mount these from the ceiling but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a pair of working signals in my basement in addition to this I also received a gift in the mail as well as made some new purchases firstly my friend Tim from they make it like that was generous enough to send me some of his new nend scale garbage dumpsters Tim has been printing painting and graffitiing these small dumpsters and has been selling them online with a lot of positive feedback he sent me my own set of four and these things are fantastic if you're interested your own set of dumpsters I'll include a link in my bio to Tim's Channel and I suggest you subscribe and follow him along as he's working on his own new Urban layout I also made a purchase this month from Outland Scale Models earlier in the video I mentioned how progress had slowed as prototype modeling can get so detail oriented that it becomes difficult to move forward with any sort of speed and so I have started making a number of compromises on how I want to approach my modeling one of the key structures on the layout is Toronto's Union Station and I've decided that rather than try to make something that's 100% prototypically accurate I'm going to Kit bash a reasonable fact simile so on this case one of the small apartment complexes offered by Outland models has front and rear-facing windows on the building building that I've decided will be adequate stand-ins for my original design the building sections are four stories tall and the window placement is close enough to the original that when I'm done constructing this 3ft long station a casual Observer will likely not understand the difference between the Prototype and my version of the Prototype I also purchased another pair of tower kits the exact same kits I use from my original graffiti Towers project although I don't have a plan for the new towers I know that I'm going to need a lot more tall buildings as I model the downtown core so this is the point in the video where I would have returned to Union Station and summed up the month's activities but things don't necessarily always go to plan and when I think about it maybe that's really the theme for April I've made changes in how I want to approach modeling signature pieces on the layout a fellow modeler has had to abandon a basement Empire as Life Changes sometimes mean that we need to start over and I've decided to strike a balance between scratch building and kit bashing in order to remain focused on the big picture and not get swallowed up in the details overall April was a great month I had lots of fun and as always I appreciate you for tuning in and joining me on my Adventures thanks for stopping by and I'll see you next time [Music]