A Little About the Layout

 

Downtown Toronto
Yes, one of the buildings looks like it is touching the ceiling.  ...It's actually one centimeter away from the ceiling.  Plenty of room!

    I got married in 2006 and when to Toronto for our honeymoon.  Following that first visit to Toronto I knew I wanted to model the city.  Toronto is an amazing place both as a visitor and a railfan.  Subsequent trips allowed me to figure out exactly what I wanted to include on the layout.  I knew I wanted to include the John Street Tower, The Don Valley, The Royal York Hotel and GO Transit's Don Yard.  There were things, many things, that had to get cut from the plan because of space.  The Port Lands was one of the hardest things to have to remove from the plan.  This is a rail spur that follows Lakeshore Dr. just to the east of downtown Toronto.  The 11' x 18' room that houses the layout just isn't big enough.

VIA Rail #64 en route to Montreal passes by VIA Rail #57 which is minutes away from arriving at Toronto's Union Station.  Both trains are crossing over the Don River and Don Valley Parkway just east of downtown Toronto.  As an added bonus, Train #57 has the Glen Fraser as the last car of the train.

    Construction on the Toronto, Montreal & Brockville started in 2015.  "Phase I" (The Ontario part) is a 126 square foot layout.  I started "Phase II" (Montreal) of the layout in 2021 when the return loop of the layout was built in the adjoining bathroom's closet.  This added an additional 42 square feet of layout space.

Phase II Construction - (Left to Right) Downtown Montreal with Pointe Saint Charles, Port of Montreal, and a piece of the South Shore

    The trip from Montreal to Toronto takes about five hours (without delays for CN freight trains or stopping in Ottawa).  There is quite a distance between the two cities.  I do not have room in my basement to model the entire distance.  I had to make compromises in what would appear on the layout.  The TM&B is not a prototypical layout.  It has bits and pieces of places along CN's Kingston Subdivision, but it doesn't exactly resemble those places.  I'm okay with that.  The TM&B is still a work in progress.  The major construction is finished, but details and repairs take up my time.  

(Left to Right) Don Valley, Toronto, Oshawa, Port Hope and Brockville

    One thing that has not been completed and might never get crossed off my "to do" lists is ballasting.  I do not enjoy ballasting track.  Often, I'm unhappy with how the track looks after I ballast it.  I've decided to leave my track unballasted for two reasons.  First, as I said, I don't like ballasting.  Second, this layout is not my last.  This is actually my first I've learned a lot building it and would do many things differently on my next layout.  That next layout may happen sooner rather than later.  Having unballasted track will allow me to recycle more of the track when the day comes that I decide to redesign what is there or start all over again.   

A morning AMT commuter train is arriving at St. Lambert Station.  This is the last stop before Train 807 crosses the St. Lawrence River and arrives at Central Station in downtown Montreal in about 10 minutes.

  Over the next few weeks, I'll provide you with a tour of each part of the layout.  Thanks for reading!