Layout Tour #2 - Downtown Toronto: CN Tower and Neighbors (or should it be Neighbours since it's a Canadian layout?)

    Welcome to downtown Toronto!  Toronto is the biggest city in Canada, it is also the biggest piece of the layout.  On most layouts there would be a rail yard on the largest part of the layout.  I used the 12 feet of valuable real estate for high rises and a five-track passenger station.  Front Street runs the entire length of the city.  It passes many well-known structures found in Toronto.  The places I'm writing about today aren't really found on Front Street, but they needed to go somewhere.  

Looking east down Front Street

    I knew I wanted to add something to resemble the CN Tower and if you have the CN Tower then you also have to include the Rogers Centre (home of the Toronto Blue Jays).  My scratch building skills are not sharp enough to try to tackle a replica of the CN Tower, so until they are I have to rely on Faller and their television tower.  

Scratch built CN Tower ticket booth and entrance 

The current CN Tower thanks to Faller

    The Rogers Centre is not built yet.  It will have to be a very compressed structure to fit in the space given.  I am happy with how the lower levels of the Rogers Centre turned out.  I think if you've seen this part of the Rogers Centre as you're heading to the CN Tower, you'd have to agree it has a striking resemblance to the real thing.  

Outside the hotel entrance and main gates for the Rogers Centre.

Walkways leading from the main level of the Rogers Centre to the CN Tower entrance.  The Toronto Blue Jays fan store and Rogers Centre guided tours are inside, behind the stairs.

    

    I wanted enough room to include the Toronto Railway Museum, but I had to settle on putting a single track next to the CN Tower.  I'm pretty happy with the results of my museum space.  I added a plastic guard on the edge of the layout to avoid the disappointment of a piece of rolling stock ending up on the floor.  Safety first!

VIA Rail Tempo coach #370 (a Rapido Trains model) is on display behind safety plastic at the Toronto Railway Museum

Canadian National wood caboose #78377 (a True Line Trains model) is found at the Toronto Railway Museum for visitors to walk around and see.

    Across the street from the Rogers Centre is the Northern Linear Park.  At the entrance to the park is the Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial.  Canada's cross-country railway was primarily built using Chinese workers, many of whom died building the railway.  I plan to include the memorial in the park.

A TTC bus has just picked up passengers in front of Toronto's North Linear Park, this is the future home of the Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial

    Last stop on our tour has us hanging out under a bridge.  The Rob Robbie bridge crosses the tracks leading to Union Station and gives visitors to the Rogers Centre and CN Tower access from Front Street.  My bridge connects to a high rise because the ramp from Front St. to the bridge would have been too steep to look real.  

Visitors to the Rogers Center and CN Tower may access Front Street by walking across the bridge and down the stairs just through the double doors.  Some Toronto tourists have stopped for a hotdog before leaving.

    Below the bridge is the John Street interlocking tower.  The Toronto Terminal Railway uses the interlocking system to switch turnouts around Toronto's Union Station.  We can talk about the real interlocking system another time.  What I love about the whole thing is that they built the bridge right above the John Street Tower.  To do so they took the pitched roof off the building to get the bridge built.  The building now has a flat roof and a large bridge above it.

The real John Street interlocking tower right below the Rob Robbie Bridge.  Roderick Robbie was the architect that designed the Rogers Centre (originally known as Skydome). The bridge was named after him in 2013.  The John Street Interlocking Tower is found directly below the bridge.

John Street Tower on the layout.  There is a little more clearance between the bridge and roof, but there still isn't enough for the peaked roof that came with the kit.