Layout Tour #4 - Toronto: Union Station

    Union Station is in the center of my downtown Toronto scene.  It is made from two Walthers kits kitbashed together.  The large windows will allow me to add an interior to the Great Hall.  The project is on my list of things to do.  

Union Station from the west end.

Union Station from the east end.

    The train shed outside of Union Station has five passenger tracks and a highball track for freight and through trains.  I kept going back and forth between putting the roof on all parts of the shed or just half to allow access to trains and for viewers to see the platforms.  As you can see, I went with only half a roof.  As time goes on, I'll continue to populate the platforms with people and trackside details.  This is the busiest train station in Canada, the platforms need to show this.  Stay tuned!

Two pigeons watch above Track 5 as trains go in and out of Toronto's Union Station.

    Next door to Union Station you'll find Toronto's Hard Rock Cafe.  In the real world, Hard Rock left Toronto many years ago, but when we would visit the city we would go to Hard Rock Cafe in Yonge-Dundas Square.  I would love to build Yonge-Dundas Square, it's one of my favorite places to go in the city, but it a few too many blocks North of Front Street.  I decided that I would include Hard Rock Cafe as my little slice of Yonge-Dundas Square.  This structure will also need an interior.  It's a work in progress.

The Hard Rock Cafe located at Yonge-Dundas Square has moved a few blocks south to a building next to Toronto's Union Station.  Many people will be watching CTV's Degrassi and Canadian Idol this week now that they've seen the billboards.

    Across the Street from the station is one of my favorite buildings.  This is the Farmont Royal York Hotel.  The Royal York is kitbashed from three of Bachmann's Ambassador Hotel kits.  The pitched roof and Royal York sign were scratch built out of styrene using a cutting machine.  This was one of the first structures I kitbashed.

The Fairmont Royal York Hotel is located across Front Street from Toronto's Union Station.

 

    Front Street turns into a divided highway with island in the middle of the road in front of Union Station.  I sacrificed some width in the street to build a landscaped island.  You can only see this part of Front Street if you are standing by the Rogers Centre and from that distance you don't really see the lack of street width, but you can clearly see the trees in the middle of the island.  I used Fine-Leaf Foliage and ground foam from Woodland Scenics to landscape the island.

Traffic slows down just a little bit in front of Union Station and the Royal York Hotel. West and east bound traffic are separated on this part of Front Street by this traffic island.  No U Turns are allowed.

    On the east side of Union Station, across Bay Street, is GO Transit's Union Station Bus Terminal.  This terminal can be accessed by an overpass on track-level of Union Station.  Visitors to the layout will never really see the terminal, it faces away from the aisle.  Only pictures can capture what the terminal looks like.  This was a fun building to scratch build.  

GO Transit's Union Station Bus Terminal can't be seen on the layout, it's even hard to get a camera to capture it.  Bus 21B, seen in the lower left corner, is arriving from Milton, Ontario.