On the Layout - Toronto Union Station (Part 3)

     This project took about a week and a half to complete.  In the last few days, I added a third stairwell.  This was a set of stairs to lead to the GO Transit Bay Street Concourse.

I also built the information desk and VIA Rail arrivals and departure board found in the middle of the Great Hall.  

    The last thing I did was add Just Plug LED lights to each section of the building.  I ran the wires up along the side of the building we can't see and secured the wires using Woodland Scenic's Scenic Accent Glue.  This stuff dries clear and tacky.  It makes it easy to remove if I need to, otherwise it'll stay in place.

    Here are a few floor-level views from inside Union Station after I added the final details and what it looks like from the aisle of the layout.

On the Layout - Toronto Union Station (Part 2)

    Work has continued on adding an interior to Union Station.  I had to start with adding the details on the walls of the Great Hall.  I started here because the model actually doesn't have a solid floor.  Before I add one, I wanted to be able to take advantage having easy access to the walls. I added the row of Canadian and provincial flags (in the order you'll actually find them in the real station).   There are a few VIA Rail Canada advertisements.  You can also see the Red Caps station where passengers can get assistance with luggage as they walk into the station from Front Street.

    I also spent time painting some Miniprints payphones.  I tried to paint them to match a Bell Canada payphone.  The wall mounted phones were placed in a corner of the Great Hall.  The other two I put just outside of the Front Street entrance.

Wikipedia Commons image

    Once the walls were all set, I added the floor.  I used .040 styrene.  I cut openings for the stairwells before gluing the floors down.  After the glue was dry, I added to paper floor patterns.  I tried to find a pattern that matched the floor of the Great Hall.  The two wings were made with a hexagon tile floor pattern I used in the Brockville VIA Station.  I glued the floors to the styrene using Super 77.

    As the floors were drying, I used my time to scratch build the VIA Rail ticket counter. I used extra pieces of styrene and some unused pieces from other kits.  I added signage and figures to complete the scene.  The VIA Rail Canada sign on the back wall was printed on an overhead transparency. 

    I also updated my GO Transit ticket kiosks.  The first ones were too small.  These were made to be about 7 scale feet tall.  This is what I estimated the height to be after watching several YouTube videos.  If my measurements are wrong, let me know the real height and I'll make new ones.

More to come....

On the Layout: Toronto Union Station (Part 1)

     Toronto Union Station is a massive facility. It has been under renovation for as long as I can remember.   I thought it was time to focus some of my attention on the layout's biggest train station.  My Union Station is kitbashed from two of Walther's Union Station kits.  I built it long before I appreciated the fact that certain glues really don't work well when trying to glue the plastic "glass" to window frames.  The building's windows are big and need an interior.  So, I've decided to spend some of my vacation adding an interior.  

    The first step in the project was to paint the inside of the station.  I masked off all of the windows and doors and the primed the inside with a gray primer.

    While waiting for the primer to dry, I started to build some of the stairwells that I'll put in the Great Hall.  I used the steps from the Walthers Butterfly Style Station Platforms.  I glued two of the stairwells together and then built the walls around the steps to fit.  I added signage to stairwells based on images from inside the real Union Station.

While I was printing signs, I added some TTC signs to the exterior stairwells that lead to Line 1's Union stop.

    It was time to get out the airbrush.  I was fortunate to still have a couple bottles of Polly Scale cement flat paint.  This was the color I originally painted the station with.

More to come....

On the Layout: Bike Stands

     If you visit downtown Toronto you'll see several Bike Share Toronto racks. I painted a 3D printed kit made by Scientific.  It's a great kit that was easy to paint.  I put the bikes and rack in front of the CBC Broadcast Centre.  It's a nice little detail to adds to the city look and feel of this part of the layout.

Fleet Friday: Athearn Genesis SD70M-2 CN #8934

     I have eyed this locomotive since I appeared in Athearn's New Product Announcements probably in 2021 or 2022.  It was in the same run as CN's Grand Trunk Western Heritage Unit #8952 that I posted a few months ago.  I didn't order one at the time because I had the GTW locomotive, and I didn't really need to spend money on a second SD70M-2.  I was a case of need versus want.  Need won at the time but want seems to have claimed the gold medal.  Hiawatha Hobbies was recently having a sale and they still had three of these locomotives in stock.  They're now down to two in their inventory.

    8934 doesn't appear to be all that different from any other CN locomotive until you turn it around and see the other side.  Athearn made this an oddball locomotive, and I'm a sucker for the oddballs.  The compartment covers on its left side are mismatched.

It sounds, runs, and looks great!  

Blue Flags

     I've had a set of NJ International blue flags that have been stuck in a drawer for years.  I finally got them out and started using them around the layout as part of my operations plan.  Blue flags are used by rail crews to warn others of work or dangers on a set of tracks.  They tell crews to not proceed beyond the spot the blue flag is placed.  The person that sets the blue flag is the only person to remove it from the track.  Here are a few from around the layout: