On the Layout: You've Got Mail!

    Canada Post has a facility on the west side of MacMillan Yard.  It's next door to Cascades Paper, a business I've modeled on my layout.  The plan was to scratch build the structure, but I decided, at least for now, to recycle a building I've had in storage.  The model is an old Rix structure built by my father in the early 90's.  Its first life was as a gas station.  I remember painting it the colors you see with craft paints.  I've always thought it should have a home on my current layout.  Now it does.

    After stripping the original paint, I tried to remove old doors and window frames.  Some of the played nicer than others. It got new paint based on the scheme seen on the Creditstone facility in Vaughan, Ontario.  I scratch built the roof over the loading zone and then added details like cameras, mailboxes, and plenty of delivery vans.  There's still a fence that needs to be added to the scene.

It's great to see this building have a second life.

On the Layout: Cascades Paper

    Cascades Paper is a pretty large facility in Concord, Ontario.  It has a spur track on the other side of the street from MacMillan Yard's S-Yard.  

Google Maps image I used to guide my construction.

    Knowing that I didn't have enough space to model the whole building, I built a background building to place at the end of the layout in my utility room.  It's made completely out of the spare parts of different kits and scrap styrene.   

I can only place on boxcar on the spur, but it proves another spot to do some switching on this part of the layout.

On the Layout: Spring Cleaning

There's been a building on the layout that has needed some TLC since it was placed in the Don Valley scene. The model of the Toronto Hydro substation on the corner of Gerrard St. East and Blackburn Street started out on my childhood layout.  It's Woodland Scenics's City Cab Co. building. 

Image from the Woodland Scenics webpage

    I did a little kitbashing to make this building fit the space I needed it to fit in.  I ended up taking the two parts of the building apart.  The garage part is in the GO Transit Don Valley yard.  The two-story section became the Toronto Hydro building.  I've always liked the scene.  The substation is an old Walthers resin kit and the structure fits perfectly between the highway overpass and the substation.  It's just always needed to be repainted, and the roof needed to be repaired.  I did both during my vacation this spring. 

    Using an image off of Google Maps, I saw that the Blackburn St. building was two colors.  What would a modeler be without Google Maps?  

Google Map image taken from the Don Valley Parkway

    I spray painted the entire structure with a flat red primer, and the bottom third, along with the roof trim, was spray painted a flat khaki.  I then hand painted the window frames railroad tie brown.  Clear styrene was glued to the window frames and then covered with Woodland Scenics' Light Defusing Window Film.  The roof was repainted a flat black and reinforced, so the center stopped sagging.  I added a triangular prism on the roof that also appears on the actual building (there are two on the real thing).   A MiniPrints security camera was added to the corner of the building.  Although I consider the project done; I'd like to order some lights for the exterior.  Here's the finished product.

On the Layout: Crossing Protection

 There's been a Logic Rail System Fusee Pro kit waiting to be installed for some time now.  When a button is pushed on the fascia, the fusee will prototypically ignite at the crossing leading the Cascade Paper facility in Vaughan.  It'll stay on for a few minutes and then flicker out (the amount of time can be adjusted).

The location of this scene was going to be a challenge to get power to.  I had ordered a 12-volt adapter when I ordered the fusee kit, but I came across Iowa Scale Engineering's DCC Power Adaptor.  It takes DCC power and uses it to power accessories on a layout.  

Installation consisted for running two wires from the DCC track bus to the Logic Rail board, then connected the fusee wires to the other side of the board along with the push button, and it was working in minutes.  It was surprisingly simple!