Best Of Kanto Sub Division of the Puddington Valley

[Puddington]

The Xmas holidays have given Sam and I a lot of time to work on the first half of the Kanto Sub. The layout is a portable pike, 72" long by 40" wide, split down the long axis with divider. One side, not yet built is a coal mining operation and main line. The other side is the town of Kanto and it's line side industries.

Let's have a look at Kanto; it's new and recycled industries.... I'm afraid these are just "fair" images but.....



Looking at the module from the east end. The plaster hills just went in today; having a son that likes to get messy is a bonus.....





"SIDS" is a martial arts supply company (my son is a red belt in karate and the "SIDS" name comes form the first name initial of his three sensei's and himself.... SIDS is scratch built and angles in towards the divider so that the road can terminate behind it and the large Canadian Tire flat behind it. At the far end of the SIDS line is Dymon Ink and Colour. They unload tank cars of solvent there - the challenge of having two industries on one spur is not unlike the one I had in Richmond BC with our spur. In front is Feuer Specialty Wood Products, another recycled industry but a very special one as it was named for my oldest friends who passed far to young and who loved to play trains with his 8 year old mate...... It will find a home on any layout I build.







The "city centre" is a collection of recycled buildings from the original Puddington Valley. These need to be cleaned up and re-branded but they fit wonderfully as a centre divider and a way to put focus on the switching track right in front.





The west end is taken up with McGavins Bakery, a Western Canadian firm, a recycled "Cherry's Sporting Goods" (yes, "that" Cherry...) and an Esso station. The McGavins spur is only four fifty foot cars long after the turnout; the SIDS spur clears to this spur so switching is a challenge (just what I wanted to accomplish as crews will need to plan their moves) McGavins is scratch built and Cherry's is a Northwestern laser kit that was bashed a number of years ago.



Today I finished The Lake Dore Farm and Produce Cooperartive Ltd., home of the Granny Nancy Brand.... (mouth full....) This was an old laser kit with a modern steel building added on. This will add the venue to welcome refrigerated and temp. controlled cars and will finally give me a reason to weather and run my GN fruit express cars!



With all the track laid, power drops in and temp wired for testing done and all but a few small buildings done and ready, we are coming to the point where I can start attaching the buildings and doing the ground scenery. The east end will terminate with a small bridge that will connect to the other module while the west end will enter a small tunnel. The outer mainline does have a dead ending that will connect to a future years and mill module. The far east end will most likely have a small lake edge carved in to afford a better scenic place for taking "glamour shots" of new cars and equipment.

A CPR station will be built when the windows and doors arrive - it will be a standard Type 1 station with a small express section and a very small park beside it (illustrating the pride the station master and town had in their station) that will be the final structure for the module

Sam is good at laying roadbed and he seems to have a sense for doing the plaster work so I'm happy to let him get messy.....

More work tomorrow..... more posts when there is something to report....

Mike and Sam.

[basementcalling]

Love to see father and son teamwork. Excellent.  Glad you told the story of SIDS. My first reaction was that it stood for a medical condition that could have made your team effort impossible.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Love the progress!

Is that all code 55?

[dnhouston]

Great progress Mike, and some interesting re-purposing for the recycled buildings.  It will definitely be fun to switch 
Hey, just a heads up, the track right in front of the Lake Dore Farm and Produce building is riding on top of the rail joiner.

[Puddington]

Yes Ed, all Code 55.... we'll see how we like it... the turnouts are a bit challenging as many here have found out. I saw that @$#@@# rail joiner too David..... little bugger has caused me trouble....

[Santa Fe Guy]

Great work Mike. Good to see son and dad workin on the RR.
Rod.

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

Great start Mike.

[Puddington]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. To be honest, and I'll say this one time and then park it back in it's box, building this layout is important to me as I want Sam to have a tangible connection to N scale modelling and have a functioning, quality layout so that if I lose my battle with cancer he will have both the memories of having helped build the Kanto Sub and, hopefully, some passion for the hobby..... ok; downer moment over; moving on.....

The buildings are almost complete, sans the CPR station which I am awaiting parts to begin building. Sam's completed almost all the plastering, except for the park area around the station but that will wait until we finalize the station. The town is starting to look like something.....



Main street, such as it is has a number of shops.... An Irish pub (Millars Irish House), a Rexall drug store, "Michael" barbers, Kanto travel and Sportsgirl fashions. All these would have been a viable shop in 1973.





The background buildings are also virtually complete; the Kanto Hotel... the sign was a rip off of a railway hotel sign from an old place in Clnnci I saw a image of.... Len Bird Outdoors Products is a tribute to a very recently departed friend who was a Scout leader for almost 40 years. Avro.... well; may passion for all things RCAF and specifically the dearly departed CF 105 Arrow has always lead me to having a Avro facility on every layout..... hey; why not???



The far, front east corner was a question mark. I didn't want to block it off as a signature photo location yet wanted something that would grab the viewers attention. We decided to put in a lakefront; one that is much like the thousands seen in BC rail footage with a scraggy, rock strewn shore line. We hacked up the foam base and plastered ourselves a lake and shore base and then added a neat A frame cottage. I had built this years ago and wanted to use it and, after seeing some new video of BC railways I thought it kinda fit... when the hillside is tree'd, you'll not see it from the west end.





Here's where I need you guys to chime in... The road in this picture terminates at the skyboard and will look crappy without some kind of eye diversion. I am working with an idea to put a highway overpass against the skyboard; complete with a "sliced" tractor trailer rig on it to act as a barrier. The scene will be very flat; one end (east end by hotel) will disappear into "nothing as the hotel is flat to the skyboard. The other end is almost an inch in depth from the back of Mcgavins to the skyboard. I want to use circular pillars; don't know how many...? I also think the bridge has to come down too... but how much? A photo backdrop of a city street climbing a hill would be blended in under the bridge....

What do you guys think? Will it be effective, can you give me any ideas how to improve this or an alternative idea...? Thanks ahead of time for looking...

Well; that's our progress so far. I'm going to start teaching Sam to solder and we'll build the control panel and then, before going at the roads with smooth it we'll remove all buildings,  turn the module upside down and run the wires in their pre drilled holes and terminate them at the panel. After this is done (and track painting, also planned for when the buildings are off, will complete the major jobs except ballesting and finishing roads....

Have a great week gang!

[GaryHinshaw]

Great to see this progress Pudd.  I have a feeling this work is going to help you win your battle.

Perhaps this thread will provide some inspiration, at least for technique if not actual content?  I'm not sure what the current state of that scene is though, perhaps @Chris333 could chime in.

[Puddington]

Great to see this progress Pudd.  I have a feeling this work is going to help you win your battle.

Perhaps this thread will provide some inspiration, at least for technique if not actual content?  I'm not sure what the current state of that scene is though, perhaps @Chris333 could chime in.

Bingo..... thanks man, I'm back to being inspired. The new highway overpass is drying, pics later but it will work great with the technique that that thread described. thanks!

[Chris333]

The problem is finding the right era photo in color. As for the bridge. If it is a highway I say it is fine. Just a road bridge, maybe lower it a bit. I like the whole scene. reminds me of the Westside Highway.

[Puddington]

Building on Gary's* Chris' work I have tried the photo behind the bridge trick.... the bridge is only 1/2 - 7/8 inch wide..... I have dropped the hard copy photo in and taken away some shadows that were present due to the lighting I used.... the right hand copy is with a road shopped in to see what it could look like if I can blend the smooth it road just right....



For dropping in a photo I'm happy with this. The area on the left you can't see will have a building flat placed there that matches the build colour and tone of the photo.

Thanks for the inspiration - I'm not unhappy with the look.

*Credit goes to Chris333, -gfh

[mu26aeh]

Building on Gary's work I have tried the photo behind the bridge trick.... the bridge is only 1/2 - 7/8 inch wide..... I have dropped the hard copy photo in and taken away some shadows that were present due to the lighting I used.... the right hand copy is with a road shopped in to see what it could look like if I can blend the smooth it road just right....



For dropping in a photo I'm happy with this. The area on the left you can't see will have a building flat placed there that matches the build colour and tone of the photo.

Thanks for the inspiration - I'm not unhappy with the look.

I'd be not unhappy with that as well 

[GaryHinshaw]

That fits like a glove.

[dnhouston]

Wow Mike, what a difference that photo makes