Sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly. - Edward Albee, "Zoo Story"

Yes, it's been quiet around here. Summer included a lot of travel -- since the beginning of August we've been away more than we've been home -- and not a whole lot got done in the basement.

There's a recent forum thread on the topic of how to dimension a structure from photos, so what follows is a brain dump of how I designed my kitbashed structure. Given I'm not trying for an exact copy -- more like "as close as I can get with Pikestuff parts" -- just how do I decide how big to make this thing, and all the individual bits of it?

I first saw noticed this building 11 years ago while riding the train from Toronto to Ottawa. You get to spend a while looking at it during the station stop at Brockville (the VIA station is on the right). And of course if you're a modeller you think: That cries out to be kitbashed out of Pikestuff!

Below is the control installation for the crossover in my last post, with the control knob sticking out of the track diagram on the fascia:

I need a few single crossovers like the one shown below. This post describes how I combine two Fast Tracks #6 N-scale switches into a single crossover.

Since I now have a respectable length (~60', N-scale) of mainline laid, including a runaround at the far end, I got the rolling stock out and started to run some trains. Which means I'm finding things like dodgy track work and this:

And that, children, is why your NMRA track and clearance gauge is your friend.

I retired about four weeks ago (yay!).....and it's amazing how busy you can get, even with the extra 40 hours per week you used to spend in the office. However, I've made a promise to myself to post a layout construction update here every week -- which means getting something done that's worth reporting on.

To start off, my DCC system:

....aaaand two steps back.

I should really post more than once a year. But: Real Life. And spare time spent working on the layout instead of blabbing about it.

Anyway, an overview of progress to date:

Up there, circled in red, this afternoon. Needless to say I am now waaay behind the goal I set for Labour Day. Actual track-laying has been delayed by a lack of turnouts, as other priorities intervened this fall. C'est la vie. That's the Sudbury return loop, with the Webbwood Sub curving around towards the right wall. The helices will sit on on top of Sudbury and the whole thing will be enclosed.

I'm always too optimistic. As feared, a bunch of Real Life happened for the past two months, and I've made no progress beyond tweaking the benchwork and lighting a bit. But it wasn't all down time as far as railroading is concerned: we took a three week camping trip around northern Ontario, ending in Cochrane for the Ontario Northland Railway Historical & Technical Society Convention.

On the way, we spent most of a week at Neys Provincial Park, on the beautiful Lake Superior north shore -- and right by the Canadian Pacific mainline: