30Squares

Inspiration Point to the left; Dante's 'Staircase' to the right.

The Mount Lowe trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold.* *With deepest apologies to Robert Service.

.... and making the trolley wait.

I knew there was a reason I installed floats on this thing.

When I was taking Mt.

This is another Mt.

A first sketch of the dock scene.

Left: J G MODELS trolley | Right: My kitbashed Jigger John, Garrett, and I visited the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders swap meet this morning.

Yes: Rough sketch in track of the Inglenook Lake track plan.

Godzilla assumes his position of honour at the Fantasy Figures table.

An image of the Inglenook Lake layout created by Gemini Vince and I got to talking and he told me about a friend of his who asked Gemini to create a rendered image of a track plan he had in mind.

Post-derecho remains of a pine tree with a 23" diameter trunk as seen in 2026.

After studying the last iteration of the track plan I realized if the standard gauge dock access track swooped off to the left instead of the right I'd get a far less severe curve that would be easier for all cars and locos to negotiate.

I spent sometime working out the curve that will take the standard gauge rolling stock down to the dock from the mainline.

I was able to drop by the Havelock yard twice this week.

The first of 2 drops of 5,000 litres of water with the Conair Dash-8 400-AT at the Gatineau Airshow.

I finally got around to finishing the inserts for the large end openings and 'glassing' the windows with clear plastic.

Designing Inglenook Lake has really captured my imagination.

An astonishing video of streetcars in Toronto in 1935.

Left: Finished armature | Right: Leftover tree from Centennial Experimental Farm Layout.

Large white arc on right is an 8" radius curve: minimum for the RDC-M.

Narrow gauge track is marked with a circled N A man-made causeway supports the track between the docks.

or How a Walk Down Memory Lane Became an Obsession .... .... and a source of new ideas.

I've wanted to get my hands on the old AHM kit called the Repair Shop (kit #5815) for many years.

Top: Enhanced image by Gemini | Bottom: My original that I gave to Gemini.

Hidden amongst the hoppers in Havelock yard.

I've been doing some thinking and planning, although no work :-( , about the next step on this layout.

I've been focused on books for so long I'd forgotten about video, so I decided to search YouTube for Kim Adams videos.

To get an idea of the box size, the table top measures 2' x 4'.

It's the long weekend.

Galen asked me in the last Havelock yard post if I could tell if any of the data markings on the HEAPZ hopper appeared to have been freshly painted over the graffiti.

Last week John sent me the link to this video of a flow visualization simulation created by Claude.

Every time I drop by the Havelock yard I keep an eye out for the Space Hopper.

A check on element placement as the story develops.

From left to right: 6", 5" (the HO equivalent of the tightest TTC curve), and 7" radius curves.

The Mount Lowe Railway is featured in the latest issue of Voie Libre, #126, July / August / September 2026.

I was keen to see what the loco I had chosen for the community garden layout looked like in the paint scheme I had in mind.

Kim Adams: Bruegel-Bosch Bus | Kim Adams: One for the Road | Kim Adams I've written a lot about Kim Adams' work over the years, but I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I've never gotten around to buying those three books shown above.

It's a small detail of course, but in my memory of the Pillsbury hoppers, if the truck side frames weren't blue as on the real ones I saw back in the '70s, then, well, it just wasn't right.

A little earlier in the week the copy of Landscape Modelling by Barry Norman I ordered arrived in the mail.

I've started to work on the scenery by laying out the primary areas.

Here's the link to the podcast.

A few years back I was undertaking an informal study of books about the works of artists who used scale models of one sort or another as their medium.

One of 4 (!)

Spot the model railway store Getting closer...