November 2025

Time certainly flies by, going faster and faster. This post was originally entitled "September". It has been a busy three months.

The biggest family news the last three months was Nicholas announcing his engagement to Jill Davis. They were engaged over the Canadian thanksgiving weekend. The happy couple met at Carleton during Nicholas' first year. The wedding will take place in June 2026. Welcome to the family Jill!

Something that had an immediate impact on our lives was Stitch, our new puppy, breaking his leg September 20. Marie and I had just got back from a concert. The dogs were out of their cages and were running around, going into peel mode, jumping up and down on the guest room bed. In all the excitement, Stitch got pushed off the bed, and landed wrong. He let out a tremendous shriek, and we knew right away something was wrong. We are well acquainted with the area emergency vets, since Riley has needed several visits since we arrived. Yet another late night trip to the emergency vet confirmed the leg was broken. He was splinted to stabilize the leg, then had surgery two days later to set the fracture and pin the bones. He recovered remarkably fast, or at least he thought he had, ready to go back to normal almost immediately. We spent the next eight weeks trying to slow him down. Finally, he had X-rays on November 18 and the doctor confirmed the leg had healed perfectly. We are trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to ease him back to normal.

Marie and I were scheduled to leave on a cruise just two weeks after Stitch broke his leg. We looked into cancelling it but we wouldn't have gotten our money back. Stitch's rapid recovery, and Christine's adamant assurances that everything would be okay, gave us enough peace of mind to leave. I don't know how she managed them all for three weeks, but she kept them all safe while we were gone. The cruise, through the Panama Canal and down the west coast of South America, was fantastic. After getting into Santiago, we spent 5 extra days touring the Hidden Valley and Machu Pichu in Peru. We saw a lot of amazing things but Machu Pichu was easily the highlight of the trip.

Machu Pichu

I underwent a successful double hernia surgery on November 20. I am terribly sore and moving very slowly but things are going well. Full recovery will take several months. A good excuse to play with the puppies and do more modelling.

After all that, everything else seems mundane. Dave and I drove up to Edmonton on September 13th to attend the Edmonton train show. The show had moved to a new location, with much easier parking, but it seemed smaller than last year. A lot of familiar layouts and vendors, but there were a couple of new displays that really impressed me. I picked up a couple of grain super B trucks and a new DCC command station. With grain elevators front and center on the new layout, the two grain trucks will look just right pulling in to unload. The command station will be needed to control the larger layout, replacing the nearly 20 year old starter set I had been using

Airfix 1/24 Spitfire

The Spitfire has sat on the bench and taunted me to resume work. I finally got enough time to apply a grey oil wash to highlight panel lines and rivets. Next step will be to model the underside oil leaks, and add some general grime. Spitfires are notoriously dirty on the underside, leaking oil from numerous points.

Magic Factory A-4 Skyhawk

No progress over the last three months

Railway

Turnout construction began way back in September. The first was constructed on the layout. The second was constructed at the workbench and then installed on the layout, a much easier process.

Photo 1 - Template used to place both stock rails

Photo 2 - First turnout completed.

Photo 3 - Much easier and faster to fabricate turnouts at the workbench

Fast forward to November. Track is essentially complete in the Oulton yard, with the exception of the turnouts at each end.

Knowing my hernia surgery was coming, I constructed three new benchwork sections the week of November 10. One will become the extension at the left end of the Oulton yard, one will be the curve at the left end of the yard, and one will be the engine servicing area and curve at the right end of the yard.

Photos 1&2 - Looking to the right

Photo 3 - Looking to the left

Photo 4 - The extension and curve modules at the left end

Photo 5 - The new module at the right end

As track progressed, I had a uneasy feeling that the Oulton yard design was flawed. The original design requirement was that the third track, for the grain elevators, hold at least 10 cars. I was eventually able to squeeze in enough space for 12 cars by pushing the turnouts as far to each end as possible. With time, I began to see two problems that with this decision:

1. The left end of the yard will have back to back turnouts that immediately lead into a curve. The left side turnout is intended to branch track off to a small industrial area. This arrangement just feels to constricted and unrealistic - see the photo below and first layout design drawing.

2. Twelve grain cars translates to about 10 feet. Add a pair of locomotives and it gets close to 12 feet. The separation between Oulton and the unnamed town is about 6 feet. So a full 12 car train, being switched out of Oulton, would actually extend all the way around the layout, entering the unnamed town, before it cleared the Oulton yard. That would definitely be unrealistic.

Track mock up shows how crowded the left end of Oulton yard will be.

After some initial reluctance, I decided it better to shorten the left end of the Oulton yard. There were several ways it could have been done, but I decided it easiest to shift the yard's left end. Mock ups of potential solutions were created to trial several options.

Photo 1 - Existing track

Photo 2 - Yard shifted 12" to the right

Photo 3 - Yard shifted 16" to the right

Photo 4 - Yard shifted 18" to the right

Photo 5 - Yard shifted 24" to the right

Photo 6 - Demo complete. Ready to install new ties.

I decided to go with a 24 inch shift that ended up being about 22 inches once it was laid out. I think this will work better, and it still allows 10 cars to be squeezed on to the Oulton grain track.

Another potential problem, that was making me uneasy, was the proposed staging yard extension into the theatre room - See figure 1 below. I couldn't wrap my head around having to walk out of the layout, around the bar counter, and into the theatre room to switch staging. I came up with a solution to "hide" staging behind the unnamed town, as shown in Figure 2 below. It sacrifices about 12 inches on each end, but I think I will be happier with this.

Figure 1 - with the staging extending into the theatre room

Figure 2 - staging revised to "hide" behind the unnamed town

With all the changes sorted out, it was time to start laying track.

Photo 1 - Left end of Oulton yard, showing new ties in place.

Photo 2 - Left end of Oulton yard, with new ties stained.

Progress over the next month is going to depend on hernia recovery. I am hopeful that I will be able to get down to the basement next week to resume hobby activities.

That's it for another blog. Take care and stay safe.