Above: The original plan. That’s where this weekend started. As my relationship with Coy matures I spend a lot of time just staring at it. I like what I see and because the layout is so conveniently accessible it’s easy to wander over and study while I’m waiting for the tea to brew. As track nears completion (finally, we’re almost at the answer to that call) I’m starting to get back to thinking how the scenery will evolve.
As James’ beautiful drawing illustrates and my lousy photo shows when I built this I only built up the area under the track. I was unsure and, this way, I wasn’t locked into a scenery plan and could concentrate on the parts I was sure of.
Before starting on Coy I had been sketching a number of plans and each was characterized by a grade profile that washed down away from the front edge of the layout. I still really like that idea and wanted to revisit it this evening. While the plan of the left side of the layout remains largely unchanged this change would recast the right (Coy mill) end in the style of LaValley’s yard up on Mulberry Street. The following images are a series of screenshots from Google Streetview with some notes to situate them.
This is the real life view into the LaValley yard from Mulberry Street.
- “Cross Street” always exists in either iteration of the plan
- What I originally planned as the siding to Coy would become this siding into the LaValley yard for lumber but mostly bulk aggregates (road salt)
And just as in real life, my runaround loop lead becomes LaValley’s other, lesser used, siding. I’m really not certain I’d hide both behind a fence like this but that’s a trivial detail that will resolve itself in time.
This is the focal point of the change. In my revised plan my scene washes down just as it does here. I don’t have room to include the salt shed. Road salt drops down into a pit (B-B in my plan sketch) and is that area around that green front end loader in the photos. Just as in the photos, I’d pave the area up to the edge of the track but maybe not quite so close so as to emphasize the contrast between the future and the past.
Back on the road crossing but turning to face into Staging this is where my two scenes, Coy and LaValley blur because I’d still pave the mainline because I rather like that idea. I also like the short real life runaround at the top of the Coy siding and I feel that if I include that loading wall from Mulberry Street it looks more like a traditional siding and less like the one in my mind.
Which leaves this interesting question: the old warehouse. It’s a lovely long low building and the worn white colour makes it an ideal background I find considerably attractive. I guess, and it’s too early to wonder about, my questions will centre around whether or not adding a second street elevation looks too awkward?
Operationally, the plan doesn’t change much from what I described earlier except that, in this iteration, the engine lives on the layout. In my story, LaValley are keeping their engine up in the lumber yard property instead of down in Claremont Junction. Considering that’s probably where they keep their trucks this fiction doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
My operating session starts in the yard. In real life, a 44 tonner couldn’t handle more than two salt cars at a time anyway, so that’s what we bring up and into the layout. My staging isn’t large nor does it need to be. Since we’re only working two cars at a time I only place them on the layout, in staging, or remove them as required by this moment in play. In fact I’d be tempted to use a random pull of car types during a session.
- Maybe in the first pair of cars it’s two salt hoppers. Our host, the engine, invites them on stage by drawing them out if staging.
- We unload the hoppers and they remain on stage while we answer the door to invite the next round of guests in.
- Depending on what is in that next pair we have to plan how we balance cars on the layout.
Finally, that salt pit is only one hopper bay at a time so even just unloading two cars involves some play steps:
- Run around cars
- Position first bay in place
- Unload
- Ahead to next bay
That’s pretty predictable but those bays aren’t always cooperative so it might be fun to introduce a timer or maybe a dice roll. Maybe we can’t open that bay now so we off-spot this particular car to deal with later.
Part of why this feels so attractive is because, as I mentioned, my relationship with the layout is maturing. I didn’t want to define its identity too precisely so it would have the freedom to develop itself as we grew together. That’s happening. The other part is no doubt that earliest reason: though my interest in the railway has been significant my exploration of it as a model railway has been mostly centred around the LaValley era and yard. In work, we serve these stories and they shape us so, no doubt, it feels comforting to consider them as we explore our future.
Rereading this post, this morning, I realised that another reason why I am contemplating the LaValley edit is environmental so added the above sketch. Coy lives in front of a window. It does not block the window and sits at the same height as that window’s ledge. Above all else, the view from here is too beautiful to obscure by anything.
Where the Coy mill itself would be (at F) is in front of a real life brick column. I always thought there would be a neat interplay between that real life brick echoing into the brick on the model. That sharing of media would ground or connect the model to our home.
BCD plus E extends the deep window ledges into the space. It’s this region that benefits the most by letting the land downward. It’s always been a fun novelty that the bridge, in the original drawing at E, not only creates the obstruction for an operating session but also a bridge connecting one region of the layout to another.
This contemplation is not just the decoration of the layout but a chance to explore the relationship between the model railway and where it lives; how we share the space.
Categories: Coy Paper (HO) model railway, How I think
Prince Street 
You know at least, if you decide on the La Valley edit, you’ll have the sketch of Coy…
Happy to play about and do one for La Valley too btw…
That sketch of Coy is always a beautiful thing to have and I’m always proud of it. That a design stands proud of its relationship to any product inspired by it always represents its value and the importance of distinguishing design as more than fuel consumed by production.