Muddle in the Middle of Montreal Street - Solved!

In this post from 2020, I shared my muddle about what was going on, or not going on, in the middle of Montreal Street. More accurately, a distant corner of the layout that was largely unreachable, and had become a laundry basket in which elements were thrown, but not organized. Elements of Division, Rideau, Railway and Montreal Streets. Fortunately, I'm now able to go back and resolve some of these issues, and I consider this muddle now solved.

There's a lot going on in a 1964 aerial photo of the area in question, to which I've added some labelling (top photo - Queen's University Archives, Kingston Whig-Standard Fonds, V142.1-60) shows the CP line cutting across horizontally, CN's Hanley Spur diagonally at bottom, then (C)ohen's scrap yard, (M)acCosham and (G)amble-Robinson on (R)ailway Street meeting (M)ontreal Street on which we find (Q)uattrocchi's and (K-D) Manufacturing with its multiple Quonset-style buildings.

Something had to stay, something had to go. I've successfully sited Frontenac Floor & Wall Tile, Quattrocchi's and Cohen's in this corner (below). Unfortunately, Gus Marker Cement (now The Big White Space) had to go. It was a good space filler, but was located on geographically-distant Division Street on the prototype. I was spotting a lot of modern Center-Flow covered hoppers there - a car type I have a lot of, and really like - but that are not really prototypical. 

All was not lost, because I was adding two-plus new businesses. And doing some road work, that perpetual Kingston activity! I'd always wondered why I'd found references to several car spots, especially on the CP, in this area. The two oval areas in the top photo show why. Some transitory businesses were located here, including team track unloading directly from rail-to-truck. So, I repurposed the Gus Marker spur, now calling it Quintane Gas. It's  neat prototype name, though I've found little prototype information on the business so far. Their propane tank is visible inside the right-hand oval, with a tank car spotted there. Two CP spurs (FF&WT joint with CN) and the lead are at rear, with CN's Hanley Spur passing the tannery in the foreground:

I've connected this layout-edge road over the tracks, and it now extends to the corner. It's painted foamcore, screwed down with Robertson screws and joined by modelling clay:

The road over the last two CP crossings beyond Quattrocchi's, with FF&WT at right. Now, to build the level crossings. The Big White Space awaited. The keystone of this corner was the new K-D Manufacturing structure I'd just completed:

More on the K-D build in the next post. Once I had the dimensions of the main building, I was able to start scenicking the corner. That included trying a backdrop of the actual Montreal Street, blending the road colour lighter into the corner. That large fertilizer plant (!) in the adjoining backdrop may be covered up by trees or other buildings.

The term 'selective compression' is often used by model railroaders. It's the process by which elements of large buildings are shrunk to fit available space. I prefer my own term, 'selective selectivism'. That's my process by which I incorporate elements of the prototype, resulting in a signature structure that approximates, but may not be a scale model of the prototype. With space always a challenge, there are next to no Hanley Spur buildings that I can model in scale! Now, in this corner....