Your first scratchbuilt structure

[cv_acr]

Here's mine, which I built from cereal box cardboard when I was still in elementary school.

http://vanderheide.ca/blog/2014/12/15/first-scratchbuild/

[Ray Dunakin]

Wow, great viaduct!

 

My first scratch-built structures were built when I was a teenager, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. They "near N" scale -- I didn't have a scale ruler so I made them to 1/16" to the foot. I don't remember exactly which one was built first, but I think it was  coal mine and tipple. There was also a Victorian house, and maybe one or two others. 

As my skills improved I moved on to 1/8" scale, and eventually got a scale ruler and started building in HO scale. All of these structures were on small dioramas, since I had no room or money for a model railroad. At some point, being a teenager, I decided to eliminate my early works by stuffing firecrackers into them.   :)

[mlehman]

Tom,

What photo hosting site are you using? That will help with guidance on the specific hosting service you use.

Generally, the hosting site will automatically generate several different links. There's oftne one called "forum code" or something similar which is the first thing to try. However, if that doesn't work, try the other until you find the one that works here. For instancde, I use ImageShack and neither the "forum" or "alt" forum codes work IIRC, which is why I use the "direct" code here.

To place the image in your posting here, you should see a series of options on top of the "Post Body" entry form. Mine has three rows of toolbars. You want the middle group of three in the third (bottom) toolbar. Click on the small pic of the mountain and star and you will get a pop-up box to enter your pic code from the pic hosting website. Paste the code in, hit OK, and after a moment the pics should appear wherever your cursor is sitting in the "Post Body" form. Remember that you may need to "allow pop-ups" if your browser setting have been set to prevent them in order to get the pop-up  pic posting form.

[E-L man tom]

I've got pictures of mine, but, as usual I'm having trouble posting pictures on this forum. All of the instructions I've been given just don't jive. When I follow them, the menus, icons, etc. don't appear as described in the instructions. What pictures I have posted have mostly been via cut and paste, but they come out distorted (help!!)

Anyway, my first effort was a fairly complex (for a first effort) grain elevator/feed mill, complete with silos. Sure wish I could show it here. Very frustrating!! 

["JaBear"]

mlehman

Heck, Bear's is even quite impressive

Yeah, it is quite impressive, had a lot of good feed back over the years, but I should point out that I was 4 & a bit x 11 when I built it, a friend had an laser engraver which we programmed to do the brick work above the road level, it had no fiddly little parts, I only needed safety glasses not magnifying ones, and required absolutely no finesse from the myself, all in all a very suitable first project for a Bear. 

I’m told that some of the club want to scrap the layout as they believe a flat small table top would be more suitable for kids; they don’t even let kids “drive” anymore. The current Club Captain is against scrapping it but has said if he’s out voted he will see that I get the viaduct back, and while I thought stone viaducts were more of a British thing, the Starrucca Viaduct proves me wrong, again, so I’ll make sure it has a good home.  

mlehman

People should give scratchbuilding a try if they've been wondering about their capabilities. More than likely, it will have a few flaws, but the good will surely outweigh the bad. Then the next project will build on the first and so on and so forth. You'll gain confidence and skills as you go and look forward to solving the challenge each new projecft brings.

 I’d totally endorse your comments fully Mike, but as I’ve said before just because I’ve spent most of my working life using my hands, it would be terribly remiss of me to expect everyone else to be able too, and so if someone finds scratch building isn’t their thing, so be it, enjoy the hobby with what suits them best.

Good stuff everyone.

Cheers, the Bear.  

[hon30critter]

Dennis:

That looks good. What did you use for the corregated roof?

Dave

[hon30critter]

John:

Lots of good work on your blog. I can definately see an improvement in your scratchbuilding skills as you progressed.

I'm at the same point re having built almost all of the structures that I need for my layout. However, having seen the quality of work done by others on the forum, I am tempted to re-do a few of them that I didn't put quite enough thought into originally.

Dave

[rdgk1se3019]

My first totally scratchbuilt structure........yard office for my RR.

 

[mlehman]

Nice work, everyone. It's really pretty interesting that so many first efforts came out so presentable. Heck, Bear's is even quite impressive!

ACY

I had fun. I was around 11 years old, I think. You learn by doing, and that was a learning experience.

Exactly. I'm sure it was a satisfying experience for you, even if there aren't any surviving pics.

People should give scratchbuilding a try if they've been wondering about their capabilities. More than likely, it will have a few flaws, but the good will surely outweigh the bad. Then the next project will build on the first and so on and so forth. You'll gain confidence and skills as you go and look forward to solving the challenge each new projecft brings.

[hon30critter]

This is my first scratchbuild (I think). It is built from pine slabs cut on my radial arm saw. I didn't sand the slabs well enough so there are some saw marks. The ice chutes are too high in the wall as well, but that I will correct once I know the elevation of the track in front:

Dave

[ACY Tom]

Mine is long gone, the victim of many moves over the years.  It was a freelance interlocking tower inspired by an MR plan in the 1950's.  The material was rough cardstock, and I think there may have been more glue & paint than cardboard in the final product.  But I had fun.  I was around 11 years old, I think.  You learn by doing, and that was a learning experience.

Tom

[BRVRR]

This is the earliest scratch built structure I have a photo for. It was made from some thin pressed board, clear document protectors and white glue. It was located where my cow pasture and windmill are now. It was lighted and didn't look too bad in the dark.

Saugatuck Station.

It stayed on the layout for

["JaBear"]

This viaduct is my first scratch building attempt. The club was building a new portable DC layout for Thomas the Tank Engine so that at shows kids could “drive” Thomas and his friends. To that end we wanted a flat track but wanted more than just a table top 6’ x 4’ and to give the illusion of vertical, decided to go to the floor at one end of the layout, and have a mountain at the other end.

I checked out that the height was not too implausible; there is a viaduct in Wales that is taller, and did a drawing. The materials used were 4”x 2” timber, 3mm MDF, and card. The main tool used was a Dremel with a dentists bit. I can’t remember how long it took, it was a fair while, but I reckon the result was well worth it.

Cheers, the Bear.

[peahrens]

I started small, a simple loading dock:

[mlehman]

This was my first scratchbuild, a station that now serves in Hesperus. I built it from a planbook (will try to locate) when I was living in Germany as an AF brat. It's also the only model I've ever entered in a contest, where it won 1st place in the youth structure division IIRC at a meet in Frankfurt. So far, that seems to have satisfied any need for contesting, but certainly not scratchbuilding.

The front

The back

The battens are all hand cut and applied, windows and doors all scratched. I think the only manufactured parts were the pinheads used for doorknobs.

EDIT: OK, located the plan. It's from an aticle by Joe Wilhelm called "Sammll Town Station" that was the first plan included in the classic "Easy to Build Model Railroad Structures" edited by Willard V. Anderson of MR. It originally appeared in "Model Trains." The planbook was first published in 1958 and mine is the 4th printing with the price of $1.

Looking through it, I see another structure I still have, a wedge shaped warehouse, which is the Crooke's hardware warehouse in Silverton now. It's the warehouse behind the brown Rio Grande RBL in the middle right side of the pic.

I remember building the station first, now. It's possible I built the warehouse first, because it's simpler and my memory isn't trustyworthy that far back. So I've got it covered anyway, one or the other is first.

[BATMAN]

Great idea for a thread.

The first one in my MRR reincarnation was this bridge. I wanted a girder bridge to span a large cut where the track was curved. No one had one on the market so I built my own.

My first thought was, a girder bridge would never be that long unsupported. I then started going to prototype RR engineering sites and discovered the longest unsupported girder bridge built was a 172' long. They had pic's and I was off to the races, knowing something similar and longer than mine did exist in real life.

How the curve was dealt with.

Had to add fake rivets.

Test fitting on the layout.

 

[JDL56]

What was your first scratchbuilt structure? This was mine, made many years ago. It's pretty basic, and isn't being used on my present layout. But I can't bring myself to throw it away, either. 

I've posted some thoughts about scratchbuilding and kitbashing on my blog, together with other photos of first-time and current efforts. 

http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.ca/2014/12/scatchbuilding-and-kitbashing-on-m-m-sub.html 

John Longhurst, Winnipeg