Meet Al, the scratchbuilding dude

[FJ and G]

If anyone says they are bored “playing” with trains, go talk to Al, who goes by scratch b rules. He will get your interest stimulated with some scratchbuilding ideas.

http://www.scratch-b-rules.smugmug.com/

I spoke to Al the other day from the Pentagon, where my cell phone went out of range. So, I had to go to the fifth floor near the roof. When I called him, he too was on the roof, literally, in 18 degree temps with howling wind in New Hampshire, doing a roofing job (he also bartends and for chow, he catches fish, which I think he shares with his bulldog mastiff).

Al sent me his tower to model on my under-construction layout, which is pictured here, with the sun rising behind the mountains on the Tequilla Sunrise subdivision of the Santa Fe (light comes up behind the mountains) with 2-rail track and a thin wire running down the center.

Well, I don’t have my notes I took so I’ll try to give you the skinny on Al’s work from memory.

First off, Al eschews buying out of box stuff. It’s just too much fun making it, he says. Even die-hard scratchbuilders buy their mulleins or whatever they are called, that comprise the window frames and door parts. Not Al, he does it all himself.

Everything in this tower, except for the glazing, little guy and electronics, is wood. The warmth of wood over styrene is undeniable. Wood rocks!

He cut everything from balsa with an exacto and metal ruler and simply glued together the parts, with the aid of an angle to square everything up. The paint is oil-based. The electronics involved are simple: a bulb connected to 12 v DC source. Glazing was plastic from pkg a tool came in.

I too enjoy wood as a construction medium but the only thing I do differently is rip my wood with a table saw, as I found you can cut things paper-thin. But Al’s work is the best. He has modeled many structures. This one took about a week.

Al takes his camera out and photographs old buildings and works from that. No fancy plans! Cept for his good builder’s eye. The tower plans he took from a picture in an HO catalog.

So next time you get bored watching your trains loop round and round and round the ole oval, get yourself some scrap wood and paint, and jin up some custom structures.

[Eriediamond]

Great post Dave. I love the layout pictures. Makes me think of an indoor garden railroad in miniature. Thanks, Ken

[TurboOne]

I love the little guy sitting there. He has a very real expression on his face.

The model is awesome. Good job Al

Tim