As a result of moving a few buildings around; I have a large hole to fill in the old town area of Hardspot. This is turn-of-the-20th-Century silver mining in the Colorado mountains.
I thought (often gets me in trouble) that I would document the process of designing and building a "simple" structure as it could help others. I use simple cardboard for the basic design stage to test fit and overall size and function. The cardboard structure will be the model when I build out of plastic and wood. I start with a piece of cardboard cut to the overall footprint of the area to be used. White glue is used to hold some of the pieces together - everything is just sitting on the cardboard footprint piece. The dock, wood sidewalk, coal bin and store are individual assemblies. Doors and windows are just tacked on the cardboard.
This is the starting point on the layout:
The model in place for coal unloading:
The model in place for box car (wood) unloading:
The front:
The right side (next to sheriff office):
Note that the coal storage bin shows and that it is possible to get a wagon in for loading of large amounts (not bags of coal). You can see the conveyor and how it pulls from the under-track pit to dump in the storage bin.
The back side (buts up to the ties on the track). Shown is the conveyor and unloading dock used for box cars. This view also shows some of the open yard space around the conveyor.
The left side showing the covered area to store bundles of wood and sacks of coal. I marked where a door goes with a black pen. Steps up to the dock are in place.
Here it is on the layout.
Does this type of posting actually help anyone or provide useful information? If yes, I will continue as I actually build and install the structure; otherwise I will stop here.
Comments?
Keep the posts coming it is good to see the creative process in action. Very helpful, I have one question, what is the source of power for the coal conveyor? Would they have electricity at this time? I would think they just hired a few strong backs to shovel for some time. Just wondering.
New Haven Railfan wrote: Keep the posts coming it is good to see the creative process in action. Very helpful, I have one question, what is the source of power for the coal conveyor? Would they have electricity at this time? I would think they just hired a few strong backs to shovel for some time. Just wondering.
While manpower was the most common means of moving coal; commercial electricity was becoming available in the early 1900's. As early as the mid 1890's; some local electrical power generation was done. Since the BAH RR needed electricity for it's coaling tower and a few other uses; some "surplus" is available from the coal powered steam engine turned generators owned by the railroad (at least that is my story - an I am sticking to it). The conveyor is powered by electricity; while all of the lights in town are gas or oil.
Thanks for the comments; I think that I will continue this series.
Alan_B wrote: Does this type of posting actually help anyone or provide useful information?
Alan,
Absolutely! As I always seem to enjoy Ken Burn documentaries, the title of the thread grabbed my attention immediately. My other love is creating "How-to" tutorials, with the desire for disseminating to others (hopefully) helpful modeling techniques and discoveries that I've learned in my short time in MRRing.
Alan, I really like what you are doing so far. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your future installments. Are those Rustic Rail oxen pulling that cart?
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
tstage wrote: Alan_B wrote: Does this type of posting actually help anyone or provide useful information? Alan,Absolutely! As I always seem to enjoy Ken Burn documentaries, the title of the thread grabbed my attention immediately. My other love is creating "How-to" tutorials, with the desire for disseminating to others (hopefully) helpful modeling techniques and discoveries that I've learned in my short time in MRRing.Alan, I really like what you are doing so far. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your future installments. Are those Rustic Rail oxen pulling that cart? Tom
I like Burn's documentaries also; however I was not really thinking of him when I coined the name. I guess that subconsciously I came up with Ken when what I was really looking for was Burns to go with coal and firewood.
I will continue the series. My construction methods may not agree with how others' do things; however, it will be a starting point for someone.
The wagon (with oxen) is Musket Miniatures. Not inexpensive at about $9, but I needed (and still do) some wagons. I just spent about $100 for a small sack full of people and wagons and still need a bunch more. At least I am down to detail stuff now.
Keep the pictures of the projects coming. I plan on scratch building "ALL" of my buildings and bridges on my layout. Also my layout will be set in the late 1800's, circa 1890 era centered around both mining and logging towns, and some farming. No motorized vehicles at all, so seeing your project develop and the surronding buildings on your layout really caught my attention.
Woodlandtoots
woodlandtoots wrote: Keep the pictures of the projects coming. I plan on scratch building "ALL" of my buildings and bridges on my layout. Also my layout will be set in the late 1800's, circa 1890 era centered around both mining and logging towns, and some farming. No motorized vehicles at all, so seeing your project develop and the surronding buildings on your layout really caught my attention.Woodlandtoots
I have been documenting construction of my layout. If you have a lot of time; try this thread:
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/1/897748/ShowPost.aspx#897748
I tore down my layout about 15 years ago and am rebuilding with the same theme, buildings, rolling stock and some switches. I have now run out of buildings to re-use.
Alan_B wrote: I tore down my layout about 15 years ago and am rebuilding with the same theme, buildings, rolling stock and some switches. I have now run out of buildings to re-use.
Awwww. Now you're going to have to make better ones. Then your better ones are going to outclass the old ones and you'll have to replace them. A modeler's work is never done.
Creating a mock-up is a good idea. In this case, you can see just how the model will interact with the layout. From what I've seen, this will be your best model yet and will outclass the rest of your layout. (Be careful with that.)
Keep the pics coming. You know eventually, you'll have to have a website.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
SpaceMouse wrote: Alan_B wrote: I tore down my layout about 15 years ago and am rebuilding with the same theme, buildings, rolling stock and some switches. I have now run out of buildings to re-use. Awwww. Now you're going to have to make better ones. Then your better ones are going to outclass the old ones and you'll have to replace them. A modeler's work is never done. Creating a mock-up is a good idea. In this case, you can see just how the model will interact with the layout. From what I've seen, this will be your best model yet and will outclass the rest of your layout. (Be careful with that.) Keep the pics coming. You know eventually, you'll have to have a website.
Just about everything that we do is done "better" the second time around.
I have one more mock up to do for the Between freight building/company store.
Funny about the web site. When I click on the WWW button in my signature block; I go to my web site. I started the site; however, I have not really kept it up to date. It is due for some major work.
PS - what is the engine shown in your reply earlier (this morning) to the post on saving part of your old layout? Kinda looks like a Roundhouse 4-4-0.
Close. It's a MDC-2-6-0.
You know, lately I've been thinking of my own free-lance railroad like yours. It's for some reason, it's easier to get undecorated than SP units.
Now, I need a name. RRRR. Rock Ridge Rail Road owned by Rock Ridge, founder of the town of Rock Ridge and the Rock Ridge Mine. It is only natural that he expands into shipping. I can do an interchange with the SP and keep the solo SP unit I have to run the Daylight passenger train.
I had a couple of hours today to work on this project.
After operating with the cardboard mock up in place; I found that I needed to move the loading dock back away from the tracks just a little bit. The lines in the circle, just above the steps, shows the adjustment needed.
I am using wood for the sidewalk, dock, side deck, steps, and coal bin as I will stain them (no paint). The building will be painted, therefore plastic will be used. Here are the assembled wood parts and the major plastic parts cut. The mock up is shown for comparison.
Here are the front and shop back/sides cut for the doors and windows from my scrap bin.
An overhead view of the sub assemblies in place.
For the following pictures: the sub assemblies are just resting on a glass surface and the doors/windows are held in place with masking tape on the inside of the building.
Front view:
Left side:
Back:
Back right side corner showing the coal bin:
More later !
Comments ?
Great project. A few months back, I built Burns Coal and Oil company, but the "Burns" in this case was C. Montgomery Burns from the Simpsons. I made a cardstock mock-up of the building first, for exactly the same reasons. I wanted to fit the building into the layout and "see how the trains interacted with it."
Are you going to light the interior, or add inside details? It looks like that window is big enough to do a bit of modelling inside, assuming that side faces the aisle and can be seen.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley wrote: Great project. A few months back, I built Burns Coal and Oil company, but the "Burns" in this case was C. Montgomery Burns from the Simpsons. I made a cardstock mock-up of the building first, for exactly the same reasons. I wanted to fit the building into the layout and "see how the trains interacted with it."Are you going to light the interior, or add inside details? It looks like that window is big enough to do a bit of modelling inside, assuming that side faces the aisle and can be seen.
I don't have lights in any of my buildings; I always operate during daylight hours. This building is about 18" back from the front of the layout and can only be seen from the front, with a peek in on the sides (from the front); so I probably will not do anything to the inside of the building. I do plan on fully detailing the outside (as seen from the front and overhead). If it turns out that the small window in the front does allow me to see inside; I will do some minimal inside detailing though.
Update !
I took the morning to go to Caboose Hobbies to pick up "a few things" that I "needed" to finish this project. $ 168 later; I have the figures, a couple of wagons, sacks for sacks-of-coal, real coal for the coal bin, decal sheets and overcoating plus a "few items" for my supply shelf.
The roof is to be corrugated tin. I paint the edge of the roofing with grimy black before I lay the roofing material. It is easier this way and the black disappears when the roof is complete and the building painted. Here is the start of the roofing:
Here is the "finished" roof:
Next is the trim around the front and on the back side. I used 3/32" outside corner in real wood. Here is the front in-process:
Here is the back with a 2 x 10 across the roof line:
The doors, windows and trim will be painted Railroad Tie Brown. Here I have put the first coat on the small loose items and show the building ready for paint.
Some touch up is needed and the trim will be brush painted; but the front is painted Burlington Northern Green.
The roof got a coat of Reefer Gray. Note the hole for the chimney pipe.
That is it for the day; more later.
Another update !
I got a little more done last night and this morning. The basic building is now complete and sits on the layout waiting on the decal ink to dry and further detailing (which will happen after I "plant" it as it is just sitting on top of the ground now).
Here are all of the parts (window glazing is done). The wood decks were stained with a wood stain and then washed with diluted gray paint to give some weathering. Note that the side deck, which is somewhat shaded, is only aged on the outside edge.
Here is a view of the left side with all of the parts attached.
And the rear with all of the parts attached.
As it sits in the layout.
One of the employees tries to chase off a local cat.
Old town in Hardspot with the new addition. I will leave it looking newer than the other buildings next door (I will probably age it some more though). It needs the sign (decal will take another day to dry and be ready to apply) and all of the outside details. The details will be applied after the structure is "planted". I will probably run operations for a while before planting to make sure that everything is OK.
This is probably the last update for a couple of weeks; however, I will answer questions, if any.
Thanks for your interest.
The Hardspot sign painter finally showed up and painted the sign for Ken Burns Coal & FireWood. Funny thing though, the whole building front took on an instant aged look ! Also, the red ink used for Ken Burns turned to brown due to the green building (something to watch out for).
This building and the old town strip are both just sitting on top of the ground. They will get planted in the ground soon. Both need some minor work before that happens.
Have Fun.... Bob.
Bob grech wrote:Alan. I'm glad to see that others besides me are discovering the joys of scratch building. BTW, your project model is coming along nicely! Are those roof panels made from Campbell's corrugated aluminum?
Thanks for the nice comments. I will never make it up to your standards though. I have been building models for over 55 years (started with planes) and probably enjoy this part of the hobby more than the other parts. I do tend to quit on a particular area when it is "good enough". I tend to not notice detail while the trains are actually running. About half of my layout buildings are scratch and the rest are kits.
The roof panels are Campbell's 8' strips cut to 4 x 8 for application and sprayed with reefer gray base coat
Most interesting modeling and thread. Thanks for sharing!
A design/architectural question...
Why not have the conveyor dump the coal onto a platform under the roof rather than on the ground? Then it would be much easier to load wagons or trucks...unless you envision moving the conveyor into the coal bin.
Thanks, Charles
mrb37211 wrote: Most interesting modeling and thread. Thanks for sharing! A design/architectural question...Why not have the conveyor dump the coal onto a platform under the roof rather than on the ground? Then it would be much easier to load wagons or trucks...unless you envision moving the conveyor into the coal bin.Thanks, Charles
A couple of reasons: 1) The coal bin is still too small for a complete load of coal, without losing space to a platform and 2) in 1905 labor was cheap and only 4 legged powered transportation is available. Plus having several tons of coal on a platform could be slightly dangerous with the typical construction used in buildings. Other than having a roof to protect the coal from an occasional rain or snow; it would have typically just been dumped on the ground.
Thanks for the interest.
Two suggestions: (1) Explain ahead of time if you are using a false-front on your building; I could not figure out what the big square panel was for until you painted it; (2) Be sure the background in your photos is a different color than the objects you want us to see.
Otherwise I like what you are doing; have you thought of submitting this as an article to MR?
BRJN wrote: Two suggestions: (1) Explain ahead of time if you are using a false-front on your building; I could not figure out what the big square panel was for until you painted it; (2) Be sure the background in your photos is a different color than the objects you want us to see.Otherwise I like what you are doing; have you thought of submitting this as an article to MR?
Thanks for the comments.
1) I thought that that was obvious from the cardboard mockup.
2) I tried; you should see the "natural" color of my paint stained work bench.
The building is working out well with normal operations. Real detail will have to wait for awhile; however, I did build a coal wagon (color even matches the building, as does the dirver's shirt).