There is a feed and seed mill just east of my real Nova Scotia layout area. It is located in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia. I will build it from the plans for "Bunn's feed and seed plant," E.L. Moore, Model Railroader, August 1973, pp. 34-37. I am doing it old-school by using handcut lumber from real Atlantic Ocean driftwood gathered from West Jeddore, Nova Scotia. Here are some pictures I took tonight (April 26, 2017) as I work in my little lumber mill.
Lots of nice wood grain patterns.
Other sides.
Pretty good thickness consistency.
Average about four planks per log of this diameter.
I just checked out the issue you referenced. Looks like it will be an interesting build, clap board siding, along with tin, and rolled roofing.
Anxious to see your progress and build photos. I love scratch building, but have yet to take it to your level.
Mike.
My You Tube
I do suspect that "things" won't scale down.
But I also suspect that there's a lot of fun happening here. I do look forward to further reports.
Ed
OldSchoolScratchbuilder:
I am admiring your efforts all round! Your 'planks' made in your mitre box are really neat. In a sense, the process is actually very prototypical.
I have a pile of fallen branches from our neighbours' birch trees waiting for yard waste pickup day. I'm tempted to take a closer look.
Regards,
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
The second log that I cut last night smelled like spruce. As you can see from the pictures the wood is dry and in good shape inside. Today I am going to cut the planks down to HO scale lumber the best I can. The only dimension that is tough of course is the thickness but even there, I shouldn't be too bad.
Coffee is on this morning and I am about to cut the planks from 2 logs, into near HO scale lumber. The thickness that gave me zero breakage is less than 2 mm (6 inches in HO). This will be my standard but can easily be reduced to 1 mm (3 inches HO) with a little sanding.
Now I apply the magic of The Chopper to cut 1.5"-length boards (about 12' HO). This will also be my standard length cut.
One last cut to make - board width.
Final boards will be about 12" wide (HO).
So, from 2 logs I cut more than 50 near HO scale pieces of lumber that are ready for construction. I am delighted with this technique and result.
Got a routine now. Only takes about 10 minutes to cut a log into about 25 HO pieces of lumber.
The size of each 12' piece of lumber is shorter than a match. Why not use matches you might ask? Because I don't want to say I built all my structures with lumber manufactured by Eddy Match Company Limited in Pembroke, Ontario, Canada (the area I grew up in). I want to say I cut my own Nova Scotia driftwood timbers by hand and built every wooden structure in the layout! Now, coffee break is over at the lumber mill so back to work.
Once I finish assembling a wall for the seed and feed plant, I will sand the entire substructure thinner to about 3" HO. Then I will be able to also say each piece of lumber is quite reasonably HO scale. This is pretty good for me given that all of my fingers have advanced arthritis in the joints. If I can do it, so can you - if you want!
Cutting all driftwood lumber to the proper dimensions. Also using my glass cutting equipment to make real glass windows for this wall.
I am going to experiment with a 'wallpaper' approach to building an exterior wall as shown in this picture. Each piece is cut to the appropriate dimensions then glued in place, including on the backing paper. When all the pieces have been placed I will fill the cracks and then sand the wall down to a nice finish and more realistic HO thickness (about half of the current thickness).
The windows will be trimmed and stained glass panes installed. The door will open and close electronically from the layout control panel.
While I was hiking for many hours collecting a lot of coal today, I realized what I liked most about the model railroad hobby. I am not so much interested in running trains or building a big layout, rather, I am interested in product development. So, now that I can do an unfinished wall like this one in about 1 hour, I am going to make enough end walls for about 5 buildings.
Given that a new tax year starts tomorrow, I think I'll talk to the provincial government about a licence to collect raw materials for busines purposes (fine art). All of my products will be HO scale animated structures, handmade from natural Nova Scotia materials. Although HO scale, they can also be modified slightly to appeal to tourists and arts and crafts stores. Yep, that's what I think I'll do.
Cape Blomidon sandstone filler is drying. Hopefully I'll be able to start sanding this side today to bring out the real wood grains with filler in all the cracks. Fingers crossed it doesn't all fall apart!