A possible scratch build project for richotrain.

[Capt. Grimek]

Well...I've just got to say this, Rich. After all of the generous help and time you have given to me and other's projects you deserve no less!  Hope you get your project the way you envision it.  Pretty cool thread/pics, JaBear.

Jim

[Motley]

Wow this is great, I'm looking forward to seeing how Rich can build this. Really cool stuff.

[Steven S]

NittanyLion

One of my backburner ideas is the PRR fruit terminal in Pittsburgh that's a staggering quarter of a mile long, but made up of dozens of the same 25ish foot panel.

 

Got a pic?  A google search turned up nothing. 

[NittanyLion]

How long would one of those 6-panel molds be?  Might be a bit unwieldy at that size.

One of my backburner ideas is the PRR fruit terminal in Pittsburgh that's a staggering quarter of a mile long, but made up of dozens of the same 25ish foot panel.  A similiar endeavour.

[richhotrain]

Wow, where do I start?

First of all, I am most appreciative that JaBear would start this new thread on my behalf.

Second of all, I feel a little bad that Frank and I inadvertently hijacked Steven Otte's thread as we waxed nostalgic about 1950's Chicago - - LOL.   No telling what repercussions may come from that!

Third of all, JaBear clearly captured the essence of those windows and drawers in his drawings.   Nicely done.

Fourth of all, Mike's suggestion to cast a mold is pure genius.  I never even thought of that.  What a money saver that would be.

I need to study this thread a little more, and I look forward to any further replies.

Rich

[mlehman]

Bear,

I could see building one of the six-units sections as a master, then making a mold from it and casting the sections in plaster. It a pretty forgiving and cheap method. The master could even be made by hacking up suitable brick building sides from DPM or made up of the Walthers (IIRC, these have been discontinued??) or other modular walls.

I agree that the ~4' long compressed version you calculated should be big enough to be as impressive as the original. Of course, once Rich has a mold, it would be easy to make it even longer.

[rrebell]

Looks like it was made with DPM modular parts dementions wouldn't be exact but close enough.

["JaBear"]

Like a bear in a china shop I have taken the liberty of starting this thread as the topic was starting to occupy a lot of space here ....  

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/239243.aspx?page=1

                       

... and I believe is worthy of its own thread any way. I just hope Rich doesn’t mind and also that others might contribute their valuable insights, or  methods.

Rich posted this picture...

... and posed the question, “How would you go about scratch building this structure?” to which there have been a couple of good answers.

The building foot print is as follows, the single story section was 474’ long, the two story section 288’ long, and both 60’ wide.

Converted to HO scale that would mean a combined foot print of 105.20”x 8.30”. Rich indicated that he was looking at the building occupying an area of 52” x 4”, and that the building should appear as it was in its heyday in the 1950s.

.Rich has not indicated, or been asked, how close to the prototypical dimensions, apart from the actual shortening of the building, he wishes to stick to, I am referring to door, window size and the like.

If he was wishing to be accurate then I’d suggest that he look for a better photo, or even plans, if the appropriate historical society had them, but I’ve made do with the photo supplied, and am working on the “Looks about right” principle.

So I am making the presumption that Rich would use as many available detail parts as possible, rather than scratch building the lot. (If the freight to this part of the world wasn’t so expensive, I certainly would.)

The first thing I did was draw the dimensions of the available doors and windows on the top left of the initial drawing, then with a 6” rule, MkI eyeball, and a reasonable amount of guesstimation came up with the following.

Looking at the photo, there is a repeated pattern of six panels, presumably the same along the whole bottom story, and I’m also presuming that the top story panel is replicated along its length. The dimensions I’ve come up with for one 6 panel section is smaller than the prototype, the single story having five 6 panel sections for its 474” length, whereas five of my 6 panel sections would only be 340” long. The apparent scale compression is purely accidental on my part, though i should shut up and claim it was my great ability.

Anyhow if I was using my drawing, I would use 2 of the two story 6 panel sections and 3 of the 6 panel single story sections which would give a building length of 46.25”

From the photo I just could not tell what those arched opening actually were,  are they single doors or have they been boarded up. Either way I couldn’t find an available commercial door that suited, and have drawn double doors with a curved transom window above just because I liked the idea.

Even though I omitted the awning for clarity, on reflection I may, if it has too great an angle, be cutting it a little fine.

That’s more than enough from me at this time,

Cheers, the Bear.