Large Scale Central

Jail for Durango

My grandson came to visit from Florida for a few days. We got to run trains and he went off into imagination land coming up with all kinds of things for me to build. We settled on a jail for the town of Durango as something that wasn’t so hard it would be difficult to make progress. He stuck with me through most of the framing and even clicked the trigger on the nail gun. At 7, I was pretty carefully setting it up and controlling the safety, and he got nowhere near the bandsaw :-).

Started yesterday, and here’s where I am so far today (cartoons won out over helping, though he continued to provide a torrent of suggestions):

Looking at some pictures of old ghost town buildings, I thought I’d take a try at adding some interesting awning supports:

I probably did those in the most labor intensive way possible (lots of filing to create square holes). A little out of scale for the trim I’m sure but it is maybe ok for a 10’ building.

Have to create bars for the windows, put in the door and front window, do roof treatments, and am interesting in trying a Ray Dunakin faded sign technique for the JAIL sign on the front. Current plan is to not paint this and let it weather. As most of my stuff so far, this is redwood.

Cheers!

Nice porch posts !

Thanks Rooster. That’s the part where I suspect I used the most labor intensive possible method. At least I still have all my fingers…

Nice Job!

Edited to ask: What kind of wood is that?

Joe Zullo said:

Nice Job!

Edited to ask: What kind of wood is that?

I probably did those in the most labor intensive way possible (lots of filing to create square holes). A little out of scale for the trim I’m sure but it is maybe ok for a 10’ building.

Have to create bars for the windows, put in the door and front window, do roof treatments, and am interesting in trying a Ray Dunakin faded sign technique for the JAIL sign on the front. Current plan is to not paint this and let it weather. As most of my stuff so far, this is redwood.

Cheers!

Joe you are not reading

oh, oh!

these posts are too good an idea!

now my future builds will take even more time than very long.

well done!

Mick Benton said:

Joe Zullo said:

Nice Job!

Edited to ask: What kind of wood is that?

I probably did those in the most labor intensive way possible (lots of filing to create square holes). A little out of scale for the trim I’m sure but it is maybe ok for a 10’ building.

Have to create bars for the windows, put in the door and front window, do roof treatments, and am interesting in trying a Ray Dunakin faded sign technique for the JAIL sign on the front. Current plan is to not paint this and let it weather. As most of my stuff so far, this is redwood.

Cheers!

Joe you are not reading

You are correct. I missed that.

I like the rough cut look of that building. Will your grandson and you be staging jail breaks that will take to the rails where the cops run down the fugitive?

Todd, that is an excellent suggestion. It won’t be too hard for the cops since I only have geared locos, but it might be fun anyway! :slight_smile:

The great locomotive chase at 12.673 Miles Per Hour.

Jail for Durango? Jail would be too good for that … oh wait… I get it.

Nice work and a fun project.

Jim Rowson said:

Todd, that is an excellent suggestion. It won’t be too hard for the cops since I only have geared locos, but it might be fun anyway! :slight_smile:

and don’t forget that there is usually a reason why a bad guy goes to jail in the first place. Can you say train robbery? making the roof removable on the jail and building a jail cell will add to the fun.

I wonder where you can get some action figure characters for this fun.

Today I spent some more time on the jail: bars on the cell windows and the JAIL sign.

The bars were built using styrene:

Paint is currently drying, install tomorrow:

The JAIL sign is being done using a stencil cut out of some self-adhesive paper that can be inkjet printed. Here’s the final stencil, including the small bit of sponge used to dab on the paint:

The center of the A was a separate piece. Here is a paper version being test fit, and below is the self adhesive sheet ready to be cut using a brand new xacto blade:

And after dabbing on paint using the sponge:

After drying overnight, I will probably use a sanding stick on it to make it a bit less even, and dry brush the entire structure with some grimy black. Maybe an India ink wash too. Certainly some rust on the cell window bars.

I’m hoping that as this weathers outside the wood gets dark faster than the paint :-). I’m hoping I did this Ray Dunakin style sign right. So far it seems ok.

Cheers!

A few things added today…

Faded the JAIL sign a bit more, dry brushed on some flat black and grime, and added a “tar paper” awning:

Also added a spitoon with some indications that people aren’t so good at spitting their tobacco:

Installed and rusted the bars on the cell windows:

And finally started experimenting with adding bird guano on the top ridge board. Any suggestions on how to do this better? Rooster? :slight_smile:

Cheers!

Fun!

We are getting a cheap, hobby-sized 4" circular saw this summer on one of my CONUS runs, and something like this is a good starting point for the Triple O’s next building idea!

Aloha,

Eric

Last few bits done, so this jail is hereby finished other than putting it out on the layout.

Door and window:

And corrugated metal roof:

The grandson is supposed to be here tomorrow again so I’ll get a truly critical eye on this. If I start over, I’ll let you know :slight_smile:

Cheers!

Nice job, Jim! How are you liking the Tru-Color paints?

Thanks Gregory. I am not terribly experienced with a wide variety of paints, but so far the Tru-Color paints are working fine for me. They seem to work in my airbrush right out of the bottle. As a neophyte airbrusher that was a plus. Not the cheapest paint around I am guessing. the colors are supposed to be accurate (at least they are named to imply they are matches to specific road names). Hard for me to tell.

Outstanding job Jim.

Eric Mueller said:

Fun!

We are getting a cheap, hobby-sized 4" circular saw this summer on one of my CONUS runs, and something like this is a good starting point for the Triple O’s next building idea!

Aloha,

Eric

Get the strongest motor you can. Like a dull knife being more dangerous than a sharp one, an under powered saw can lead to questionable practices… Same with a dull blade, if your cut wanders… could be dull.