Large Scale Central

2014 Mik Challenge -- St Francis Yard Office and Tower

Modeling
#1

This is my combined thread with pictures for my build…the other one I started before I realized we were putting all pictures in one thread per build. Geez. Sorry about that.

Here are the pictures from the magazines which are the inspiration for my yard office/tower/freight dock. This structure will be placed in the new freight yard I’m laying out. I’m putting an old-time passenger combine car and a boxcar together end-to-end inspired by a two-boxcar side-by-side build I saw in a magazine, but I can’t find that article right now, and the ones below are my main focus really. The yard tower is built into the combine and boxcar.

These pictures are from Model Railroader November and December 1958 and represent an article by Jack Work and a build by Jack Leming based on another article by Jack Work, and a picture in the January 2012 Model Railroader showing a building with a tower integrated into a trackside (literally) building by a modeller named Dan Cole from Tennessee.

Now it’s time to get all the materials gathered.

#2

Very cool design. I like the look of old re-used box cars.

Terry

#3

That will be a nice build and a perfect use for the door. Looking forward to it.

#4

Well then, I have most of the supplies assembled. So far the only thing I think I need to go out and buy is some scale clapboard siding for the tower from Caboose Hobbies. I thought I had some, but I guess not. I have all the rest of the scrap windows and scale lumber I need. The box car on the left is one that I used to experiment with various paints and weathering effects.

The arrangement of the two cars and the flat car (for the deck) is the basic structure; the tower will be to the right of the mail door on the passenger car (yard office). The structure will be literally trackside and the level of the floors will be the level of the floor of a passing train.

Thanks for your comments. I’ve been following the other builds and they are looking very promising, lots of skill around here!

#5

Should do your yard well

#6

Dave and Joe … more pictures tonight!!!

Thanks to John LeF. and Alan from England and for your kind comments.

p.s. I combined two posts into this one to avoid confusion.

#7

Okay then…here is the yard I am installing…it is about 35 feet long, five or six feet wide, with access from both sides. Feel free to comment on my design. I’m hoping you can see in one of the pictures a blank board with red exes on it…that is the spot where the yard office/tower will go, at the beginning of the yard. I am modelling a small mountain freight yard (this ain’t the hump yard in Nebraska!). Following these three pictures are pictures of my build progress.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/yard2.jpg)

Now here are pictures of the cars primed with a ramp in position…I tacked a piece of the siding I bought today in where the tower will go up. Hope it makes sense. So far I spent $9.98.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/prime4.jpg)

I’m trying different paint schemes. Sorry for the lousy pictures but I can’t go outside to take pictures…it’s night out and it’s snowing.

#8

A very interesting build. Keep at it.

#9

Okay, I got the two structures joined, painted (more or less), and I made, installed, and painted the corrugated roofing for both. I spent at least two hours with the dremel tool cutting off bits and pieces of the models, shaving down various tabs and burrs and posts, etc etc etc. before I could even get this far. Man. So now I started the tower structure.

Here’s the roofing…I use the mechanical tube ringer I use at work and the materials are the empty paint tubes themselves. I spray them all a silver paint or the galvanized paint (but I hate that stuff it’s really a mess), cut everything to fit, and paint for the final appearance. There’s more yellow ochre in the office roof because it’s a newer roof and there’s still some original silver/gray showing through. The older roof over the warehouse has more burnt sienna and black. That’s it.

So here’s a few more pictures of my progress:

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/builde.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/buildf.jpg)

Here’s a cuople of pictures of the back side of the buildings…they needed more wall space for maps and such inside the office so the back windows are boarded over except for the the bathroom window.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/buildg.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/buildh.jpg)

#10

Neat!!! Really like the corrugated roofing.

Tom

#11

Here’s a couple more pictures. I feel like it is finally starting to come together. The tower is going up, the structures are together and up on cribs to the height of a freight car, I replaced the interior flooring on both the office and the warehouse with wood planks. I think I may wait until I’m about 80% to post any more pictures, maybe not.

#12

I had thought about using a box car as the basis of my Challenge, John. But I found the plans for a tower so I went for the tower,

I doubt very much if I could have achieved the detail you are manging with your project, Look great.

#13

Looking rough John like it is already 100 years old.

:slight_smile:

#14

Alright then, I’ve made a little more progress, got the decks built out stick-by-stick and the little coal bunker which I imitated loosely from the article. Made more progress on the tower, a little more clapboard siding and the top windows to go. I haven’t decided on a roof yet. I like the shingle roof on the challenge gas station build, which is a really nice build by the way. There are some fantastic challenges going on.

I have a lot of painting to do obviously, but I thought I’d post a couple of pictures of the decks and all before painting them.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/b2.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/b3.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/b4.jpg)

Thanks for all your kind comments and encouragement; it helps when this is your first time participating. I’m also open to suggestions or constructive criticism.

#15

Really coming together for you John. I like the broken stairway.

#16

Very nicely done. Very good choice of colors. Really like the cool tower too.

Doc Tom

#17

Well, I got a chance to work some on my project this weekend; stayed up WAY too late last night that’s for sure. Oh no.

Here’s some pictures taken indoors on the workbench, so the lighting isn’t all that great. This picture shows the raw materials for the roof of the tower. The windows I stole from an LGB passenger station kit which my godson an i started a while back which never came close to getting finished and never will. F or some reason I don’t do well with kits; I either need to build it myself or buy something already assembled then modify it.

Here is the roof all painted and put together.

I raided my box of details and added some items in the doorway of the warehouse:

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/next3a.jpg)

Here’s how the coal bunker is turning out, with some real coal in the bunker and some painting, with the painted wheelbarrow and the shovels. I can’t stand that the wheelbarrow and shovels are out of proportion, more like 1:20 than the 1:24–1:29 of most of the rest of the project, but it isn’t that noticeable in the overall scheme. It is really annoying that there are so many different scales within what is supposedly g-scale; the guy who sold me these details swore they were 1:24. Right. Eventually I have learned to simply get actual measurements from sellers and then decide for myself what scale it is.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/next5.jpg)

For my initial ground cover/dirt I use mine tailings I get by the bucket-full from up at abandoned gold mines up at Central City here not far from Denver. As you can see from this picture (I hope) It’s very light, but I really like the color of it once it has been soaked down with glue…it turns a medium-deep yellow ocher that it very pleasing I think, and in keeping with the mountain terrain of my yard.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/next6.jpg)

I soak the tailings down in water with a little dishwashing detergent, then I really soak the areas with white polymer glue diluted two-thirds water one-third glue.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/next7.jpg)

Here’s an overall view of my progress:

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/next8.jpg)

Here’s another overall view:

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/stfrancisconsolidatedrr/next9.jpg)

So that’s it for now. Thanks for your comments. I must say that I have made every dang mistake in the book and have had to do a lot of this twice…for instance, I now have to take the entire tower down and re-orient it because it lists to the rear like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. What a pain. I think I’m going to try to make a better commitment to making sure things are right the first time from now on when I can.

#18

Wow, that looks very nice John!

#19

Your build is really unique. The colours are perfect. Well done.

Don’t forget to put a current photo in the build challenge update thread.

#20

Wow, I got to do a lot better on my model to beat this one. Excellent John.