Large Scale Central

2020 Challenge--John Passaro's Signal Tower

The MIK - Annual Build Challenge
#1

Okay, so I know my build for this year’s Challenge. I was looking out on the layout and one space has been sitting there waiting for a structure. Right now I have a plastic kit placeholder there, but always intended something else:

What I’ve intended all along is to make a nice signal tower responsible for the switches in and out of the mining district and the lift bridge down the tracks, maybe a place for mining locomotive crews to spend the night in between jobs.

Here’s a couple of signal towers, although I don’t know what I will make mine out of or what shape it will take yet. I know only that it will have a CHIMNEY! Drawing to follow at some point (on Dave’s schedule!).

Thanks, and I can’t wait to see what everybody comes up with this year.

#2

#3

Is this the winner, John?

#4

Dan Hilyer said:

Is this the winner, John?

Italian opera is more my style!

(But the Blues ain’t bad.)

edit: maybe not my “style” exactly, but it’s what I grew up with! It drives my children crazy; but then their music drives me crazy!

#5

I like that red and white one

#6

Yellow is my vote

#7

Vic Smith said:

Yellow is my vote

Vic and John C…I want the yellow bad, but I printed out a copy and placed it in the area, and the yellow just doesn’t fit in with anything else on my layout; the siding is too frilly also. Dang. I think I’m going with the red and white, and maybe incorporating one of the window bay overhangs, maybe.

Surface-wise, I want to try something different, I don’t know what, learn something new, instead of doing what I’ve done before.

I can’t tell if the bricks on those slanted bases are upright bricks and staggered slightly, or following the contour of the slant, leaning back you could say.

#8

Here’s what I mean:

If it is a batter, but wouldn’t the “ledges” catch rain and snow and destroy the mortar over time?

#9

John:

I’m no expert but it seems to me that it is not going setting back an entire brick width for every layer of brick up, so maybe the mortar is put on at a slant to make it more of a continuous surface, so snow doesn’t build up.

Or maybe it never snowed or rained there. Could happen I guess…

Fun project. I like that “batter” detail.

#10

John, I like the red and white one best … if that means anything … probably doesn’t (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)I think the sloped corner bases are a standard running bond with each successive course stepped back a little bit. If you zoom in to the one on the left you can see the corners stepped back and see the height of each brick. It appears that someone may have tried to smooth the steps on the on on the right or had to make some sort of repair. Is it possible that at one time the white panels on the top were windows giving the operator a 360 degree view? That would look cool.

#11

John…Here is a couple of pics from the tower I built from a couple of Mik’s back.

360 windows on the 2nd floor. all cut stone… Paint the stone to any color you might want…

#12

Jim, I think you’re right. I was prepared to call the city planner, a Mr. Tom Wobbe (618-235-4268) and ask him, but I think the consensus here is correct. The question is how to make those bricks; I’m thinking I might have to use wood and make them look like bricks. It will be a challenge, no pun intended.

Dan, thank you. Good call. I totally missed that. You can see in its current state the windows have been boarded over…maybe to keep those pesky Pana, Illinois, teen-agers from making it a nefarious hang-out:

Dave, seeing as you posted a picture for the public domain (!!), I am stealing your idea lock, stock, and barrel. And, seriously, Dave, I forgot about them, but I need to go back and see how you made that light fixture over the door. I could use about twenty of 'em.

p.s. That outbuilding, or added building, wasn’t in the original, but I’m keeping it, joining it in the interior with the base of the tower so that I can have expanded “living” quarters for train crew overnights between mining runs.

I’m actually getting pretty hyped about making this structure. It should be an interesting part of the layout.

#13

I believe there would be a course of bricks shaped to tilt the rest, to present a smooth face.

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Image result for buttress"

These are exaggerated for clarity.

#14

Okay. Anybody who tells me the internet isn’t the greatest invention in information for the masses since the Gutenberg Bible printed in 1450 has rocks in their head.

I was doing a little more detective work on the brickwork of my tower. I came across a clearer, more-current picture, and I’m frying my brain trying to figure out the dimensions, (estimations of distances time 12 for 12 inches, divided by 24 for 1:24 scale) and I zoomed to see the bricks:

Clearly there is a batter visible on that left edge…BUT…I read the sign and it has the name of the current owners, AND the architect on the restoration. I do a little more detective work. I figure I’ll call the architect and ask him for some dimensions. Get on the internet. Turns out he’s in Nokomis, Illinois–you would think not far from Pana? I snoop around his website a little, and what do you know?, the architectural restoration plans for the tower are right there. I hit the jackpot:

So, I’m thinking this is too good to be true; you can’t read the numbers. Zoom in, and oh yeah, you can, down to the fraction of an inch. Frying my brain with guesswork is done. Or less anyway:

So here’s a napkin drawing of the available space I’m making on my layout in red and the placement of the tower in blue. I intend to make a removable platform out of 1/2" wood the size of 20" by 24" by 10" and make my build on that. Should leave room for parking for the crews and other stuff.

#15

You Do Know John… That is ALMOST like cheating. Almost… The big ? is how you gonna use the chimney?

And Now we ALL know all the little tidbits that are suppose to be on there…LOL

#16

John, those plans are like winning the Model Maker Lottery. Good detective work!

#17

Score. I love it when that happens

#18

You know now, if one brick is out of place, we are going to know!(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#19

John Caughey said:

You know now, if one brick is out of place, we are going to know!(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Yeah, you and Dave are right. I shoulda thought of that before I posted the drawings. Now I’ve really nailed myself to a wall !

#20

Not to worry, John, there are no rivet … uh, I mean brick counters on this site. Heck, I haven’t counted them, yet, but I’m pretty confident that there are more brick than any of us have fingers and toes so you’re safe (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)