Amazing pure od amazing. "OD" a descriptive colloquial word meaning to say Wow, Cool, Nice, Hot, and many other such country pumbkin phrasings... that can be thrown in here. When you get done... I have a Barstow Station you can build for me. No! Ok, let's see you took styrene. Made the cuts. I wonder if I can follow suit. You got me thinking. Nice work!
A milestone tonight - I finished assembling all of the outer wall panels. No more arches to cut !! Well, almost, I still have to do the top entrance wall which has 3 small arches.... I put all of the subassemblies together (just leaning against each other for the picture) to see how it looks so far. The primered inner walls are the portion of the depot that is under the tile roof - I'm going to paint them before I glue them together as I've got inner walls w/ window panes that are painted a dark brown and the best way to get clean lines is to paint before assembly. I'll need to touch up the corners after I glue it together.... Northwest corner: Southeast corner: Main entrance trackside:
And to me, this is the part of N scale that gets ignored. Yeah, you can do the 50-car trains. But the real payoff is that you can do the real scenes, prototypic-sized, down to the last detail, if you want. Not everybody has an entire basement they can do Bakersfield in (that HO layout in MR is spectacular) but a normal-sized layout can do some really, really, nice prototype buildings and facilities like this in N. Compressing HO to N just to fit (including the N versions of the HO structures) really doesn't capitalize on this feature of the scale. If you read the article in MR about that Bakersfield structure, he can't even get it off the layout without dissassembling it. Far more practical in N. Oh, and in case you haven't guessed, a lot of my philosophy came from David Haines Raton Pass layout, which to this day remains the gold standard in N prototype modeling to me. His Raton station was done to this approach. Jerry's done the SP coastline this way down to the rocks. That's where N has simply no equal. Has nothing to do with sight glasses and rivets. Hey, I'm just glad to be a cheerleader on this one. This is great!
Randy - Yes, David Haine's Raton layout is/was a big inspiration for me also. I have kept the Model Railroader that featured it many years ago - an awesome layout down to the smallest details. Like you say so well, the great thing about N is the ability to model entire scenes accurately - an ongoing challenge for me w/ my Tehachapi scene and downtown Modesto....
I got the spanish tile roof completed on the inner building. Still need to install the rain gutters. This is the track side, the cut-out portion is where the taller arch towers will be. The only part of this side that is going to be plainly visible is the upper couple feet just under the roof, as the rest is behind the main entrance arch and front patio. Here's the side that faces 9th Street. The doors and center 2 windows are behind the portico that has the "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" lettering, the outer 2 windows on each side will be visible when the building is done: And here's an overhead shot:
That looks better everytime you post a progress shot! Outstanding Dave! What did you use for the roof?
It's been a while since I updated this thread, here's what I've gotten done lately. I built the upper arch assembly and tall towers: I wasn't sure what I was going to use to make the round tower tops - I ended up cutting down a couple of beads from my daughter's bead collection (she was ok with contributing to the cause: This assembly will go in the notch in the building, behind and above the other lower towers and arch. The tops of the shorter towers are also round, but a lot flatter & larger diameter - I ended up using a couple of Lego figure baseball caps that I cut down to shape (the blue and black tops - once I prime it will all be the same color, so I wasn't concerned about what colors I used) - necessity is the mother of invention! I also added the footing all around the building using .100 x .010 strips - that took awhile, but since the prototype has it I wanted mine to also. I've glued all of the front arches, lower towers and arch assembly together. I still need to make the connector walls between the short and tall towers, then I'll be ready to glue the rest of the outside walls together, prime and paint.
BRAVO! Dave fantastic job your doing. thanks for sharing once again. Keep it up. Can't wait to see the next step. Glen:thumbs_up::thumbs_up:
Ahh Dave, What would you charge me to build the Barstow, CA., Casa Del Deserito, Harvey House and Santa Fe Passenger Station? Said with a big grin! I'm not sure that is a fair question but one that certainly capitalizes on the fact you are a superb modeler. The work, patience and craftsman ship put into the Modesto Station, should win you NMRA's Model Craftsmen trophy of the year. Just in case they don't have one... we should come up with one for you. TrainBoard's Model Cratsmanship Trophy for 2008. That's a winner!
