Snow Fences

Snow fences are a worldwide phenomenon and certainly prevalent in many stretches of railways in northern England; without them, systems would come to an abrupt halt and all sorts of mayhem might ensue. Many of them appear to be built quite crudely and quickly and are a simple pleasure to construct in miniature; in some ways they are a therapeutic break from the focus involved in building a fine scale model building. So, when Peter Johnson asked me to build some for his basement 4mm scale layout around Hawes Station, I jumped at the idea.

To fit into one corner of Peter's layout, a total length of 5'-0” of fences was needed which represents a little under 400 scale feet at 4mm:1t. The fences were built in approximately 6” long panels a little over 1” tall.

I used scale pine from Mt. Albert Scale Lumber Co. out of Southern Ontario: 2”x8” vertical planks; 4”x4”horizontal ties (I think they are called “girts”); 6”x6”diagonal props. I also used off-cut 2”x12” pieces at ground level to tie the bottom of the fences into the bottom end of the diagonal props; this will help during their installation and they will eventually be covered in landscaping material.

Each individual piece of lumber was cut and stained before assembly. This is essential because if the lumber is assembled before staining, any areas of excess glue will not absorb the stain and an obvious unfinished patch will be seen.

For staining the wood, I started with 2 stains in clear glass jars: a walnut stain from a Lee Valley Tools powder base and an almost black stain from a diluted solution of Fiebing's black leather dye, and then I made a third by combining a random amount of each original stain in another glass jar. It is worth noting here that as wood ages in the natural elements it turns from brown to dark grey and eventually to light grey; hence the black leather dye solution which, when used sparingly, results in a lovely light grey hue.

Prior to assembly I built a card jig out of scrap card stock so that I could align the girts and planks in a single 6” long piece of fencing.

And voila.

the Shack

The Shack at Essex, Montana, USA.

A good friend in London, England, Andrew Cocker, is a very accomplished modeller in his own right. However, he recently asked me to build a model of a shack located somewhere close to Essex, Montana within Glacier National Park, USA. This is an important staging point on the Great Northern Railroad for its goods trains heading through the Rockies.

From just 2 photographs that Andrew had furnished, I was able to determine an approximate size and shape and quickly realised that a certain amount of modeller's licence was needed to come close to the prototype. So be it. My first impression from those photographs was that the central building may actually be a North American box car, but upon closer inspection I saw that it was in fact a custom built structure that resembled a box car: the side door is in the wrong place and the end man-doors were never part of any box car. Hence, a custom built model was called for.

The main materials are 0.5mm Evergreen styrene sheet for the “box car”, Plastruct corrugated roofing, various sizes of Basswood for the doors, ramp and roof sub-structures, and 3mm Poplar Plywood for the base. The pile of lumber has been made using a twig from my back garden and some rose bush off cuts, duly de-torned and trimmed to appropriate size. Splitting them all into reasonable facsimiles of cord lumber was a time consuming and somewhat mind numbing experience, but the effect is quite convincing.

The oil tank and its stand have been made from spare pieces of Basswood, and the hand shaped tank is version 3 after 2 miserable failures. The supporting framework is from square profile Basswood.

The base colour for the “box car” is a blend of a couple of reds and browns from my stock, while much of the Basswood pieces have been dipped in a diluted black leather dye or Walnut stain, or both, to give them the hue that old wood takes on having been exposed to the elements for a period.

Though I appear to have slightly miscalculated the height of the wooden truss that supports the corrugated roof covering, and thereby produced a roof with a slope that is a little too steep, once again the overall effect is pretty good.

The weathered finish comprises many coats of different colours and shades of pastel chalks; and, having finished a lot of models this way, I always ask myself if I have gone too far with it all. Andrew will tell me if I have.

And after somewhere between 40 and 50 hours of scratchbuilding, that's basically that. Here are some photographs of the prototype and the model..

North American Buildings part 2

Following on from the “Chicago Saloon”, I have now finished 3 DPM kits (Design Preservation Models) which are also at Trains and Such. They are: “Townhouse #110”; “Warehouse #104”; and “Showroom #117”. Each of these kits, like the Lytler and Lyttler “Chicago Saloon”, have four walls each completely formed in thick styrene with chamfered edges that need sanding down to achieve square corner joints. DPM explain that the edges are chamfered to aid in the removal of the wall panels from the moulds. However, as each wall piece is cast as a single piece, all the details such as window and door frames, lintols, cills, and brickwork have to painted in situ. The distinct disadvantage to this form of one piece moulding versus scratch building is that painting has to be carried out with a great deal of precision and care. While I appear ro have achieved a reasonably good job, I clearly prefer the scratch building approach where individual parts can be painted before being incorporated into the wall panels and the brickwork can be painted with an almost carefree approach because there is no risk of the paint getting onto window frames and other fiddly bits.

Another challenge to these DPM kits is getting the 4 walls glued together square and without any noticeable joint at the building's corners. I was less successful in this than with my painting efforts; however, I was able to introduce a different approach to concealing those slightly misaligned joints for each model. For the “Warehouse” I scratch built quoins from thin card stock of an appropriate colour; for the “Showroom” I installed old style cast iron rainwater downpipes to the rear of the building, where the joints were most noticeable; and for “Jason's Joint” I covered large areas of the building with creeping ivy. Each approach has its own merits and the end results are quite pleasing to the eye.

The 2 storey “Showroom” is depicted as a vacant building For Rent with appropriate real estate signs on the building and the interior has been built to include finished wooden flooring and a staircase, all of which can be viewed after the flat roof has been lifted out.

All 3 buildings have almost flat roofs with various mechanical equipment added: air conditioners, roof vents, chimney stacks and pots, and a roof access doorway on “The Warehouse”. Additional conduit and other pipework has been added to compliment the overall appearance.

Now all I need to do is wait for them to be snapped up by a keen customer.

PS; Midnapore Station is on hold for now.

North American direction

Shift to North American buildings

Having tried to sell some of my British models via a local store, I have learned that there is a healthier market for buildings of a North American flavour, design and heritage. The first model that I sold of this kind was the Canadian Pacific Railway's (CPR) octagonal water tower, so, in light of that success I have ventured into a Chicago Saloon and a trio of prototype buildings that currently sit at Calgary's, Heritage Park.

The Chicago Saloon is a modified kit by Lyttler and Lyttler while the Heritage Park trio is completely scratch built. These are now for sale at Trains and Such in Calgary.

The next project is slated to be a replica of Heritage Park's Midnapore CPR station building; stay tuned.

A Tudor Cottage

The Tudor Cottage that was recently housed on the Wildwood Model Railway Group's exhibition layout has been permanently removed to avoid any further damage. However, the details below are still relevant.

There are 3 distinct parts to this building:
1) the 2 storey section which is the main part of the pub
2) the central Great Hall, for wedding receptions and other parties
3) the lavatories – unventilated (!!) and originally illuminated by candle

The basic structure is a continuation of the Medieval style of box framing and represents the style of construction circa 1550-1600. The wall finishes are typical wattle and daub infill panels with herringbone brickwork in the lavatory extension.

This model has a 3 sided cantilevered upper floor jetty, and the requisite amount of time worn sags and twists within the frame. The roof has been copied specifically from some buildings in Alfriston, East Sussex which have Cotswold stones forming the lower 5 courses and standard clay tiling above those. When the original might have been built it was too expensive to transport Welsh slate from their quarries.


FOR SALE - ANY OFFERS?




Tudor Cottage

the Engine Shed

For the Wildwood Model Railway Group's exhibition layout I have built a two road engine shed that is just capable of housing 4 A1 Terriers, or a pair of larger locomotives. The model is “freelance” in style but is based strictly upon a typical southern England design from the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth centuries. 15” thick English Bond brickwork has been used for the main wall structures with a low skirting of pargetted plaster; this is augmented with stone quoins for corner decoration. The roof structure is a simple “raking” truss design in structural steel, which supports the purlins, two large ventilators and corrugated metal sheeting.

The model uses vacuum formed sheet styrene brickwork by South Eastern Finecast, with card stock for the pargetted skirting and the quoins. The roof trusses are made from Plastruct scale sections built up around a hand drawn template so that all four are identical (they took a week to construct along with many errors and some blue language for good measure); the corrugated roof sheeting is also by Plastruct. The interior detailing pieces are from Scenic Sructures, out of Kansas while the outside steam boiler is from the Keystone Engine company's collection. The windows are by Grandt Line.

While this model has been built to my usual scale of 4mm:1ft. the interior fittings are in 3.5mm:1ft, but they do not seem at all out of place. I get a sense of the smell, sound and general hive of activity as I look into this building and wonder just how safe it might not have been to work in this mess. There are no high-viz vests, no covering to the power belts, the place would be crowded with all the locomotive workers, probably hot ash and coals, dangerous tools, and the local union was none the wiser, or is simply turning a blind eye. WHMIS and OSHA would have a panic attack today.

Here are some photographs.

Alberta Barns

Innisfail Barns



I have driven the 300 Kms. from Calgary to Edmonton many, many times; it's quite a boring drive really, but along the way are two magnificent barns, close to Innisfail. One is on the east side of the highway the other on the west. I have hankered to build models of them for almost as long as I have been driving the road.

One Monday in late June 2010, I decided to survey them to establish records that I could use when the time would be right for modelling. I passed the one on the east side of the highway first; it is a classic Canadian, and rather large gambrel roofed barn. However, to my horror, since I last saw it just a month or so before, it had collapsed. I now simply had to get a closer look at it.

With the owner Wayne Roloson, I clambered upstairs, to get some photographs of the roof framing, albeit at the wrong angle. This information will prove invaluable as I build the barn in miniature, and maybe, just maybe, I might build the model of the barn in its collapsed state. (Regrettably, as of late October 2010, it has fallen over even further.)


The other barn is fortunately still standing. This is a barn style that I have not seen anywhere else, but it has some classic elements: what appears to be hand hewn clapboard siding, large sliding self-closing doors, minute windows, a hay loft above the main portion of the ground floor, a ventilating cupola, and that ubiquitous Canadian barn red finish. This is what I came to survey.

Here are some of the photographs of both barns and the model of the second barn during construction and completed.