Ice Cream Parlor for Enosburg

Other than operating on the layout a few times, I really haven't done much on the layout since we went to Cocoa Bach back in January. I had surgery a the end of January that kept me out of the basement for a couple of weeks, and I've been getting used to life on dialysis. So far that's going better than expected but it certainly is life-changing. (Luckily, I do PD dialysis at home at night, so the impact on my daily life is much less than if I had to actually go to a dialysis center). So this is the "new normal" - at least until when and if I get a kidney transplant.

But last week I found some time to wander to the modeling desk with the goal of getting started on ... something. 

Back before Christmas I'd started on a South River Modelworks kit - so I dug that out. Stared at it for a few minutes and promptly put it back in the back. Don't get me wrong I love those kits but they're a lot of work - and I just wasn't in the mood for a big project. 

One area that needs some attention on the railroad is the Main Street scene in Enosburg Falls. This was referred to as the Billado Block - but on the HO Richford it's been a plain of brown painted plywood since the layout was started. 

In looking over the Jack Delano photo of the scene the obvious building to start with was the ice cream parlor. (Actually the building is an old creamery). 

A set of footprints for each of the buildings on that side of Main Street quickly revealed that "Full scale" models of all four structures (the parlor, the doctors house, the cafe, and the bank) wouldn't fit. 

I'll have to figure out how to address the other buildings at some point. One approach is to eliminate the bank building entirely - but the cafe is connected to it, leaving the question of how to address that. It would be hard to narrow the bank building enough to fit - or I could simply use a much narrower structure for that corner even if it wasn't a scratchbuilt model of the exact prototype. I'd gladly entertain any feedback and thoughts on the best way to approach this in the comment section. 

No matter what I end up deciding with the rest of the block, the ice cream parlor could be safely added full size (it was really too small to compress, although I shortened the overall length to allow me to add some trees behind the building the block the support post from intruding on the completed scene. 

The building still exists - although obviously it's been modified over the years. I have a railroad drawing that shows the outline of the building as a rectangle - the photo of the building today shows a lean to addition to the track (bike path) side of the structure. I haven't included that on my model since I'm choosing to believe the railroad map - but it wouldn't certainly make the building more visually interesting! 

Construction has been relatively straightforward using my typical techniques for frame buildings made from styrene. A sub shell of Evergreen .040" styrene Evergreen clapboard and novelty siding with Evergreen metal roofing panels on the taller portion in the rear (likely an ice house at one point) and N Scale Architect HO shingled roof on the main building. 

Currently I have the basic building together - it's sitting in the paint booth waiting for the initial coat of paint to dry so photos of the building in its current state has to wait for the next update.