Wordless Wednesday #241

 

Bob's Photos, Photographer unknown, East New London, Conn., 9-24-1951

Wordless Wednesday #143

Waterbury Freight House: 3 - Staining the "old" freight house walls

I got the one-story freight house primed last night. While it was drying I turned my attention to the two-story section of the building. In later prototype photos this structure had plywood sheathing added to the first story section on the track side of the building. I was going to do my model that way until I came across a photo Frank Quinn photo from the December 1990 issue of Trains* from my modeling era that confirms (1) the clapboards extended all the way to the ground, no plywood sheathing, (2) the building was in dire need of a paint job and (3) there were a couple of small freight doors on the side of the building (these were covered over when the plywood sheathing was installed. 
I decided to build this portion of the building from basswood clapboard (Albert Scale Lumber, 4" HO clapboards). I spent some time last night with Hunterline stains of various colors trying to match the overall appearance and coloration of the building in the prototype picture. I think I'm getting pretty close. I find the wood stains hard to control since the wood grain plays tricks with the coloration. I think using styrene with brush-painted colors would have been easier. 
*The article indicates the location is "unknown" but it's pretty obvious to anyone who has been to Waterbury or looked at photos taken in the steam era that the photographer was standing between the station and the foundry building.  You can see Frank looking out from one of the window openings!

Waterbury Freight House: 2 - One story "new" freight house

I've gotten the basic styrene shell assembled for the one-story "new" freight house at Waterbury. The sub walls are .060" with .040" Evergreen clapboard siding on the exterior. Before installing the clapboard I run a piece of fine grit sandpaper over it in the direction of the clapboard. This "breaks" the surface, adds some fine "wood texture" and seems to make the paint adhere better since the surface has some tooth. 
Here's a couple of pictures of progress. Next step is to get the first coat of paint on the styrene. 

The freight house with the basic door and window openings in place on the layout. 

The building won't have a full interior, but I wanted to include a suggestion of the freight agent's office since it would be visible through the windows and the partially opened freight door. I also plan to add some simple interior lighting to this building. I attached the agent's office walls to the sub roof, added a door and some wainscoting. The interior detail here will be simple shapes to suggest a desk, file cabinet, and shelves, and perhaps a figure. 

The floor is scribed styrene sheet (scribing is on the other side in this view). The floor will not only be visible inside one or to of the open doors, it also acts as a brace, stiffening the entire structure. To get the floor at the correct level, and to further stiffen the floor, I used strips of .060" styrene. 

Waterbury Freight House

I started cutting out the door and window openings for the Waterbury freight house before we left on vacation. I had some time this afternoon so I finished those up and taped the walls together to see the structures would look when installed on the layout. When this photo was taken I still hadn't cut the door and window openings on the one-story "new" freight house. 

With these structures in place I could determine how big to make the Shepley Coal Co. sheds. 
To the left of the two-story building you can see the paper walls to get a rough idea of the size of the sheds. 

I'm using wood for the two story portion of the building since it was unpainted during the era I'm modeling. I felt the wood would be easier to stain to look like unpainted wood than styrene. It's been a long time since I've cut window openings in basswood. Now I remember why I prefer styrene!