Standard Tool Shed

I kept things simple for the first structure project. These little storage sheds were commonly found at various locations along the line. Photos show minor variations in exactly how and where doors and windows are placed, but generally the same overall size and plan.

Measurements were based on a surviving example behind the abandoned station at Searchmont, Ontario.

Three variants in model form for different locations on the eventual model railroad.

Abandoned prototype shed at Searchmont being overtaken by nature:

Standard Speeder/Tool Shed

Another small structure built to a standard design is an ACR standard design speeder & tool shed. I've seen one or two variations in certain specific locations (particularly when larger ones later replaced the older ones), but many of the speeder/tool sheds scattered along the line followed this design.

Prototype photo from my friend and fellow ACR modeler Blair Smith:

I couldn't get direct access to a survivor to get direct measurements, but a railway track standards drawing in the collection of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library archives provided an overall footprint:

Speeder Shed Model

Like the other small sheds, the walls are constructed of Evergreen "novelty" siding with .060" boards.

The speeder doors were scratchbuilt using .040" V-groove siding for the back and adding the trim with strip styrene.

Roof and painting for sheds

Very nice structures Chris

Very nice structures Chris van der Heide. 

Look forward to seeing them weathered and in scenes.

Nice work!

When I first rode the ACR in 1970 I thought all of the ACR depots (section houses, actually) were Revell farmhouses since that is how they appeared to me.  Thanks to the WC all of the sidings were torn up so it's a far different RR than in 1970 when the Canyon Train actually met freight trains in the siding.  I've ridden in the ACR in a speeder and in the dome car and it's always been fun.

Robert

Shed Interiors

Hi Chris

Thanks for the shout-out!  Working from memory, the interior of the Frater shed had a flat workbench along the right side, shelves mounted on the wall across the back, and sundry tools, bars, etc. leaning against the left side.  There were piles of shims, track spikes, loose fishplates and tie plates, offcuts of rail, tie clamps, gauging bars, etc.  A real mess, not to mention all sorts of rubbish.  That would have been around 1993, the first time I had a chance to visit the ACR. 

All your projects are looking great.  Nice to see someone modeling the line.  I see Bowser's working hard at keeping the memories alive, too - good for them!

Blair

Section Houses

Speaking of section houses...

These sorts of structures used to dot the mainlines of many a railroad, providing accomodations to the track workers that maintained the line. On most railroads, many of the old section houses are lone gone. On the ACR a surprising amount of these old structures are still standing. Some were sold off as private cabins, others have been simply abandoned and left to rot due to the remoteness of the line.

One of the locations that will definitely be on my layout will be Franz, where the AC crossed and interchanged with the Canadian Pacific. This section house is still standing today and in pretty good shape (note the shed behind as well): 

(My photo from September 2013)

I made a previous attempt to model this several years ago, trying to scale the structure off the windows. I ended up getting the proportions pretty good, but I think I scaled using a larger size of window, and always felt the overall structure ended up a little too large. Back in 2014 I paid a visit to the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library, having pre-arranged to access some Algoma Central railway maps, drawings and other documents in their archives collection. While I got to leaf through a number of helpful items, there were a couple of railway drawings of the standard design section house (and one or two variations thereof - for a "standard" structure no two of them actually seem to be exactly identical, with minor variations in window placement, mirrored floor plans, etc. The most variation happens in the lean-to kitchen annex to the rear...). These drawings helped confirm the correct dimensions for the structure (and confirm the original attempt was about 10-20% oversize) in order to re-do the project properly.

Once again, the structure is built using Evergreen "Novelty" siding with .060" groove spacing.

In this case, all the doors and windows are shuttered, so I didn't bother to cut out openings, just built up the trim with styrene strip and sheet.

Section House (cont.)

Porch added, painted, and shingled. The shingles are a cut paper product from Rusty Stumps.

Wawa Station

My current build is a model of the Algoma Central Railway station at Wawa, ON. The last station here was built in 1950 following a sort of Art Deco(?) design that was popular for modern stations of the period, featuring a brick first story, with a wood-frame (with asbestos shingle siding) second story for the station agent's dwelling.

The Sault Ste. Marie Public Library has original architectural blueprints of this building in their archives, and I was able to take a number of images of the pages a few years ago. Definitely a valuable asset for making an accurate scale version!

I spent some time working out my own scale drawings from the images of the original blueprints in order to plan my build properly and get the details and dimensions right. With those finished up, I actually started cutting plastic for the structure around Christmas.

The main structure is built up of a core of .040" styrene sheet. Cutting out all the doors and windows on this structure took some time.

Front and rear main walls cut out and openings rough cut, still needing cleanup with the file:

Assembly of passenger waiting room end of the station, showing top cap for the side walls, and 2x10 strip around the inside to increase the thickness of the top of the wall to about 6" and provide proper depth for the substrate for the roof.

Wawa Station cont.

In these two photos the basic assembly of the station walls and roof is complete. Lots of things to do yet though in adding siding textures and other details.

The rear corner behind the waiting room wing was particularly interesting to build, as the building isn't exactly a full rectangle and has a few cut-outs at the corner on both the lower and upper stories.

ugly architecture

Chris, I always thought the Wawa depot had what can be called ugly architecture so it must be a railroad design, no frills, just functional.  I'm anxious to see the completed structure since you nailed the look of the building.

The section houses look great.  It's nice to know that some prototypes survived.  It's been nearly 17 years since I last rode the ACR.

Are you in contact with Dale Wilson?  He is a wealth of ACR information.  It may be his efforts that got the AC materials to the public library in the Soo. 

Robert

Kalamazoo, MI

Dale Wilson

Yeah, I've corresponded with him a few times, and have his books on my reference shelf.

Trimwork

Adding the decorative trim around the structure about 1 3/4 feet below the top edge of the wall. 

The protruding eave is made up of several strips of styrene, with a 4x10 core with 1x6 and 1x3 strips forming the stepped fascia. The blueprints show that these were covered in copper flashing.

Very clean

Wow, very clean scratch-building; you must have a lot of experience.

Fond Memories

Chris,

I remember riding the ACR when I was little, about 45 years ago.  It was winter, and I think of it every time I step out into snow and slush (which is often in Ohio).  First time I ever stayed in a hotel.  My parents watched Barnaby Jones while I was supposed to be sleeping, under the covers.  I got a strawberry filled danish in the dining car and thought it was the best food ever, anywhere!  I still like strawberry filled danishes.  And I still remember how excited my Dad was to ride that railroad and watch the scenery. 

Thanks for the ride down memory lane!

Brickwork

Applying Plastruct brick sheet to the lower level of the station. Upper level was asbestos shingles, which will probably be represented with paper shingles on the model.

Chimney

The chimney core was scratchbuild using strip styrene and laminated with the brick texture sheet.

Roof

I’ve been taking advantage of free time over the long weekend (“Family Day” civic holiday in Ontario today) to tackle the next major construction piece of the project – the “flat” roof.

In actuality, the roof is not quite flat in order to allow rainwater to properly run and drain and not build up on the roof and cause rot, leaks or other problems.

The architectural blueprints show how the roof slopes away from the edges to drains. On the upper roof over the second story a 2×6 board on edge establishes the height of the roof at the edge of the roof, sloping down to “zero” at the central drain. Construction details are: 7/8″ sheathing flat on the second story roof/ceiling joists, 2×6 support at perimeter (with successively cut down supports to allow roof to slope), 7/8″ top sheathing and finished with a tar and gravel surface.

This first photo (above) shows the styrene 2×6 strip added all the way around the perimeter of the roof. The second story roof was actually divided into two drainage areas, so an additional pair of support 2×6 strips run down the centre of the roof dividing it into half.

Roof sections made of .020″ thick styrene sheet being added.

Short pieces of .020, .040 and .060 styrene strip help support and reinforce the joints between roof sheets.

Roof sheets completed, and joints touched up with spot putty. The slope effect ends up actually being pretty subtle overall, but is obvious in the indented corner on the second story, as well as over the passenger waiting room wing where the drain is at the edge of the roof and everything slopes down to this point. On the large open area of the baggage room where the entire roof slopes to a central point, the effect is difficult to see without laying a straightedge on the wall caps, but the modeler knows it’s there!

Brick colour

Brick colour. The structure was previously primed grey and tonight I did some painting of the brick colour. Wawa station was a light buff coloured brick on the lower story. The model was coloured by drybrushing the brick colour over the grey, leaving the brick faces coloured and the mortar lines in grey. Colour is two different shades of tan-brown craft store acrylic randomly mixed together on a pallet.

Tar and Gravel Roof

A bit more work with paint and gravel and the roof of the station is now surfaced.

As noted in a previous post where the slope of the roof was built up from styrene sheet, the “flat” roof is not, in fact, actually flat but does slope in order to provide drainage. That slope is in fact there, although with the gravel surface added, it almost completely visually vanished, except in that one subtle spot in the corner where the roof actually slopes against the top of the wall. (That reminds me, I need to go in yet and actually add a couple of round plugs to represent the drains, as well as a vent pipe for the toilet plumbing. All easy bits to add…)

Actually flat or not, the technique for making the tar and gravel roof is pretty simple. After applying a thick brush coat of black paint (just regular flat black acrylic) and while the paint is still wet, sprinkle on a liberal coating of gravel and let sit. I used some fine ballast which I sifted to make sure I was only left with the finest grains. The effect is good, however it’s still a bit coarse actually for a gravel roof. I may yet scrape this off and re-do it with finer hand-sifted natural materials – I’ll have to sleep on that idea yet for a bit – but the technique is still sound.

You’ll also notice I sprayed the Sylvan Green colour for the trim before doing the roof, as the trim borders the roof surface, and that would be more than a little bit impossible to mask and spray after the fact. The bold green colour on the upper walls though will not last – only the trim is actually this colour, and light grey siding is yet to be applied to the wall surfaces, so the station will have one last drastic colour change for completion.

@Chris can der Heide, Wow!

@Chris can der Heide,

Wow! That is coming along. Look forward to seeing it done and in a scene.

Wawa, 1975

This recently posted photo of an ore train parked in front of the Wawa station in 1975 just couldn't not be shared in this thread:

http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=34378

Asbestos Shingle Siding

While the lower story was brick, the upper level of the structure was clad in cedar-grain asbestos shingle siding. I reproduced this with strips of grey cardstock. It took a little while, and my technique rather refined as I went along, but I’m generally happy with the result.

(I wasn't quite happy with the coarse granularity of the roof treatment, so I scraped it off so I can re-do it with a finer grain material - probably natural sand/gravel material. I'll get back to that.)