Yard office

Unfortunately for me, the Atlantic yard office was one of those examples of a structure I thought would be around forever...until it wasn't.  Although Atlantic is only about an hour away from home, I got lazy about shooting and measuring some of the key structures there, and my visits (and IAIS railfanning in general) became less frequent the more time passed since my 2005 modeling era.  In early 2013, I saw a photo of Atlantic and was shocked to see that the old pre-fab yard office had been replaced by a nice new structure.

While I had a few pics of the old Starbilt structure, I had never taken the time to measure it.  Fortunately, an IAIS employee reminded me that Earlham, Iowa, about 50 miles east of Atlantic, had an intact Starbilt depot that was still in use and was a clone of the one at Atlantic.  A quick visit to Earlham netted all the data I needed, including this pic illustrating those common features when compared to the Atlantic prototype shot at the top of this thread:

The Atlantic and Earlham structures had an overall footprint of only 35'x10', making them great prototypes for a confined layout space.  Here's a north side view of the Atlantic yard office, as well as my first "under construction" view of the north side of my model, with the four walls placed together temporarily for the first time.

Finally, a couple views of the overall scene.  First, a prototype pic looking west courtesy of Bing Maps, with the yard office visible near the center at the base of the tall radio antenna pole:

Here's a photo from the layout of roughly the same area:

More to come this week as I begin adding windows and doors.

Neat little office

That is a neat little yard office.  The 10’ width reminds me of something I heard about a number of identical narrow (and picturesque) DL&W stations - they were built that way so they could be shipped to location on a flat car.  I wonder if those IAIS buildings are 10’ wide for the same reason?

Starbilt pre-fabs

I'll bet you're right Ken.  I don't see much info about them online, but my understanding is that the Starbilt pre-fabs popped up at several RI stations across Iowa at least in the railroad's last decade or two.  I've seen a couple variations - the Atlantic/Earlham one and another that appears to be about 10-12' shorter, but as I was cutting out the sides, it occurred to me that it'll be just about the size of a little 40' car.  I suppose as branch lines were cut shorter and older depots were wearing out, it made sense to have something that could be easily relocated by rail.

Joe

That long view picture of the building going up in the yard is great. If it wasn’t for the fascia and aisle showing that is a picture of real not a model. Thanks.

Tom

Portable Offices

Hi, Joe, it was common practice on the railroads in the 1970's and later, to use small portable buildings such as that, since the years of deferred maintenance on the wooden buildings had taken their toll. To this day, I still go to work every morning in a 12' x 40' portable office trailer that has seen better days after being damaged by flood waters. Our boss, keeps telling us we're going to get a new 20' x 40' building, but I will believe it when I see it. I have seen some new yard offices built around here in some areas also as the railroads returned to profitable operations, but now are back in the cost cutting mode similar to the 1970's again. I know what you mean about missing the opportunity to photograph an older building, I didn't photograph the switchman's shanty at my hometown Soo Line yard, which was the only remaining building left over that would have been there during the transition era, and now Google maps shows that it and the old locker room from the 1970's and the portable modular yard office from the 1980's have all been torn down and replaced with one new site built yard office. Jim.

Yard office

Tom, thanks for your encouragement about the yard view.  It's fun to see this area finally moving toward completion.

I always think projects like this are enjoyable, because they cause me to notice things I've never really paid much attention to before.  For this one, it's been the IAIS's MOW backhoe that's visible in a couple pics above, and will have to find its way onto the layout once I find a suitable model.  But also, the location of the warehouse across the street to the west:

I was originally planning to model that in the brown patch just beyond the yard office in the layout pic above, because in my mind it was pretty close to the tracks there.  However, looking at this satellite image, it's clear that the warehouse (the peaked-roof portion of which was the Atlantic & Northern depot back in the day) was set much further back than I realized.  So much so that any attempt to try to model it in that space is going to look crowded.  As a result, I've decided to just model the grass along the ROW and then the road with a semi parked on it, as there always seems to be a truck there.

Jim, I'm sorry to hear about that switchman's shanty.  I don't know why those losses still catch me by surprise, but it seems like there are always more pics I wish I'd taken, no matter how well I covered a particular subject.

Yard office pic cleaned up

Had a moment waiting for dinner to finish cooking.  Neat little office.  Cleaned up the pic and straightened it.  Would make a great model for anyone.  Looking forward to seeing the finished model, Joe.

Mike in Sunbury 

Thank you Mike!

Mike, thank you very much for your work on that photo. Great improvement!

Just to clarify, that’s actually the Earlham, Iowa MOW shack - the structure I used for measurements, since it’s a clone of the former yard office in Atlantic.  You’re right though - another neat prototype for modeling.

Thanks again!

Yard office

Couldn't resist the other office, Joe.  I knew that you were modeling the other prototype, but this one made a nice industry (or rail) office.  I eliminated some of the plywood siding and made it look a little less beaten, created the other three sides and a roof (although I saw later that it was not quite the roof that the prototype had), and a paper mock-up is sitting on the layout. Your research gave me the perfect prototype. Thanks!  Mike.

Mike

Wow!  Great work Mike!  I'm glad you were able to put that to use in such a creative way.

I emailed a friend of mine who used to work for the Rock Island, and actually worked out of a similar pre-fab depot at Van Meter, Iowa at one time.  He shared an interesting story about the Earlham depot that might help to explain its condition.

Apparently the signal maintainer in Earlham had parked his motor inside the depot (garage door on the east end of this design at both Earlham and Atlantic), and it was leaking gas. The afternoon train order operator thought she smelled gas, and investigated with a lit cigarette in her mouth, with the expected results.  Apparently she made it back to the west end of the structure in record time!

I spent some (too much) time over the last few days investigating that vent on the west end of the Atlantic structure and finding nothing about whether it was there in my era, so I think I'm going to leave it off.  If more info shows up in the future, it'll be easier to add the vent after the fact than remove it.  I also researched HO scale windows, but found nothing of the sizes I needed for this, so yesterday I scratchbuilt the six I needed for the Atlantic office.  Cutting the holes and installing them later today, then I'll add the steel "foundation", fabricate some basic interior to keep viewers from looking straight through, and then build a roof and paint/weather everything.

Also, the backhoe/loader arrived yesterday, so things are looking good to touch up and weather it and hopefully complete this scene over the long upcoming weekend.

Update

I thought I’d post a quick update with my progress from the last few days. The basic structure is now ready for paint except for the roof.

Looking north:

Looking NW:

 
Looking south from the aisle:

 
Rather than building an interior, I decided to resize photos of the prototype windows, print them, and then glue them inside the model windows after the structure has been painted and weathered. 

Friday update

I mostly finished building and weathering the yard office itself today, as well as touching up, dullcoating, and weathering the backhoe.  Got them in place on the layout and added a small pole on the north (aisle) side for electrical service, plus a larger one on the south (backdrop) side for the Atlantic radio base station.

The addition of the short segment of code 55 track was based on a recent discovery I made while studying Bing satellite images of the scene.  Looking at this photo...

...I believe I'm seeing a portion of the old Atlantic & Northern interchange track circled in red north of the yard office.  Looking at this Nathan Holmes photo, I think the track segment served as the base for the MOW department's storage "table" there:

I'm planning to spend the rest of the weekend adding details and completing the ground cover.  Still to come is a gas meter, window A/C unit, 55 gallon drums, spike buckets, pallets, and the steel extension atop the antenna pole.  I'm also hoping to model that Ford hi-rail MOW boom truck if I can find a suitable model on which to base it. 

Ford/Sterling Boom Truck

I think this is what you are looking for: 

http://jacobsmodels.com/opS_ATA9500.html

I believe Mr. Groeneweg casts to order so be prepared for a short wait.  It's probably best to email first.  I have a few of his GMC Savanna van bodies and they are very nice.  

....

To be honest instead of focusing on the yard office, i was carried away looking at how successful and well executed is the backdrop and transitions in the scenes here, as well as the realistic choice of colors on the scenery (and masterful execution modeling wise).

Back to the topic now... very nice work on this little office. Looking forward to seeing it finished! (Also looking forward to ask you about the backdrop transitions when i am about to work on these on my layout).

Yannis

Very nice work!

Good morning Joe,

I really like how this small scene adds so much to the overall effect on the layout. The station looks "just right" and the additional details you've described will complete this scene. Well done, sir!

Tim Moran Akron, OH

Yard office

Looking good Joe! Great scene,Where did you get the R model Mack fuel truck? and did you weather your Backhoe with Panpastals. Kevin

Boom truck

Check with Mike Budde

When it comes to looking for a good model to base your crane truck on, I'd contact Mike Budde. He's on Facebook, or you could probably go through the What's Neat page. The different parts of that truck are not uncommon in the prototype world, so it is possible that it could be more of a kitbash than a scratchbuild.

Jeff

Jeff, thank you.  The boom truck is likely something I won't try to tackle just yet, but I'll hang onto your suggestion for when the time comes.

Scott Thornton had a nice IAIS hi-rail boom truck built, but since it was powered, it's probably overkill for my needs.  Still, I hope he'll chime in here about the details of that build.

Mack fuel truck

That's a nice story Joe, I had two uncles that drove for Safeway. When I was a kid uncle Lee had a Athearn Cab over Freight liner on a book shelf.When he passed my aunt gave it to me,It now has a permanent place on the railroad.

Kevin

Kevin, I think I remember those Safeway cabovers. Didn’t they have a day cab (no sleeper)?

Ohhh ok...

You might want to take a look at the Matchbox utility truck. 

https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Utility_Truck_(1989)

It's 1/83 scale but if you chop the body off it might be close enough to your liking.  

Yes Joe

That's right, I think all the trucks built before 1978 were for drivers under 6 ft. Kevin

Lookin’ Good!

That yard office looks nice!  Especially in the long shot it really looks like you’re nailing the prototype scene.