Chemical Dealer scene (concrete foundation)

As I mentioned in the first post, when I designed this scene I was concerned about cramming too much stuff into it. It is bad enough how small everything else appears once you part a true 1:48 scale freight car on the siding. It would only make things worse to then force additional things into it and really make the freight car stand out. Besides, part of my vision was to model a small New England town, not a busy industrial area. 

So while I considered installing two large horizontal propane storage tanks (like those made by Plastruct), and I even mocked it up with cardboard to see how things would fit, I just wasn't convinced it was the right decision. But I had to make up my mind soon, as I wanted to custom order decals for it and that was being held up while I figured it out.

In the meantime, I still needed a tank car unloading area with some pipes and such. I remembered that the Atlas "Deep Rock Gas & Oil" kit had this component in it, and also a small shed and some small tanks that might work. But its normal $80+ price was too high. However, on a whim I searched Ebay one morning and found the kit brand new for under $30. Huh? I confirmed it was O scale and still sealed... and then jumped on it. Actually, I offered a dollar less and the seller accepted. Hazaah!

With that in hand, and my steel building complete, I started mocking up the rest of the scene. I considered a gravel base around the building but instead went with a poured concrete foundation. I like making them, and my usual method is scribed styrene. And while I had a ton of sheet styrene, I didn't have enough styrene strips for the edges. So, I pulled out some Gatorfoam that originally had been part of the backdrop on my HO layout. 

One piece was too small, so added a second and glued (actually J.B. Welded) a splice made from thin styrene on the back. I shimmed the edges with more thin styrene so it would lay flat once flipped over.

Then, I used a metal yardstick and a sharp scribing tool to add lines making up a scale grid of 12' by 15'. This seemed reasonable in size. I also scribed some expansion cracks and wear, but they didn't show up much later on once everything was painted. 

To clean up the edges, I used a course file. This created a lot of dust that I had to get off with wet paper towels (and they left residue that I had to remove too).

Finally, I took it outside and painted it Rustoleum "Flat Sand" camouflage paint. I thought it would easily cover the pencil lines but they really stood out as being dark. At least I didn't use red marker to lay them out! It took a lot of paint to cover, but thankfully it dried super flat and the perfect concrete color. Then, I added an oil paint wash which had a lot more burnt sienna (rust orange) color than I preferred. 

So, I tried to correct it by blotting out the oil paint with mineral spirits and paper towels but in the process I also lifted some of the Rustoleum concrete paint in the process. As a result, I had to mask the area and spray it again with more concrete color. This was followed with a lighter brown oil paint wash. Finally, it looked good. (The blotchy area in the middle was my testing area and will be hidden by the structure).

Cinder ballast was added along the front edge to fill the gap and hide the Gatorfoam edges.

While this was going on, I quickly assembled what Atlas considers to be a loading facility for trucks. Apparently, various pipes and hoses stick out of the building and trucks drive near them to be filled. I planned to use this building as a support structure for unloading the tank cars, so I assembled it a little differently. I had to do this early to help mock up the size of the concrete foundation. 

I glued it together and sprayed it all flat white. The metal accents and galvanized roof were done with cheap FolkArt brand silver metallic paint, which works surprisingly well for this sort of thing. I later determined that the white with rusty weathering made it too decrepit looking so I repainted the sides gray and weathered them with a more restrained hand. 

It was at this point that I had to place my decal order... which meant committing to whether this was a propane dealer or something else. While I wanted a propane company, it would have required the obligatory large propane tank(s) and I couldn't find suitable O scale models that I liked. It would require building propane tanker truck loading facilities too. I just didn't have enough space to include all of this without cramming the scene. 

A chemical supplier on the other hand is a bit more vague and doesn't necessarily require a large exterior storage tank. In fact, I just need connections to unload a railroad tank car into something (perhaps a non-visible underground storage tank) and some areas for trucks (not necessarily tanker trucks) to arrive and purchase the chemicals. 

I spent a bit of time designing my own graphics for the company name. Perhaps I could have used an online AI program but I did it myself, which is why they are bit amateurish. Names I considered were "Northern Propane", "Northeast Propane" and "Northern Chemical", but I settled on "Northeast Chemical". I thought it fit best with the pine tree. So, decals were suitably ordered from Bill at Precision Design Company, who has helped me in the past with other projects.

With the decals in hand, I could attach them to styrene plaques and then glue them to the sides of the building. It was official... Northeast Chemical was open for business!

The entire structure was test fit once more to make sure it sat level on the foundation, and then it was glued down with tacky glue. Along the edges, I applied little amounts of glue and sprinkled on ground foam to look like weeds. The same was done in the pavement cracks. Not too much to look neglected, but enough to show the effects of time. I showed restraint because I can always go back and add more later.

Now, it was time to add the final details.

Chemical Dealer scene (steel warehouse, part 2)

For the roof, I took some careful measurements all around and was greatly relieved to discover each side and each end were the same dimension. Thus, the roof could be a true rectangle without me needed to compensate for an error somewhere. I laid the roof out one one large piece of 0.060" styrene. It turns out the building was 381mm long, and each peaked roof panel was 101mm wide.

Many times for peaked roofs I have to do each side individually but I hoped I could just cut the rectangle, scribe it down the middle, and then bend it carefully so that it held together as one which would just drop on. For added security, I put a few pieces of blue painter's tape on the other side to act as a hinge of sorts. Well, it turned into two pieces but the tape held strong.

I set it on the building and shifted it around until I was happy with the arrangement and the overlap was equal on all four sides. Then, I brushed MEK along all four joints and let it sit a good long while to cure. Because I had added absolutely no interior roof bracing to this point, it was sagging a bit. I gently turned it over and arranged it so one of the roof panels was perfectly flat on my workbench.

Then, I started adding pieces of 0.060" styrene bracing to the roof panel lying flat, and I tied them into the walls. Admittedly it looks a bit helter skelter but it results in a nice strong bond and there is very little precision involved. I just used the scraps that I had and pieced it all together. During this process I had some metal weights on the roof panel ensuring it stayed flat. I didn't have my braces go near the roof peak centerline as I wanted to add bracing running the full length and it would have gotten in the way. Also, the other roof panel is barely attached to the sides of the building so I didn't go near it. Then, I let these braces sit an hour to harden. 

After that, I flipped it so the other roof panel was flat and then I repeated the process. To finish it off, I dropped in a piece of 3/16" diameter tubing along the roof peak seam. Anything round serves as a "universal adapter" brace and it rolled right into the crack where it belonged. For additional strength, I added some more braces from styrene tying the roof ones together so that everything was now one, solid unit. 

Naturally, if I was adding a visible interior I would have approached it entirely different, but I wasn't... so I didn't. As it was, I decided to add an office in one corner visible through the windows so I hacked away part of what I added in one area.

I set it on the layout to confirm that I liked its size. I did, and there was lots of around it for ancillary structures or scenery. It didn't feel cramped in the area.

Moving on to the roof, I used Plastruct #91512. I ordered two packages even though based on the square inches I needed one should have been sufficient. It was glued down one edge at a time, though access holes weren't drilled through the roof. The pitch of the roof combined with the underside grooves in the corrugations allowed the MEK to flow down and secure it all over.

I trimmed the edge of each piece in the package to square it up and also allow each piece to mate up with the adjoining one and maintain the consistent spacing of the corrugations. But this is why you buy two packages of material: I could either cut/paste the remainder to cover the last section OR open up a new package to cover it without unnecessary gaps. I broke open the second package. Naturally, my extra supply now has a lot in it for the next project.

Even still, I wasn't paying enough attention and ended up with a slightly visible joint along one area. Note that the material on the right looks from the second package looks like the stuff on the left but it is a different color and felt like a different density too. It is as if it was manufacturered on a different day.

I used styrene strips and L-angles to frame up all the doorways. 

To prevent any light leaks from the inside interior lights, I spray painted everything on the inside with black paint. I did it outside, I wore gloves, and I hope I got it all. The exterior is being painted too and combined that should do the job.

One rule about scratchbuilding is that you should figure out and acquire the window castings you plan to use before you cut the openings for them. I couldn't find suitable castings so I knew I would build my own, but since there were only three it seemed a pretty simple proposition. Accurately measuring the openings for the windows took three attempts though. First, I tried tracing the openings but the corrugations gave me false borders. Then, I set clear styrene over them and marked the corners, and connected them with lines. This worked well, but the stryene I used to frame the windows wasn't correct. By my third attempt, I got it right.

I built them on some 0.005" thick clear styrene. Once everything cured, I cut away the clear styrene leaving perfect (ahem) castings. I then glued in vertical posts. Once I had them done, I test fit each into the building and made slight adjustments with a file to the window openings until they perfectly slipped in.

With the assurance that my windows would (should?) fit fine into the walls, I could finally proceed to painting. I gave the building a bath in soapy water and let it dry for a day. Then, I sprayed everything with flat white and let it dry for a week.

I recently took a road trip and during the course of driving 500 miles I observed every corrugated steel building I could find. And I realized that they are not all the same. Sometimes everything was painted in one color, and sometimes the doors and corner trim are painted white or lighter contrasting colors. Sometimes the lower portion of the walls are sprayed a lighter color for contrast, but usually there aren't. Sometimes there are vertical bracing or trim pieces at the corner and in the middle and sometimes there aren't any. For my building, I had carte blanche to do whatever I wanted and have it be prototypical... somewhere.

So, I first masked all the doors with blue tape (to keep their white primer pristine) and then sprayed the body with Valspar Hunter Green (#84211), which was a nice dark green. It took several coats as the corrugations left some areas hidden. The 90+ degree heat outside helped it dry fast, but then I removed the masking tape and let it sit for a week in my basement to fully cure.

I noticed a week later that Walthers sells an HO scale Fertilzer Distributer kit with a similar building painted in a similar color! I swear I hadn't seen it when I built my model.

The remaining white primer paint wasn't perfect, but it did help. Then, I did a lot of masking with a lot of blue tape so that only the doors were visible and I sprayed them flat white. The coverage, even over the preexisting white, wasn't perfect around the door frames. Rather then risk spraying too much white and having it bleed under the paint onto the hunter green I called it good enough. Weathering will take care of any inconsistencies in the white. While the flat white paint was out I also sprayed the window castings.

After another full week to let it all dry, I masked the roof and painted it flat white. Then, I superglued in the window frames.

After a week I gave it a spray of flat finish and lightly weathered it with oil paint washes, mostly focusing on the roof. I don't know what it is about these structures but I rarely see them rust. They always look in great shape, and the only weathering that ever occurs is the color sometimes fades over time. I imagine that this company takes pride in their image so I didn't want it to look too neglected.

It came out pretty good, though I may decide to add some additional coloring to the roof. However, looking at lots of online satelite photos showed that many roofs just stay this color and slowly build up dirt on the edges over time.

I used clear styrene for the windows, secured in place with canopy glue. I did each wall at a time so to give the glazing the best chance for staying put. Naturally, superglue would have fogged the windows so I avoided that. 

While this all was going on I also built an interior for the corner room that will be visible through the windows. It is nothing more than styrene strips and bits, along with some random castings from my box; some stripwood cut into rectangles to look like cardboard boxes; a pair of commercial 3D castings of chairs I bought on Ebay for a previous project (I don't see myself scratchbuilding chairs anytime soon); and a table made from styrene resting on a piece of 5/8" I-beam laid on its side. The floor is overlaid with an index card spray painted burnt orange to look like 1970s shag carpet! Groovy. It total it took about 45 minutes to assemble.

I later decided to expand the office a bit more and removed another corner brace and added the second room on the left. I then downloaded some tank car diagrams and even a Bob Ross painting to help decorate the insides. These types of details will likely never be seen, but just building them was great fun for me. 

I bought several figures for the office but they are barely visible through the windows, so I only glued one in place. She needed a bit of persuasion to stay upright while the glue dried.

Now I just need to finalize on what this industry will actually be.

Chemical Dealer scene (steel warehouse, part 1)

I still haven't decided what my industry will be but I am leaning towards a propane distributor that takes in fuel by train and ships it locally by truck. But that doesn't matter yet because whatever I model my building will be the same.

I decided to work on the large steel office building first because to me that is the most important part of the scene. I can always make smaller or larger storage tanks or support structures but this building will firmly plant my layout in the "modern" era. Even my wife commented that scratchbuilding it would be nice as it would make my layout distinctive because there are no O scale structures like it offered commercially. In HO and N scales, Pikestuff makes lots of great buildings that can be easily modified. But not in O scale. That's okay... I love scratchbuilding. 

My first step was to see if anyone made O scale corrugated steel sheeting because I would need it for the walls. It turns out that Plastruct does (item #PS-24) in 7" x 12" sheets. They also make Corrugated Rib Roofing sheets (#PS-16) too. I have never seen them in a hobby shop before so I ordered them online. 

I also needed window and door castings. Tichy and San Juan Details (formerly Grandt Line) make some stuff in O scale, but nothing suitably "modern". Plastruct had some available but they didn't look like they would work either. Online inquiries resulted in several "just 3D print them" responses which didn't help me. 

After scrolling through the Pikestuff website for ideas, I sketched up a building roughly 7.5" wide and 15" long, and about 4.5" tall. I used wall height dimensions from an HO scale Pikestuff kit in my stash. I then mocked it up with posterboard so that I could fiddle with it. I glued pictures of several of their kits on the sides for handy references. This was very helpful.

I decided to go with a one-level structure, with walls that were tall enough to permit a vehicle access door on the side. I went this route because a smaller building probably wouldn't support rail service, whereas a taller one implies a larger industry.

Then, I started drawing it up on 0.060" thick styrene. My lines kept coming out wonky and I switched marker colors several times before I discovered the cause of it all... my red plastic T-square wasn't actually square! I was given it as a gift and never used it before, but after this fiasco I bent it up and threw it away. 

The walls were laid out again using a better square and steel ruler. The roof peaks are just intersecting diagonal lines.

One end has some windows and a door which I marked but didn't cut out yet, as I was waiting until I had the castings and corrugated siding in hand.

For the plain steel doors I made four from styrene. I only need three, but it made sense to have extras. They only took about 15 minutes of work to lay them out and cut the window openings. 

Once everything was cut apart, I had four doors. Doorknobs will be added later. I also laminated multiple pieces of rectangular styrene with slight gaps between them to look like a roll-up garage door. I later discovered it came out a little wonky but not too bad.

The window openings were started with a 1/2" drill and finished with a nibbler tool. 

An assortment of files and custom cut filing sticks fit into all of the small openings.

It is best practice to not cut the openings for the windows until you have the castings in hand. They sometimes vary a little from their published dimensions (if you are lucky enough to have their dimensions), and it is difficult to fill in an oversize opening. But the windows I needed would be scratchbuilt so it wasn't a problem for me.

The large garage door opening was cut with a knife and the door was glued in from the back. The steel doors were attached to the front.

The end walls were braced on the sides with 1/4" square styrene, which provided lots of surface area to join the corners. I use a lot of 1/4" square styrene and always have it on hand. It might be overkill for bracing, but I don't like warpage. I later realized I had glued the braces onto the wrong side of the end wall (outside instead of inside), so I had to use it as is. Since I had already glued a door to the outside (now inside) of the wall, and I couldn't move it, I had to use the extra fourth door to correct my mistake.

The wall with the garage door started to warp, no doubt because of the various cuts and glue-ups that had been done to it. I planned to run horizontal braces along the top and bottom of the wall, as well as one at the top of the garage door, to strengthen it all up. However, the garage door's 0.060" thickeness made it stand proud of the inside of the wall, so all my braces needed an extra 0.060" too. I had some 0.060" strips that were 1/4" wide and I first glued them where my braces would go. I didn't bother to measure the exact spot.

Then, 1/4" square braces were glued in place along the very bottom of the structure and at the top of the door. I left everything to cure for a couple of hours.

As I built it up into a rectangle I discovered that by gluing the exterior doors in place I had made it more difficult for the entire wall to lay perfectly flat on my workbench while adding the bracing. So, I had to get creative and have parts overhang or add temporary supports underneath the walls the same thickness as the doors (0.040") to get it all to work. But that is how most of my projects go! In the future, I will glue the exterior doors on after I have built it up into a rectangle.

Homemade corner braces (use a square to ensure that they truly are 90 degrees) with the corners notched to clear the braces were extensively added to the joints. I didn't have them up near the top where they might interfere later when gluing down the roof.

I then broke out the Plastruct #91519 corrugated sheet and got to work. There appears to be a side that is a little flatter than the other so I decided this would be the "inside surface" and ran a pencil back and forth on it to mark it. I then trimmed all the edges to make sure they were truly parallel with the corrugations as it doesn't come from the factory that way.

I clamped a piece to the front of the building and traced the window openings from the back. They were opened up with a sharp chisel blade, and it is important to err on the side of making the openings too small. I fine tuned them to shape by constantly putting the siding on and off to check how things were. They will recieve final adjustments when I am ready to install the windows. 

Before I glued it on I did one more thing. I drilled lots of tiny 11/64" holes (that bit happened to be lying around) in the side of the building's styrene core walls. Don't drill holes where the interior braces are. This step is very important when laminating textured surfaces to a styrene core, as it is difficult to get enough of the plastic cement onto the center of the wall to make a good bond before it flashes off. So, I focused on gluing the edges on, and later went back and applied cement from the inside through those holes. I saw that trick in a British modeling magazine and it works a treat. 

To attach the corrugated material I first clamped it in place along the top, and then applied MEK along the bottom and gently held it in position. A minute later I removed the clamps and glued up both sides, finally finishing at the top. 

Due to the width of my building, I had to use several pieces to span the long sides. I cut it a little oversize along the top and then trimmed it flush later once the glue cured.

Once done, I set it on my layout to see how it fit the space. I liked it. Notice that the back wall has no interior bracing, as I ran out and had to order more. This set my project back a week.

I used Evergreen #156 (0.060 x 0.125) strips to frame along the roof edges, as well as add some vertical support beams. I am not sure if they are structural, or hide part of the gutter system, but I liked the look of them. The ones along the top gave me nice smooth lines to mount the roof styrene too, which was important as otherwise there would be gaps caused by the corrugations. Naturally, I ran out when doing the back wall and had to order more.

To be continued...

Chemical Dealer scene (overview)

My favorite freight car has always been the tank car. At one time they were the most common style of car found on a railroad. Therefore, I wanted a place to spot tankers on my layout. Ideas of fuel dealers, propane dealers, and chemical suppliers were considered. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of trackage or adjacent real estate to model something big.

A team track idea was dismissed, as I wanted a dedicated facility. However, I might do a team track on the left side of the layout though. An old-timey tank car mounted on stilts such as this Life Like kit below was also a no-go. 

Walthers/Atlas makes a nice kit (#6908) of a fuel dealer but it looked too dated for what I wanted, and it doesn't come with a lot of stuff in the box. It has two small tanks, one small shed, and one small shack. Honestly, most O scale kits are undersized and I don't fault Walthers/Atlas for this because they are also aimed at the 0-27 market. But for my true scale layout, I wanted something bigger. Besides, this sells for $80+ bucks online which is a lot for what you actually get in the box.

So I cast a larger net and came across a picture in a Boston and Maine RR Historical Society video of a Suburban Propane dealer (here, at the 26:36 mark) that was more modern and what I was thinking of. One or two large horizontal tanks, one large steel structure, and then an area for trucks to load. Now, how to fit it in my space?

My siding will hold a scale 40' tank car and clear the track to the lumberyard, but a 45' car won't fit and a 50' tank car extends onto the switch. But that is okay. It probably happened in real life too. Besides, most of the time my cars will just sit on display on the layout and not get switched anyway. 

I looked at satellite pictures of the local Suburban Propane office here in Albany and I got some ideas. The old railroad spur is still there (though it is now disconnected from the mainline and covered with propane tanks). There are several modern buildings, which I likely can't model all of. And my facility won't be a perfect match for it. But it was a start.

At the onset I decided to not force too much into the scene. After building my lumberyard I realized that I can't cram everything in or it will become jumbled. There isn't a lot of room for "negative space" in O scale, so I need to factor it in at the start. Forcing stuff in was one of the biggest reasons why my previous HO layout was unsatisfying. See this great post from Marty McGuirk on the topic.

To help me visualize what I could fit into the area I made a mockup of a modern steel building using some posterboard. I also printed out the dimensions of the Plastruct horizontal propane tank kit (#O3019). It fit okay but it was a bit too large and even my wife commented that the tanks were too close to the lumberyard. So I retreated from that idea. Hmm... what should I build then? Without exactly knowing, I pressed on

To prepare the foundation for the building I glued down a layer of cork roadbed. It took forever, and also burned through my supply of used cork that a friend gave me, so in the future I will need to look into something else that is the correct thickness but a lot quicker to install. Maybe... you know... sheet cork? A coat of brown latex paint was brushed on and I had a nice, clean area to work with. 

I decided the tank car siding was still too long so I trimmed off another inch from the end. Then, I took some Brennan's cinder ballast (Railyard Black) and ballasted the sidings including the track leading to the lumberyard. For the tank car siding I mostly kept it cinders because I assume the N.E.N.R. will perform at least some maintenance on any track that will be traveled by tank car carrying hazardous liquids. For the lumberyard siding I mixed more ground foam weeds and dirt in the mix. Both tracks will eventually get static grass and tufts. It looks a royal mess while it is wet, but dries okay.

Note: I discovered I didn't properly caulk one of the holes under the track from when I wired it and I had a muddy, gluey pond beneath my layout when I came back the next morning. Lots of wet paper towels got it all cleaned up up (it wouldn't have been very easy if I had used matte medium instead of white glue) but it reminded me to double-check everything before going to bed.

For the tank car track bumper, I looked at various brands but settled on an Atlas O product. Most of them had lights, or working springs, or are overbuilt to actually stop a runaway Lionel train. I wanted something that was realistic, but even the Atlas one needed some modifications. I trimmed off unnecessary plastic between the sides which snaps onto the rail, and slimmed down the center buffer part itself. (You can see the before and after below). Then it was painted, weathered and glued in place. It definitely won't stop a runaway Lionel GG1 from crashing into the lumberyard though!

Now I just need to build an actual industry for the siding. And I still don't know what it will be.