M.O.W. boxcar scene (part 1)

One of my favorite things in real life is discovering old, abandoned track. While I would much prefer that it be operating track, there is something exciting about uncovering the remains of long-forgotten railroad infrastructure. I suppose it is industrial archaeology in a way. For the left side of my layout, I had built in two sidings. One would be in front of the layout and home to a small industry, and one would be in the back and lead to an Agway.

Having nearly finished the righthand side of the layout, I decided to start planning the left side. First, I had to clear everything off.

Then, I caulked some of the foamboard joints to give me a nice flat surface.

I had designed this front portion of the layout to include a Maintenance of Way boxcar shed that I built a couple of years ago. It's construction was featured in the October/November 2024 issue of O Gauge Railroading magaine. I also wanted to model a portion of track that was buried in grass and weeds and clearly abandoned. Since the overall length of the siding was only a couple of feet long total, this seemed like a good place to do that. If I stuck any meaningful industry here it would only encroach on the MOW scene, as well as whatever I built in the back.

I had one leftover piece of Gargraves flextrack that was the perfect length for this siding.

After cutting it to length, I removed every fourth tie and then respaced them. I don't know how visible they will be under the greenery but it seemed like a good idea.

Another important consideration was the location of the road crossing in this area. I wanted to incorporate blinking crossing lights onto the layout and the road into the lumberyard didn't seem appropriate. But I wanted a road leading to the Agway as well as Northeast Chemical, and I had to account for it now. I had two options (assuming it didn't come from the side of the layout, or from the back): through the switches or to the left of them. To the left would mean that the siding would never amount to anything, so through the switches it was.

Enough planning... time to get to work!

Wiring connectors

The grand plan for my layout involves two 3'x6' layout sections in front (Phase 1), two end curves (Phase 2), and the back two sections (Phase 3) which will ultimately form a loop. There will be six layout joints, and wires will need to pass and connect between them. Already I have had to disconnect and separate the first two sections as I work on scenery so that I don't accidently glue them together while applying scenery. It is only a couple of wires, but it is annoying. 

I wanted to plan ahead so I purchased some trailer hitch plugs online at $11 each. They were expensive but looked like what I needed and had 12" wires soldered to each side. Unfortunately, once pushed together they were nearly impossible to separate. No matter what I did, it took a screwdriver to wedge them apart. That wouldn't work. Worse, the company only offered credits instead of refunds so I am stuck with a credit I will likely never use.

After looking around some more, I finally settled on NAOEVO 6-pin connectors that I found on Amazon. They use 16g wire in multiple colors, are easy to connect and disconnect, and were priced right at under $3 a pair. The only downside, which I realized after receiving them, was that the wires were a scant 4" long. This wasn't long enough to pass down and under the edges of my benchwork and connect, and I certainly didn't want to drill holes in the ends of the benchwork large enough to pass the wires through (I don't mind them dangling down for now). Something had to be done. 

Note: I looked online again for a better option but I could find nothing that had 12" wires attached. So, I was back to fixing what I had. This involved soldering 6" wire extensions to each of the six wires on both sides of the plug. Then, I applied heatshrink tubing (which thoughtfully came with the plugs) over each joint. After that, spade connectors were crimped on the ends. 

I found that I could do one in about 20 minutes, and once the first was finished and checked to make sure it would fit underneath my layout I took a break.

In the picture below, the NAOEVO connector is on the bottom and the original Del City connector on the bottom.

Once wired up to the underside of the layout, they didn't hang down too much.

I can live with that... at least until I find a better solution.

Chemical Dealer scene (more details)

By this point I had let the project sit for awhile. The building was painted green, but nothing else was done. This time off allowed me to figure out what I wanted the name of the company to be (documented previously), and how I wanted to lay the scene out. 

I realized that the parking lot was too small. So, I pulled out my Gatorfoam and cut another couple of pieces to expand it in the back. This was suitably painted, weathered, and finally glued down. It doesn't match the other stuff perfectly and I may try and address that in the future, but from normal viewing angles it is pretty close. 

The tank car unloading building still bothered me so I repainted it again flat white and weathered it even less. The hoses were painted black to simulate rubber and silver for the stainless steel hardware. It was originally designed as a tanker truck loading facility but I didn't have a lot of room (even with the concrete lot expansion) to model much of that. 

As for unloading the tank cars, some places just hook up pipes to the bottom of the tanks and turn a valve. That is what I wanted for my model. Simple. And I didn't know how that building would fit into the grand scheme of things.

I kept staring at the building and moving it around but it didn't work for me. The color was still wrong, and when it faced the track it had too many pipes to be a simple tank car unloading facility. So I dug around in my parts bin and found an HO scale air conditioner unit that was part of a Walther's structure roof detail kit. I painted it white and planned to glue it to the building. But then I turned the building around so that the truck unloading area actually faced the road (like it was supposed to!) and it started to make more sense. 

I removed the base I had previously glued on, as well as the ramp, and then I painted the building green to match the warehouse. I liked that better. True, it might look clean and nice for a humble tank car unloading support structure but it visually tied together better. The A/C unit was glued onto the back and some light weathering was applied to everything. 

For the actual unloading apparatus, I drove to the nearby Surplus Chemicals facility and took some pictures. Though much was behind fencing, it was easy to see through and over. I noticed that underneath the cars located off-spot (waiting to be moved into position later) there were grates and what looked like large pieces of paper or foam or cardboard underneath. Likely to catch any drips or spills.

One of the areas was a bit torn up.

For the cars in place to unload, they had more grates but none of that paper. And I saw nothing set up to unload the tank cars from above or below. Perhaps the grates underneat are lifted up and pipes and valves and such are hidden underneath? There weren't any friendly employees standing around to ask either. 

To inset my unloading station into the track, I had to remove part of the middle rail. If this were mainline track that would be a bad thing to do as all the center-rail rollers on the bottoms of engines would hit the gaps in the rail and lose electrical contact and damage the rollers. But here, no engine will be traveling to the end of the track so I was comfortable with it.

What I didn't count on was the exact spot of rail I had chosen to remove was the place where the middle rail feeder wire was. Grrrr. Thankfully, the switch leading up to it was power-routing switch that I had added jumpers to, and in fact the feeder wire I had cut wasn't necessary as power was still getting there anyway. After testing it to confirm that I was okay, I pulled the feeder out and plugged the hole underneath with caulk.

I built a simple frame from 1/8" styrene angle and painted it brown. I decided to model the facility for above-ground unloading with a pipe, so I installed a piece of white paper suitably weathered to replicate the prototype pictures I had seen. The tubing is a piece of solder painted black with brass "flanges" made from guitar string ball ends on each end. I may come back at some point and replace it with some molded piping and flanges that Plastruct sells, but for right now it looks okay to me.

If I'm being honest, I had to go back and rebuild it again as I didn't account for oversize tinplate flanges and my tank cars could get past the first chemical drip pan I built. Oops.

Every commercial structure needs garbage dumpsters, so I asked online what they looked like in the 1970s and was given some helpful information. I considered scratchbuilding them which would have been fun, but I have been pretty busy lately so I bought some 3D prints on Ebay from "StarMerchantLLC". 

Their covers looked a little too modern for the 1970s-1980s so I repainted them dark green and switched out the corrugated plastic lids for older plain flat steel panel lids that I made from styrene. I also added wheels from more guitar string ends that I painted black. Then, random bits of junk were stuck inside. Since it till be difficult to see inside I didn't waste any expensive castings. It appears naked without the name of the company on the side, but pictures from that time period showed they were usually blank.

I also had a horizontal propane tank left over from my N scale days and decided to reuse it here. It had an old decal on the side so I lightly sanded that off. Then, the entire thing was painted gloss white and a safety warning placard and a Suburban Propane company sign were printed off online and glued on. Some light weathering with powders was next, and finally I glued it on. A few crash posts made from brass tubing and yellow paint finished it off.

After extending the parking lot out it was time to surround it with greenery. I started with my trusted ground goop mixture and then finished with lots of various colors and sizes of ground foam.

A healthy dose of water and white glue was applied and everything was left to dry overnight.

Some concrete barriers from Ebay (Robson's3Dprints) looked like they would fit in the scene nicely so I purchased a couple. I painted them gray and weathered them, and now they prevent cars and/or delivery trucks from backing off the property (and through the eventual fence).

There are some details I may still add in the future like a metal screen security fence and an access road. But, the road will cross the benchwork section and lead into the next scene on the left which will be an Agway. I haven't figured that out yet and I don't want to hamstring myself by building a road in the wrong place. So that will wait. I do think a picnic table for the staff to eat in if it is nice outdoors might make a good addition, as well as a few old pallets.

It is difficult to find era appropriate 1:48 vehicles. I bought an old panel truck kit off of Ebay for a delivery truck of sorts and started to work on it, but it has problems that I didn't expect so it will wait for the future.

Without the backline of trees or brush, the back scenery joint looks very abrupt and sterile. I hope to change that. And of course, there is the static grass and weeds and fallen dead leaves that really set the fall scene. I plan to work on them soon.

Chemical Dealer Scene (there IS a prototype!)

Over Labor Day weekend our family rented the caboose at the Chester Railways Museum. We had previously done it in 2024 and had a great time, so this year we doubled down and spent two nights and saw 23 trains (plus a 24th on the drive home) over the weekend. That was pretty good.

On the way up, though, I noticed a building about 5 miles west of Chester on Route 20 and made a mental note of it. As we came home I pulled over and took some pictures. And, what do you know, but it looks just like the structure I am building. The green paint and white trim are a near-perfect match! I am sure there are a lot of buildings that have that color combination but I didn't know it when I picked my colors. I just thought that they looked nice and would compliment my green New England trees and scenery.

Now, I just need to finish mine!

Kodel clothing advertisement

As the weather outside gets cooler I am intrigued by this Kodel shirt sdvertisement. I wonder who thought that holding a caboose would sell more of those greenish-blue shirts? 

Article Published - D&H glass load hoppers

My first article for O Gauge Railroading magazine was published in Run 333, the December/January 2024 issue. It describes how to model the recycled glass loads that the Delaware and Hudson used to haul in their bright blue hopper cars in the 1970s using real glass beads. I had already built some loads in HO scale previously, and decided that building them in O scale would be fun. Some of my friends heard about them and wanted a few of their own, so in total I think I built 10 hopper loads. 

The loads are removable and I also made some gravel and coal loads that are interchangeable with the glass loads.

It was a fun project and I hope it inspired modelers who are running their blue D&H hoppers to give them a realistic glass load.

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.