Fruit and Produce Company -- Part 4?

In my last post, several weeks ago, I left off with a punch list for the main building. During the past rainy week, I have tried to return to working for a little while on the model most days, and it has led to some progress.

One of the first steps from last weekend was to clear off the plate glass on my workbench so that I could make clean cuts in clear acetate. I found some clear stock in my plastics drawer, and after measuring started cutting pieces for the windows. I used Formula 560 canopy glue, applied to the back of the window and door inserts with a micro-brush, to mount the window "glass." Knowing that I was planning on adding interior lighting later, the smart move would have been to paint the interior walls with black acrylic while the building was upside down. I did not make the smart move. 

Having checked off one task from the list, I moved on to the roof. I cut some strips of three scale feet from black construction paper. Before returning the canopy glue to its shelf, I coated the styrene roof with the glue and applied the black paper to represent tar paper on the roof. After the glue dried I tried painting with roof brown acrylic paint, but didn't really like the look. I later painted the tar paper roof with flat grimy black. After two coats of that, I was happier with it. 

While it was not on my original punch list, I decided to add the medium air conditioner from the Walthers Roof Details kit in my stash. I cut the appropriate pieces from the sprue and sanded the edges to remove any tiny nubs left by my nippers. I assembled the detail kit with liquid solvent cement, managing to only have one slightly crooked wall with my shaky hands. After the air conditioner dried overnight, I filled the small open joint at the top of that wall with Tamiya putty. While assembling the air conditioner, I sprayed the sprue with the tile coping from the original grocery distributor kit with a red primer rattle can. After that had dried, I pieced together the tile coping on the brick walls. 

Over just the past couple of days, I continued to make my way through a few more items from the punch list. I struggled to add the roof over the loading dock. In hind sight, I should have not used the plastic hangers from the kit, but instead fabricated new ones from wire. But I went ahead, using the kit supplied ones. First of all, my shaky hands exacerbated my apparent need for three hands to hold and glue the hangers, roof, and structure wall together all at the same time. Thank goodness no one was watching or listening to me during that ordeal. Because one of the hangers was missing, I also had to deal with the extra holes. I planned to hide the hole in the wall with the building's sign. I filled the hole in the roof with putty. That meant that the roof needed to be painted after it was installed. I had sprayed it a gray color previously, but now I brush painted it a darker gray Vallejo color. While it looked kind of awful wet, after drying overnight the color and brush marks both flattened out. Today, before taking the photos, I applied some weathering with chalks and pigments as well as finally cutting out and gluing on the paper sign that I had designed and printed out on my inkjet printer weeks ago.

I still have a couple of items from the punch list. Looking at this photo from an observer's point of view, some kind of lighting is definitely needed. My plan is to fashion a light under the dock roof on one side and to place an interior light on the other side. I have some LED lights and supplies from Evan Designs to experiment with, so I might as well get on the ball. Along with lighting, I plan to add some simple interior details: window shades and black paper view blocks if nothing else. 

Looking at this scene from this angle, two things spring to mind. One is that I should attempt a more accurate mockup of the adjacent building than the blue scrap wall flat. The other idea is the possibility of starting some first layer of scenery around this scene. 

Before starting any of that, I will work out the lighting for this building in order to wrap it up. Seeing the progress I have made recently should keep me motivated. Beyond scenery here, I have a photo/collage in the works to experiment with on the backdrop that goes to the right of the green-roofed warehouse in the photo. I want to include that in a presentation that I am giving in June, so I have a goal/deadline for scenery along the backdrop here after this major building for the Nooksack Fruit and Produce Company is completed.  

Slowing Down, but Still Moving Forward

 

The Nooksack Valley Fruit and Produce Company Co. project is moving forward in fits and starts, but at not much above glacial speed. As a total aside, you can follow my wife and me on our garden project here, which helps explain my slowing down on the railroad. The lead photo here shows the current state of the building. Its wall color has been finalized, the basic roof is in place, and the loading dock is finished. In this post I will discuss some of these steps and list the remaining steps to finally wrap up this project. 

I left off my last post on this project with the walls built, but unsure of the color to paint the bricks. It took a couple of attempts. First I sprayed the completed walls with a rattle-can primer in a khaki color. After that had dried I started to sponge on some acrylic craft paint off-white and tan colors. As I was really unhappy with the look, I stopped part way through and cleaned off as much of it as I could with a damp paper towel before it had a chance to set up. The next day I masked the concrete foundation with painter's tape and sprayed with a white rattle-can lightly over the walls. I stopped short of complete or even thorough coverage to allow some subtle variation. While out in the garage with spray paints, I sprayed the doors and windows with a dark green primer. After yet another overnight drying session, I applied several light applicatiions of Vallejo Wash colors; I just touched the saturated brush tip to the wall allowing the wash to flow through the mortar lines. I finally had something close to the subtly worn white, painted brick look I had envisioned. 

While I had been using the scratchbuilt loading dock from another building for my planning, I wanted to build one specific to this building. After taking some measurements, I drew up plans for this one and created a cut list for the strip wood needed.  I cut the pieces to length with either my Zona razor saw or on the Chopper. (Something happened while cutting the deck boards on the Chopper as later I found them to have length variations.) After they were cut, I stained them with Hunterline Cordovan Brown weathering mix. Later when I started assembling the dock, I tried a new technique that I picked up from a Thunder Mesa Studio video by Dave Meek. Instead of building on the drawing covered by wax paper, add another layer to allow for a fixture technique. Tape the drawing to a piece of foamcore before covering it with wax paper, so that a starting piece can be pegged into place with pins. That provides a rigid piece to fit and glue the other pieces to. This photo shows this technique in use as I glued up the frame for the dock. While gluing on the deck boards, I used a metal block lined up with one of the long deck frame boards to keep the decking boards even on that side. After the glue dried, I went back and turned the deck upside down and trimmed some of the longer decking back with a chisel-bladed hobby knife. That, some sanding, and gouging with a hobby knife, turned inaccurate cutting into part of the weathering of a well-worn loading dock!

To wrap up this slow moving building project I need to:

• Finalize the roof; maybe paint, maybe tar paper.
• Decide on coping for the top of the walls, then apply and paint
• Window glazing and any interior
• Roof over loading dock
• Lighting
• Signage

Golden Spike Award Clinic

The Golden Spike Award can be seen as an entry into the NMRA's Achievement Program or as a guide into improving one's model railroad skill set (or both). On Saturday, I will be giving a short presentation on the NMRA Golden Spike at a virtual meeting of the Susquehanna Division. This is an updated version of a clinic prepared for the Alleghany Western Division a number of years ago. 

Below, I will provide links to a downloadable version of my clinic. In addition to a PDF of the presentation, I want to also provide a link to an NMRA web page that doesn't have an obvious link from the Achievement page on the NMRA website. For registered NMRA members, the Edutrain clinics include a useful one by Bruce DeYoung, MMR for which I will provide a link. His clinic is geared towards both someone hoping to achieve the award as well as giving guidance for evaluating others. 

1. Download a PDF of the presentation here: Golden Spike V.3
2. Open the "hidden" NMRA page explaining the Golden Spike 
3. Open the NMRA "Edutrain" clinic on the Golden Spike Award

Initial Operations Update

 

Just in the last few days, I created a new, freelanced piece of operations paperwork in Pages (one could use Word or any word process application). A recent blog post by Tony Thompson in Modeling the SP discussed using Train Line-ups for operating. He shared a Southern Pacific standard form. After a brief search online, I didn't find a GN form so I adapted the Clearance Form A that I had reproduced as part of my collection of somewhat prototype paperwork. 

As I continue to work on the first phase of my 4th Subdivision branch line railroad, I plan to start with very simple operations approach: sequence of trains. This Daily Train Line-up form provides a basis for using train sequence somewhat prototypically. In Tony's earlier post here, particularly in the comments, he discusses the use of a train line-ups form as a paperwork foundation for outlining an operating scheme. 

In this earlier post, Thompson also mentioned the "On Operation" column by Jerry Dziedzic in the February 2019 Model Railroader. While the train line-ups described in the article were targeting the safety of track gangs, they also could be thought of as a snapshot of a schedule. With my one-town initial TOMA approach, using the Train Line-ups form could substitute until I later develop a timetable and fast clock system. 

Fruit and Produce Company -- Part 2

Main building started

Back in December I introduced the idea of the Nooksack Valley Fruit and Produce Co. as a fruit packing complex to be located in the town of Nooksack. Having drafted a revision (or actually a new version) of one of my clinics for an upcoming Susquehanna Division meeting a few days ago, I have returned to working on the packing house complex. 

For this low relief building kitbashed from parts from the Walthers Grocery Distributor kit, I first returned to the photocopies of the wall sections to determine where I would need to make cuts to fashion the brick walls. I gathered the molded plastic pieces and tools that I would need before marking and cutting the brick wall sections to match my paper mockup. I scored the cuts in the wall with a hobby knife and then used a fine-bladed Zona saw to finish the cuts. I also sanded the edges and any sprue tabs. I trimmed the door and window castings off their sprues and sanded any little tabs left before collecting them all in a plastic bowl, so they won't get lost on my workbench. 

Yesterday I assembled the wall sections. As seen in the photo, I used some Evergreen styrene strip that I have on hand as foundation and bracing. Years ago, when I was still in Seattle, I was able to pick up a large bundle of various styrene strips for pennies as a hobby shop went out of business. I used .125 x .125 to extend the foundation and corner bracing. I also used .060 x .060 and .030 x .100 to fit around the molded-in ridges to even the corners and supports. Having learned one lesson on the kitbashed structure I built for the Ingleton plank, I paid close attention to making sure the corners were square and plumb. The Plastruct solvent worked fine, but using the brush-in-the-bottle made for extremely sloppy glue joints. Here on the interior, they will not be visible. As I plan to scratchbuild another low relief building for this complex, I will need to come up with another technique if I build it from styrene. In the current (March 2025) NMRA Magazine, Jack Hamilton MMR discusses glue/solvent application tools. Perhaps it is time for me to invest in a "Touch-N-Flow" device. At the very least, I should use a much smaller natural bristle brush for trim joints that will be visible. 

Staying focused on this building, the next step is painting. A few months ago, while shopping in Stroudsburg, PA, I took this quick snapshot of the back of some older industrial buildings. It has some nice prototype weathering of bricks and adjoining wooden siding to use. However, I am still thinking that the brick building in my packing house complex should be painted white. I spent some time yesterday looking online for packing house images and many of them are white. I just haven't found an image to use as a model for a paint scheme that I am happy with yet. I once saw a video with Gerry Leone using hairspray to create worn/chipped white paint effects on bricks, but that might be too dilapidated of a look. This is not an abandoned packing house, just a hard working one.  I think I will do a little more online "research" and see what rattle can primer colors I have in stock. Maybe a red primer with a white wash/dry brush over it? I just don't want to inflict analysis paralysis on myself!

 

Wrapping Up a Quick Build for Nooksack

Having repaired the buckled track work here in Nooksack, I returned to the workbench to finish a small craftsman kit that I started a few weeks ago. This is the Juniper Freight House, a Fos Scale Models kit. When I first ordered it I intended to use it as part of the Curtis Cannery complex. Now, I am thinking that I will use it, at least temporarily, here in the front of the benchwork where I have thought I would have a fuel supply company. It may become a lumber and fuel supply company. This little freight house fits nicely here, between the fascia and the spur track. Signage and details will have to wait until I determine the structure's use. 

This was the first kit that I have built from Fos Scale Models. The instructions were complete and relatively clear. The drawings showing the location of bracing were particularly helpful. By bracing the walls, they did not warp with staining or painting. I did let them dry under weight which may have helped prevent warping too. I used Hunterline Driftwood stain on the walls and for unpainted wood. I drybrushed Americana Buttermilk on the walls after the stain had dried to give the appearance of worn and weathered paint. For the plastic windows, I used a rattle can dark green, while I brush painted the wood trim and freight doors with Vallejo's Camo Olive Green. 

The only complaint I have with this kit is with the rolled roofing material. It is packaged folded and I couldn't figure out how to completely remove the fold. In the future, I would use the Jason Jensen technique of using black construction paper. Another step I would take in the future is to more carefully sand the glueing edges along the top and bottom of the walls, so the trim boards line up exactly with the laser cut walls. This was operator error, not the fault of the kit. Overall the quality of the kit is quite good. Both Jason Jensen and Fos Scale have some excellent You Tube videos on craftsman kit construction, painting, and weathering. They both are modeling really run down urban areas, so I am not attempting to weather as drastically as they do. Their techniques are worth emulating though.

I have another of the Fos Scale Models kits to build, but I think that I should focus on the buildings of the two complexes that I have already started here in Nooksack: the cannery and the packing house, seen here behind the recently completed freight house.  I felt a sense of accomplishment from actually completing something before moving on to something new. I hope to build on that feeling and make some progress on the kitbashed and scratchbuilt industries already under way here in Nooksack.  

Buckled Track Repair

 

Although I thought that track work (and track wiring) was complete here on the first phase, it turns out that I was mistaken. Gremlins appeared. In my last post, just a few days ago, I mentioned that the track had buckled on the passing track at Nooksack. After further review I suspect that the cause is not exclusively rail expansion, but at least partially benchwork wood shrinking with the low humidity of our house with the furnace blasting this winter. In addition, the turnout to the left of the buckled track has twisted and no longer lies flat causing derailments. 

At first I considered what I thought to be the easiest solution: unsolder the rail joiners, cut off a bit of each rail, and resolder the joiners. I wouldn't have to make any changes to the wiring; the existing feeders would still be adequate. However, what might happen in the summer when the wood expands? I decided to take a different approach.

I got out my Dremel and using the cutting disk, cut a new gap in the buckled track. After filing the ends of the rail flat, the flex track straightened and the turnout flattened down. The cutting disk left an appropriate gap. I removed some of the ties, filed the rail ends, and slid rail joiners onto the rails. With everything back in place after gapping the rails, both the track and the turnout were realigned. By not soldering the new joiners, the rails can move with the changes in humidity/temperature through the seasons. But. . . now we have a possible electrical gap, as loose rail joiners are notoriously untrustworthy.  

Needing to add a set of feeders to ensure connectivity, I fetched my electrical toolbox. Knowing that this approach entailed dropping feeders, I had plugged in my soldering iron as an early step.  A hot iron, having all materials gathered (yes, literally in a toolbox), and tinning the rail and feeders before soldering the feeders in place made for quick work. I tested continuity between the feeder ends under the benchwork and the rails with my multimeter before joining the feeders to the DCC bus wires with suitcase connectors. Cleaning up and putting the track tub and wiring toolbox away left only a repeat of replacing several ties as tasks in the basement. 

While writing this post, I remembered that I needed to add the new gap and feeders to my "Propulsion Circuitry Diagram" in the three ring binder that I have started towards the Electrical Achievement Program should I chose to attempt it in the future. It is good practice to document what is going on down under the model railroad in any event, NMRA AP or not.