Seaboard Central 2.0

[mcjaco]

I find wall paint lasts quite a while.  I used the last of my sky blue color recently and was surprised to see it dated to 2009 on the label.

Those new Seaboard locos look pretty good too!

As long as it's kept cool, DRY, and doesn't go through extreme temperatures, like a basement, and is sealed fairly well, it should last years.  Another trick is to seal the lid back on good, and store the can upside down.  The paint will seal any openings.

[davefoxx]

AN INFORMAL POLL.  I'm looking for recommendations on whether I should place this structure in this spot on the layout:



1) It's Lee Weldon's former WM Commissary Building that once resided on his erstwhile WM Western Lines, which I really want to display on the layout;
2) I have spent quite a while since tearing down the expansion, pondering where to move this building, and this is really the only decent spot on the HCD layout;
3) I'm not crazy about the steps leading right on to the mainline track ("Watch your step, folks!"), but I can get over that;
4) I think it looks okay as a railroad facility at the end of the passing siding and yard in Aberdeen, although there is no such prototype for this arrangement;
5) I can easily level the spot for the foundation and add a driveway from that end of the layout.  I have just enough scraps of 0.060" black styrene left over; and
6) I really don't want to move it away from the diverging tracks (although it's tight), because that only puts that fragile handrail on those steps closer to the slide switch turnout control.  I'm trying to guard against careless fingers.

Yes?  No?  Maybe so?  Thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
DFF

[Dave V]

I guess it depends on what that structure now represents on your layout.  What does it "do?"  I should think three-story brick structures are not super-common in rural NC.

[davefoxx]

I guess it depends on what that structure now represents on your layout.  What does it "do?"  I should think three-story brick structures are not super-common in rural NC.

They're not common, and, well, I don't know what this building is for on this layout.  How about, um, something . . . railroady?    I know what it was for on Lee's layout, but that purpose won't be served here.  I'm really looking to find a place to display it, and it being a three-story building, it looks really odd if I were to squeeze it into downtown Aberdeen.  Which is why I'm letting the masses decide what to do with this building.

Thanks,
DFF

[M.C. Fujiwara]

I think it could work as the railroad offices.
It acts as a nice semi-viewblock/scenic bookend by rising over the overpass, and paving the area now green will give a little more industrial feel to the yard, extending the town a bit.
Good opportunity for some lighting, both at the paved lot & maybe into the yard some.

It's really about what kind of mood/feel you want at the end of the yard.

If you do place the building there, I'd pop those stairs off and rotate left to descend next to the building (with the handrails trackside).
They won't stick out as far, too.

[davefoxx]

I think it could work as the railroad offices.
It acts as a nice semi-viewblock/scenic bookend by rising over the overpass, and paving the area now green will give a little more industrial feel to the yard, extending the town a bit.
Good opportunity for some lighting, both at the paved lot & maybe into the yard some.

It's really about what kind of mood/feel you want at the end of the yard.

If you do place the building there, I'd pop those stairs off and rotate left to descend next to the building (with the handrails trackside).
They won't stick out as far, too.

Thanks, M.C.  Railroad offices is really what I had in mind, although the Seaboard System didn't have any such structures in Aberdeen, North Carolina.  That doesn't bother me anymore on this layout, though.  I'm no longer worried about prototypical accuracy, since this layout's days may be numbered.  For that reason, I really don't want to alter the building.  Not only do I want to leave it as original as possible, but I am really afraid that I'll break it.  Had I built it, I'd be less concerned.

DFF

[Philip H]

• put an old faded ACL decal or sign on the brick expanse on the short side.
• print a "seaboard System Regional Operations Center" sign on gloss photo paper and hang it on the long side over the door and stairway.
• Rotate the building 90 degrees, and slide it back to the edge of the layout.
• Put your lot in the open space and put a gravel road leading away from it across the tracks.

[basementcalling]

As long as it's kept cool, DRY, and doesn't go through extreme temperatures, like a basement, and is sealed fairly well, it should last years.  Another trick is to seal the lid back on good, and store the can upside down.  The paint will seal any openings.

So this thread has become talk about how to watch the paint NOT dry?

[davefoxx]

So this thread has become talk about how to watch the paint NOT dry?

Hopefully, we'll find out in the next few days whether that paint is any good.  I expect that it is, because it's been sitting on the workbench in the basement since I bought it.  So, unlike the leftover paint in the garage, it hasn't frozen.    Last night, I applied wood filler to all of the holes in the fascia left over from where the expansion and the former cassette attached to this HCD layout.  The filler is dry, but I still need to invest in a new random orbital sander (my old sander died).

DFF

[davefoxx]

1. put an old faded ACL decal or sign on the brick expanse on the short side.

Not a bad idea, except that these tracks are really former SAL, and I really don't want to modify the structure.

2. print a "seaboard System Regional Operations Center" sign on gloss photo paper and hang it on the long side over the door and stairway.

I would prefer to put a Seaboard System sign on the building, and someone on NScale.net suggested a rooftop sign facing the highway.  Great idea, and that could be done without permanently modifying the structure.

3. Rotate the building 90 degrees, and slide it back to the edge of the layout.

There's just not the room to turn the building.  The highway has an embankment that prevents moving the building around.

4. Put your lot in the open space and put a gravel road leading away from it across the tracks.

If I decide to add the building, I'll make the road access head off of the end of the layout, as if it was heading back to the parallel road.  If I understood your post, I don't want to cross the tracks, because the road is in the other direction and I don't want to a road crossing the yard tracks.

Thanks,
DFF

[Chris333]

Wait this cannot proceed without Oldeast's input on this. 

Where were some YMCAs that were right at the tracks. Maybe tilt it a bit to match the angle of the road, this will pull back the steps a bit.

[Rich_S]

Dave, Yes it's a three story building, but what does the building look like in the big empty space in front of the warehouse or maybe it's a freight station in the above photo in Aberdeen? Maybe I'm the odd man out, but placing the a big three story building at that end of the yard just seems out of place? Where would everyone park that worked in the building? Big administration building are usually associated with big parking lots for the employees. Just my two cents 

[davefoxx]

Wait this cannot proceed without Oldeast's input on this. 

Where were some YMCAs that were right at the tracks. Maybe tilt it a bit to match the angle of the road, this will pull back the steps a bit.

After I read your post (and laughed), I ran downstairs to see if I could match the angle of the road.  Unfortunately, the road is angled the other way, making it worse.  Damn, that was a great idea, though.

Anyhow, I committed to planting this building, whether it's realistic or not.  I cut back the embankment which will give more room to move the structure around.  I'll either plant this building in the hill or build a retaining wall, whichever I can get away with.  Also, I figured out that if I lifted the building on three layers of cork roadbed, I could shift it even further without the embankment burying it.  I can easily taper the raised ground down to track level on both sides and even provide a sidewalk or path down to the tracks so now railroad workers won't step out of the building and onto the track.

[davefoxx]

Dave, Yes it's a three story building, but what does the building look like in the big empty space in front of the warehouse or maybe it's a freight station in the above photo in Aberdeen? Maybe I'm the odd man out, but placing the a big three story building at that end of the yard just seems out of place? Where would everyone park that worked in the building? Big administration building are usually associated with big parking lots for the employees. Just my two cents 

Hi, Rich,

The building looks awkward in Aberdeen to my eye.  The bare spot you pointed out in front of the warehouse is actually on a hill, so it won't fit there.  At least at this end of the layout, and tucked into the hillside, it doesn't look too tall.  A part of the parking lot will be squeezed in between the building and the layout's edge, implying the rest of the parking lot is off the layout.

Thanks,
DFF

[wazzou]

@davefoxx - might I suggest that you explore turning the stairway 90 deg. or parallel to the wall nearest the tracks.
That would be pretty logical and ease your concerns over the awkwardness.

OldWest