My first scratch built passenger station

[mclarenf119]

That is why when I try to scratchbuild things like buildings I usually try to base them on, or even just get ideas, from some prototype structures. That will make the models look more realistic to the viewer, just just because it will make them look similar to buildings we see in real life.  When trying to freelance a structure, it is also good to understand the basics of building construction. Again, if the model properly depicts something that would actually work in real life, it will also look "right"as a model.

I'm noticing two things.    First, on stone/masonry, you may or may not have windows with exterior wood fascia - many times the windows are inset straight into the thick wall block.  For modeling, that means you insert the windows from the back, or even have to build up depth and insert from the back.   On wood frame construction it's normal practice to have the windows the way you have.   Again, as Pete says, it helps to follow a prototype, or at least a railroad, getting a feel for what they did in given situations.

Second.... again very much depending on prototype practice, the windows look 'high' in comparison to the doors.   There's always exceptions, like steps on the inside, but usually that means a foundation block pattern around the base showing that the floor is raised inside and there would be a 'step up' just inside the doors.   Given what you've already done (and done well) it may be the easy way out if you see it this way.

It's never fun to throw a "wet rag" on somebody's project, especially when what you have executed is done well.
But the thing is, railroad depots tend to be ornate "pretty" structures, even the simple rural ones.  That means arches, curves, elegant hip roofs, and so on.  I think what you've built there looks more like a factory, which is why it's getting the "gloomy" description.

Station windows wouldn't have so many dividing panes, which make those look more like security bars (read "gloomy").  They would have more open glass.  The door would be more inviting, instead of industrial looking.

I don't know how hard it would be to separate the windows and doors from the walls, but my suggestion would be to find some more open windows and a door that is more ornate, perhaps has a curved/arched top, and has a more substantial frame around it so that it looks like an "entryway" and not just a "door".  If you changed those out, the whole look of the structure could be more "depot like".

Thank y'all for taking the time to give your honest critique, this is what I joined for! I knew the building needed some work still, but with your guidance I can nudge it in a much better direction. Most importantly, you've made me excited to get back to work on it.

Thanks again,

-Eric

[nkalanaga]

Most of the rural stations in the Northwest were far from "ornate".  The Pasco NP/SP&S station was large enough to house offices, but was still a basic stucco building.

I'll agree that most masonry buildings have inset windows, but the basic design looks fine to me. 

If it was mine, I'd consider replacing the far right window with a freight door, and make the building a combination passenger station and freight house.  As such, it would work well for a small town.  I can see it in a old mining area, where stone and concrete would be readily available, but there wouldn't be many local passengers.  Freight, years ago, would have included bagged ore or concentrate, and a substantial building would have been desirable for security.  Today, the freight area might hold MOW supplies, or even be leased to another business.

[muktown128]

I really like the weathering technique you used for the stone work.  It really makes the individual stones stand out.  What did you do to achieve that look?

You'll get a lot of good feedback and ideas here. 

Scott

[DKS]

Personally, as a first scratchbuilding effort, I think you got way more right than wrong. I'm particularly impressed by your coloration and weathering techniques.

Also, while I think constructive criticism is very helpful, I'll declare that I felt some of it was a bit too harsh, especially with respect to some of the presumed "rules" regarding train station design. There are plenty of examples of stations that break almost every rule. Boring facade? Check. High windows? Check. Windows with lots of little panes? Check. Plain doors? Check. Gloomy appearance? Check.

Now, having said all of that, I think the likelihood of finding all of the "rules" broken on a single structure is perhaps slim, but I wouldn't dismiss the possibility. And I'll confess at first glance I thought it was a freight depot; indeed, with the addition of several more doors, I think it would make quite a nice freight depot.

At any rate, I'm glad you took the comments in the spirit they were intended. And, for a little inspiration, here are some reference images of rule-breaking stations.













Loads more where they came from...

[Philip H]

I’m going to go counter to the other guys and say you’ve done a right fine job of duplication a concrete and stone station. If it were a full building I’d advocate for either a full flat roof behind a parapet or Spanish tiles.

As to prototype - honestly it looks European from the late 1960’s to me.

At any rate a great first effort.

[mmagliaro]

...

Now, having said all of that, I think the likelihood of finding all of the "rules" broken on a single structure is perhaps slim, but I wouldn't dismiss the possibility. And I'll confess at first glance I thought it was a freight depot; indeed, with the addition of several more doors, I think it would make quite a nice freight depot.

...

THIS.

I would argue that for every example you can find that have some of these more "factory" or "gloomy" features, there are 10x that many that do not.   One can always find examples of stations (or locomotives or anything else) that don't conform to the norm.  But when freelancing something, I think it's important to adhere much more to what is common rather than stretch believability.

For example, you can navigate through many pages of photos of NP depots here:
http://www.nprha.org/lists/depot%20photos%20of%20the%20np/standard%20view1.aspx#InplviewHash5c14b654-2232-4af6-ac26-dce55344c415=Paged%3DTRUE-p_Title%3DDetroit%2520Lakes-p_Seq%3D01-p_ID%3D345-PageFirstRow%3D101

Overwhelmingly, even the rural ones have more artistic features, more open windows, and walls that are not just straight sides along the track but often have a glass-windowed "bay" to facilitate looking down the track.

Even very simple, very rural depots have a "homey" look to them.


I invite you to look at a selection of the depots for the location in the country, or the railroad, that you are trying to model, and then see if what you are building is really typical of of that geography or railroad.

[mclarenf119]

I really like the weathering technique you used for the stone work.  It really makes the individual stones stand out.  What did you do to achieve that look?

Hi Scott, thanks for the feedback.

It took about 4 steps to achieve that look:

• Prime coat: I used woodland scenics concrete road paint for both the primer and base color, but a true primer would probably be best. I just couldn't really spray in the apartment. Just needed a very thin layer to add tack to the plastic but not fill in the texture.
• Grout color: I used a thinned out black to fill in the grout lines, but you don't have to be too careful here since the stone faces are about to be covered.
• Base Color: I dipped a flat brush in my concrete color and removed most of it on my scrap paper and very lightly dry brushed over the top of the stone texture to just apply the color to the faces.
  3.5 - Wash/Darkening: This step is probably not necessary if you have the right colors, I was just making do with what I had. But I took another pass with the thinned out black to "grey" up the light concrete color and make it look more like stone.
• Weathering powders: I took an ash color and somewhat aggressively brushed it on. This can fill the grout also if some of the base color gets in. Lastly, I took a brown powder and lightly brushed over the top to give it some depth of color.

[randgust]

Just want to add in that you're getting the comments you are because at least to me, it's obvious you have some real talent here and there's the ability to raise the bar with some more information.

Also, with only one front wall, I was looking around for my own 'ugly station' contest (David did that rather nicely) and realized a couple things, first that the ornate features of a station often come from the roof design and support treatments, and other things that don't necessarily come through just with one front wall.  If you stripped away everything off the top of the first floor of Flagstaff, AZ, and did it in red brick instead of gray stone, it wouldn't look a whole lot different.   Lots of smaller-paned windows, wider spaced, relatively plain wall and doors.  But once you got 12 feet off the ground, away they went with all manner of embellishment.   That was my first scratchbuilt station in N, and I did it just from photos.   

We've got a local station done in brown sandstone, and what makes it a station is the hip roof, all the ornate roof supports, and second-story roof gables going on.   Front wall is yeah, relatively plain.   Same with our old station here in PA, if you just looked at the wall with nothing on it at all, hey, pretty plain.

The last one I scratchbuilt was the PRR station at West Hickory, PA, and no matter how accurate you make it, it still looks wrong.  It's too tall for itself.  And the reason is, it was a combination station with the team track door in the back, with car clearance UNDER the back roof.  So the whole building is abnormally tall for a passenger station.   The only thing that makes it right is that I can produce a picture of the prototype like a microphone drop and just walk away...

[nkalanaga]

Another thought on "looks".  Your first post has a BN "executive scheme" locomotive.  If that's the era you're modeling, many passenger stations would be torn down, abandoned, or repurposed.  Even in towns with Amtrak service, the old railroad station was often replaced with an Amshack.

For railroad purposes, by then meaning freight operations, the "station" was mostly an office and storage building.  If the town had an active yard, it was often the yard office.  Yours looks quite natural as an old yard office.  The interior would have clerks' desks, a crew lounge with lockers and waiting area, and storage space for various supplies.  Many of those are still in use today, looking much as they did a century ago.

Officially, in the rule books, a "station" is "A place designated in the timetable by name." (Consolidated Code of Operating Rules, 1967).  All it has to have is a sign with the station name on it, so the crews know where it is.  Any other structures are optional!

[mrhedley]

Nice work.  I especially like the weathering on the platform. 

I thought I'd share my first scratch build station model with you for comparison.  It's based on the old DLW station in Binghamton, New York.  I tried scaling from photos, but a few things didn't work out very well, like the lower awning roofs.  I plan to replace it with the Bergen Model works laser printed version when I finally have the 100 or so hours I expect it will take to build it.  It also gives me a change to display some of the excellent vehicle models I purchased from Rasputen that I finally got around to building.

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[mclarenf119]

Alright an update after a weekend of progress and lots of digesting all of the feedback I received.

First of all, thank you to all of the kind words, they meant a lot and made me feel welcome here as well as making me want to step up my game!

Second, judging by most of the comments, my biggest issue is that I don't have a defined era/railroad/location for this particular building, which is sort of true since this is a 2 foot diorama which I am using as a programming track. While on the topic of definitions, I may not even call the building a "passenger station" anymore and go with @nkalanaga 's idea of calling it a "yard office" or something like that. Lastly, I need to brush up on architecture concepts and construction methods if I am going to try to freelance something from my brain, otherwise use a reference image!

Alright, on to update pics...



The fact that windows should be inset in masonry is one of the concepts about construction that was totally lost on me before joining here. So, in an effort to fix that I took some siding texture and cut it to fit around the windows so the entire front wall is now flush and the fascia on the windows and doors will make more sense.



On to the roof! I went with a flat roof and parapet design with subtle border accents. But this was just my first iteration. Also, you can see all of the front wall panels on and weathered now. I may have gone a bit overboard with the powders here, so when I get back to it I may try to clean em up a bit.



I made the parapet above the entrance stand out a bit to try and make it more interesting.

When it's all said and done, I may just categorize this build as Testing/R&D, as I am using this to learn new techniques on. Either way adding the roof certainly helps and I'm gonna keep at it and try to get it looking right. More painting/wall panels to come, and possibly an awning, still mulling that one over.

[DKS]

Your original drawing had what looks like a round window over the door.



Why not revisit that idea?

[MK]

Or put a big sign over the door.

[randgust]

Wow, that looks pretty good.   You can nitpick but the overall effect now looks like it belongs.

To me it looks like a vintage freight house office, but whatever you call it, it looks railroady. 

Probably would have something out over that door, a bar-supported awning or something, likely flat.   

Nice job of insetting the windows that way.

[nickelplate759]

It looks pretty good to me.  One change I would suggest from an aesthetic point of view - that blank space above the door.   If it's a station I think that there should be either a window above the door (make the top even with the other windows, and make it the same width as them, or some kind of fairly large decorative panel, perhaps with the station name on it (or engraved in it if it is masonry).  Another option might be some kind of awning over the door - maybe a flat one with wires angling up to the wall to hold it level.