Alley Johnson Farm and Feed Supply, Kansas City, MO

[milw12]

The Mann's Challenge came about at a good time for me- I have need for another industrial building on my Milwaukee Road KCMO layout and this is providing enough motivation to finally get rolling on it. This building will replace another on the viewing edge of the layout that I'm not quite happy with. So I starting poking around Kansas City in Google Earth to find likely modeling candidates, and just so happened to find a structure that would fit my layout.

Alley Johnson -Feed/Farm Supply
1519 W 16th St
Kansas City, MO

Served by the MKT in 1978

By coordinating my 1978 Milwaukee Road List of Industries with a 1971 Rock Island list, I was able to determine the address and type of industry at the time. Now given that 40 years have past since the lists were published and who knows what could have changed, especially considering addresses, the building is clearly the proper vintage and appears to have rail served at one point. You can see the turnout leading to it in the overhead shot, and the gravel alleyway is a suspiciously convenient size for railroad tracks. Or perhaps it was served by a nearby team track, for as much information as can be gleaned from industrial lists, they do spare the gritty details. The large, blank rail-side wall is making me curious about this, as I can't make out details such as old loading doors with the current picture quality.

I'm making a lot of assumptions, but not that it matters much, as it will be a non-rail industry on my layout, but the slight plausibility will at least make it “protototypically inspired.” And who knows what the building was used for/which railroad served it if at all in my modeled year of 1984, post early-eighties recession.



You can still see some tracks in the street near the bottom center of the picture, And note that nice, blank, flat roof. One AC unit, easy modeling!



Southwest corner, photos will be in counterclockwise order around the building



This end is planned be the most visible



You can easily see where the tracks once ran in this shot and the next





Good view of then brick office/north side loading dock. I will probably skip this end of the building. A bit too much added visual interest? The real reason: considering my modeling abilities, patience and that I would like to get this building done in my lifetime, I want a realistic, obtainable goal 





Street side window detail and cool foundation. The windows I anticipate to be the biggest challenge



The building on the left is the one in question for replacement. Never have I been happy with its quality, but it does make for a nice painted mock-up.


Given the nature of the structure, this would be an ideal candidate for a Mindhiem style photograph-building, but my next trip to KC won't be until sometime this summer during baseball season, where I could visit the site (exciting destination vacation- Visit industrial KC!)and snap some photographs to play with and print. It would answer some of my questions about about the loading doors too, but it will have to wait. Plus I prefer traditional modeling, especially for something as close to the viewer as this will be.

@Dave Schneider  mentioned mentioned using Monster Modelworks block for his building in HO, so I, being the shameless plagiarist that I am, ordered some N scale block as well. Thanks Dave
Having just ordered it I don't know if it will be here on time for the challenge deadline, but at least I'll have a start. I'm not planning on winning, especially with a pretty ordinary warehouse and my modeling skills, but I do like the challenge nonetheless.

As for starting construction, next I'll need to estimate some dimensions, anticipate some compression for the available space, and try to keep the character of the building intact. If I recall correctly @SSW7771 Marshall used wood boards cut to size for building cores on his excellent industrial layout, so that is something I'd like to try compared to my usual time-consuming and warp-prone balsa core structures. From an old picture:



Thanks for looking!
Lucas

[Dave Schneider]

Cool building. I like the idea of modeling the ordinary. My MMW concrete blocks are in the mail, and should be here by Monday. Glad that you got something out  of my post. That is the idea of this!

Best wishes,
Dave

[MVW]

Looking forward to seeing this come together, Lucas. That foundation caught my eye, as well.

(You planning a pilgrimage for a Twins-Royals series?)

Jim

[milw12]

Thanks Dave! Still waiting on my parts, so I'll probably miss the deadline, but at least the ball is rolling on a much-needed structure. And now another building a block away too 

Thanks Jim! There's another nearby building with the same style foundation. Must be a period/local thing? All baseball is good baseball, but if I can catch the Twins and Royals it will be icing on the cake 

Not a whole lot happening on this project, as I mentioned I was was late to the game and am still waiting on MMW, but that's okay. I scaled the building from google street view, judging that the doors being older are 7'-6", which would put the dock doors at 10' tall by 8', which is seems reasonable. Some quick math and pixel-counting lead to the building being in the ball park of 84' by 300'. Narrow and long, perfect for a shelf layout 

Given the real estate available, I had to compress the width 86% to 5 inches wide. The plan is the retain the door count and details but narrow each of the wall spaces in between to slim it up a bit. The length is uncompressed at 22", (sans awning at the office end) which is pretty cool. A cahnge in plans in that the brick office at the one end will be includied, but I don't have the space for the awning/loading dock area.

Given the dimension, I bought a piece of 1x6 poplar, ripped it to 5" wide, and laminated and screwed two 22" pieces together, as seen here:



It's about a 1/4" short height wise but I'm planning on using a piece of 1/4" MDF painted black for the roof, so that will take care of that.

Thanks for looking!
Lucas
 

[SSW7771]

It's about a 1/4" short height wise but I'm planning on using a piece of 1/4" MDF painted black for the roof, so that will take care of that.

My ProPlastics warehouse (still in progress) was about 1/4" short as well. I used strip styrene to get the roof to the correct height.

As for starting construction, next I'll need to estimate some dimensions, anticipate some compression for the available space, and try to keep the character of the building intact. If I recall correctly @SSW7771 Marshall used wood boards cut to size for building cores on his excellent industrial layout, so that is something I'd like to try compared to my usual time-consuming and warp-prone balsa core structures. From an old picture:

Thanks for the shoutout! I was actually thinking of trying a hybrid method on my next project as my main issue is weight. My next layout will be portable so weight will be an issue. I was thinking either strips of plywood to make a frame or hollow out with a router.