Dave Campbell is back with another update on his HO scale Nickel Plate Road Minster Branch project.
Last time I said the next update would include some photos of east Saint Marys after it was finished. Unfortunately, the meaning of finished was tough for me to nail down.
Our friend Clark Propst has observed that he doesn’t want to go back to a scene to add details that only he will notice. By that standard east Saint Marys is definitely not finished, but in the interest of progress I decided to document the area with some photos.
Here’s a view of the scene as the line enters town from the east
The Saint Marys Foundry sits at trackside and across Pine Street from their warehouse.
The Auglaize Box Board Company has a couple of spurs and is an important source of traffic.
The Deisel Wemmer Cigar factory sits adjacent to the Miami-Erie canal.
Mueller and Sons, purveyors of fruits and vegetables, is not directly served by the railroad but does provide an opportunity for the occasional ventilated box car or reefer to show up on the team track.
Rounding out the Saint Marys industries is the Refiners Oil distributor.
Among the many details to install are signs, crossbucks, more trees and scenic work, and the junk and debris typical of the scene around the railroad.
I have to say that constructing this scene took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Every step beyond basic track installation required me to learn new skills: ballasting, kitbashing and scratchbuilding structures, static grass, and Super Trees. Hopefully, I can step up the pace for more layout progress. Overall I’m happy with the scene, although I really need to improve my static grass skills.
That wraps up another report on the Minster Branch. Thank you, Dave Campbell, for sharing your layout progress. Dave’s experience with Dead Rail is coming up soon! In case you missed the previous chapters on the Minster Branch, here are the links.
Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4
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Love what you’re doing. I have no idea, it’s likely you ARE going to add signs to the industries, but I like to see a sign on each industry to tell me where I’m spotting a car.
Obviously the fuel wholesaler is easily identifiable, but which is the foundry and which is the box factory. Yes, I understand there is a map, but if each industry is labeled with a sign, It makes it easier on the switch crew. Love the progress, I’m jealous. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Paul! And yes, signs are on the way.
Dave
Eric,
I really like the concept of “splitting an industry across a street” (foundry). But I have to ask
wouldn’t the warehouse have a loading dock (in an ideal/real world)? And also the question of
“how does the foundry get stuff back and forth across the street?” … perhaps some kind of
early forklift or a cart with large wheels (gravel road, right?). Perhaps the warehouse dock is on
the back side of the structure?
Thanks for the comments, Jim. AFAIK the warehouse was used for casual storage of supplies, tools, old patterns, etc. and stuff was moved with trucks or carts. It was not served by rail and burned down in the 1950’s.
Dave