The railings on the second floor (above) were scratchbuilt from brass wire and stripwood. A spacing for the balusters was established, and the upper and lower chords were drilled at the same time as the wire used for the railings. The rear access steps were cut from one block of wood (below) and painted. Their railings (below and right) were made from brass wire. A curve was placed near the end; the vertical stanchions were made from flattened wire.
key elements of the wall components were transferred to the fiberboard. The door and window openings were then punched out using a right-angle cut- ting tool pressed through the material with the aid of the arbor of a drill press. The walls of the three sections were glued together into a single structure, and ground floor pieces were made so they could slide into their respective section from the bottom. Later, these floor pieces would be glued to a piece of 13″ wide × 9¹/₂″ deep × ¹/₂″-thick Gator Board® so that the building was hori- zontally centered and set back on it from the front edge by a few inches. On the layout the Gator Board would be “keyed” into position by the ground cov- er. The front of the building is a little over two and a half inches back from the centerline of the track. Since the floor inserts slide easily into the struc- ture, it can be lifted off the base. One thing I did differently with this building was to incorporate the founda- tion details as part of each wall. After punching out the window and door openings, but before gluing the wall panels into their box shape, I used a
The ground floor of the center section houses the main dining room, while the kitchen is located in the rear of the oth- er ground floor wing. One of the unique features of the hotel is the indoor plumbing and hot showers, a luxury for the workers.
With the mine running twenty-four hours a day throughout the week, the hotel always has the aroma of fresh bread baking in the kitchen and food being prepared for the miners who may be completing their shift or for those who are just beginning theirs. When the men are not eating, they are, more than likely, in their bunk getting some well deserved rest.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
and 6³/₄″ high, which in S scale represents 58′-0″×36′-0″ deep × 30′-0″ high. It features a shell of three sec- tions made using my favorite scratch- building material for sub-walls, ¹/₈″- thick untempered fiberboard. Before starting construction, the ba- sic building shape was determined and designed using the Cadrail® computer- aided drafting program. An S-scale sized paper print-out was made, taped together and test
The main building The building is 11″ wide, 6³/₄″ deep
fitted where the building was to be located.
When I was happy with the fit, addi- tional print-outs were made and the
flat-end mill bit in a vertical router and removed about half of the thickness of the wall material along the bottom three scale feet from all the exterior walls. That space was filled with Squadron White Putty and, when dry, sanded smooth with the surface of the rest of the wall. Stone foundation blocks were carved into the hardened putty using dental tools and an awl. With the foundation stones carved, the walls were glued together with yel- low carpenter’s glue. When firm, the three sections were joined together to form a single structure. More putty was added at each of the foundation joint lines and at each corner. Once hard- 67
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