FINISHED MODEL PHOTOS BY BILL SCHAUMBURG Building the Red Star Yeast plant An HO scale scratchbuilding odyssey/Bruce Feld W


hen I embarked in 1998 on scratchbuilding the Red Star Yeast plant located in West


Oakland, California, I had little idea of when I would finish it, nor could I imagine that completion would be in 2010. This was definitely a long term project.


My first scratchbuilt model was in the 1970’s of a Wisconsin gas station that had a pagoda roof. Thirty years later Walthers came out with such a model. My second, in the mid-1990’s, was of an oxygen plant situated not far from Red Star Yeast. A third has to be around the corner.


The yeast plant drew me in as a


challenge for several reasons. The in- triguing “dog houses” atop the struc- ture clearly were from another indus- trial age. The north contours of the plant had interesting lines, with asym- metric gables and creepy, dimly lit dormer windows, visible as we slid by


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN


at dusk on the adjacent Bay Area Rap- id Transit elevated train. Two huge curved-over scalloped pipes looked like


monks aloft in an industrial palace. All were enveloped in steam, smoke and a most distinct scent of yeast permeating


The Red Star Yeast factory (above) was built in 1912 in Oakland. The tanks, and the roof vents and piping, make what appears to be a plain building an interesting modeling project.


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