One day (really?) Let’s make a shed in one day/Bob Walker I
tried to cover this subject and title once before, and got a bit carried away. The project in question grew in complexity and time consumption into something that, by the end of that first day, was not even half done. For a multitude of reasons, my enthusiasm got the best of me, as is usually the case, and the working title became a working falsehood. This time, I chose a model that, unlike Rome, could indeed, be built in a day. Actually the darn lit- tle thing only took five hours to com- plete. In a lot of modern households, five hours is a good “modeling day” as other commitments and obligations are attended to.
This time of year (the year-end holi-
day season) is traditionally a time of new modelers entering the hobby, all of them trying to absorb as much new in- formation as possible and hungry for more (remember your early days in the hobby?). Few, if any, new modelers will gravitate to scratchbuilding this early in the game. I guess I am really aiming this month’s effort at those who got that train set last Christmas, are still with us, and looking to expand their horizons. To those newer folks who are bold (foolish?) enough to read this col- umn, I will say this: give this little project a try. I’ll wager that you will be surprised at how simple it really is, and how rewarding will be the end re- sults. To the rest of you old timers, I just thought I would hint at what can be done in a single day, between those big projects we all seem to get bogged down in. Sometimes a little project like this one is a nice break from the larger demands of the hobby. Many of us old fogies tend to try to recapture some of our youth, often in ways that make us look silly. A more dignified approach is to model a rail- road and era you remember from when you were younger. The creation of such a railroad is a fun way of looking back on some of those happy times spent railfanning your favorite railroad. At the age of 18 (summer of 1963) I
was working as a punch press operator at a steel company, earning money for college. The middle two weeks of July was the “vacation shutdown” where only those with a lot of seniority were allowed to work. The rest of us were “off” and summer help was just plain laid off for those two weeks. At that age, time off only meant one thing:
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Scratchbuilder’s Corner
Road Trip! My friend John Huber and I had this great idea to pack a tent, our sleeping bags and head for Colorado’s narrow gauge country in John’s new 1963 VW.
In those days, the D&RGW still ran several hundred miles of three-foot gauge steam from Alamosa to Durango along with two branch lines. The Silver- ton branch was passenger and freight, and the Farmington branch was freight
chased trains in that area over the dirt roads and dusty trails, and it made a lasting impression. I have a rare disease that forces me to build railroads. My fear is that I will turn into a turnip (or other such veg- etable) if I do not have a railroad to build. Therefore a small portion of the “main” RGS layout was sacrificed to make room for an Sn3 version of the D&RGW’s line between Chama and Durango. I confess that this railroad building stuff is merely an excuse to scratchbuild buildings. HOn3 was too small for my poor eyesight, and my good old On3 was just too big for what I had in mind. Sn3 was the logical choice for this particular adventure, and my
PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
only, as was the rest of the three foot line. Armed with my dad’s Argus C-3, several rolls of film, and $85.00, we headed west. It was one of the most memorable trips of my life, and I still look back on it with fond memories. Some of the narrow gauge remains to- day. The Cumbres & Toltec operating 64 miles between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico, and the Durango & Silverton operating the 45 miles be- tween those two famous towns are still there to see and ride. I have visited that 109 miles of railroad countless times and taken thousands of photos. It pains me to admit that some of the best of those photos are Donna’s. Oh well. To shorten this narrative, the miss- ing part of the line is what I am most interested in (those fond memories), and that is the stretch between Chama and Durango, which was pulled up in the late 1960’s. I was 10,000 miles away at the time and could not docu- ment the demise of the narrow gauge. That summer of 1963 John and I
friends at P-B-L were more than ac- commodating with things to buy. Once you have a firm idea of what you need to build and what you want it to look like, put it to paper. Sketch it out as close to scale as you can within reasonable limits. This is not a draw- ing for publication, but a sketch creat- ed to give you the information neces- sary to craft the model. It can be in pencil, and the use of a straightedge is optional. Write all pertinent dimen- sions on the sketch, and note what ma- terials you will make use of. At this point, gather all the tools and materi- als you will use to build the structure. Leave nothing out. Now you’re ready to rock!
Cut out one end and one side of the structure, then use those as a template to cut out the second of each. Board and batten was chosen for this model, so there is a definite inside and outside to each wall section.
Note the
window(s), none in this case, and door opening location, and draw them on
JANUARY 2013
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