Temporarily Done
Mock-up structures are a great way to study build- ing size, placement, and form. They also allow a railroad to get up and running sooner because of the relatively short time it takes to build them.
Making Temporary Structure Mock-Ups More Realistic CRAFTSMAN/Joseph Kreiss, photographs by author
The use of mock-ups as tem- porary place markers on model railroads has become a popu- lar trend recently. Rather than a small self-stick note with the in- dustry’s or depot’s name tacked to a section of bare plywood, or an empty shoe box and a few cans of spray paint plopped down to rep- resent a future industry, modelers are cutting cardstock or foamcore sheets and taping together simple scale mock-ups to fit in place on the layout. Mock-ups provide a twofold benefit. First, it allows us to make sure our planned struc- ture will fit and have the correct scale and scope for the trackside spot. Secondly, a mock-up gives us an inexpensive way to make a structure, and then change or re- fine the design before jumping in
56 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
and cutting expensive stripwood or styrene.
In the push to get track laid and trains running on my On30 Mosquito Creek Lumber Compa- ny WWII-era swamp logger layout, I put fully finished craftsman-type building structures on the back burner for now. It will likely be months, if not years, before I’ll have the opportunity to scratch- build all the structures planned for the layout. Meanwhile, I want- ed something in those locations to represent the finished models realistically.
One such location is “Navy Pier,”
a U.S. Navy coastal seaplane patrol base tucked into the steamy bay- ous of Louisiana. This rail-served Navy complex is a very prominent feature on the layout and is the
first thing you see when entering the train room. The centerpiece will be a ¼-inch scale behemoth hangar/warehouse that measures a scale 114 feet long, 64 feet wide, and 30 feet tall. It will take some time and money to construct. I wanted the stand-in mock-up to look as close as possible to what the finished showpiece model will look like once built. I decided to wrap the foamcore and cardboard mock-up in paper building mate- rials printed from images on my home computer to give it a more realistic appearance. I love those old government- designed corrugated steel-covered structures with large multi-pane windows, rolling hangar doors, and WWII-era Navy emblems and signage. I studied vintage photos
TEMPORARY MOCK-UPS
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