Historic Depot in Chama, MN

[Brent]

In early November 1971, I discovered the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad in Chama, New Mexico. My parents, wife and I roamed the yard and facilities unchallenged, expect by a dog. I used all the film in my camera (35mm color slides) and wished I had more film. I was captivated by the ex-D&RGW structures, locomotives and rolling stock. Since then I have planned on how I would model Chama and portions of the old D&RGW narrow gauge. To that end, I have collected photographs, plans and drawings. I have been building, in 1:48 scale, for several years in anticipation of having a layout. Now I have a layout room (basement, with a home above it).

My current project is a scratch-built model of the Chama depot. The shingle pattern on the east and north facing gables fascinated me, so I decide to start with them. The photo shows the front (east facing) track-side of the depot. Note that the shingles alternate between 6 inches wide and 2 inches wide - I measured them.

[Brent]

I used over 300 pieces of strip wood to build the north gable.

Uncle Russ thought I had lost my mind. (He was delighted with the weathered deck railing it the gable was on when I photographed it!)

If I were to do it over again, I might use cardstock.

What are your thoughts?

Young Brent

[David King]

Now that's dedication!  I can tell this will be very impressive when done. It is interesting how performing a mindless, repetitive task such as cutting 300 pieces of stripwood can be a nice break from the stresses of real life, well unless your day job is as an assembly worker. 

David

[jacq01]

Brent, 

that looks great. You captured the character very very well.
I agree with the cardstock  as the thickness will be less pronounced. Do you intend to reproduce a certain period or as it is now ?

Jacq

[Brent]

Jacq,

  The depot is intended to be representative of 1938-39. I have been unable to find color photographs of the pre-World War II era but the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec have found some black and white photos for me. The 1919 valuation records confirmed the dimensions in the blueprints I got years ago from the late John Maxwell.

David,

  You are correct in how relaxing the mindless, repetitive task of cutting all those shingles was after the stress of the office all day.

Brent

[DaKra]

The hand made shingles have a very nice, slightly random appearance, so they look hand applied, without looking sloppy.  Perfect for your application.  That said, you could make short work of those shingles by having them laser cut in cardstock.  A really good graphic would even mimic the slight randomization you achieved by hand.   They wouldn't look any better than what you can do by hand, they'd only save you time.

Dave

[Brent]

Laser cut cardstock would have been wonderful. I will talk more about that when I get to the widows for the depot...

[marc_reusser]

Wow...what persitence and patience. Though I think the result is very nice, I do agree with Jaqc, about the thickness of the material, and that cardstock, or even styrene, might be a better solution (esp. since grain/surface texture is not readily apparent in the origainal anyway)

I find it's always a bit of a struggle and balancing act between using actual scale thickness material or something slightly thicker so that it will be more apparent or visually interesting to the viewer.


MR

[JohnP]

That is very nicely done. Scale thickness texture might disappear more in 1:48 so your end vision is important. Maybe even think of how you want the entire layout to look- subtle, quiet and soothingly realistic or full of texture and shadows that may not be fully to scale but interesting to photograph and view.

I hired a laser cutting guy to precisely cut out bridge master parts including the hundreds of lacing bars that are found on old bridges. Putting the rivets on was enough to make me go mad. You may find that model making laser operators will do custom work.    Dave/DaKra??

Can't wait to see more,
John

[finescalerr]

I encouraged Brent to get shingles, doors, windows, and other such parts laser cuts early last year. Some guys may think that's "cheating" but if the modeler designs the parts, it's really as though he's borrowing somebody else's tool to create them.

The advantage of designing your own parts is that you are not at the mercy of a "mass production" mentality that would create doors, windows, and trim in single pieces with wood grain running the wrong way. You can draw each individual board and arrange it on the wood to take advantage of the direction of the grain. Or request the part be cut from Strathmore or styrene or even Plexiglas. If you like peel and stick film, you can include it to speed assembly.

Lasers are tools more scratchbuilders should consider. And there are plenty of competent people with lasers who would like to keep their machines running profitably more days of the week.

Russ

[DaKra]

Agreed, Russ. 

Add to the list of laserable, grainless materials, "laserboard" which is a cardstock that has been treated with a resin so that it is much stronger than ordinary cardstock and does not delaminate.   I think of designing laser cut parts in terms of photo etching, but quicker, easier to make changes, less expensive and generally using thicker materials. 

Dave 

[Ray Dunakin]

I would love to try having some things laser cut, but I don't know CAD. Can any vector drawing program be used?

[DaKra]

A laser works a lot like a printer so any vector based graphics that works on your printer should, in theory, work on a laser.    I design all my laser graphics in Adobe Illustrator, but most laser operators use Corel.   

Dave

[Brent]

The depot is 120 feet long, so I started with a sheet of half inch plywood long enough for the depot (30") and enough more for the platform that surrounds it. I built floor joists and beams that support them from scale basswood per the D&RGW blueprints. I made the freight room/agents living quarters seperate from the depot/waiting room end of the depot since the freight room is two feet higher that the waiting room end of the structure.

This is the depot/waiting room end.

[Brent]

This shows both sections with the sub-floor installed on the waiting room end.