Cement Works Part Five

Finishing the cement plant kit building on my HO scale bookshelf layout required a little bit of good ol' fashioned kit-bashing. Largely because there were a number of minor flaws with the HO scale Faller Old Cement Works kit. Finally, more than a year after I kept coming back to work on this kit building, my cement plant is now finished and standing alongside the rail line.

There were just as many leftover pieces in the Faller old cement works kit as went into the finished structure!

There were several flaws with this kit, which if not addressed would have taken away from the structure's overall appearance. Namely, the small, central upper level extension that overhangs the rail line had a blank provision for what looked like a pouring spout to handle wet cement. Now while I'm not aware of any cement plant that loads wet cement into rail wagons or hoppers, the spout for starters didn't fit. Also, on the left side of the structure, there was a door on the upper level that led to nowhere, with no mention in the instructions of what was supposed to go there. Even the images on the box didn't lend any clues, with the structure only shown from the three other sides!

Once more I hand painted the pieces I used to kit-bash the cement plant receiving dock.

Fortunately, there were enough left-over pieces from the kit for me to fashion something from. My best thoughts are that this kit shared generic sprue pieces from other Faller kits, and it was simply cheaper to share the manufactured sprues between models without any care for the wasted leftovers. Now I've been in the hobby long enough to know one thing, and that it is you never throw leftovers away. They always come in handy for something down the track.

In this case, I decided to kit-bash a wagon height receiving dock, complete with a staircase leading up to the dubious door to nowhere. Using a leftover stairwell (that was much shorter than what was needed), I glued on some angled handrails (that were also leftovers), and cut a small piece of plastic to act as the landing at the top of the stairs before painting them with a silver paint pen. As the stairs were not long enough to reach ground level, I used a leftover section of what looked like wall paneling to act as the rail dock platform, and painted this using different shades of brown acrylics to resemble timber. The dock is then held up with pylons of what looked like log dividers that were supposed to go with the sand holding bins which I didn't end up modelling beside my structure. I painted these using oil paints to resemble green treated copper logs, as though the receiving dock had recently been re-stumped. Finally, I cut down some leftover sections of ladder that would provide two access points to ground level, and painted these with visible white handles at the top.

Kit-bashing the steps and receiving dock solved the problem of the door to nowhere.

So far, so good. The dubious second level door that you can see on the structure above now looked like it was there for a reason! As for the pouring spout, I boarded it over using a small piece of nailed on planking that was also left-over in the kit. So if no cement is going out, it stands to reason that I then had to make my cement plant look like it received loads of dry cement mix instead, to be mixed on-site and loaded into trucks that would then deliver the wet concrete to local building sites.

By this stage, I had long decided to abandon the idea of using the 3 stall holding bin that was supposed to stand beside the plant. I had constructed it in my Cement Works Part Four post, but the end result just looked cheap, plastic and well.... just plain awful! Instead, I went ahead and scratchbuilt the abandoned siding and concrete loading apron that you now see beside the cement works. I'm sure you'll agree it looks much better!

The receiving hoses were made out of old speaker wire, spliced in two, painted and glued into place.

From this point on, I've got to be honest. I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to receiving train loads of cement hoppers, other than it involves discharging the cement mix from the myriad of valves and piping that reside underneath the models of the NPRY/NPRF cement hoppers that I purchased from Southern Rail Models. So for that, I painted a circular piece of something-or-other that was still attached to the sprue sheet with the silver paint pen. I next glued a short section of spliced two-way speaker wire into the round hole, (painting one strip of the speaker wire with a black marker pen for a bit of visual variety) before gluing it into position beside the track to resemble a messily-unwound hose that supposedly connects the something-or-other to the underneath of the incoming cement hoppers.

Adding a danger sign gave the model a more serious look.

I kit-bashed two of these, and spaced them evenly where two of the NPRF/NPRY hoppers could be set out beside the structure. I next added another leftover section of painted silver down-piping, (that I simply couldn't get to fit where the instructions said it went), and glued it instead to the overhanging upper level office extension where it runs down along the kit-bashed receiving dock to ground level. What it does I don't know. But with a printed "DANGER" sign added above the pipe, it gives the model a little bit of interest.

The cement plant was then glued into place and the scenery blended to the edge of the structure.

Being a plastic kit, the structure lit up like a roman candle when I tried to add interior lighting to the building. So I simply pulled the lights back out and glued the structure in place beside the rail line as there is no need for the building to be removable. Next, I added some LED light posts to either side of the structure so that they would light up the stairwells leading to the upper level, and blended scenery to the edge of the structure using the same scenery methods I've already outlined on my construction page.

Finally, a cement plant that I was happy to see finished!

Finally I stood back, dimmed the lights and admired the finished structure. By night light, the building takes on a realistic industrial appearance, as though the plant is awaiting the next load of cement hoppers to be delivered before the workers arrive first thing in the morning. Finally, I added a few more tufts of grass between the sleepers (that's railroad ties for the good ole boys from the US), to give the siding a more sleepy feel.

The concrete loading pad will handle both loads in and loads out for operational purposes.

The concrete loading apron with the abandoned rails protruding from the concrete beside the cement plant, has the light posts spaced out enough for the forklift driver to have access to load the louvered vans and soon-to-arrive steel wagons that will be needed for the steel-reinforced concrete spans the boys are working on just beyond the layout edge.

Pressed hard to the edge of my layout, my cement plant reaches right to the layout's ceiling.

Building this structure was a slow process that I spaced out over the course of 12 months, largely because of the dubious door to nowhere that almost had me beat when it came to finding a solution. Thankfully my perseverance paid off. While not pretending that this is an actual portrayal of a working cement works, it looks 'railroady' enough to provide me with some realistic operating fun on a small bookshelf layout. By placing the structure at the end of the layout, the building doesn't really obscure the view of the trains from the public, and with the backdrop being reversible, you can see from the above photos that I have the added benefit of viewing the cement plant from both sides of the track when I want to.

Having now figured out the lighting dilemmas that previously hindered me completing this layout to my own satisfaction, this past week I have also skipped ahead and replaced the lighting at Philden's railway station. The cement plant and the lighting were the two final projects I had needed to do in order to say that stage one of my layout is now effectively complete! As the year draws to a close, I've actually surprised myself with how much modeling I've managed to fit in before Christmas. Not only have I completed my bookshelf layout before the end of the year, but in the month of December I've also spent a day at the cricket, taken my family to a Brisbane Bullets basketball game and been treated to a night out with my daughter to see Keith Urban in concert as an early Christmas gift. Life just seems so good right now!

Later this week, I'll post a final photo for the year with our Christmas tree set up in front of my bookshelf layout. But as usual, I'll let that be a story for another day.

See also: Building an abandoned siding or Cement Works Part Four and Cement Works Part Three and Cement Works Part Two and Cement Works Part One

Philden's Snelson Collection additions

Its been a week of unpacking boxes and sorting through over a Century of railway memorabilia. Having been one of the many pre-registered online bidders at Ardent Auctions' recent two day marathon auction of the Snelson Railway Collection in Canberra, two separate shipments of railway memorabilia this week arrived safely on my doorstep on the Sunshine Coast. For a train enthusiast, it was like a little bit of Christmas arrived early.

Barry Snelson's railway collection as appeared in the Canberra Times took up two floors of Ardent's auction house.

The Snelson Railway Collection was a once in a blue moon event, rumoured to be the largest single collection of railway memorabilia to go under the hammer in Australia. The man behind the collection was a humble collector by the name of Barry Snelson, a 70 year-old man from the A.C.T. who had spent the past three decades amassing a collection of railway memorabilia that would rival a museum, only to hold his deceased estate auction while he was still alive so that he could help his daughters put a deposit on a house. You've got to admire a bloke like Barry. Not only has he got a good heart, but his collection took up two floors of Ardent Auction's premises in Fyshwick, A.C.T. An article (including the above photo), appeared in Sunday's Canberra Times on November 12, 2016.

A pre-World War One lineside marker post, paperwork and throttle notch markers from an Alco locomotive.

Of the 700 or so lots that were put up for auction, some items such as cast iron signs fetched up to $1,400 AUD. A working railway ganger's trike went for $2,000 AUD. While I spent 4 hours on both the Saturday and Sunday logged into the live online auction feed through Invaluable's website, I was mindful of the weight involved in shipping any winning items interstate. So I tried to limit myself purely to items that would enhance the museum quality presentation of my model railway when displayed alongside my layout. In the end, there were 22 lots from the auction that were successfully bid on, carefully packed, shipped and this week opened on the floor beside Philden. Along with the early 1900's railway lamps shown in the top photo, there is the pre-World War I line-side milepost (above), and the water gauge (below) from a long scrapped NSW steam engine that will become restoration projects over the coming summer. The steam engine water gauge is solid brass, measures about 23 cm across and when restored is going to be mounted on the end panel on my layout's staging extension, while the red 1900 NSW shunters lamp will be repainted bright red and sit on my Station Master's desk.

Some of the NSWGR rules and regulations books are 480 pages long and date back to 1935. The brass steam locomotive water gauge is solid brass and will be mounted on the end of my layout.

Also added to my growing railway collection are a number of timetables and NSW Railways rules and regulations books, with some dating back to 1935. Unfortunately, having to bid on these as a lot rather than individually, meant that I now have several duplicate copies of the same book. In some cases there are four copies of the same book. So along with what artifacts I am not able to display on my desk or incorporate into my layout's presentation, the balance I will be offering for sale on eBay in the coming weeks, with a live list of links to each item displayed on my collectibles page here.

Purchasing a small part of a railway collection such as what I've shown above isn't a cheap exercise. In my case, the final bill amounted to a little over $700 Australian by the time I paid the buyer's premium and freight costs. But the opportunity to secure a part of history, in this particular case to preserve a small part of the Snelson Collection, in the eyes of a railway collector is priceless. Missing from the above photos were some more modern items, including an original embroidered Countrylink wool jumper as worn by the onboard train service crew in the 1990's. It will become my winter uniform to wear whenever I exhibit Philden at model railway shows in the coming years. Over the summer, I'll be posting a couple of photos of each item as its restored downstairs in the garage before it settles into its new home alongside my layout.

See also; Memorabilia makes modelling better!

Railway Station Part Six

Sometimes a rainy Saturday morning is all the excuse you need to finish that model kit you've been telling yourself you'll get around to completing one day. That day was today, and the kit in question was none other than my railway station building, the one building that is supposed to be the star of the show but had sat awaiting the final finishing touches for sooo long that I'd simply become accustomed to it looking the way it did. Well, not anymore.

I always paint the parts of laser-cut timber kits before assembling them.

There wasn't really that much to be done to the Model Train Buildings NSW A-4 station building in order to say that is was finished. So I got to work painting the fascia boards and strip of guttering for the rear of the building. If you're familiar with building one of Walker Models' laser cut kit buildings, then you'll understand that painting over the blackened edges where the laser has cut through the timber or MDF sections can be a little difficult using a light colour. I wanted to paint the fascia trim white to match the white window frames visible on the rear of the building, but thought the blackened edges could work in my favour if I simply applied a thin wash of white paint so as to let a little of the black show through. It turned out that it worked, with the finished white fascia trim looking a little weathered as though the paint has been faded by the hot Australian sun. The thing I like most about working with timber kits is that you get a much more realistic finish than a plastic model, and they end up looking like miniature buildings rather than model kits.

I spaced the brush strokes when using the Rustall to make the roof resemble sheets of weather beaten corrugated iron.

While waiting for these to dry, I set to work on finishing the roof with a light application of Rustall, following the same process as I outlined when constructing my NSWGR G-2 goods shed. The rear loading dock off the parcels room I finished by painting in assortment of brown, black and grey stripes to resemble timber planking. I simply mixed the colours together on a palette and ensured no two brush strokes were alike. Once complete, I set this aside and started work on the two chimneys.

The chimney sections just needed an angled trim to sit flush on the roof.

The chimneys were tricky little suckers! Although they fitted together with perfection, applying too much pressure with your fingers caused them to collapse in on themselves. Eventually I had them glued square using some fast drying white PVA tacky glue, and sat back to wait for them to dry.

You can't be too perfect when painting aged brick chimney stacks.

Painting them was a three part process. First I filled all the laser etched mortar lines with some white acrylic paint before wiping the paint from the surface of the bricks using some dry paper toweling. Then I could gently dry brush some burnt sienna acrylic onto the surface of the brick pattern by making sure the paint was well wiped from the brush before making each stroke.

Once more I used a silver paint pen marker to work some magic on the down pipes.

I was left with an odd gap on the rear left hand side of the building where I'd trimmed the fascia board too short. Feeling that the building could use a down pipe anyway, I made one from one of those clear plastic nozzles that attach to the end of an aerosol can to give a concentrated squirt of whatever into hard to reach places. I simply painted it silver with a silver paint marker, and when dry trimmed it to fit as shown in the picture below.

I made the down pipe longer than the building so it will spill to ground over the brick foundations the station rests on.

Having a hole in the core of the areosol nozzle tube makes the down pipe look so realistic when viewed from above. However, the silver looked a little too shiny for an old timber railway station building, so I gave it a treatment of rust, once more using the Rustall that I've come to love. You can see the difference in the photo below.

I'm so glad I made the backdrop on my layout reversible so that I can view the building from both sides.

With the chimneys, down-pipe and fascia boards glued in place, the building was ready to put back in place on the platform. When viewed in correct lighting, I particularly like the subtle finish I gave the railway station roof. At first I was just going to glue the fascia boards to three sides of the building, and simply let the imaginary rain run off the platform awning onto the tracks (as shown in the top photo), but the end result just didn't look right compared to how good the rear of the building came up. So I lifted the building back off and added a strip of white guttering to the front platform awning using some scrap birchwood sheeting, and completed the kit by scratch-building a second rusty angled down pipe that you can just see in the right of picture.

And finally, Philden Railway Station is finished!

So there you have it. Thanks to a rainy Saturday morning, I can finally say that Philden Railway Station has joined my growing list of finished structures. While I still may come back one day in the future and add the Station Master, Parcels, Toilet and Waiting Room signs above the doorways, the beauty of having made my structures removable is that it is not going to require surgery to lift the station building back off should I choose to do so.

See also; Railway Station Part Five and Railway Station Part Four and Railway Station Part Three and Railway Station Part Two and Railway Station Part One and Building a Station Platform