Early railroad culvert & my next project

Here is a few vintage railroad photo as a breather while I plan my next project.  This photo is a brick and stone arch culvert bridge #200 on the AT&SF railroad near Chillicothe, Illinois about 1902.  While dry at the time of the photo, there can be serious water flows under this arch at times.  I wonder if this arch still exists?

My next project will be a vintage varnish factory.  I am now doing research and sketches, and even built a crude card stock mock-up for sizing.  As I mentioned before I am expanding my layout into the next room so I am also doing some benchwork - haven't done that for a long while.

Hott boiler house complete

I have completed the boiler house for the Hott Steam Pump company.  The roof is removable.  The boiler house line shaft projects from the side of the building next to the pump company building and will connect to the line shaft from the pump company building.

This photo shows the front and window side.  The doors are open for viewing the inside.  The doors are scratched from wood strips and corrugated metal with handles applied on both the inside and outside.

Above is the rear and the side with the line shaft projecting.  The rear door is an SS Ltd steel door casting.

Both structures are currently sitting on an unsceniced layout extension in the next room reached by a tunnel through the wall.  The main layout pretty much has no room for any more structures.  I had considered tearing down the layout and rebuilding but at my age that seems too intimidating so I will continue the layout in the next room with essentially a switching layout approach.  This adjoining room is about 16 x 18 feet so that should provide room for additional layout.

I am now thinking about my next structure.  

Hott Boiler house progress

I have made progress on the boiler house for the Hott Steam Pump company factory.  The exterior walls and interior are complete.  I have not yet added any doors and the roof is half built.  My intention is to have the roof removable so the interior can be seen.  I enjoy making interiors for structures but it requires that some part of the structure be removable else the interior is hard to see if not impossible.  This structure has a wood frame wall covered with corrugated metal sheets.  There is a wide door on the front and a small door at the rear plus a window on one end.

The interior contains the boiler and steam engine shown a week ago.  There is also a horizontal tank, a set of shelves made from card stock, a ladder and some pipes.  I added a figure that was a cheap plastic model carrying two suit cases - I removed the suitcases and repainted the guy.  Does not look too bad inside the structure.

Above is a view of the inside from above.

Now I need to complete the roof and add the doors.

Note: In response to a comment (question) -  the corrugated metal panels are from Campbell which I bought years ago.  I spray the panels with gray automobile primer, then when dry I paint the panels with various shades of cheap art store craft paints using lots of water.  The last step is to add some chalk colors. 

One thing that occupied my time over the last week or so was we were having our deck at the back of the house rebuilt to replace the 20+ year old boards on the old deck and I spent time keeping an eye on the work.  The new one looks pretty good and we really like the black metal posts as they provide a better view of the yard compared with the 2x2 wood posts under the railing on the old deck.

Just off the center of the deck you can barely see our fish pond with lots of water lilies.  A lot of lawn out there to mow but a nice view.

The Troll & Elfin RR

This father's day I am posting some photos and information on my father's Troll & Elfin model railroad.  My father Dick Knotts, who passed away about 27 years ago, got me into model railroading when I was a pre-teen.  He felt I needed a hobby and he was also interested in model railroading.  He always enjoyed the light-hearted approach to model railroading.  He had many hobby friends around the country and around the world.  He was a frequent contributor to the NMRA Bulletin and was a friend of the then editor Whit Towers.  While I have many photos of his layout and his models, most are 35 mm slides and I have no convenient way to convert them, so the sample photos included here include several B&W photos.

The above photo shows one of his scratch built structures, most of which were named for his friends.

This photo shows an over-all view of one end of his layout along with his control panel.

This photo shows a hotel model he named for his late friend Bill Gay.

This photo shows his Troll station modeled after a D&RGW station.  It also shows one of his favorite type of loco - a Camelback.

This photo shows his turntable with a camelback loco on the table,  Due to the lack of HO camelback loco products, my dad frequently kit bashed his camelback locos using remotored Mantua locos. 

While I still have many of his models, I have also sold many of them as there were way too many to keep and display.  He was a retired Navy veteran who served in World War II and now rests in Arlington cemetery.  

Steam pump boiler house machinery

I decided to develop the steam boiler and steam engine for the boiler house first in order to determine the necessary size of the structure.  I was going to scratch build these items but was able to find suitable items in my parts stash.  The boiler is a resin casting of unknown (to me) origin.  The steam engine is a cast metal kit I obtained from an estate.  The manufacturer (now out of business) was Paige Enterprises, a company reported to have sold copies of other manufacturers products such as SS Ltd.   One of the problems with their cast metal kits and parts was that the castings were poor, and this steam engine kit bears that out.

These will be connected by a pipe to provide steam from the boiler to the engine.  Below is an example of a vintage steam engine product that shows the the kit is actually somewhat accurate.

My next step is to form the boiler house floor and install the machinery.  After that I will build the structure around it.