Scratch Building the Robertsdale Engine House - Conclusion

With the engine house more or less complete, the final touches included super detailing and adding lights in the engine house.  I bought a set of Miniatronix 12 volt bulbs with brass lamp shades that I thought would look cool suspended from the roof trusses.  The plans indicated that the trusses did not go all the way to the peak, so there was adequate room for the wiring above the truss cross beams.  I used a spare wall wart transformer for the 12 vdc.  A hole was bored with a  pin vice in the center of each cross beam, for a total of 4 lights.  

I ran the leads to the end of the structure furthest from the doors, where it is almost impossible to see the wiring.  I drilled a hole in one corner of the engine house floor and the 2" foam base on which it sits large enough for a  piece of plastic tubing.  The wires from the transformer were threaded up the tubing into the engine house and connected to a two prong mini plug. The wires from the lights were similarly connected to the mating plug.  

The four 12 volt bulbs shed an unexpectedly nice amount of light inside the engine house, visible even in daylight, as seen in this photo.  Note the studs visible on the inside wall -- a detail often omitted by modelers.  The light really makes them pop.

At night, with the room lights off, the effect was even more spectacular.  I was really pleased with the result!

I wanted to superdetail the shop area in the addition at the rear of the engine house.   Though I had no interior photographs from when the building was in use, the plans clearly showed that the tracks ended just past the rear wall of the engine house itself.  That left almost 40 feet of space for shop equipment and supplies.  Since the roof was removeable, I decided to set up a small but adequately equipped machine shop for light repairs.  Shelving from Rusty Rail castings was placed against the wall farthest from the aisle, so it would be clearly visible.  I had a small collection of typical machine shop tools, including a sheet metal brake, punch, grinder, lathe, even a small steam hammer.  I placed these around the floor with a variety of workers.  Here is a photo of the finished machine shop.

There were a few small details left to add  to the main building.  I cut the smoke vents from 5/16 square styrene tube, with a small square cap on top, and painted the vents black.  The vents were located in the front of the engne house, near the doors, indicating that locomotives would have had to back into the building.  The plans also clearly showed three brick chimneys along the peak of the roof.  I used castings from Tyche for the chimneys, then added metallic flashing from B.E.S.T. around the base of each vent and chimney.

All that remained was to add scenery.  I had painted the immediate area around the structure black.  I brushed on matte medium, then sprinkled finely sifted cinders that I collected on previous trips to the East Broad Top.  This gave a typically grimy appearance to the surrounding area and along the two sets of tracks.  Since I model late summer on my railroad, beyond the the cinders I used a light yellow static field grass, along with various kinds of ground cover and trees.  Steps were consructed from ties soaked in brown Hunterline weathering mix and placed at the two side doors.  I added a variety of weeds from Noch, trees, old ties, barrels of grease and oil and trash cans here and there.  The result was, I might say, satisfying.

I hope you enjoyed my little scratch building project.  If you are ever in the neighborhood, you are welcome to drop over and see the rest of the layout, which is about 75% complete.