Let’s Build A G Scale Engine House & Carbarn

This remarkably beautiful structure could be your next G scale structure. A building like this could easily be a car barn or engine house depending on the type of details you’d want to add to the basic structure.

This particular engine house is built to last, utilizing high quality lumber and plenty of titebond, screws and nails to keep it together for years to come. It also has recieved two layers of primer and 3 layers of state-of-the art housepaint. (We’ll discuss paint later).

Our building here is sparsely detailed to allow the future owner to detail it to fit his needs. With the addition of normal sized doors and windows along the side it could look even more impressive. Spend some time adding some board-and-batten woodwork, and some victorian architectural detail and you could really make it stand out. Add some G scale smoke jacks and rigging wire and you’d have a top-notch engine house.

Based off of plans found at a train show, I modified the drawings to fit the space I had, which was roughly 2X4 feet. The building itself is 19 5/8ths inches wide and 44″ long, with an inch roof overhang all around the structure for drainage and improved looks.

So Follow along in the next couple of posts as we build this fantastic engine house!

First we cut the front & rear walls out of 1/2″ plywood with a Jigsaw. The 2″ round hole in the front was cut with a drillbit hole attachment.

Next we cut the walls from more 1/2″ plywood and NOTCHED the top of the board to match the slope of the roof, which is crucial.

Make sure to cut the holes for the building out carefully, as you’ll need to use them for snug-fitting doors for all three stalls. We cut the 1/2″ thick pieces in half and filled and sanded them smooth.

Next we cut the roof framing from recycled 1/2″ lumber and notched the roof peaks in a special fashion, as seen below, for extra strength.

Follow the arrow to the roof brace mounted about an inch below the roof line, so the roof frame, when lowered into place, will sit flush against the beveled side walls for a seamless fit.

IF you want one just like this, we have decided to offer it to “Interacting with Miniature Railroading” readers for just $450 plus shipping.

Stay Tuned For Part Two!

Interacting with Miniature Railroading Turns 1!

Well, it’s been 365 days from the first post on “Interacting with Miniature Railroading.” Last year was an astounding success!

Where it came from:

Originally I developed Interacting with Miniature Railroading as a way to document the railroading action at Tilden Park’s Redwood Valley 15″ gauge 5″ scale live steam operation, mostly in photographs. However when I thought about expanding to other railroad topics I knew I needed a dedicated website for this, and on April 21, 2008 the website was launched. Since then the site has stirred up discussion on a wide variety of topics, everything from modern railfanning to early steam modeling. The top 3 most talked about posts last year were about:
1. Are Bachmann Spectrum Locomotives and Good? Which was written mainly so I wouldn’t have to encounter the endless quandary new modelers have about their products, there used to be a forum thread opened every week about this question, and I hoped dispel the rumors and stigma that used to surround Bachmann.

2. My Water modeling series has proved very popular, I hope to see the results of my article in future model railroad layouts, and hopefully a shift from blue to a muted green as the ideal river and shallow water color (as it should be) and have people pay more attention to what their riverbeds look like.

3. It seems my “Modeling Gaffe” series has stirred up a lot of interesting forum discussion, with more than one forum running discussions close to 10 pages in length, and more on other forums.

Ever wonder what kind of traffic this site gets? Here it is!

Nearly 120,000 visits by interested modelers, I’m VERY pleasantly surprised. Traffic started to take off in July and has remained pretty steady since, of which I’m glad.

197 posts isn’t too bad for an average blogger, which comes to about one post every two days and most of those were tutorials or historical information as opposed to just normal commentary that you’d find on other blogs.

Look at those averages! I never thought it would become this popular, but it has and it continues to grow today, I wonder what next year’s numbers will tell us?

Cheers to a year well done, I’ll see you down the mainline for our next year! Just wait to see what articles I have in store for you!

Weathered gifts for the Holiday Season!

These four weathered cars are for sale by me, The Weathering Man…they would all make great stocking stuffers and they’re even a 2-10-2 steam locomotive as a little something to put under the tree! (All listing are in HO scale)

JUST TWO DAYS LEFT until these auctions end! Check out all the items I have for sale here.

Up first is a car that was weatherd using photographic reference and represents a very rare shortline car..The Model is an Athearn Genesis Product with metal wheels.

<a href=”http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220322535463&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DSelling“>Visit the auction HERE!

Next is a nice Bachmann 0-6-0 Saddletank locomotive, perfect for a large industry.

Lastly, here’s the large 2-10-2 Santa Fe locomotive.

NEW Weathering Man Site Launched!

My Custom Modeling Business “The Weathering Man” Now has a completetely New website! Check it out!

www.weatheringman.com

Innovative Recycling Solution for a Common Layout Problem.

Most of us enjoy beverages that come in Aluminium, & Glass. Fizzy beverages are too often seen on layouts, crushing scenery, hindering operations, and add to clutter, especially if they’re abandoned by their owners after having been consumed. For the solution to a folding layout cupholder, go here: http://www.newrailmodels.com/Products/Accessories/CupHolder/Default.htm

What happens if cans have nowhere easy to go when you’re done with them? Here’s an interesting solution that the guys at the Niles club came up with: A can & bottle chute disguised as a scale gas storage tank!

 

You can use a small office trashcan for personal layouts, or for clubs, use a full-sized trashcan.

By taking all those pre-sorted cans to a recycling center, it will probably pay for itself in a couple of trips! Who would have guessed an industry on the layout could actually make you money?

An N Scale Downtown

Note to my readers: Two new Catagories- “N scale” and “Business” Business pertains to my Custom Modeling Business. You can contact me directly via my e-bay profile on www.weatheringman.com

These N scale Design Preservation ( DPM ) buildings are excellent, if difficult to paint kits. These were built for my Second Client, back in April of 2007. He wanted them to be extra-ordinary, and I think I achieved that using additional details, such as etched-brass fire escapes and period advertising, and of course, detailed, lighted interiors.

The Largest building commercial building completed to date from his comission was DPM’s Welhelm’s Merchantile, seen here in dramatic night lighting.

A dramatic night scene showing Wilhelm’s Merchantile. The thin windowshades of the era are portrayed on some of the (purposely) more dimly lit uper floors.

A scene inside of the woman with the yellow dress awaiting the cashier afer having just rang for service seem to me like an Edward Hopper Painting, doesn’t it seem that way to you?

Another Edward Hopper Inspired night scene, the N scale lady fishes around in her purse for her weekly pacheck to be cashed at this bank, inside a DPM “crestone credit union” kit. The Interior kits are from a company called Tobias Locomotive Works.

The Wellfield Cafe at sunset. The Rich detailing of these DPM kits really shines with realistic photography.

Haye’s Hardware gets a good dose of realism with a new fire escape and boarded up first floor windowns.

Have ME commission some richly detailed models like these for you! Contact me directly via my eBay profile “the_weathering_man” or e-mail me at “ the(at)weatheringman(dot)com ” remember to replace at with a “@” and dot with a “.”