Model Of The Month: Time to build Union Station!
By: Bill Nelson
September 14th, 2012
10:49 am
At the Clarksville Model railroad club in Clarksville Tn, the Guys have rebuilt the big yard removing all of the #4 switches, and going with #6s to make the yard more civilized. also in the interest of simplification they reduced the nearby double track main to single track. these changes opened up enough real estate to a two very long tracks for a through passenger terminal bu the main line. time for an impressive terminal!
the club thread is here. http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166134 but since I'm going to be doing some scratchbuilding, in what I'm hoping will be a stretch project, that will force me to learn stuff, I thought I would do a thread on the construction here.
The inspiration here is the Nashville TN Union station, a massive limestone pile, with a Tower. An actual model of this structure would be both too big for the scene, but would also be too much work. available Kits did not get me close enough to inspire a kitbash, so I went to the drawing board. well no I didn't.
I had some Ghost line foam core, white foam core with a grid of light blue lines to aid folks with graphic design on the foam core. I started laying out wall shapes directly on the foam core, sketched in window and door locations, and when it was penciled in and satisfactory I traced over my pencil lines in ink, and then cut up the wall sections, and assembled them to become a mock up. I like the look of the building, so I will begin building it right on the mock up, so the mock up will become the base for the finished building, saving me a step.
Usually when I scratch build something, I have some commercial window and door castings in mind that I build the design around, but this time I could not find anything that I was excited about, and this brings me to the stretch part of this project. instead of using commercial doors and windows, I am going to make masters for the windows doors and some other architectural features. so I will be trying to learn mold making resin casting for this project.
I'm going to try to cast the windows and doors and the arches above the windows and doors, and I will cut dense foam to make the rectangular shapes for the cut limestone for the building. there will be a narrower clock tower sticking father out from the center of the tower. the terminal will be above grade with the tracks and platforms underneath the station accessed by stairs leading to the interior of the building.
here we go! adventures in model railroading! oboy oboy oboy, It has been a while since I have made myself learn something
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95 comments on "Model Of The Month: Time to build Union Station!"
September 15, 2012 at 5:26 am
Hi Bill,
This will be an interesting and enjoyable project to follow and learn from.
You are off to a very good start and the selection of a Nashville icon for inspiration makes it all the more fun.
I will throw on some pictures of the real deal in Nashville (Union Station) so readers can get a good sense of what is inspiring you.
Tom
September 15, 2012 at 5:50 am
That's some building you're doing. With all the plans for casing and the link, you have one heckuva project in front of you!
September 15, 2012 at 6:08 am
Hi Zathros,
I don't think Bill will build an exact replica of the Union Station. Like he said earlier the building including the train shed is/was huge.
I think he is getting "inspiration" from this beautiful structure made from Tennessee limestone. There is a similar station at the other end of the old L&N in Louisville Kentucky. Both are quite the sites to behold.
Doc Tom
September 15, 2012 at 6:37 am
Tom is right. the building I am making is quite modest compared to the structure that inspired it. In fact, until Tom posted the pictures, I had not even looked at a photo of the actual building, just worked from memories of some of the details.
an accurate Ho model of the model of the building would eat the whole club space, not to mention the life of the builder. our passenger termial track is just two tracks, while the train shed for this building was so big, that when it was torn down in the 80's it was the largest free standing wooden structure in the country. The preservationists worked hard to save it, but it need a huge amount of work, and , had they been able to restore it, the maintenance costs would have been astronomical. They operate a very fancy hotel and restaurant out of the terminal building to help keep it up
September 15, 2012 at 7:56 am
I can't remember if it was O or HO, but they have a model of the real deal at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum. That beast's footprint is about 3-4 ft square and we don't have room in our yard for something that crazy. At least the Nashville station is still standing, unlike the original Milwaukee station. That thing was beautiful and I can only imagine how fantastic it was to see in person.
Tyler
September 18, 2012 at 9:24 am
I have added some buttresses to the foam core structure. I am really liking the shape, so I am no longer calling it a mock up, as I am rather sure the building is going to grow out of this frame.
I took it to the club last night, and built the mock up for the below street level box it sits on, with cut outs for the main and the station tracks . unfortunately I forgot to take the camera. it looks pretty good in it's intended location, and it will help the looks of the big yard considerably by breaking the view up a little.
I have some blanks , cut out of thick styrene, that I hope to shape into the masters for the molds for the windows and doors.
I used the antique drafting tools, which were my grandfather's, to help get the shapes right. I also want to make some molds for some architectural details, as I get further along on this project, and have a better idea about where I am going with this project. Once I have some windows and doors in hand I can start cutting out the window and door openings, and painting the inside and outside to seal the cardboard part of the foam core against moisture to help prevent warping, Then I can start carving foam "stones"; and begin the masonry work, which will hopefully transform this from a foamcore mock up into an impressive limestone edifice.
In the photo with the
September 18, 2012 at 9:37 am
Looking good Bill.
Did you score/scribe and snap the curved pieces or did you scribe and cut with the blade???
Tom
September 18, 2012 at 11:14 am
Tom,
Scoring and snapping only works reliably with straight lines. so to get the curved lines, I start with an oversize blank, and use either my nibbler, or a rail nipper, to take tiny chunks out until
Bill I'm close to the intended curve shape , and then clean it up with sandpaper.
September 18, 2012 at 1:39 pm
Coming along quite nicely.
September 19, 2012 at 6:33 am
I have made some progress on the window and door blanks, drilling a hole through them big enough to get my nibbler (from Micro -Mark) through the hole, and then I can nibble the inside opening to close to what i want, and Finnish it off with files and sand paper.
when I have them all done I'll glue them on a flat chunk of styrene, and start gluing mullions and doors in place to make the masters for casting sufficient windows and doors to do this building,
I'm glad I'm just making masters, this is taking forever, I am reminding myself why I don't make windows and doors much. If I wasn't making two each of the windows and doors I'd be much farther along, but this way if I *** one up all will not be lost.
Bill Nelson