By B. Smith
I decided to change the below metal siding (Pikestuff, now Rix Products) structure to a brick sided structure to more closely represent a building like Alpine, Texas’ Big Bend Wool and Mohair. On my Limpia Canyon Northern RR, the town in which this structure sits, Sanderson, is part of the back-dated portion of the layout. I wanted something with an “older” feel,
I wanted something more like this–
Big Bend Wool and Mohair with Rock Island box car spotted in 1977–©B. Smith photo
I saw many loads of feed spotted with this structure in the 1970s and 80s. (Click here for a post on the traffic I noted there in the 1980s.)
This is what the metal building became–
The plastic “metal” siding was glued to a wood board for strength. I removed the plastic door and window frames to provide a smooth surface and covered the “metal” siding with Faller Gmbh embossed building material-red brick (part #272-170608) and added a couple of doors made of Campbell Scale Models corrugated aluminum sheets (part # 200-801).
I added plastic channel at the top of the doors to represent what the door rolled open on. I did not cut a door opening in the embossed brick sheet as this would have complicated the project. C. E. Hunt graciously provided the signs which really add to the finished look of the structure.
I really like the feel of bringing in loads of feed to my back-dated structure.
The difference between it as a 1990 structure and the back-dated version is pretty stark.
From this–
To this–
It really is a joy to bring in one or two 40 or 50-foot boxcars back in the day when railroads still really appreciated carload traffic. Seems more civilized.
More human somehow…
Rails West 