The Mystery Loco

I have a locomotive from MANY years ago that I cannot find information about -- who made it, when, is it prototypical, etc.?  See what you think:

The Company Store

All mill villages deserve a Company Store, so Blacktop Crossing has one.  Again (like the previous post), this structure was made prior to the Mill Village Houses as well as the Cotton Gin.  This is an American Model Builders kit, Corydon General Store.  The laser cutting was truly impressive; fit was fantastic.  I did find some of the parts extremely small and this was HO gauge.  I'm not sure how you could make it in N scale!

The windows, themselves, were in about five different parts -- upper and lower sashes, trim, "glass", etc.  The peel and stick pieces were helpful to keep from getting glue all over EVERYthing.  I may have gone overboard with the bi-color hexagonal tile on the front porch roof.  AND, it looks like I need to go back and do a little touch-up painting to keep bare wood and paper from showing.  Now, if I can just remember what colors I used on the tile. . . .  Looks like we need a few signs, at least on the large, blank side wall of the store.

I suppose the pink '53 Cadillac belongs to the cotton mill owner's daughter and the guy leaning against the post is just waiting outside to impress her when she comes out.

The Cotton Gin

The Cotton Gin was completed earlier than the cardstock mill village houses (earlier post).  As my first "scratchbuilt" structure, it was quite a challenge.  I could not find a kit -- initially my preference versus scratchbuit -- but bumped into a reference to E. L. Moore's Cotton Gin article in a 1978 "Model Railroader" magazine.  So, the magazine back-issue was ordered, some materials procured, and the "game was on". 

Some modification from Moore's instruction were made to take advantage of recent improvements.  I used Clever Model's (CM) cardstock "parts" in a couple of places -- old brick texture for the boiler house exterior, vertical seam sheet metal for the unloading shed exterior walls, and cedar shakes for the roofs of the main building and unloading shed.  Also used the tarpaper pre-glued roofing from an American Model Builders kit that I had finished earlier (the Company Store) for the boiler house roof.  The loading dock is also left-overs from the American Model Builders kit while the covering for the loading dock is grooved styrene (not something Moore referred to in 1978).

I couldn't figure out Moore's instructions for windows and I need to learn to make them "square"!!  The orientation was also changed (mirror image) due to the fact that I cut one window on the wrong side of the door -- the window inside the unloading shed was for the wagon/truck driver to be able to get a weight ticket through the window.  Before I re-oriented (due to my mistake), he would have had to get out of the truck; now he just has to slide across the seat!?!  Maybe we'll just have them drive in from the other side.

The final result was reasonably pleasing.  From a couple of feet away, it looks OK:

OK, so the REA truck should be at the station and not at the Gin, but I didn't have a suitable vehicle otherwise. . . .

Layout Plans

Well, since the blog has been started, might just as well add a few pieces of information!

The name, Blacktop Crossing, hopefully signifies a smalltown/rural setting, possibly in the Southeast.  My grandsons and I are trying to make it a local layout with connections to our hometowns -- Rock Hill and Belton/Honea Path, SC.  The cotton industry seemed a good "theme" to work with.  So, the layout will have (is "planned" to have!?) a cotton field, a cotton gin, a cotton factory, a mill village, and a company store; oh, and a small train station.  In addition, since one of the grandsons likes "Army", we'll have a Quonset Hut/Military Warehouse.  Maybe we need one more industry, possibly a junk yard across the tracks from the cotton factory.  I'll insert a Paintshopped sketch of the layout (my Paintshop skills are not too great, as you can see).  Maybe the theme will be evident.  The era will be early 1950's, up to about 1956, but there will be NO 1957 Chevy's on THIS layout if I can help it.

The outer loop is the "mainline" of Southern Railway with a branchline to serve the industries.  This can keep one grandson occupied running a train in loops while the other works on the scenery (maybe ;) ).

Cardstock Models

Well, I finished my three Clever Models (CM)company houses for “mill village hill” on my “Blacktop Crossing” layout that I’m doing with my grandsons -- small HO gauge model railroad, about 4X6'.  I think most of the rest of the work will be done with the three of us, together; but the structures seemed to be a bit tedious and intricate for them.

Maybe I should have made all three houses “off-white”, but I like the color variety.  Problem was, I haven’t seen too many houses with insulbrick in the Southeast, so I had to come up with a third clapboard color.  Used one of CM's textures to get the blue one.  I added more variety by using some material from elsewhere, too.  Added a longer porch on two houses.  I had completed an American Model Builders laser kit and had some “wood” left over so used it for the biggest porch – had to have room for the old, thrown-out couch – along with some of the hip roof from the garages on CM's Neighborhood CD.  Extended another porch with some more of CM's parts including vertical seam sheet metal from a textures selection.  I still have some development to do with my modeling, but for some of my first few structures, I’m pretty well pleased.

I’ve included (I hope) a couple of photos with the American Model Builders general store and post office kit along with a scratch-built cotton gin from Model Railroader’s September, 1978, issue.  I was able to use some more CM cardstock prints for the gin – the exterior walls of the boiler house are old brick and the sides of the unloading platform are vertical seamed metal, for example.

The older grandson and I have put together a small, plastic station kit and hope to do a cotton factory plastic kit during the Holidays.  That should be enough structures for our small layout featuring the cotton industry in the early 1950’s.  We can now spend much of our time with “scenicking” the layout and running trains.

I might get back with some things I learned during construction, but wanted to send this off and wish all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Mack