Blacktop Crossing: A Boiler House for the Smokestack

In early January -- 2012!! -- a Smokestack appeared for the Cotton Factory. But, what good's a Smokestack without a boiler house. With help from Paul and the Small Brick Machine Shop files from Clever Bros, a Boiler House began to shape up.

Machine Shop

Boiler House

Paul got me started by removing arched windows on the side of the Machine Shop and replacing with "square" windows. I was able to totally blank out one side wall with brick (not shown above). All of these modifications using Paint. The boiler fronts are from a photo I took of the Cotton Factory, itself. Although somehow I ended up needing to reduce the printout to 85%, and then make a final adjustment to 97% of that, I finally got it to fit together, sort of.

Somehow, for example, the rear wall wanted to buckle. Fortunately, the front and rear are double walls -- a kind of false front. I happened to have a piece of balsa that just fit inside the "pocket", so I cut it and inserted into the pocket to create a flat wall. Except that using white glue caused lumps in the wall -- the cardstock was wetted by the glue and the glue was not evenly distributed. Fortunately, the knitting needle I had borrowed from The Wife to use to score the cardstock for creases had a cylindrical end opposite the point (see the orange object in photo, below)! I used that to "roll" the glue flat. I think it will be OK:

Glued and Smoothed

Buckle and Balsa

Notice, also, the totally brick, no arched or square windows, side wall.

To fit on the layout, I may have to move the Cotton Factory a little, but there still seems to be room. A coal pile, and a little more details in the scenery should make things look realistic -- and a little weathering for the plastic Cotton Factory. I've trimmed the standing seam metal roof on both sides to fit more closely to the Cotton Factory and Smokestack than seen in these photos.