Busy Work

[Chris333]

Maybe you could angle that wall up front in the last photo. It has loading doors and if that wall was angled to match the tracks it would make those doors look like they did something at one time, even if they don't now.

Just an idea.

[asciibaron]

looks like it's coming together Lee - i like the idea of angling that wall as well. 

[wm3798]

I thought about that...  But it's pretty close to the switch, so I wouldn't be able to spot a car there.  I'm thinking that by 1970 the building would have been through a few transformations, so I might put a rusty abandoned rail in the weeds there, or maybe squeeze in a truck dock that empties out to the street frontage. 

Lee

[davefoxx]

I thought about that...  But it's pretty close to the switch, so I wouldn't be able to spot a car there.  I'm thinking that by 1970 the building would have been through a few transformations, so I might put a rusty abandoned rail in the weeds there, or maybe squeeze in a truck dock that empties out to the street frontage. 

Lee

Lee,

That's exactly what I was thinking.  Just make it look as if the trackage was reconfigured (just bury some ties in weed-filled ballast, since they may have reused the rail) when the plant was expanded.

DFF

[sirenwerks]

I thought about that...  But it's pretty close to the switch, so I wouldn't be able to spot a car there.  I'm thinking that by 1970 the building would have been through a few transformations, so I might put a rusty abandoned rail in the weeds there, or maybe squeeze in a truck dock that empties out to the street frontage. 

Lee

That's pretty much what Chris was eluding to when he said "...it would make those doors look like they did something at one time, even if they don't now.". right?

[sizemore]

Pretty close to the final configuration, but there's still some tweaking to do...

Lee

Overall I like the shape this building is taking. But now I gotta be the badguy.

Outside of that there is only two things I would change. First, the storefront wall doesnt match the facing wall in the picture. Kinda odd to have a huge bay windows in the space that would be occupied by materials and forklifts, then when you look to the second story the floors wouldn't match between the front storefront wall and the side wall. It would suggest that the original structure was completely torn down leaving the front wall, but again the floors dont match.

The second thing I would change would be converting the windows to bay doors on the recessed area in the middle of the complex. Leaving the lower windowed sections on the mid doesnt jive with the rear wall section since the windows match the forward portion. You could then convert it to a loading dock the width of the mid section and have some minor "street trackage" over the siding. Maybe even have a "ghost" siding where it's been repaved along the front side wall.... Now I'm drooling!

Humbly submitted,
The S.

[wm3798]

Duly noted.  I see what you're saying, and here's how I'm going to deal with it...

1.  First, I already moved the front wall up so the floors align with side wall.  It's actually perfect match, with the bottom of the front second floor windows aligning perfectly with the upstairs windows on the side.

2.  The warehouse doors on the front of the building are no longer in use.  I have some old Holgate and Reynolds brick sheet, I may block up the front one.  Therefore, it could be argued that the store front was a later renovation after the old warehouse space was repurposed.

3.  The recessed area will get an elevated loading dock that extends to the track, along with a corrugated metal roof that covers a portion of it.  Aside from a desire to do some LED lighting in there, you won't really see that wall.  I'm not cutting up that wall to move windows and doors... it's already painted now!  ;D  The two doors on the metal warehouse will be the outbound shipping, and the open platform would be for occasional inbound shipments of machinery and packaging materials.  Being in the woods, I'm proposing that inbound timber for the manufacture of charcoal would come in locally by truck, via a dock that exists somewhere in the 5th dimension.

I've added a couple of smoke stacks to the metal building in the rear to represent the manufacturing portion of the program.

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Wasn't the Kingsford plant way off in the middle of the boonies?

[wm3798]

It was actually in Parsons, but it was directly served by the WM.  They also had a warehouse right in the crotch of Maryland Junction for many years.  It was accessed by the nifty little wooden trestle bridge behind the tower in many photos...

[wm3798]

One of the great things about having a large layout project AND adult ADD, is there's always plenty of opportunity to wander off to work on something else...

Here's the latest, I've been working on the top of the helix, whipping up some bridge abutments and thinking about the flow of the landscape...



I recall seeing a photo of a similar highway overpass down below (or was it above?) Elkins, and I wanted to try to get the flavor right.  So, a gray bridge with black stenciling, concrete abutments, and weathered heavy rail will help define this little river/road crossing.

Otherwise, back to the stack of decoders...

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like it.

[up1950s]

The speed at which you build must have some connection to the speed lettering .

[davefoxx]

Lee,

I like this a lot but wouldn't mind seeing more camouflage around the tunnel portal and the backdrop.  I recognize that this is a work in progress, though.  But, was the prototype bridge really painted gray on the outside and black on the inside of the plate girders?  Otherwise, this will be another scenic highlight and railfanning spot.

DFF

[sirenwerks]

The speed at which you build must have some connection to the speed lettering .

LOL! I picture Lee at a tilt facing forward!