More Structures

Both new structures will find a place on a street in Farmington.

Two more merchants have decided to move into the growing town of Farmington. L. Miller, a dealer in dry goods and notions, has moved into a gold rush era stone building while the McCormick brothers have established their butcher shop next door in a brick structure.
     Both structures were constructed with Main Street Heritage kits. The Miller building is a combination of two Weekly Record kits, one stacked upon the other. The balcony railing is a Grandt Line product. Typical of gold rush buildings, I added iron shutters on the front doors. They are Model Die Casting parts made long ago for some of their structure kits. Over the years I have amassed several sets of these and am glad to have a place to use them. Their initial purpose was for fire protection but most were retained for security reasons. Today, if you visit California's Mother Lode country, you can still see many of the old buildings with their iron shutter.
     The brick building was from another Main Street Heritage product called Billy's Place. While intended for a small bar, I thought it the right size for a butcher shop.
   

"What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar" so spake Thomas Marshall, Vice-President under Woodrow Wilson. The sign is roughly full-sized.

The Coca Cola decal was made from a sign found on the side of a building in southern Missouri while Owl cigar sign was found on a building in Jacksonville, Oregon. The Coke sign was printed on my Alps printer while the Owl sign was printed on an inkjet printer on Testors inkjet white-backed decal paper. The Testors system is nice. The decal film has to be sprayed with a protective layer which protects the decal when it is immersed in water. In spite of the spray, the film is thin and is easy to work with. I recommend it.
     Main Street Heritage made several small resin-cast structures which are nicely done and easy to assemble. I recommend them highly. It is a bit of a shame, though, in that they appear to have gone out of business. I checked their website earlier this month and it has disappeared. If anyone knows if they are out permanently, please let me know. In any case, you can still find kits on ebay or in stock at some hobby shops.

General Store and Lodge Hotel Arrives at Farmington

The Dyke & Harrold store and the Central Hotel in their approximate final positions at Farmington.

Another view of the D&H store. The curved steps at the corner were a partic-
ular challenge.

As mentioned in my last post, I am now concentrating my efforts on Farmington. Besides the Central Hotel mentioned in my last post (http://sandcrr.blogspot.com/2020/02/farmington-gets-new-hotel.html), the Dyke & Harrold General Merchandise store has arrived. Soon after construction was finished, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows leased the second story for their lodge hall. Soon after, the Post Office department appointed O. D. Dyke Postmaster and what better place to put the business than in his store. All institutions are now open for business.
   

The prototype store with some slight additions due to moderni-
zation.

The D&H store was scratchbuilt from photos and measurements taken at the still-standing store. The prototype was built around 1873 and the Odd Fellows have met there ever since. Styrene scribed siding with Tichy windows and doors were used.
     The construction was straight-forward with the only problem area being the rounded steps at the corner of the building. They do add a nice look to the building, though, and were worth the trouble.
     The Central Hotel and associated Central Saloon were built, as mentioned, by my friend, Doug Taylor. I added the signs taken from a couple of closeup photos of the hotel entrance. In one of the photos, there is a light post outside the building with the hotel's name on it so that had to be added, too. The small space next to the hotel is still vacant but will soon be leased out to some going concern.
   

A closeup of the D&H front entrance. What is the somewhat
blurry red item at the end of the porch??

The Central Hotel and Central Saloon. The small red saloon signs were copied from a prototype photo of the building. The oval sign on the front porch column shows that the establishment serves California-made Boca Beer. The building to the left is for lease. Apply at hotel.

The real Central Saloon with its signs was obviously popular
for cyclists.

The light outside the hotel. See the prototype photo below.

Farmington Gets a New Hotel

The new Central Hotel as it sits on the workbench (yes, mine is as cluttered as anybody else's). Signs and other details still need to be added.

My next major project is to build out the town of Farmington. There are a couple of signature structures I will need to scratchbuild but a lot of the town will be populated by commercial kits. One of these signature structures is the Central Hotel. It was located across the street from the S&C depot and is very near the tracks. Unfortunately for me, there are no good photos of the hotel. I did have a kit made by JL Models which was the right size, though, and thought this would fit. A couple of weeks ago, I made some custom decals for a friend of mine and great modeler, Doug Taylor. He offered to build a structure for me so I suggested this kit. I am more than happy with the result, especially with the lack of good prototype information.
     Doug also built one of the livery stables which now resides at Milton. Thanks, Doug!

Downtown Farmington in 1914 complete with McKeen car. The Central Hotel is somewhere beneath the trees near the center of the photo. I do have the Sanborn maps for the area so I know the size which is why I chose the JL kit to represent the building.

3D printing on the McKeen

McKeen's special ventilators can be seen near the top center of the photo. The strange shape was to filter out moisture picked up by the vent.

The Elegoo Mars printer is very compact and inexpensive.

While I like the way my McKeen motor car turned out (http://sandcrr.blogspot.com/2020/01/mckeen-motor-car-arrives-on.html), I was still bothered by the unprototypical vents on the car.I wasn't going to change the bulk of the ventilators as they didn't look too bad. The front vents, however, were of a different pattern designed for this car.
   

The finished 3D-printed ventilators. I made a few extra plus
some of the other ventilators for another McKeen car I have.

 Fortunately, I had a solution. A few weeks ago, I invested in an Elegoo Mars 3D printer. This machine was rated highest for its class last year. You, too, can have one for only $229.99 at Amazon. Anyway, I thought that producing a couple of these unique vents would be a good test for the machine. They turned out great and a pair now reside on the S&C Motor 99.

The ventilators installed on Motor No. 99.