Another Block of Buildings

After another quick out-of-town trip, I managed to get down to the railroad and finish up another short block on East Railroad Avenue in Oakdale. This time we have an ice cream shop, photographer, office of the Oakdale Leader (newspaper), the Ban Box cafe, the Oakdale Cyclery and the E.L. Barris Dry Goods shop. As in the previous structures, most of these were based on real Oakdale businesses. The photographer and ice store are freelanced but Oakdale did have both businesses.

   Down a short alley is Hammond's Billiard Parlor with an adjacent pawn shop. Although the pool hall is intended for adult entertainment, there are always some kids in knickers trying to get a view of what the older folks are doing. The Sen-Sen ad was made from an existing ad painted on a wall in one of the towns along the Missouri River. For those who are not aware, Sen-Sen was and is a breath mint similar to Tic-Tacs.

   Across the street from these flourishing enterprises is a city park complete with bandstand and band. The bandstand was built from an etched brass kit available in the UK. The band is Preiser while the chairs are also etched brass from the UK.

Virginia and Truckee Historical Society

Not too much modeling this last week. I was attending the annual Virginia & Truckee Railroad Historical Society conference in Carson City, Nevada. Over a three-day period, we had the opportunity to listen to several talks on V&T subjects such as passenger cars, paint schemes, modeling equipment and development of the V&T's signature mogul locomotives. Other speakers showed the development of the main yards and shops at Carson City. There were several vendors of V&T related goods, both model and prototype.
   The best thing, though, is being able to visit with knowledgeable folks that you only see once a year at the conference. People from all over the U.S. attend and after-conference groups break away to discuss their own particular interests.
  The Saturday night banquet featured speakers from the engineering staff who are rebuilding the V&T from Virginia City to Carson. This is a great train ride, incidentally, and I highly recommend it if you are in the area.

   A visit to the V&T's first depot in Virginia City was the Sunday field trip. Of course, most us had to visit the Nevada State Railroad Museum in town and see what has been happening. The museum's gorgeous McKeen car was rolled out in the great Fall weather.
  Fortunately for me, I had some time to visit the University of Nevada and do some research on the early railroads of the area. This research has been very helpful in my modeling efforts.
   For those of you interested in the Virginia and Truckee, check out the Society's webpage at www.vtrrhs.org. They have a great newsletter and publish some well-research books on aspects of V&T history.

Tulare Lumber Company

The model of my Oakdale Lumber Company is loosely based on the Tulare Lumber Company in Tulare (pronounced too-lair-ee), California. They were in business for several years but all I have is one photo of the operation which is that displayed here.

Also, the company was clearly depicted on the Sanborn maps of the late 1800s showing the layout of the plant. For the model, I used the office design but made it a little smaller (two windows instead of three). I only had room for the one lumber storage shed so the whole facility is a bit smaller than the Tulare company. You can see the Lime House on the plan which gave me the idea to make my own.

Oakdale Lumber Company

Oakdale Lumber with the office on left, lumber rack in center and the cement shed at the right.

My plan called for the Oakdale Lumber Company be served by one of the sidings in Oakdale. As my scenery moved toward the southern part of the town, it became time to build the structure. I decided to join two Atlas lumber yards together to get a large enough facility to be served by rail. The modification was straight-forward, just joining the two lumber rack structures together. A new roof was made with styrene sheet and deformed slightly to create a sag which might indicate an older building. I had seen a photo of the 1890s Tulare Lumber Company and was attracted to the lettering indicating the products sold. I just had to duplicate that for this building.

The building end lettering was copied from the Tulare Lumber Company of the same period.

The lumber racks were stocked with lengths of stripwood I had on hand glued together.

The Lime and cement building stands at the far end of the siding.

Since the lumber yard sign shows cement and lime sales, I built a small building flat to use for the storage of these products with a few sacks outside. Remember, my layout represents summer in California and the likelihood of rain is zero. A small office was scratchbuilt and the buildings installed on the layout. I had several resin stacks of lumber intended for flat car loads that I glued some short 4x4s to and placed them around the property. A section of fence to keep trespassers out and the yard was completed.

White Pass and Yukon RR

The original wooden swing bridge over the Yukon River still is in use in Carcross.

There's been no work on the S&C for the last couple of weeks. My wife and have been on an Alaska cruise. The highlight of last week was the trip over the White Pass & Yukon Railroad from Carcross, Yukon Territory to Skagway, Alaska. This 67-mile ride was spectacular. As most of you probably know, the 3-foot gauge railroad was built in 1898-1900 as a reaction to the gold strikes in the Klondike.

When the 1901 steel bridge was bypassed in 1969, the railroad drilled tunnel and erected this trestle. Note the water barrels.

A typical train on the WP&Y.

From the wharves at Skagway, the railroad climbs along a roadbed blasted out of the solid rock rivaling any Rocky Mountain railroad. Significant wood trestling is still used in several spots. The ride even had a stop for lunch at a railroad eating house, something very reminiscent of nineteenth century pre-dining car railroading. Although the locomotives were diesels, the coaches certainly went back to the 1800s. We rode in a coach of unknown parentage built in 1889. Apparently the line bought up used equipment from narrow-gauge railroads being abandoned to provide the needed rolling stock.

Crossing the Skagway River near Skagway.

According to the conductor, there are five trains scheduled for a short trip in the morning and another five in the afternoon with only one going the full length of the road. All dispatching is done by track warrants in the U.S. and by a similar system (OCS) in Canada. Although there was no modeling done, it was a great trip and a great cruise.

East Railroad Street Buildings Added in Oakdale

East Railroad Avenue runs behind the Stanislaus Warehouse. E Street is the road at the left of the photo.

My goal to "finish" Oakdale is proceeding and I'm discovering just how many buildings it takes for a large city. Oakdale is not a large city as those things go but it takes up about 20 feet on the S&C which means lots of structures. The latest addition has been some buildings on East Railroad Street behind the Stanislaus Warehouse. Some of these were completed a while back but they are now in their final position.

The H.H.H. Horse Medicine advertised on the barn was actually manufactured in Stockton for many years and used throughout the country.

The Yo-Semite (yes, that was one spelling for Yosemite used in the 1890s) Livery was scratchbuilt based on a real structure that stood on the corner of "F" and East Railroad Streets in the 1800s. At the other end of the block is "E" Street and a simple house was assembled from a Grandt Line kit for. In my era, houses and businesses were somewhat interspersed in a single block so the model will reflect that.

The Achegas building is located in the middle of the block. No one is still quite sure what Achegas is but the business seems to be moderately successful.

As mentioned in a previous posting, the Stearns & Harray Blacksmith & Carriage Shop is patterned after a prototype 1890s structure. The sign is an accurate reproduction of the prototype's sign right down to the giant horseshoe on the top. The apparatus on the sign post is a hoist for raising wagons and buggies when it becomes necessary to roll the wheels out.

The giant tooth and "Painless" Dentist sign clearly indicates a dentist on the second floor. Barely visible behind a porch post stands a cigar store Indian offering his wares.

The grocery and drug stores were older structures salvaged from my previous layout and rehabilitated. They fit right in across "E" Street from the warehouse. More structures are in the paint shop to continue populating the town.

More Oakdale Structures

In my current project to populate Oakdale with most of the structures it needs to look complete, I have been building. Over the last week or so, I've managed to put together a small dwelling, a store and a factory making an undetermined product.

The Cash Variety Store was built from the Classic Miniatures "Silver Plume Store" kit. Note the pigeon roosting on the ledge below the store sign.

The Tuolumne Cheap store was based on a real Oakdale business but was made from a Classic Miniatures kit. With the big front windows, I decided it was necessary to detail the interior so I made a store which was typical of nineteenth century small-town businesses. With its name, it's obvious that they will not extend credit to customers but do offer cheaper prices for cash. The Stanislaus Flour sign on the side is copied from a real sign on the side of a building in Coulterville, California. Stanislaus Flour was made in Oakdale and served by a spur from the S&C.

The Achegas plant is a bit of local humor which predates my moving to the Kansas City area. It is a play on one of the fellow's names. The plant name became so popular that decals were made and most layouts in the area have an Achegas franchise. The decals, unfortunately, were really of too modern a style to suit 1895 so I backdated the lettering style a bit and came up with that on the model. Now I just have to find a suitable spot for the building.