Quanah, Acme and Pacific (QA&P) - West Texas - Fictitious Model Railroad Layout Agriculture Industry

John, the side entrance door in comparison to the raised loading door is my fault. It was meant to be built with the two short end walls reversed from what I have them. That wouldn't have worked with my layout, so I built it thinking that either end could go either place. Once it was built, I realized my mistake, and I've already started cutting the long wall apart with the two elevated loading doors so that windows will be next to the man door and the two loading door pairs will be farther to the right.

But I still can't figure out the small elevated window!!!

Thanks for the input, and maybe with some more head scratching we'll figure it out.

 

A set of stairs just inside the door to the right with the window illuminating a landing? Weird place to have a set of stairs, I'll grant, but...

 

Keith, it needed to be oriented a certain way on my layout and I didn't pay enough attention when building it. You are correct--I reversed the short ends. I'm in the process of cutting the long wall apart that has the dock high doors and rearranging the sections so that the raised doors for the loading dock will be away from the man door. Someone on another forum said the same thing you did in regards to a window on a small stairway. Once it's reassembled, I'll post another photo. Hopefully, paint and weathering will hide the cut marks.

 

OK...the building is fixed. It proved to be more of a challenge than I imagined--cutting the wall into three parts, ensuring that they are all square, etc. The floor plan is still strange, but now it's believable. Thanks for the help.

 

Don't ask me why, but I decided to put an interior in this building. Figuring out a potential floor plan was difficult enough for my pea brain (maybe it's the cold. 8 degrees isn't normal for west central TX). Then deciding how to build it and not "paint myself out of a corner" was fun. My brother--also a model railroader--suggested installing the upper floor first, so that's what I will do. Here's what it looks like with nothing glued in place yet. There will be a ramp up on side to go from the dock high level down to the ground level loading doors.

Any suggestions are appreciated!!!!

 

Hey Paul,

What does the other long wall look like? Is it possible that the end walls need to be swapped? That would allow the man door to open to stairs to the loading floor level. Where the man door is now the stairs to the loading floor would be too steep. People gotta get in somehow.

The window just provides daylight to that end of the loading floor. It is at the same height as the windows on the long wall.

Maybe the ground level loading door was for an inside ramp to get a forklift to the main level or maybe an inside dock where a flatbed truck could back in and have its bed at dock level.

Solid first floor at the track door height, stairs to ground at the man door, ramp or dock at the ground level loading door, interior stairwell to the second floor. Offices on the second floor.

Dave

Well, what I wrote makes sense to me but not according to the way the kit is now advertised. What we are calling the track side loading doors are shown on the street side. Notice the Frisco box car on the track behind the building.

https://midwestmodelrr.com/dpm10600...tFIO1RqKL4sNv_jUHPAGEMSsDUOxJV-caAhLREALw_wcB

 

With the cold winter there has been some time to work in the railroad room. At least cold for QA&P territory--consecutive nights at 7 degrees, overcast, wind gusting between 35 and 45, below freezing for 3 1/2 days.

Got a looooooooong way to go on the building, but it's coming together. Ended up cutting the long dock high wall into three sections and gluing it back together so that windows were around the corner from the man door instead of dock high doors. The DPM walls are approx 3/16" thick, so that took some work.

Got the dock high area and ramp built and applied the first coat of paint. Painted the stairs, wood upstairs floor, interior walls are partway done. Lots of bricks still to paint. Tons of detail work to do.

A couple of different people said they'd seen older buildings with pale mint green interiors in the office part. I don't have any green that I could mix white with (non-compatible brands of paint), so I tried white / tan / yellow. Got too much yellow and will go over it with a wash of white or some white weathering powder to tone it down a little. My wife hasn't yet told me what color the exterior windows should be. The gray strip under the windows looks a little too "cool gray", so it may get adjusted a little. Having defective color vision makes painting interesting...

The exterior photo showing bricks is far from being complete. All the little imperfections will be touched up.

David, you are correct. I built it wrong because of where it goes on the layout. Two paragraphs above this explains it.

Keith, thanks for posting the photos. That gives me some roof ideas.

Thanks for all the input--it truly helps. By nature, I'm not very creative, and I love ideas from other modelers. The building is still unnamed--don't even know what the industry will be yet.

 

I like it Paul. I was thinking of the stairs just going from the man door to the loading floor. The way you built it makes more sense. OSHA is gonna fine you if you don't put some handrails at the end of the dock and around the top of the stairs.

If you checked the link I added you will see that you built it the way DPM shows it. Am surprised no one has commented on the Frisco box car in the DPM pic.

 

Actually, I cut apart and rebuilt the long wall with the dock high doors. The dock high doors are now away from the man door, unlike the way I originally built it and the way DPM shows it.

There is now going to be an open platform freight elevator to the second floor. The building doesn't have room for anything on the first floor but shipping and receiving. They wouldn't have heavy manufacturing on the second floor, so it will be some sort of food processing facility--produce, peanuts being packaged, etc. That way the small freight elevator will be substantial enough for the loads to the second floor. It will also give me a place to spot a couple of reefers.

 

Fantastic work

 

Thanks, Ethan. I'm humbled. Thanks to everyone on the forum for the many great ideas you've given me...and help with colors!!!!

When I was a kid I built model airplanes--all WWII era--lots of them. After completing a Hawker Hurricane, I showed it to my dad. He said, "why'd you paint the bottom purple?" I thought it was light blue...color vision strikes again.

Back to the structure...if anyone has any photos or knowledge of early (1930's / '40s) open freight elevators, I'd be grateful for some guidance. I'm scratching my head regarding how to build the little freight elevator on the far end of the building to get product to and from the second floor. I've seen open freight elevators, but after a couple of hours of dedicated internet searching, can't find much in the way of reference material.

 

Paul,

Here are some links to freight elevator pics. Maybe you haven't seen all of them. Enjoy.

Dave



https://www.dreamstime.com/open-doo...levator-wooden-shaft-open-gate-image209440456

https://www.vintagemaineimages.com/record/8926/cart

https://www.dreamstime.com/wooden-g...ht-elevator-warehouse-building-image173078685



https://www.google.com/search?q=vin...oduLAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQMQ&biw=1600&bih=765&dpr=1

 

Thanks, David. That gives me a better idea of how to do the cable connection to the top of the elevator.

 

Got sick as a dog and have mostly laid on the couch reading my Bible and reading books for four days. Temp was still 102 this afternoon but the worst seems to be behind me. Actually felt like doing a little on the building tonight. The structure for the open freight elevator is mostly done, and--thanks to David Gaines and a couple of others--I've sort of figured out how an elevator like this would have worked, how to do the cables, guides, etc.

There will be corner posts and a cable around the perimeter of the elevator platform. I considered enclosing it with a chain link fence, but the posts and cable would probably have been more appropriate for the 1940's. Since there's no elevator shaft, there will be a hole in the second floor when the elevator is on the first floor. I'm not sure if there would have been any protection or worry about that back in the 1940's / 50's or not.

I think the electical control box for power to the winch will be on the wall behind the winch.

Anyway, a long way to go. Lots still to figure out. It's funny how a simple building shell can morph into a major project.

 

Got the winch mostly painted. After talking to a couple of friends who know older machinery well, I went with a pale green for the winch and motor. That was apparently a common color for electrical machinery (machine tools, winches, etc) back in the '30's and '40's. The cable reel doesn't have cable yet, but that will be done soon. There's a little electrical box on the back of the winch motor where power will be supplied.

The gray thing next to the winch is the electrical box that will hang on the wall. It even has a handle for ON / OFF.

The power wires will be protected by that flexible silver conduit. That's painted and ready to install. I'm debating on the order in which to do this stuff so I don't create a problem with something that's got to be installed / painted later.

 

Holy cow was it windy today!!! From about 9:30 am until almost dinner it was NW45 G to 55 and 60. Our peak gust was 64; we had numerous gusts between 60 and 64. Just NW of us it was gusting to over 70. Tomorrow is going to be spent picking up downed limbs; tumbleweeds stuck against everything; etc.

Here's one end of the building after painting the windows Pullman Green. This end is basically done, except for some touchup. All of the bricks on the building are painted; quite a few of the gray upper and lower sills are painted; but there's 33 windows still to paint. It's probably going to take 3 hours, based upon how long these eight took!!! Painting windows is repetitious and boring.

SUGGESTIONS WELCOME HERE!!!!! Today I discovered a fairly significant problem: window glass. Normally, I'd glue a piece of clear acetate inside that would cover each pair of windows. If I do that, the inside is going to look terrible with the front wall off. Even cutting a piece for each window will look pretty bad. This is something I should have thought of two weeks ago. Any ideas are appreciated.

 

You can use a full sheet of clear styrene from bottom to top side to side of each floor wall section. That would hide the ends of each cut for the two sets of windows.

John

 

That might work. I would have to repaint the walls around and between the windows to get rid of all the extra clear. A member of another forum said I need to make window frames for each window on the inside to make it look realistic. He's right, but it would take forever.