Out of Chaos, Opportunity Arises

According to our latest utility bill our water use had doubled each month for the past two months.  Turns out we had a leak somewhere under the house.  Considering the state of our old pipes, and not knowing exactly where the leak was, it was the right time to go ahead and replumb the whole place.  After a disruptive week of living without water during the day and sharing a bathroom every night, the leak was located and the pipe repaired. 

The pipes for the upstairs bathroom are in the den wall and ceiling.

However, in the process of ripping out and replacing all of the old pipes a minor storm of drywall dust was created and indiscriminately deposited all over the den.  The layout, my workbench, my wife's workbench, the bookshelves, my son's computer station, and everything else in this space was covered in a layer of fine powder.  Had we expected it, we would have covered the lot.  

Now, just over a week after the walls were closed up, I'm nearly done resetting the house, repainting the walls and well into a thorough cleaning of the den.  Out of this chaos comes a chance to give the space a deep cleaning.  In addition to giving it all a thorough dusting I'm planning a major change.  

It should be obvious to anyone who has followed the blog for a while that my Summer Challenge 2026 has fallen by the wayside.  I'm not all that disappointed since I've been able to accomplish many things I wanted to do instead.  Unfortunately for this blog they're not any sort of content related to model trains.  For example, I finally got the hardware installed on our kitchen cabinets.  

What has been railroad related isn't really blog-worthy either.  I've been sorting my rolling stock by era, a solid first step towards an inventory.  The first pass into large groupings was enough to show me that two things are necessary; boxes and access.  Some stock I acquired came without individual boxes and have been living together, wrapped in paper, in larger boxes.  This makes knowing what's there very difficult and sorting it even more so.  

Boxes are a simple fix.  The second thing, access, is a bit trickier.  I truly believe the foundation of contentment is gratitude for what you already have.  In order to fully appreciate these trains I need to run them.  That means they need to be accessible near the layout, not buried deep in plastic tubs out in the garage.  I have a cabinet which, after some modifications, will make a fine staging and storage area for trains but there's no room for it under the layout.  Yet.

Paint, supplies and parts.

In order to make room I'll need to find new homes for most of what's there.  Ideally, I would like to fit paints, tools and supplies in the space around my workbench, but that's going to take some careful puzzling to fit those pieces in place and a judicious culling of what doesn't need to be there.  It is time to consider what is the bare minimum I'd like to have at this bench in order to build and paint models.

The current state of things.

Hollow Brick Discovery

During my recent vacation trip to San Francisco I took a walk around the neighborhood near our motel.  At the northeast corner of Vicente Street and the Great Highway in San Francisco's Outer Sunset neighborhood I discovered this beauty:

Built in 1927, it has a fascinating history which I will leave to the reader to discover at this link.  What caught my eye was the large brickwork.  I've always thought the brick used in AHM's structures was oversized.  It is, for standard brick, but not for "hollow brick" or "hollow tile", a material that came into use in America in the 1920s but has long since fallen out of favor.  I've mentioned this material in a previous blog post on the meat market mock-up. 

This building stood out in a sea of structures known for their sameness.  Most of its neighbors are wood and stucco, all on narrow lots, shoulder to shoulder*.  But the big draw for me was the brick itself.  I had never seen it first hand and it wasn't until reviewing my photos from the trip that I realized what I had captured.  The brickwork, Deco detailing and Spanish influence seen in the porches and tile roof all combine to make this a stand-out structure worthy of prime real estate on any 1920s era model railroad.

*To be fair, there are some real architectural gems in those row houses, many with Art Deco and Streamlined Moderne styling; some preserved but most modified over the years.  See this wikipedia entry and links within for more information on the development of this area.  Blog readers might find the "Carville" link especially interesting.

Hammersmith

A recent trip to San Francisco gave me an opportunity to visit a lesser-known landmark, the Hammersmith building.  Located at 301 Sutter Street, it was built in 1907 just after the 1906 quake and fire that destroyed much of San Francisco proper.  It has retained its historic architectural character despite having been home to a variety of businesses over its nearly 120 year existence.  The current tenant is Zoox, using the building as a "rider lounge" for their robotaxi service...I'll return to that shortly.

Out of all the beautiful buildings in a city packed with fantastic architecture, why visit this structure?  Because Scale Structures Limited produced an HO scale kit for this ornate pile that has always caught my eye and I wanted a closer look at the prototype inspiration.  I say "inspiration" because while the SS Ltd model looks like the Hammersmith from three feet away, the details are less than perfect, by a wide margin.  The general proportions are off as well, with the kit including a brick extension on one side; a concession, perhaps to the "millwork" kit they offered which provided a rudimentary interior with floors and staircases.  

The major discrepancy, besides the brick extension, is the arrangement of floors.  A post card from the time of the building's opening describes the layout; a first floor showroom, mezzanine, second and third floors, and a basement (with a description of what was included on each floor, though I don't need to go into those details here).  The kit only gives you a very tall first floor with a second and third floor above that.  The mezzanine windows of the prototype were replaced by some ornate panels in the kit.  From the outside it is clear that there's a floor there - though no longer open to the first floor below as a mezzanine would have been, by definition.  A large rosette adorns the ceiling of the "mezzanine" level and I suspect it would have been visible from the showroom.

Enlarge the image for a closer look at the Mezzanine ceiling rosette.

I don't intend this post to seem like such a harsh kit critique of an old kit.  To be fair, I can imagine that SS Ltd might not have have the most accurate source material to work with back in 1982.  And, at that time, prototype fidelity mattered less than the general impression, an idea I still endorse.  None of this matters if you simply want a lovely Art Nouveau structure for a corner location.  The castings, while not accurate to the prototype, are still in keeping with the style.  However, it's worth saying that if a person wants an accurate replica of this "jewel box", they may have to do some significant kit modifications or start from scratch with design software and a 3d printer.  

Anyway, back to Zoox.  The company was offering free rides to promote their service in the city.  My wife and I had never been in a self driving car - in fact, it was my first ride in a fully electric car of any sort.  The experience was surreal; familiar yet novel.  It was only a short tour around a couple blocks to demonstrate the car's capabilities, but it was comfortable and we felt safe.  The car navigated the traffic, including pedestrians, without any difficulties.  We came to see the historic building and ended up riding in a futuristic car.  Go figure.

Your blogger, buckled up for safety.  Note the MUNI "sunset" scheme hoodie.
More on that in a future post...

Fun with FPVC

A recent structure building article by Alan Jockmans in Voie Libre #126* reminded me that I have some 3mm Foamed PVC sheet laying around (Komatex brand).  I had purchased it for structure bases since it doesn't warp, is light and strong, and cuts easily.  Somehow I had never really played with it as a carving material, until now.

First I impressed the board lines with a dental tool then scribed the surface with a razor saw and hobby knife.  Next I primed it gray and gave it a dark wash of Agrax Earthshade from Citadel.  When that had dried I stippled on Antique White and finished the bottom boards with some green shade for a little mossy grime.  I'm pleased with the result of this little test and hope to make use of the material on other projects, perhaps on Orange Avenue.

*The reason I purchased that issue of Voie LIbre International was to check out Jim Lowe's latest article on his Mt. Lowe trefoil-shaped layout.  One of the most innovative designs I've seen in a long time, creatively envisioned and skillfully executed.

Garage (Shop) Update

What better time to rearrange the garage storage than a sunny, breezy day?  A few weeks back our warming summer gave way to spring temperatures so I opened the garage door and started rearranging.  Sure, I am committed to the Summer Challenge 2026, and I have a handful of household projects lined up...so the challenge keeps getting pushed back.  However, since the deadline is self-imposed and I feel little pressure to keep it, I decided to go with the impulse to organize on such a lovely day.

Here's where I started.

Stuff schlepped, shelving deconstructed.

Shelves reconstructed and reloaded.

While the sorting iron was still hot I struck again, relocating the wood storage as well.

With this work complete the garage now feels more balanced.  I've got a shop with tools and supplies on one side, and storage for projects and holiday decorations on the other.  Of course there are still a few other things to sort but all in good time.  The immediate goal is to create a functional space that can be kept clean easily and "debugged".  (I've killed two large Black Widow spiders out there just in the last month).

Today I was out there grouping the structure kits and kitbash parts as well as the rolling stock and locomotives.  One of my medium term goals is to take an inventory of my trains and organize them enough to make it easy to find what I'd like to build.  With this major rearranging done I'm one large step closer to achieving that goal.

Alright...back to the Summer Challenge.  

Happy Birthday John Allen

I don't usually remember John Allen's birthday - July 2 - until after the day has passed.  This year I happened to notice the announcement in the G&D group (former Yahoo group) and decided I'd celebrate with a special train.  I assembled a short consist of cars from John's friends who had contributed rolling stock from their railroads to run on the Gorre & Daphetid.  These cars are actual equipment from those roads, not reproductions or tribute cars, though they may not match the car types seen on the G&D.

I shot a short video of a run-by, but here are photos of each car as they appear in the train:

Bud Sima's PURR, from the Milt Moore collection.

Frank Murray's Seaford & Oyster Bay.

Malcolm Vordenbaum's Caruth and Central

Bill McClanahan's T&RGW

Ken Vere's Caribou Southern

Hey, how'd that get in there?!?

And here's the video:

Happy Birthday, John.

Station Walls

Windows blanked, end wall cornice added, gaps puttied, corner bevels adjusted.  Ready for stucco.  The arcade is coming along, but that'll get its own post.