Down in the Valley

While delivering my son to his summer internship down in Mountain View I got to do a little railfanning. Nothing says "Silicon Valley" quite like sitting behind a Tesla watching CalTrain blast through a crossing on our way to the SETI Institute.  Good times.

Meat Market Mock-Up

Okay, just one more and I promise I'll be done with mock-ups for a long while.  I've completed the mock-up for the branch house and meat market structure that's replacing the ice factory at Ocala Springs.  

This one is different in a few significant ways.  Firstly, it's bigger; it needs to be large enough to seemingly justify handling even a small carload of meat and yet small enough to not overpower this end of the layout.  Branch houses received carcasses from a larger slaughter house and processed them into smaller cuts for distribution to grocers or even home use.  They're an ideal way to get the meat industry onto a model railroad without the brutal compression or massive real estate required for a large slaughterhouse.

I've imagined this branch house would also sell meat in a storefront as well as operate a small abattoir for butchering local animals.  The combination of functions gave me a good general guideline for laying out the structure.

R to L; storefront, processing building, shipping/receiving, abattoir and not pictured, the stock pens.

The photo above illustrates the second major difference; it's only one story tall.  This fits the overall progression of heights from the low branch house to the two story pool hall, the peaked roof and ornate brick cornice of the soda bottling plant and the three story drug store beyond that.  This is another reason why the ice factory simply didn't work here.

I had always envisioned Orange Avenue with its storefronts to be the highest point on the layout with the structures along this as-yet-unnamed street descending from it.  There are indeed hills in central Florida, elevation changes your car notices when driving.  However, on a flat layout surface I'd need to indicate an elevation change by visual trickery and this, to my eye, accomplishes that effect.

Finally let's talk about the source material.  I've got three AHM kits and one RDA kit in this kitbash.  The storefront itself is from the Ramsey Journal building with parts of the processing room and abattoir using more of its walls in addition to two sets of walls from AHM's Fire House.  The shipping/receiving section is from RDA's Delaney Iron Works, now offered by Rail Scale Models.  (Note: they also sell RDA parts as "kitbasher parts", something I've wished other manufacturers would do!)

Ramsey Journal (pink), Fire House (dark red and brown) and Western Union (yellow)

Texturally this building will be stucco, cinderblock (or maybe "hollow bricks"...I haven't decided) and concrete.  In the 1920s many slaughter houses were constructed to project a clean and sanitary look, setting them apart from the heavily ornamented structures of the 19th century.  The AHM "brick" is really large enough to be hollow brick or cinderblock so that's what it'll be. 

To disguise the structure's origins I'm keeping the quoins on the storefront walls but eliminating them from the rest.  I'm aligning the corners to "interlace" the quoins as they would be seen in real life - another reason I've chopped them off the majority of the corners.  These walls also provide ample room for painted-on signs, a feature I'm looking forward to modeling.

Operationally I can spot meat reefers of any brand at this location though in reality it would have likely only ever seen one brand; Swift, Armour, etc., as branch houses were tied to their parent company.  I'm imagineering and probably bending reality to do this but I like rolling stock variety more than prototype fidelity, in this case.  I can also spot a carload of animals at the stock pen; again stretching reality a bit but again, affording me the chance to run the occasional stock car.

Alright.  Enough mocking about.  June 1 is coming and the Summer Challenge 2026 will be upon us.  This structure stand-in was one of a handful of tasks I wanted to complete before the challenge begins and I'm chuffed with how it turned out.  Thanks for reading.

Sightline Switching Short

Recent renovations have brought the layout out from the wall so I've used that opportunity to dust it, clear away the clutter and run trains again.  I also set up my tripod so I can grab a quick video if the mood strikes.  I'd like to make longer videos featuring the trains going about their business but for now the occasional short is all I can manage.  Here's a quick test shot I made to check this sight line between the two structures along this spur.  Where the paper is lying on the surface may or may not be a pipe dealer.  Open space is important to me, but so is a flat car or gondola with a cool pipe load.

Summer Challenge 2026

Not the most exciting title, I know, but I'm working on it.  

The most recent Walthers Flyer included this year's National Model Railroad Build Off contest details.  As usual, there's a freelance diorama category.  In this category the modeler builds a large diorama that can feature any subject, in any scale, as long as it isn't part of an existing layout and fits the 2'x4' size limit.

I have no intention of entering this year and yet, the idea still appeals to me.  When I entered in 2022 and 2023 I really enjoyed the four months of focused work that resulted in a finished scene, from soup to nuts.  It puts pay to the tired trope that a layout is never finished!  When I entered in 2022 I knew we'd be moving soon and the layout work would be put on hold indefinitely.  Before then I had been building real momentum working on the layout which I have yet to recapture since.  It is time to get that back and make significant layout progress again.

So here's the plan.  

I'm going to complete approximately 8 contiguous square feet of my layout instead of creating a diorama for the NMRBO.  From June 1st to the October 1st deadline I'm going to build all the scenery, structures, trackwork and details in that area.  This is the same time period entrants in the contest will be following.  Here's the area outlined in red with salient features added:

The red zone includes structures, sidewalks, street track and an orange grove

If you've been following the blog recently you may notice that the Ensminger Building is already (nearly) complete - this would disqualify me from the Walthers contest were I using it on a standalone diorama.  Note also that the area isn't a rectangle.  This delineation makes the most sense for the content of the space while loosely keeping to the 8 square foot area.

I'm going to start with the street and sidewalks, including the streetcar track since it is part and parcel of the roadway.  The sidewalks need to go in before the structures, though I can work on the buildings at any time and probably will.  In previous challenges I've kept two or three work stations full, shifting from one to the other as necessary.

Here's the caveat: if I don't complete the area fully, that's fine.  I'd rather err on the side of quality and produce a result I'm pleased with than rush something just for the sake of an arbitrary timeline.  However, I accept that "letting the perfect stand in the way of the good" doesn't help and is a trap I've fallen into before.  An imperfect model completed will always bring more satisfaction than a perfect model delayed indefinitely.  That's a significant aspect of this challenge I take to heart.

If you can think up a better name for what I'm doing than "Summer Challenge 2026" please comment below.  Also, if you've got 8 square feet of layout that needs completing and would like to join in, let me know.  I'll be sharing my progress here on the blog and on Instagram.  Before that, however, I've got to complete a couple overdue projects and clear off the workbench.  Thanks for reading.

Her Shrink Ray Eye

This one's a little different, but boy howdy does it align with the philosophical side of this blog.  

Every now and then I wander down a back alley into the thought processes behind the hobby of model railroading.  Take these posts, for example:

https://ocalicreek.blogspot.com/2025/03/geissel-got-it.html 

https://ocalicreek.blogspot.com/2024/03/tired-tropes-or-tried-and-true.html

https://ocalicreek.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-post-project-blahs.html

There are more, but these should suffice to make the point; I consider thinking (and writing) about the hobby an important part of the hobby itself, and something I enjoy doing.  I don't recall when I started reading Koester's "Trains of Thought" column in Model Railroader magazine, but once I did it became my regular source of thought-provoking hobby concepts.  I didn't always agree with Tony's ideas but I have to give the column some credit for opening my mind in novel ways.  Ditto the editorials, occasionally.  Of course these days many blogs scratch the itch, with 30 Squares topping the list.

So when I discovered the "Her Shrink Ray Eye" podcast I was delighted to have found a thinker who could offer some well-composed commentary on miniature hobbies.  Joan Biediger is an artist, cartographer and writer living in Salt Lake City.  She created the podcast as a place to discuss "ideas about scale, perception, and what small, constructed worlds can reveal about how we see."  

As of this writing I'm still working my way back through the catalogue of episodes, but let me suggest one of the first ones I listened to as a starting place, "Storytelling Isn't One Thing".

I listen on YouTube, and you can find that episode here:

I have found these podcasts to be well written and delivered, offering a solid foundation for the topics covered as well as thought-provoking questions to take the listener in new directions beyond the basic ideas.  While not specific to model railroading they're easily adjacent to this community with relevant themes.  I recommend them to anyone who enjoys thinking about the art of making miniature things.

In the Mood for More

While the kitmingling mock-up iron was hot I decided to strike it once more.  This is a combination of two buildings - Carol's Corner Cafe' from DPM and the Corner Pharmacy from Woodland Scenics; in reality, the same structure, just under different names.  My corner cafe has been serving as a stand-in for the pool hall.  Now that I have a second kit I can create a larger structure more suited to the location.  The photos below illustrate the process.

Walls photocopied then cut apart.

Walls rearranged and glued to cardstock.

The finished mock-up in place.  Box car to prove clearance.

The structures bounded by the tracks, clockwise from top: former blacksmith and livery stable now turned garage (red building), Chero-Cola bottling plant, pool hall, pipe supplier (tan sheet) and freight house.

I selected this structure because of the large windows which will give a nice view of the pool tables inside.  There's enough room on the ground floor for three pool tables, a bar - for root beer, of course - and a staircase leading upstairs.  I'm tempted to use the remaining space between the structure and the tracks to include a little add-on, perhaps a storage room, but that's a decision for later, after I've had time to stare at the mock-up in place.

To my eye the building fills the space well and has enough mass to sit opposite the large bottling plant without seeming dwarfed.  I like including non-rail-served structures in areas adjacent to the tracks.  This, to me, seems more realistic and less "model-railroady".  On a layout this size with curves this tight and a looping track plan I've got to employ every trick in the book to add that true-to-life feeling.

Finally, here are a couple bird's eye views of the structures along Orange Avenue, per Jim's request in the previous post's comments.

Note: I took this shot before I decided to create the mock-up in this post.  Carol's Corner Cafe' can be seen in the upper right corner.

Oh, one last note, if you've made it this far.  S ince both predecessor kits include the word "corner" in their names, I think it's only fitting to call this billiards parlor "The Corner Pocket".  Thanks for reading.

Orange Avenue Mock-ups Round Two

Today I placed the Ensminger Building on the layout to get a better feel for how it will look at the end of the block, so to speak.  Seeing it there made me realize what had been bothering me about the previous arrangement of structures; in short, some didn't quite fit as I'd hoped.  So, my attention turned from the Ensminger Building to its neighbors, and I found two alternatives to the problematic structures.

Let's start at the other end of the block.  The Drug store on the corner was slated for that site long ago and despite its current unfinished status still serves to show its mass and silhouette.  Moving down the street is a new addition, DPM's First National Bank aka the Grand Hotel if you've got the kit in the structure pack for Woodland Scenics' Grand Valley layout.  I'll be using the structure as a hotel, built as it comes.

I've written before about other mock-ups I've made from paper and foam core board but these "new" mock-ups are made using the structure parts held together with hot glue.  The Rosenbaum building however is a paper and cardstock mock-up representing DPM modular wall panels which will be combined with parts from Rail Scale Models to make a large 5 and 10 cent store.  This structure will have a deep awning (not shown) across the entire facade positioned beneath the transom windows but above the large display windows, a common arrangement in the '20s and into the decades beyond.

Lastly, the tan building is a structure I had planned to kitbash and use on this street but in a different form.  "Granny's Cafe'", as it is called in the Grand Valley structure box, aka "The Other Corner Cafe'" normally, was always going to be a smoke shop with a residence above.  It will continue as such, but in a wider two-story form instead of three.  I'll be borrowing the side walls from another DPM kit but using the wide back wall from the original; a true two-kit-mingle.  Those arched windows will have awnings using the vacuum-molded parts provided in the Grand Valley box, a thoughtful inclusion.

Right away I feel MUCH better about this line-up of mock-ups.  The trolley station across the street also seems more at home opposite these facades.  Oh, and I didn't forget the back alley; I like how it looks as well.  There are several good surfaces for painted-on signs and a visually interesting variety of windows and wall depths.

The Ensminger Building still needs signs and some weathering.  I will add some interior details to the photo studio and front display windows, but likely not for some time.  I'm itching to get this structure done enough to move on to other projects.  I've also got one more mock-up to make while the Grand Valley kit collection is out, but that's a topic for another post.  Thanks for reading.