An Iffy Idea

In the most recent issue (October 2021) of Model Railroad Hobbyist there's a mention of a new structure kit from Frenchman River Model Works.  What caught my eye was the name of the kit's designer, "Thomas Yorke", as his structures are well known in craftsman kit circles for being little works of art, in a funky, dilapidated sort of way.  I'd also purchased items from Frenchman River before and have been pleased, so I clicked on the link to see this new little building.  Little did I know what a rabbit hole I'd fallen into.  Here's a link to the structure:

http://frenchmanriver.com/HO-187-Scale-Iffy-Tire_p_452.html

Now the ad in MRH mentioned that this was based on a structure in Colorado.  I was puzzled to read Yorke's description on the Frenchman River site where he mentioned that the name came from a place in Georgia.  The model is typical Yorke, with exposed brick and crumbling stucco, as you'd expect if you're familiar with his work.  That's a good thing, in my opinion.  However, I think there's a missed opportunity here.  Yorke called the place from which he borrowed the name, "too pedestrian".  Now I had to see for myself.

A quick Google search revealed the address, 5100 Buford Highway in Norcross, Georgia.  Google Earth provided a chance to explore from the street view as well as from above.  Both views are...interesting, and not at all what I'd call "too pedestrian".  See for yourself.

Clearly this had been a service station at one point with a market or convenience store in the brick building right next to it, now joined by a passageway.  There's a wealth of detail, from the hubcaps in the window to the stacks of tires and the old vending machine under the lean-to shed on the left.  But what the front view doesn't clearly show, is what I believe makes this truly unique.  Look at this overhead view:

What the heck happened to that brick building?!?  It is as if it has been cut on the bias and half the structure just wiped off the foundation!  IFY?  I'd say more like Fishy.  There's gotta be a story behind this, and I'd bet it involves aliens, a tornado or a semi, or some combination of those.  Using the historic imagery slider on Google Earth, you can go back as far as 1993 and the building is like that.  Why?

If you model Colorado or just like ghost towns of the old west, go with the Yorke model - no doubt it will build into a fine structure.  But I submit that the building's namesake is also interesting and may do more to catch the attention of younger folks more interested in modeling what they see most of the time in the rest of the country.  It is also the sort of structure that raises more questions than it answers and that makes it especially appealing to me.

Kit-Mingled 2-8-0 - Fit Check VIDEO!

After gluing the cab floor and boiler backhead into one unit and adding styrene strips to the cab walls to hold it in place against the frame, I decided to do a fit check of the whole thing at this point.  So, I reassembled the loco and took it for a quick spin.  As I suspected, the longer Aristocraft boiler and cab closes the gap between engine and tender by approximately 1/8".  Even with the closer spacing the engine will still successfully navigate my 15" to 16" radius curves.  YES!!  That means I don't have to make a new drawbar.  I also decided I'm going to add a plug to the headlight wires so I can mount the light up through the boiler into the headlight housing and not have to fiddle with jamming it up in there each time I reassemble the engine.

Okay, enough blabbing.  On with the video:

Like, Subscribe and all that jazz, because when this thing is done I'll be making a follow-up video for sure.  I'm just tickled with how this project is coming along.  After the struggles of the 2-6-0 project, this one is a breeze.  On to the detailing.

Kit-Mingled 2-8-0 - Backhead

Here's the backhead and cab floor just set in place, not glued to each other, to test the fit.  The boiler and backhead will be glued to the floor.  This unit will remain loose, unattached to either the frame or the cab.  When the cab and boiler are set down over the frame it will effectively sandwich this in place and hold it there.  Then, if sometime down the road I decide to add more detail, I can remove it to make that work easier.  Currently I'm deciding if I want to add a plug inline with the headlight wires to make it easier to assemble and disassemble the engine.  The best part is no part.

Milk & Mail - Fruit Car Primed

With the completion of the sides, ends and roof details, I could prime the body for the Fruit Car.  I elected to upgrade the fascia and door track and add a slide bar but chose to keep the original door stop even though it is a bit oversized.  Whenever possible I like to use original kit parts.  For the damaged end I had to bend a new pair of railings and replace the broken two-part sill casting.  I covered the roof with tissue paper to represent canvas and replaced the roofwalk with 2x6 planks and 2x2 supports.

The underside was primed first with my usual Dark Walnut while the rest of the car received gray.  The trucks will be borrowed from one of the other two cars in this train, that is, either the shorty baggage or shorty combine from Binkley.  I will replace the wheelsets and reassemble the metal trucks with Loctite Weld.  I have been able to unsolder these vintage trucks with some success, but not without damage.  Next I'm going to try and simply cut them apart with a motor tool.  The original car rode on arch bars with flat springs.  I think it will fit better with a passenger consist on wood beam passenger trucks.

Kit-Mingled 2-8-0 - Frame Work

This update is really Part 2 of the last post on screws.  I finally finished the frame extension and mounting plate for the boiler screw.  I've been working steadily on each, but the marvelous gray goo I'm using to weld the parts together takes time to cure.  Still, I'm very pleased with the progress at this point and looking forward to the next step; creating a boiler extension inside the cab and mounting the backhead casting.  After that it's just a matter of adding details to the boiler until I'm happy before painting, lettering and weathering.  This isn't a firm date, but I'm shooting for finishing this engine before Halloween.

There's a nut "welded" up above the brass plate in the last image.  I didn't get a shot of that before I put it in place in the boiler, but I used liberal amounts of the Loctite Weld to secure it to the brass bar.  Getting the headlight LED fed through the smokebox up into the headlight housing might be tricky.  I bought two nuts so that I could have a spare if something didn't work, but also I can use one to hold the cylinder saddle in place when the boiler isn't attached.  This has turned out to be a challenging project, but very satisfying working steadily, step by step.