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Monday, June 8, 2026

Sidewalks Part 1

Posts may be lighter on the text for a while until there's ample justification for a lengthy explanation.

These sidewalk segments are marketed as a station platform.   They're still available from Frenchman River Model Works here.  While they're beautiful on top, the undersides are inconsistent and cupped.  This is not a problem if you're using a gooey adhesive that can take the imperfection.  Still, to be safe, I sanded mine to as close as possible to 1/8" thick for consistency's sake.

Also, as cast, they include a stone edge strip on two sides.  Mating two end-to-end makes one "platform" with a stone border on three sides.  I decided which segments would be my street corners then sanded away the end edges from the rest so I could create longer runs of brick.

Originally I had planned to make some of the sidewalk narrower by half but changed my mind.  That meant I had to shorten the spur at the Chero Cola bottling plant by about an inch.  I soaked the ballast, nipped the rail and chiseled out the offending segment.  I actually have a use in mind for that chunk.

There's still more prep work to do before I can lay the sidewalk.  I've got curb gutter castings to install and of course I want to prime and paint it first.  I also want to do something fancy on the corner at the drug store.  That structure is probably the next on the workbench...once I give the bench a good cleaning.

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