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.

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.