Wilkes-Barre

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Wilkes-Barre will be the major city on the Wyoming Valley. The railroad served industries in this town will include Stegmaier Brewery and a coal/oil distributor.

	In Newark, NJ, there used to be a bottle shaped water tower for the Pabst Brewery. It was decorated like a pabst Blue Ribbon beer bottle, too. That was the inspiration for my beer bottle water tower for the Stegmaier Brewery on my layout.
	The Union Trust Bank was built from a Supply Line Manufacturing (SLM) kit. SLM is one of my favorite kit manufacturers. The castings are highly detailed, crisp, contain little flash, and contain no air bubbles. The building is large and will be a centerpiece in the city of Wilkes-Barre. Imagine my surprise when touring Georgetown, in Washington, DC. After getting off a shuttle bus, I looked up to see the Riggs National Bank on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street. There's no doubt this was the prototype for the model! The prototype, designed by the architectural firm of Marsh and Peter, opened in 1922.
	MJ's Pianos is built from a Supply Line (SLM) kit called, "Queen Anne Storefront". The kit is based on the Bank of Commerce building in San Diego. Evidentally, the prototype was the first granite building in San Diego. MJ's Pianos is named for my wife. For the longest time, she debated getting a piano. If she wasn't going to buy one, I was going to make sure she had a piano in 1/87 scale. The photos of the model shows the front and one side wall. A large decal of a portion of the song "Lady Love", by Lou Rawls, was made. The inspiration for the "music wall" is Schmitt Music, in Minneapolis. Schmitt had a store location that had one entire exterior wall painted with sheet music. The stone and brick for this kit was painted by using my dry sponging technique. The billboard on the roof is by Rusty Stumps and the curtained windows are by City Classics. The fire escape is by Walthers and the MJ's Pianos is another decal. The interior includes two piano kits by BTS. I also included chairs by BTS. The two figures represent my wife and I. My wife is playing the piano while I watch.
	Stegmaier Brewery actually exists in the city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The model above is not even close to modelling the actual structure. Instead, I built the Magnuson Models Fountain Brewery as my brewery. In addition to this structure, I plan to have a bottling house, water tower, and power house. The billboards in the pictures are from beer bottle labels that were printed on decal paper.
	The Public Library is from a kit by Supply Line Manufacturing (SLM). Instead of using the flat roof provided with the kit, I built a metal roof using Evergreen Scale Models roofing styrene. I think it made a big difference!
	Here is the City Classics Diner. I had to have this kit since a model railroading friend had a hand in the design of it. I detailed the interior of the diner due to the number of windows and visibility to the inside they create.
	The Paramount Theater on my model railroad is named for a theater that exists in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The real theater began as the Comerford Theater, renamed as the Paramount Theater, before finally becoming the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts. No attempt was made to duplicate the real thing. instead, the Art Deco Theater kit produced by Magnuson Models was the basis for my model. The photo of the back of the building provides a good look at my scratchbuilt additions to the kit. Theaters typically included a raised section over the stage. This raised section housed the rigging used for hoisting curtains and stage props. My addition includes art deco styling in the corner concrete pilasters. The pilasters made it easy to finish the corners and is a common feature with the kit structure, itself. I also included a scratchbuilt water tower for fire prevention.
	The idea for TC&W Hardware started with the Hunt Paint billboard. My friend Gerry Leone has an industry on his Bona Vista that pays tribute to our mutual friend, Dave Hunt. The name of his industry is Hunt Paints, since Dave is an artist. I also wanted to give tribute to Dave and decided to place an advertisement on a structure for the product of Hunt Paints. Going a step further, I decided to turn the structure into a hardware store that sells Hunt Paint. I called the hardware store the TC&W, which is the name of Dave's model railroad. This kit is the 1245 North Water Street kit. Walthers has released a fully assembled plastic version of this structure.