4. Structures

This section takes a closer look at some of the structures on the Hampton & St Martins Rwy - materials used, methods of construction, details.

Structures and architectural style play an important role in creating a sense of place on a model railway. The style of structures on the Hampton and St Martins Railway is common to much of eastern North America. Models were chosen and built to imitate the style and colours typically found locally. I hope that visitors to the Hampton & St Martins Railway will recognize the style of buildings as very common to the area and specific structures will evoke a "I know where that is!". With that in mind I've included some photos of the prototype historic structures along with the model version

The following sets of photos are of long-gone buildings located in St Martins. In the first pair of photos, the Vandine Hotel was started using the Bar Mills "One Kit", but finished using a variety of sources. The chimneys, saw-tooth rooftop trim, porch posts and bench all came out of my spare parts box. Both the main roof and porch roof structures started as a block of 2x4 cut on my tablesaw to the required angles and covered with printed-sheet shingles from my computer printer.

The second pair of photos are of Skillen's Bookstore, also located on Main Street in St Martins. Skillen's was responsible for creating many of the historical photos of St Martins in the form of postcards, including this one of their own store. I took a bit of liberty in creating a hardware store in the style of their shop. All three of these buildings were what I call semi-scratchbuilt......using the Bar Mills "One Kit". I used a printed photo for the upstairs draperies and the store interior. Window advertising and blinds were from City Classics. The roof edge was a piece of leftover trim from a woodworking project. Storefront facades are Smalltown USA (Rix Products).

This next set is a vivid childhood memory. My parents would stop on the way home from church on Sunday morning to buy ice cream cones at O'Dell's store in Barnesville. Perhaps it was a reward for behaving during church services. The model is scratchbuilt using Northeast scribed siding, Tichy windows and doors. The gasoline pumps, I believe, were from JL Innovative Designs

Downtown Hampton has many uniquely identifiable buildings, the court house, post office, train station, and Ossekeag Stamping (producers of stamped metal pots and pans, they were located behind the present Wayside Apartments). The only prototype photo I have found was taken from the roof of the county court house.

The largest structure modeled on the Hampton & St Martins Railway is what was known as the Gully Bridge. Originally a wooden structure using a Howe truss in the center with pile trestles at both ends, it spanned close to 300 feet over a 100-foot deep chasm. In 1928, the span was replaced by a 7-span steel deck plate girder bridge. As in the prototype, the HO version is installed in a very steep ravine. I used Micro Engineering deck girder sections, 4-30' sections and 3-50' sections standing on steel towers that max out at 85' above the stream. The abutments and piers are wood blocks cut to shape and painted to resemble concrete

Bridges were plentiful on the prototype Hampton & St Martins Railway - 14 in the 28-mile run, and they are well represented on the model. The 120' pile trestle below was deliberately underbuilt to enhance the flimsy nature of this bridge. The trestle bents were scratchbuilt on a template using dowels. The abutments are carved pink styrofoam, painted and stained to imitate the stonework of the prototype. The smaller bridge on the right is a 30' section of Micro Engineering deck plate girder cut to 23' to match the prototype

This next photo shows three bridge structures including the Gully Bridge shown above. The combined through-plate girder and wooden Howe truss in the foreground imitates the Hammond River crossing in Upham. The Howe truss bridge is a crafstman Juneco kit I built in the 1970's. To secure the sagging nature of the scratch-built walk bridge in the middle distance, I first bent a section of flat brass stock and built the structure with the brass permanently glued to the underside. The "steel" cables are copper wire with the joints soldered.

At Upham, I replaced the "everyone-has-one" Sunrise Feedmill with a bit more unique structure produced as a kit by Dyna Models some years ago. Assembling the basic wall structure, I added substantial bracing to keep the walls straight while I added a gray base coat and the final white wash. I particularly like the embossed "plastic" sheet material they provided for roofing shingles. I added a piece of styrene "L" to the roof ridge and airbrushed a flat gray base coat on the shingles, as well as the window and door castings; I then set them aside to dry. I drybrushed various shades of acrylic brown and gray tole paints to the roofing, added signage to the walls and a photo interior and lighting before installing the finished building on the layout at Upham.

The feedmill also got a new next door neighbour, Reid Bros. Sawmill. I had to rearrange the buildings in Upham to provide enough space for the small sawmill and rail siding. This was a scratchbuilt project consisting of an office and a sawmill building

Very recently, a new source of manganese was discovered at Walker Settlement. To respond to loud demands from area residents hoping for work, I scratchbuilt a mine building using Northeast scribed siding and Mt Albert dimensional lumber. I applied shingles to the upper roof Masonite roof sheathing