Down on Beaverbrook: The Co-op mill part one…

The key customer on my small slice of Moncton, New Brunswick is the Co-op feed mill on Beaverbrook. This  industry survives at the end of the Franklin spur and is a key visual element of the layout and composition…

Of course there must be some compression in our models, and Beaverbrook is no exception. Typical trains if 2 GPS and 6+ cars are reduced by 50%, but this wouldn’t work with structures. The layout gathered a range of cardboard cut outs several months ago designed to get a feel for how the structures might work and to aid the visual balancing along the length. The Co-op is the second building to be tackled in earnest, after the yard office over Christmas.

Comparing with Google street view you can see, even accounting for the fish eye wide angle lens, that I’ve compressed horizontally. This was trial and error, my first structure was lower, so that it appeared longer, yet it didn’t feel big enough. Adding to the height meant a greater horizontal compression. In the end removing the add on to the left of the front meant I could keep the face without loosing the essential composition. I was keen for the balance between key elements to remain, with the window shapes and positions along with the gantry being key to giving the mill it’s unique look.

I designed some parts in Graphic on my Mac, a simple vector illustration application, to ensure that these would fit and by creating the gantry in one flat piece that folds to shape I was hoping for a strong and relatively straight result. First time lucky, or perhaps I’m well practiced these days, but all the folds were in the right place and the nickel silver is wonderful to solder so we have a rigid totally unique gantry that matches the real thing and once finished will add a great deal to the model. The windows all fitted as well, some overlays to the main large door way and then I need to add a roof and build up the textures on the building ends, before getting some colour on. The list goes on.

Freelance ‘Ballard and Wantage’ feels at home here, and the trio re-appears, CP, BCR and CN.

Looking across the road at the next building I realise although it felt complicated, the worst is still to come in terms of constructing a roofline with multiple joints and angles! This is feeling good fun and I’m edging closer to painting track, ballasting and moving on to my favourite elements of scenic work. I hope you’re enjoying the weekend, until next time, more soon…