Good Day, and Happy Friday!

I've begun construction of a CPR Engine House to place on my layout. It will be a two stall Engine House with a Machine Shop that will exist "off layout". Tracks into the Engine House will be accessible via a # 6 Wye. The Engine House is being built off plans based in the early 1900's. A bit dated however after looking at several different plans I decided to go with this design, as it seems to fit the real estate in the area where plan to put it at the very front of the layout. As a result of its location I've decided as an added challenge that I'm leaving the Engine House on the edge of the layout open, allowing the viewer to look inside. This will give me the opprotunity to detail the interior and watch the engines as they pull in for servicing. The viewer will be looking in from the machine shop side area which will essentially be an extension off of the topmost loco area as shown in the plans. When I get to it, I may shorten the over all length of the machine shop from the front just to give some added wall structure on aisle side of the model, but not so much as to obstruct the view of the interior.

The plans posted are from a fairly large pdf file, so some of the detail may be lost however the screen caps should give you the rough the idea.

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I have so far cut the wall panels needed and started construction on the doors for the front panels. The doors are very interesting to look at in my opinion and so far a challenge to build. Materials for this build will be mainly card stock and strip wood with window and doors provided by Grandt Line. They are a good approximate size for what I need and it will save me the nightmare of having to scratch build the 10 roundhouse windows needed for the model. hock:

I'll do some more work on the front panels and doors and post up some progress pictures tonight.

I do have one question I'd like to throw out there. The plans themselves do not indicate whether the interior walls were sheathed or if the studs were left exposed. I was hoping if anyone could tell me from experience or knowledge if either or was done.

Comments, opinions or help is always appreciated. Thanks!

Shane

Tetters,

From what I can see there is a sheeting on the inside of the 2 x 6 sidewalls since the 2 x 6 studs aren not exposed. They don't tell what it is, but it is shown in the upper print as a line that runs the length of the drawning and along the sides and then abruptly stops. This may have been explained in another print that is not included.

Larry

The line in the upper print is a partial representation of the footing on which the walls sit. I do not think there is any interior sheathing based on the drawing of the wall with the windows. It shows that the inside of the studs is flush with the window structure, so there is not likely any sheathing.

Andrew

PS - My window count is 16 - assuming that boths sides of the engine house have windows, and the drawing does not show them fo illustration purposes.

You are right, Andrew. There is a note on the top blue print just below the name of the engineer that drew up the plans and the date saying that the line marks out the concrete footing below the wall.

The looks like a very cool idea, Tetters. If it is going to be on the front edge of the layout, you might consider putting in a plexi-glass or clear acrylic wall without studs on the viewing side to allow people to look in, but protect the locomotives from falling or details from being handled by visitors.

The side wall that doesn't have windows shown, does have a door, and all the studs are drawn in. The indication is that only the one side wall, and the back wall have windows.
The notation of 2" X 6" studs, and 2" X 6" plate ( the line parallel with the partial foundation line ) are another indication that there was no interior wall sheathing.
Are you going to build it with the non-window wall " missing ", or will that be the one wall modeled?
This should end up being an extremely interesting feature on the layout, where it allows unobstructed interior viewing.
Bold choice.

No wonder I failed drafting class.

Thank you for the feedback so far gentlemen. It only confirmed my suspicions about the interior walls. Although I thought at first perhaps that any interior wall covering might be missing from the plans deliberately and left up to the on site builder's peroggative like maybe lath and paster...but I doubt L&P was used. The idea of exposed studs and electrical wires etc. sure does appeal to me strictly from a modelling point of view.

To clarify, only ten windows will be required, six along the bottom wall and four for the back walls. So to answer the question, I'll be modeling the wall with windows... the studded wall will not exist.

Using some thin plexiglass to protect the interior is something I hadn't thought of and is a good idea. I was also thinking more from a dust perspective...I imagine it will be pretty hard to keep the interior dust free if left wide open. I must admit though, that keeping it open without anything in the way also appeals to me as well. As for locos falling out, I'm not worried about that. The aisle facing track won't be that close to the edge and there will be some structure there as I'll include another row of center posts as shown in the between the bays in luie of the wall that will not be there.

I'm really chomping at the bit to get home and get some more done on this as well. Finally feel like the modeling juices are flowing again.

It looks as if the walls are sheathed with drop siding applied over t&g boards, with tarpaper between the two. There's a good chance that the tongue and groove boards are applied diagonally.
I'm curious as to the purpose (and placement) of those four "chimneys on brackets", though: they appear to connect to nothing. Perhaps there were woodstoves connected to them? I certainly wouldn't want to be the guy cutting firewood to heat that barn!

Wayne

doctorwayne Wrote:It looks as if the walls are sheathed with drop siding applied over t&g boards, with tarpaper between the two. There's a good chance that the tongue and groove boards are applied diagonally.

The diagonal boards are an interesting detail. I might just have to model that in some way by scribing the inside of the wall with my knife at a 45 degree angle. Thanks!

doctorwayne Wrote:I'm curious as to the purpose (and placement) of those four "chimneys on brackets", though: they appear to connect to nothing. Perhaps there were woodstoves connected to them? I certainly wouldn't want to be the guy cutting firewood to heat that barn!

Wayne

I thought the same thing too! I looked at that and thought to myself, "No way?" How big must those wood stove/furnances have been in order to heat that space and where did they put them? I remeber my Grandad used to have an old wood burning Octopus Furnance in his house and he'd keep that thing stoked with wood almost every day in the cold winter months. There was no insulation in the walls however, I keenly remember that the house never felt cold during the winter months.

However given that I'm bringing this building forward into the early fifties, I'll have to find a 1950's way of heating the building like an oil furnance and duct system.

Seems to me finding a nice photo of the interior (or one similar) would be VERY useful.

Galen

Could those chimneys have been used to exhaust steam and soot from a steam engine that was fired up inside the engine house? They appear to be at the end of the house in the track centers.

Russ Bellinis Wrote:Could those chimneys have been used to exhaust steam and soot from a steam engine that was fired up inside the engine house? They appear to be at the end of the house in the track centers.

Most definately Russ. The large stacks in the track centers were used for steam engines. The ones that Wayne and I are referring to are the four small brick chimneys at each corner of the structure and they were more then likely used for wood burning stoves to heat the interior during the colder months.

I agree Galen, an interior shot would be useful indeed. Got any?

Anyways back to building... Got to finish a couple more doors and then start on the front wall sections.

This project brings back some memories of my entry in last summer's building challenge...Right down to the same type of "blueprints". Looks to be a real beauty, and a real fun piece to build. From pictures I've seen of the interior of these structures thay all seem to be bare studs. Look forward to seeing your progress...

Looks like an ambitious project.....looking forward to seeing it progress........good luck!

Very nice! Good to see you shooting for a standard design rather whatever Walthers/Kirbi/etc is offering. The results will be worth the effort.

If you don't have one, I suggest getting a digital caliper...it makes cutting and fitting parts far easier.