...for South Cayuga.

For some time now, the town of South Cayuga has languished in a mostly unfinished state. I've never been totally happy with the Walthers Railway Express building that's situated here, and as a result, the rest of the town has been difficult to populate with rail-served industries.
It's difficult to get a clear shot of the Walthers structure, seen here behind some heavy traffic:



Even this aerial view (Courtesy of Secord Air Services) shows only part of it:



Because South Cayuga is where the Erie Northshore line to Lowbanks and Port Maitland diverges from the north/south tracks of the Grand Valley, the freight house will be an important part of operations, with LCL shipments arriving from- and departing to three different destinations.
I recently visited a nearby hobby shop, and was pleased to see that their department of "used" stuff had grown considerably. Among the treasures there was this freight house, a little the worse for wear, with a few broken or missing pieces, but reasonably priced at twenty bucks. Something about it seemed to suggest NYC's St. Thomas, Ontario station, although the styles aren't all that similar.

Here's the structure, pretty-much as I found it. According to my seven year old Walthers catalogue, its by Kibri and, at that time, was advertised at seventy bucks:





The unseen side is similar, also with a loading dock. Most of it wasn't too difficult to take apart, and I cannibalised one end to make an additional bay to tie together the front and rear walls into one long wall which will face the tracks. The new, unseen, rear wall is .060" sheet styrene, as is the new roof, and loading dock/foundation/floor assembly.
I made the loading dock deeper than the original, necessitating that the one on the rear of the building be eliminated. There's a siding there on which to spot cars for across-the-dock transfer of LCL, but it's also an access track to another industry at its far end.
Here's the re-assembled structure on its new base. The original interior bracing, which also supported the roof, consisted of only two parts (the orange-ish ones visible in the photo below), but for this longer structure, I added vertical bracing at each pilaster location, then cut five- or six-sided shapes from more .060" sheet material to tie the front and rear walls together and to act as roof supports across the building. Below, the cannibalised end wall is also visible, the original brick replaced with a piece of Walthers brick wall material.





The office area, seen below, was moved closer to the track which serves the loading dock, requiring brick detail to be carved into part of the newly-exposed end wall of the warehouse.



Here's a look at the underside of the roof, which I plan to leave removeable. After the photo was taken, I tapered-back the front and rear edges of the stiffeners attached to the underside of the roof, the narrowed leading edges permitting an easy-fitting and self-aligning method for re-installing the roof.



I made some support pedestals for the eave bracing, matching them to the existing ones, and the next task will be to cut and install the braces, both on the front and rear tracks. I also plan to add triangular supports to the top of the wall pilasters, at the point where they meet the underside of the roof overhang. This should help to minimise drooping of the eaves, and their presence not be too noticeable.



One of the new support pedestals can be better-seen here. Access steps to the loading dock are yet to be added, plus under-eave details.



I haven't yet decided whether or not to add a clerestory to the roof. I was going to shingle it with Tichy's slate shingles (moulded in styrene), but I'd need 7 packages, as the main roof is about 225 square inches. That would put this "bargain" well over a hundred bucks. I'd better contact Pete (Sumpter250), as he seems to be the shingle guy around here.


Wayne

I like it . A very nice save of a discarded model.

That building in its original size would be perfect for me... although I'd use it like a flat probably chop off the back wall. hock:

It already looks amazing Wayne. I noticed the corner joint in the first picture was a little misaligned. How did you go about disassembling it without breaking the walls?

I like it a lot! Reminds me of the old Freight House (now a restaurant) in nearby Stillwater, MN.
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Excellent reconversion Wayne. The new proportions are much better and clever engineering with the removable roof. Much better than the Walthers building it replace and that we have seen too much over the years. I suspect the Walthers structure will eventually suffer an important remodelling some day. I always thought it would look good with a mansard roof.

As for the clerestories, since your era is in the 30s, I would make sense to install them. If you were in the 50s, you could have gone without because most old structures were renovated and often lost this kind of superstructure.

Are you going to keep the loading pier as is? It looks like some concrete slab to me.

Matt

That is a beautiful building fitting very well into the scenery. The removable roof, open doors and upcoming interior are a great feature and inspire me to fix my problem.

My vote, for what it's worth, would be against the clerestory. What you're doing is a very good project, removing just enough ornament from a European building to make it look more North American. A clerestory would be a step in the wrong direction, it seems to me.

Hi Doc---looks like you've been keeping busy,great work as always.I hope you didn't demolish the old building---I have a couple of suggestions :hey:

With the lighting it doesn't look like you even put a roof on

"doctorwayne" wrote:
"as the main roof is about 225 square inches. That would put this "bargain" well over a hundred bucks. I'd better contact Pete (Sumpter250), as he seems to be the shingle guy around here."

225 Square Inches of roof.
at 72 shingles per square inch, that's Sixteen Thousand two hundred shingles :o :o :o :o :o
That's over twice what it took to do the entire boathouse !!!
Hmmmmm at Ten cents a shingle ( cut, and applied ) that's $1,620.00- - - - - tempting, yes almost tempting.

:oops: :oops: :oops: gotta run,
" those nice young men in their clean white coats are coming to take me away, Ho ho, Ha ha, Hee hee. to the "funny farm", where life is beautiful all the time"

As "Confusion" once stated, " To truly know insanity, one must truly go insane".......been there done that. hock: hock:

Good luck with that roof.

Very nice - and I agree it is an improvement over the old structure.

And Ralph- I agree! Similar looking buildings.

Wow , it really dominates the scene ...nice lines .

T

Thanks to all for the kind words and the suggestions. I think that that vast expanse of roof does need something to break it up, and I have a couple of ideas I want to explore. Progress may be slow on this structure: I usually don't post something unless it's already finished or nearing completion and fairly certain to be done soon.

tetters Wrote:....I noticed the corner joint in the first picture was a little misaligned. How did you go about disassembling it without breaking the walls?

Actually, I was surprised at how easily it came apart. There were only one or two places where the glue bond was strong enough to remove a small chip of material from one of the mating surfaces. I was all the more surprised because the existing eave support brackets are quite brittle, and several snapped off at only the slightest touch.

sailormatlac Wrote:.......better than the Walthers building it replace and that we have seen too much over the years. I suspect the Walthers structure will eventually suffer an important remodelling some day. I always thought it would look good with a mansard roof.

As for the clerestories, since your era is in the 30s, I would make sense to install them. If you were in the 50s, you could have gone without because most old structures were renovated and often lost this kind of superstructure.

Are you going to keep the loading pier as is? It looks like some concrete slab to me.

Matt

The Walthers building will get some sort of makeover and a new life as an industrial building. I would like to backdate it, but the style of the windows will limit that somewhat. I hadn't thought of a Mansard roof, but I'll keep it in mind.
As for the foundation, I suppose that it could be scribed to represent stone like that under the office area, but I chose concrete partly inspired by this one, which dates from the late 19th century....



....and partly because it seemed easier.

Wayne

Hi Wayne
That building is coming along nicely. You have the patience of Job when it comes to the details. You have a great eye.
Making the braces is a great idea and the finished product will fit quite nicely into your time period.
Charlie

Wayne, looks like you found an excellent prototype to inspire yourself! I particularly like the stone foundation... Lots of weathering opportunities.

About your roof, did you consider making a tin roof or a tarpaper roof? It would be quite easier. Going the shingle way seems to be a little be ambitious if you want to cut down the costs. There's a long military warehouse still standing near my job office. I checked it this morning and it's tin roofed. An interesting point is that you can see all the places it was repaired over the years were you do a close inspection.

Many tin roofs of this time in Canada were painted green or a bluish gray to imitate more expensive copper roofing.

Whatever your choice, I'm confident it will turn into an eyechatcher for sure!

Matt