Scratch Building a Machine Shop Building to House Western Scale Models Machine Shop Equipment (Now Wild West Scale Models)

 

In my many years (over 50) of attending model railroad conventions and attending layout tours, I've noted very few well equipped scale RR machine shops. I'm not just referring to large scale. All scales.

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Before I go into detail about this project I want to point out something I learned as a "kid" while serving aboard a nuclear, ballistic missile, submarine in the late 1960s and that was reinforced while working for NASA for nearly 30 years. Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. As you will see, I do not apply that adage to model construction.

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By the way, all of the photos currently on this page are temporary place holders as I have yet to finish the building.

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This article probably should not be on the F/G scale kit review site as it has more to do with scratch building the machine shop structure than it does with assembling the machine tools and associated machine shop interior hand tools and clutter. I’m going to use this project to describe my totally haphazard approach to scratch building structures for my railroad. The machine shop equipment, tools, and much of the clutter were from Western Scale Models machine shop mini-scene (now Wild West Scale Models). In addition, I added two differential chain hoists, and a radial drill press. To really do justice to a moderately sized narrow gauge 1:20.3 machine shop I would have needed a space at least two feet by four feet. Well, I didn’t have that much space available on my layout. The Western mini-scene machine shop did not require that much space. As it was my intent to add considerably more detail to my machine shop, I had to come up with a building size that would fit in the space available. I built my machine shop, not including the front deck, to the following dimensions: 13” wide by 24 ½” long by 10” high with the roof peak at 12”. In scale that would be 22’ wide by 41.5’ long with 17’ high front and back walls. Time to admit another oversite. I didn’t calculate the scale size of the structure until I had all the MDF cut. As I said, the machine shop had to fit within a relatively small space. Nonetheless, after calculating the footprint of the machine shop, I realized that it was the same size as the building the houses the indoor portion of my railroad. At that point my machine shop seemed small. The kit did not include the shop structure itself but provided two sets of building construction options. Neither met my needs. The instructions include detailed plans for an overhead belt-driven system along a long narrow building.

 

This was one project that I did not want to take a total haphazard approach to, even though as said above, that’s what I ultimately did. There are numerous large scale model railroad forums online. On multiple occasions I posed the question on the various forum sites if anyone had constructed the Western Scale Models machine shop mini-scene. No one responded. I was on my own. 

 

Materials Used in Construction

When kit bashing or scratch building structures, I tend to use very little scale basswood. I use a lot of MDF (medium density fiber board), fir, birch, poplar, and redwood. For the redwood I start with 1”x2”x8’ boards. I cut them to the desired size. The MDF I’ve used 1/8", ¼” and ½”. For decking and building siding I often use birch coffee stir sticks and birch craft sticks. You can buy them in bulk, and they cost very little. The stir sticks come in two lengths, either 5.5” or 7.5”. The craft sticks come in one length. The approximate scale of the craft sticks is 8”x1.5”x7’. The long stir sticks scale out 5”x1”x12’. One downside to using the craft and stir sticks is that you end up with lots of waste. I would guess that at least 50% or more of the craft sticks are not useable for my purposes. The coffee stir sticks tend to have less waste. I should point out that using various sizes of birch sticks rather than scale lumber can be more time consuming. I’m guessing, I spent over 600 hours constructing this building with machine tools, benches, tables, shelves, hand tools and clutter. Much of the effort went into the construction of the building. The building alone has over 1000 cut and distressed boards. I don’t use the stir sticks or craft sticks just because they are inexpensive. I use them because they are slightly irregular, and I like the way they can be distressed and the way they look when they are stained. If you don’t have lots of time to spend on a particular building construction project stick with basswood or purchase non basswood scale lumber online.

 

I often use a fine-tooth razor saw or an Exacto blade to distress the wall boards and decking. Depending on my whim, I will at times use stir sticks for decking at other times I will use craft sticks for decking. The same holds true for building siding. For many of my scratch-built wood structures I will use 1/8” MDF as the building frame. If I’m building a stucco or concrete structure, I will use ½” MDF as the frame/walls.

 

At about 80% through the construction of the building I got tired of sorting through craft sticks to find enough that were usable to finish the building. Even though I probably had enough Bass wood, I. choose not to use it as Bass wood has no imperfections, each board is perfectly shaped and dimensionally consistent. I went online, Etsy, and found a someone, Neil Macneale, of MiniLumber, who cuts various types of wood to scale. He provided me with a significant amount of fir and poplar to the dimensions that I required. The poplar closely resembled the birch when stained. Like the craft sticks they were not all dimensionally perfect. They were perfect for my needs as they had just the right amount of discontinuity. I used the poplar on the inside and outside of the front wall. I also used it for the doors.

 

Building The Framework

I start by cutting the MDF to size, meaning I cut the walls, floor and roof to the size and shape of the structure that I have in mind. Notice that I said have in mind. I do not make any scale drawings. I just build. I decide where I want the doors and windows to go, determine the type and size of the doors and windows and draw them directly on the MDF. I try to cut out the openings such that they are square and plumb and are properly located. I don’t do a perfect job with that. It doesn’t matter a whole lot as long as I’m close. Mostly because I’m going to glue exterior siding over the MDF. I should point out that it is extremely important when you’re cutting the MDF to size that all four corners are as close to 90 degrees as possible. Even being off a couple of degrees will cause problems when wall lengths are two feet and wall height is 10 inches or more. It is extremely important for all floor corners to be as close to 90 degrees as possible. The problem becomes especially noticeable when you add a pitched roof. 

 

Depending on the structure, I will either do nothing with the interior walls, use simulated wallpaper, thin basswood, or use stir sticks or craft sticks for the interior walls. You will notice in the photos that I used craft sticks on the interior and exterior side and back walls of the machine shop. I used coffee stir sticks for the machine shop flooring. Why? Heck, I don’t know.

 

Adding The Siding

I have a few approaches to gluing the individual board siding to the MDF frame. Usually, I brush on contact cement on the MDF then use Goo on the backside of the individual boards. I’ve also used Tacky Glue to adhere the siding boards to the MDF. Yes, as I said above, I’m a haphazard modeler. In the case of the machine shop I predominately used contact cement on the MDF and Goo on the back side of the boards. I let the contact cement dry before applying the boards. I used eight tubes of Goo on the machine shop. Of course, I could have used contact cement on the backside of the boards. I just find that Goo is easy to use because of the relatively small diameter tip on the tube and because it almost immediately adheres to the dried contact cement. Because the craft sticks often have a slight bow, I’ll put a weight on them to flatten them out. I will usually wait until I’ve glued 5 or 6 boards (craft sticks) to the MDF before placing the weight.

 

Windows and Doors

For a combination of reasons, I find that windows require the most planning on my part. I do not want to spend the time to scratch build windows. So, I tend to use windows from Banta Modelworks, or from Ty’s planes. I’ve also used Grant Line windows in the past. I really like the Banta windows for most applications. Unfortunately, they are wood frame windows and tend not to be applicable for many industrial buildings. Many of Ty’s windows look like industrial metal frame windows. After installing the metal frame windows into the wall openings, and before doing the interior walls, I glue laser printer transparency film over the window openings on the back side of the wall. I like the transparency film for two reasons. One, it’s very thin and two, it doesn’t seem to have the dust collecting static electricity problem. Of course, I still manage to splatter paint/stain on them.

 

While the doors were easy to build, and because once again I did not bother with scale drawings, the doors became a problem. I wanted the doors to be big enough such that when they are open you can clearly see everything in the machine shop. You will notice that I choose not to have any “personnel” doors on this structure. Also, the door height had to allow for the differential chain hoist system. The differential chain hoist travels along an I-beam from above heavy machinery, such as an engine lathe, to a door leading into the machine shop.

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I had originally planned for the doors to be glued in the open position, so I was not concerned with making the width of the doors perfect. After I had built the three sets of double doors, I decided that I wanted to be able to open and close the doors. The doors that I had built were slightly too wide. So, I built three new sets of double doors. For the doors to swing I needed 18 functional door hinges. I used 1” scale dollhouse door hinges. The nails that came with the hinges were about 1/16" long. They were way too small to hold the heavy doors in place and allow for repeated opening and closing. I used HO track spikes instead of the provided nails. I had to slightly increase the diameter of the holes in the hinges to accommodate the HO spikes. I also had to slightly shorten the length of the spikes. I also cut off about half of the spike head.​

 

For the door pulls I used double point (U-shaped) carpet tacks. On the left double door I put the pull on the outside. On the right double door I put the pull on the inside. These doors were not intended to be locked. I also added nut/bolt/washer castings on the opposite side of the door pulls.

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Building Finish

For buildings that I want to have an old unfinished look I will stain the wood rather than paint it. Depending on what I have in my cash of wood stains, I will either use Minwax wood finish or Rust Oleum wood stain. I have several different colors and will usually combine two colors to get the color I want. I brush on the wood stain then wipe it off with a paper towel. It’s hard to tell from the photos, the deck of the machine shop is a different color from the walls. The walls were stained with a gray (60%) and brown mix (40%). When the building is finished, I will apply PanPastels or Bragdon weathering powders to the walls, floor and roof.

 

Attaching The Walls and Floor

I use a Kobee 23-gauge pin nailer using 1/2" and 1” pins to connect the walls to the floor and to each other. I use Tacky glue or Titebond II at the joints. I used the pin nailer rather than clamping the joints together. On this building, on the inside of the wall join corners I have 8” scale posts. They were glued with Tacky glue and then pin nailed. 

 

Building the Machine Tools

I have to say that the directions for building the machine tools left a little to be desired. I found the overhead belt drive system with belt shifters to be most problematic. As said above, I attempted to reach out to O, G and F scale model railroaders through numerous online model railroad forums hoping to find someone who had built the machine shop. The directions and drawings provided for assembly of the machine tools were not always easy to follow but they were adequate.

 

Building The Overhead Support Structure

After three walls of the building were completed, I built the main structural components of the interior overhead support structure for the pullies, rods and belt shifters (also known as strikers). The beams attached to the walls and the four corner posts are approximately 8 scale inches in diameter. Additional support posts were also installed to support the long overhead beams. Once again, I failed to plan ahead. Unfortunately, I added the front wall before adding all of the overhead apparatus. The shifter pulleys need to be properly located over the pulley/pullies on the various machine tools. This required a rather elaborate overhead framework. The drawings that came with the machine shop for the building provided two options for the machine shop structure. Neither met my need as my machine shop would have extra machine tools. I soon realized that building the machine shop building was the easy part of constructing the machine shop. Locating the machine tools and building the overhead support structure for the pulleys and shifters became a bit of a challenge and I was forced to actually plan ahead. I realized I also had to plan where and how I was going to add the roof trusses above the pulley and shifter support structure. If you choose to build the machine shop from scratch, make sure that your building is tall enough for the pullies and shifters. The shifter top ends swivel on a sleeved bolt. This is only simulated for the purposes of this kit.

 

Shop Workbenches, Shelves, Small Tools and Clutter

As you can see from the photos, I made several workbenches and shelves.  I did not follow the drawings provided. The kit came with lots of tools and clutter. Based on the number of workbenches and the size of the building, I needed lots of extra tools, cans, and clutter. Fortunately, I have a significant cache of extra tools and clutter on hand. I was able to use many of them in the machine shop.

 

The Roof

Obviously, the roof requires some type of supporting framework. Even though I built the building taller than shown on the photo on the front page of the mini-kit instructions and as I did not follow the construction plans for the building, I had to come up with a way to design the roof framework that allowed the roof to be removed and did not interfere with the pulley and shifter support frame. While I try to build my structures to reasonable construction standards appropriate to the period, I often find that I must make some compromises. Making the roof was a little problematic. I made the eight cuts for the two roof sections as close to 90 degrees as possible. The fit was not perfect. It was quite bad. I checked the angle of the four wall corners and the height of each wall end. The floor corners were off by a couple of degrees and three of the four wall corners were off by less than 1/16 of an inch in height. To make the roof fit I had to cut the two roof sections to fit the offset. Over the 2-foot length of the large roof section I had to shorten one side by about ¼ inch. I also had to change the corner angles by a couple of degrees.

 

Choosing what I was going to use for the roof covering was not easy. I decided on a corrugated steel roof. I used card stock and a paint tube squeezer to make the corrugated roof sections. I first tried using heavy duty aluminum foil to make the corrugated sections. I decided against using the aluminum roof sections because I could not seem to paint or weather them the way I wanted. I have a tendency to over weather corrugated roofing. I painted the card stock with shaker can aluminum spray paint. I cut the card stock to the desired size and used the tube squeezer to corrugate each section. I glued each section to the roof then used powdered pigments mixed with acrylic paint reducer to weather/rust the roof. The reducer is a diluted paint binder. I didn’t like the way it looked so I resprayed the roof with the aluminum-colored spray paint. I “re-rusted” the roof but did not go to the previous extreme that I had in my prior attempt. During the period I’m modeling, corrugated steel roofing was galvanized with zinc. The zinc significantly reduced the rusting of the corrugated roofing. I am sure that my supposed twenty-year-old machine shop roof shows far more rusting than appropriate.

 

 

Adding Overhead Lights

The kit does not come with overhead lights. They are a must. In many of my structures I’ve included functioning overhead lights. At first I was not going to add functional lights. In this case adding functional lights would serve minimal purpose as you must take the roof off the building to see what’s in the machine shop. I decided to make the seven ceiling lights functional. I did that for a reason. The lights in the engine facility use to be battery powered. The battery didn't last long before it required recharging. As all my turnouts were powered by 12 volt DC power and as the light bulbs are 12 volt DC, I decided to use the 12 volt DC source used to power the turnout motors. It only made sense to use the same power source to lite the bulbs in the machine shop.

 

Helpful hints:

• Don’t do like I do, plan ahead.

• If you have the space, build the structure bigger than what the plans call for especially if you’re going to add extra machine tools.

• Strategically plan where the windows are going to go relative to the posts and beams required for the overhead structure and the layout of the machine tools.

• The Western Scale Models Machine Shop Mini-Scene layout as depicted on the cover page of the directions does not allow for windows.

• Machine shops of this size (branch line) usually had several windows as natural light was beneficial to machine operations.

• The construction drawings provided with the kit do not show any lights, nor are lights mentioned in the instructions. Adding lights are a must addition. The kit comes with a booklet called The Sierra Railroad Machine Shop. You will see overhead lights in several of the photos. Nonetheless, the lighting was not great in the shop. I’ve been to the Sierra Railroad machine shop on several occasions and have wondered why the lighting was so poor inside the shop. The dormer windows helped somewhat but as they were quite dirty, they failed to adequately allow sufficient sunlight into the shop. 

 

On a Totally Irrelevant Point

I’m often asked why I don’t start a project by making scale drawings and why I plan as I proceed with construction. That has not always been the case. When I use to model in HO scale, I spent a considerable amount of time preplanning. A little background: I started my career in construction as a field engineer. After doing that for a few years I went to work for NASA. While working for NASA I was also a member of a FEMA urban search and rescue team for about 20 years. I also was the lead instructor for an annual advanced collapsed structure rescue class. When responding to a collapsed structure caused by a bombing, earthquake, whatever, you don’t take the time to draw plans for how you are going to build shores to stabilize the building. You just do it. When modeling, I just do it. Yes, I often find that I’ve failed to consider some important aspect of my intended project. In collapsed structure rescue responders are trained to deal with unforeseen problems. I take that same approach when building a scale structure. Yup, I’m constantly resolving problems that I’ve caused for myself. Hmmm, maybe I’m just using this as an excuse to justify my inability or unwillingness to preplan. Yeah, I do not follow the seven Ps as stated above.