Cal's Coastal Café

The day started like most other work days. My cousin Cal and I were in my kitchen getting some coffee and shooting the breeze before heading off to the shop.

I was fiddling with the coffee machine on the counter, and Cal was in his usual place in the breakfast nook with his nose buried in the newspaper's classified ads section.

Something caught Cal's attention. He carefully laid the newspaper down on the tabletop and smoothed out some creases in the paper before asking me, "There's an ad here for the old brewery down in Ocean Park. Isn't that the one our great, great, great uncle built?"

"Yeap. There might be another great or two in there 'cause he built it in 1842", I replied.

I finished loading up the coffee machine and started it brewing. I turned to Cal and asked, "I don't think that place has ever been up for sale. And I think its been abandoned for a long time. What're they asking?"

"Don't know. The city's seized it for unpaid taxes and is auctioning it next Wednesday. It's open from 2 to 4 this afternoon for inspection. Do you wanna go have a look?"

"Yeap."

Awhile back I was able to find a 1967 release of AHM's Brewery kit, which was designed by E. L. Moore. I was planning on combining it with a Model Power version I already owned to build Art Curren's Perry Shibbel Fruit & Produce Co-Op. But, after I inspected the AHM's parts, I didn't have the heart to cut them up and repaint them for the kitbash. 

I thought about what I could build, and what I could use on the layout, and after a long time, the outlines of Cal's Coastal Café slowly started to gel. I figured I'd build it from the Model Power kit, and later I'd build the AHM kit box-stock, no painting, no modifications, no nothing. 

I'm not going to explain all the construction steps, just touch on the main changes from the kit's instructions. If you're interested in seeing the kit's parts, you'll find some pictures here, and the instructions can be found here.

As you can see in the lead photo, I didn't use the  little brick addition that is attached to the left of the main building. So, I had to sand off the alignment mouldings and part numbers from the main building's wall. In the photo on the right you can see what they looked like before being removed.










We got to the open house around 3:30. There was nobody else there. Just as well. The old thing didn't look in too bad shape. Cal seemed fascinated by it and was absentmindedly running his hands over the old brickwork as he wandered around the place.

"What's up Cal?"

"I'm buying this for Cathy!"

"For Cathy? Why?"

"She's looking for a place for her café and this is it. Solidly built, great views, tourists, and right beside a streetcar stop."

"Sounds good, but maybe you should ask her first."

"I need to find a phone."

The other bit of minor prep was to open up the front wall of the wooden addition on the right. This part was to be the outdoor dining area, and I wanted the wall to allow free passage to the deck. Sprue cutters, sanding sticks, and the Dremel drum sanding attachment were used for this job.

So, as far as part modifications are concerned, those two minor changes were all that were done prior to painting. Ok, well, all the parts were washed with a mild dish soap to remove any remnants of mould release from the factory. 

I chose the colours from leftover spray cans I had in the workshop. The only guidance in selection was that they had to suggest a seaside restaurant or resort.



Cal found a pay phone at the streetcar stop. By the time he got back the open house was over and they had kicked me out. I was sitting on the steps waiting for him.

"She says ok. And she's going to name it after me!"

"That's great. I'm going to have to put on my thinking cap and figure out how we can turn this old girl into a café."

"She's going to come by the shop after work and we can discuss it with her."

"Sounds good."

I got up from the steps and we took one last look around before heading out to catch our car.

I had a funny feeling come over me as we walked to the stop. I turned to Cal and said, "This place reminds me of something."

I probably should have done the modifications to the brewery's chimney before painting, but, for some reason, I thought it should be done after. I cut 5 cm off the top so that it only extended slightly above the main building's ridge line, and then cut a fireplace opening in the front facing wall. That was done by first opening the hole with a drill, and then finishing with files and small sanding sticks.

This picture gives a better view of the finished fireplace. The mantle was cut from a piece of strip balsa - I needed to include an homage to the kit's designer :-)

Yes, the lighthouse tower is a bit wonky, but it doesn't seem that distressing in person. 












Cal was looking at me funny as we walked across the parking lot to the car stop.

"You've got that look on your face."

"What look?"

"The 'I know a story about this building and one of our ancestor's' look."

"No I don't."

"Spit it out before you burst something."

"I seem to recall that in the '20s those islands off the coast put in prohibition. For awhile one of our uncles - I have to ask Ma which one - performed a delivery service for the owners of this place. His boat had two gas tanks: one for gas and one for hootch. One night a week he'd motor over to the islands and make a delivery. When he got back he'd give them the cash and he'd get a small cut. One night he never came back home. Ma seems to think he decided he wanted all the cash for himself and disappeared."*

"That's it?"

"That's it." 

The light tower is built from a core of 0.040" styrene, faced with styrene brick sheet. 

The light is an N-scale street lamp post that I scavenged from the old layout.

The frame around the light that supports the tower's little roof is built up from 0.040" x 0.060" styrene strips. The roof is just the cupola roof from the kit.

It gives a nice glow when it's lit up. In this photo it's powered by a 9v battery, but I think it's rated for 12v, so it should be a bit brighter when installed on the layout in Ocean Park.

The lighting in the outdoor dining area is by an LED strip.

I have a roll of LED strip lighting I bought a few years ago from a lighting store in Montreal, and all I had to do was cut off a piece and solder on some leads. A hole was drilled in the main building's right wall for the leads, and installation consisted for sticking the strip to the inside surface of the right building's roof.

There's a second Moorian homage on this build. 

I didn't spray enough window frames with turquoise paint, and found myself two windows short during assembly. I pulled two more from the kit and brush painted them a Moore green.

The ladder to the light is some stock I had in my spares box.

You can see a ghost of the alignments for the left building that were ground off. Such ghosting often appears on real buildings for various reasons, so it's not too out-of-place. 

Argh, that tilting tower :-( I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the digital camera is a harsh mistress.

The railing is some stock that I bought a few years back and had in my spares box. For safety reasons, one can't have an elevated deck and walkway without a railing.  

And speaking of tilts, the roof on the outdoor dining area's got a little slant to it too. In my defence I'll note that it fits solidly on its supports and joins the main building cleanly and without gaps. $%&@ digital cameras!


When I started this project I made it a point to build it as fast as I could. Usually I'm dead slow when it comes to my building projects, but on this one throwing caution to the wind was the name of the game. It took 5 days of on-and-off, part-time work. And I decided I couldn't declare the thing done if it didn't have signs and lights, which I usually leave to a 'later' that is often a long time coming. The downside of speed is that the project's got some odd tilts in it. I'd like to blame my camera for them, but in the end they're there because of the throwing caution to the wind thing. Maybe they add a little character :-) But, I'm glad I did this little test, and am happy with the result.

*Based on an apocryphal story in my own family, but it involved a car with two gas tanks.