The Station at Poppyfield Flats

Waiting for the Mt. Lowe trolley with a picnic lunch

The Mt. Lowe layout will have 3 structures: the circular bridge, the lookout at Inspiration Point, and this one, the station at Poppyfield Flats. I thought I'd park scenic work for awhile and build a structure. This station seemed to be the easiest of the three, so that's the one I started with.

Simple drawing in S scale made over the Christmas holidays

My station is based on a couple of end view photos of the real Poppyfield station, but I must admit mine is not an exact replica as the photos weren't much to go on, and I wanted to keep the project doable for me. I also wanted to be free to make any necessary changes to the structure to make it fit into the layout's little world. If you're interested, you can find the reference photos I used on page 34 of Mount Lowe Railway by Michael A. Patris, Steve Crise, and the Mount Lowe Preservation Society, and page 155 of Mount Lowe: The Railway in the Clouds by Charles Seims.

The first part of construction was to build up the end walls from pieces of 0.100" x 0.100" styrene strips. To do this I taped the plan to a piece of thick scrap cardboard, laid a piece of wax paper over top, and then glued together the end wall pieces directly on the plan. This method is similar to the one I used to build up the exposed structure on Cal's Cabbage Plant.

Revell's Contacta styrene glue was used for bonding all the structure's plastic parts together. 

Speaking of tools, the above photo was shot just after finishing this project, but I thought I'd present it here as it shows all the tools that were used. Tool-wise not much is required, the tricky part is accurate measuring and cutting. 

There are 7 trusses, each built up from 3 pieces of 0.020" thick styrene

Next up was the roof. I think it's easiest just to show some photos of the structure as the pictures are fairly self-explanatory as far as construction goes.

One philosophical thing I will mention is that the roof details I hinted at in the drawing were scraped in favour of a simplified structure that I think is more robust and buildable. If there are any carpenters reading this I apologize for my overly simplistic roof framing, but I think it effectively suggests roof trusses without being overly pedantic about structural details, which in the end aren't the purpose of this layout and won't be in clear view anyway.

A flock of roof trusses awaiting installation

Once all 7 trusses were built up, the two end trusses were glued to one of the roof panels (cut from 0.020" thick sheet styrene), and when dry, the other roof panel was tilted up and glued to the free end of the trusses. The remaining 5 trusses were then glued to the roof panels to complete the basic structure.

The roof was completed by adding fascia strips, also cut from 0.020" thick styrene, all around the perimeter. 

View showing vestigial roof truss verticals cut from 0.020" x 0.20" square styrene strips

Those verticals I added to each truss probably wouldn't contribute any additional structural strength to a real roof. I added them mainly for decoration. They're just pieces of 0.020" x 0.020" styrene strip.

The roof's covering is made from two pieces of Campbell Scale Model's HO scale corrugated aluminum sheet. I suspect the prototype used some sort of shingling, but my layout is set in a 60s / 70s era, so metal would be readily available for roofing. Frankly, if I were building a structure like this in those mountains I'd use metal on it wherever I could. I'd build the whole thing from metal if that were possible. 

The aluminum sheets were attached to the roof panels with 3M transfer tape. The strip along the peak is a slice of 0.010" styrene.

The thin edge of a square was used to space the slats

The next sub-assembly was the bench. It's built up from 0.020" x 0.080" styrene strips. In S-scale it measures 3' wide. I think the real McCoy had a backrest and wasn't quite so wide, although I can't say for certain. I was going to add a backrest to mine, but given where it was being placed on the layout I thought it would have more utility if the platform were left open so it could be loaded from either side. 

The seat slats were trimmed to the correct width, and their edges were sanded smooth once the glue was dry.

Gluing an 0.100" x 0.100" square overhead spanning beam to an end wall

We're getting close to final assembly. But before that I had to tilt up the end walls and glue them to some 0.100" x 0.100" styrene strips that span the length of the structure. Vince mentioned I should buy some 1-2-3 blocks for this sort of work, and I think he's right. I used my little Veritas speed squares. For small jobs they work ok, but I have to be extra careful not to bump them while things are setting up.

Top structure showing spanning beams before the roof is glued on. Each corner has a gusset.

I added corner gussets to make the structure a little stronger. They're cut from 0.020" styrene.

At this point it was merely a job of gluing the bench between the end walls, and then gluing on the roof.

The structure was painted with loose mixtures of Tamiya flat white and neutral grey acrylic paints. The roof had a little of my rust mixture washed on to show a little weathering. However, general weathering will have to be revisited during final scenicking on the layout.

The model is actually quite rigid, but I think if a real structure were built like I've built this little thing it would break up in the first stiff wind, or the roof would catch the wind and pull the structure off its foundations. It needs some bracing in the big, open space under the roof. I need to think about what to do. My structure is clearly a fantasy :-)

The view from the trolley pull out at the base of Inspiration Point

It looks like our picnickers are still waiting for the trolley. I better go and see what's up. Until next time!