Bunn's, Jones, & Cal's: Three sentimental favourites

[E. L. Moore's Bunn's Feed and Seed plant published in the August 1973 issue of Model Railroader. You can see Cal's Lumberyard in the background.]

I was quite pleased to find these three snapshot sized photos in E. L. Moore's collection. These are the projects that got me hooked on model railroading. Bunn's was the first, and I've written about it at length. I built it back in 2009. Styrene was used extensively on that project, so it wasn't a pure Moorian build. 

[E. L. Moore's Jones Chemical Co. published in the March 1974 issue of Model Railroader]

Next was Jones Chemical Co. I recall I was so excited to see a new E. L. Moore project I started building it almost as soon as I got home with the magazine. 

[On the left is what remains of Jones Chemical Co. that I built way back in '74, and on the right is the version I built in 2009. Back in '74 I had a fixation on a technique I read about in the Nov. '73 issue of Model Railway Constructor about how to model brick and stone walls with scribing and crayons. I figured Jones was as good a place as any to to use it on.]

The results of that '74 build attempt were mixed, but I tackled it again here in the 21st century.

[E. L. Moore's Cal's Lumberyard published in the April 1973 issue of Model Railroader]

When I had finished the Jones build back in '74 I was keen to immediately do another E. L. Moore project, so I went to the public library near our house to see what I could find. I stumbled across Cal's Lumberyard in the April '73 issue of Model Railroader. Magazines weren't lent out, so I photocopied the plans, noted a few things from the article on the copies, and went home to build it. I did a better job than my previous projects, but nothing great. I haven't yet tackled this one in the 21st century, but the century is still young.

[The remains of my 1974 build of Cal's Lumberyard.]

I don't have a surviving youthful attempt at Bunn's because my initial build was in 1/32 scale and made from some very flimsy materials. In the summer of '73 I was building a large, temporary 1/32 scale slot car setup with a friend in his mother's garage. He had what seemed like a vast collection of Scalextric track which allowed him to build layouts that took up his entire basement rec-room floor along with some square footage in an adjacent hall and bedroom. The ultimate layout had to be built in the garage as it was summer and our mothers had kicked us out of our houses to get some sunshine. 

My friend's much older brother worked on the assembly line at Eldon toys, and instead of tossing any mis-manufactured slot cars in the trash, he snuck them out and brought them home. My friend gave me a couple of the really damaged ones and I set about fixing them. Alas, none survive, but I recall there was a Mustang and Corvette that I raised from the dead that made my friend a little jealous :-)

That summer I was building 1/32 scale grandstands and pitstops and timing buildings from bristol board and balsa, and when I stumbled across E. L. Moore's Bunn's article I tried building it too. I had never seen a publication that featured instructions and plans for building model structures, so this was a revelation. I dove right into the project and I figured I'd use it as a garage for cars. I left a lot off the build, but I did have a go at making an interior complete with car repair facilities and a removable roof. In the end, it was too large to keep around and I salvaged it for parts. That experience was sort of a prod to work in HO as I could spend the effort and didn't have a space problem with the finished models.

The E. L. Moore Files: Jones Chemical Co.

[My rendition of E. L. More's Jones Chemical Co.]

E. L. Moore’s Jones Chemical Co. project appeared in the March ’74 issue of Model Railroader. It was the next E. L. Moore article they published after his Bunn’s Feed and Seed in the Aug ’73 issue, and it was the next project of his that I tried to build back in the ‘70s.  I tried it again when I got back into the hobby a few years ago.

My eyes popped out when I saw the cover letter that Mr. Moore wrote to Model Railroader to introduce this article. It’s basically just a bawdy, Benny Hill-esque story. Yeap, you read that right. I won’t transcribe it here as I don’t want to test the Google net-nannies, but you can read it for yourself in the scan of the letter if you’re game. Actually, a lot of stuff anyone can see on prime-time tv these days is saucier than what he wrote.

[E. L. Moore's cover letter to his Jones Chemical Co. article]

Model Railroader’s rather terse response says it all, but they did buy the article and paid him $120; $20 more than for his last one, Bunn’s Feed and Seed. I rather like the letterhead that Model Railroader used at that time. It’s classy in an understated way.

[Model Railroader's acceptance letter]

The manuscript and the published article are more or less the same. Unlike Bunn’s Feed and Seed where the entire fictional story around the project got edited out, only a small portion of the  Jones story about the precariously balanced, little roof-top shack got sliced. For completeness, here’s the story snippet:

"Hey ! Whats about that little house up there on the roof?" asked Eddie.

"A good question. I've never been quite sure, myself," I said. "Could be a watchman's shanty, or maybe a chemical engineer has to be in attendance, I just don't know."

"Or maybe the plant doesn't have indoor toilet facilities," suggested Eddie.

"If it's that, it has to be chemically operated I'll wager," I said.

The story-let suggests to me that the little shack was a way to slip one of his classic outhouse builds into a mainstream project. That might have been a no-no to the editors of a family-oriented magazine. With the article’s story mentioning that bawdy records were part of the payment for the build, the nature of the cover letter story, and the hinted at roof-top outhouse, maybe the entire Jones build was a disguised off-colour joke. Stranger things have happened. I’m curious to see what’s in the manuscripts to come.

Jones Chem Co. - Addendum

Ok. I lied a bit in yesterday's post: I did take a few photos during the final construction phase. As I was in the homestretch with this one, there seemed to be stumbling-blocks with every little addition, so finishing up seemed like a trial at times - I was glad when it was done.

Some the roof top simulated metal panels came unbonded and had to be reglued. I poked a little white glue under the raised parts along the eves and held them in place with some clamps.

These are the roof vents. Instead of carving ones from balsa as Mr. Moore specifies in his article, I used some Walthers plastic vents that I extended with styrene to fit the roof. This picture shows them prior to final shaping and painting.

Here's the roof-top shanty. A few months ago I bought one of Tichy Trains Group window and door assortment boxes. That's where I got a set of windows and doors to fit this small structure. I put windows on three sides assuming that whoever was in there would want a view in all directions.

This is the inter-tank walkway structure. Bascially, I added styrene angles to represent steel supports.

Jones Chemical Company - Finished !

I finished the Jones Chemical Company last week after working on it on-and-off throughout December. Unfortunately I didn't take photos during construction, but just concentrated on finishing. I'll let the photos of the completed building do the explaining.

Roofs go up at Jones

I spent some time on the weekend installing the roofs on the Jones Chemical Company.

Here's the roof for the tank pad in a partial state of construction:

Basically, it's a 0.040 in sheet of styrene, cut to the shape specified in the article, with a piece of fine sandpaper glued to one side to simulate roofing material. Mr. Moore recommends two things that I didn't follow: 1) giving some three-dimensional shape to the roof, and 2) covering it with thinned glue and sprinked with fine stone. I closely examined the pictures in his article and his roof looked flat, so I'm not sure if he built it as he described, or if the perspective of the photos distorted the shape of the roof. Also, I though sandpaper was easier to apply. To get the sandpaper to stick, you'll need to lightly sand the styrene sheet before coating with a thin layer of white glue. To keep the whole thing flat while it dried, I sat my 12v marine battery on top. When dried, I edged it with thin styrene angle.

Here is the test fit of the roof to make sure everything is level. The vertical posts on the tank pad are made from 3 mm, square-section styrene. Since the tanks are different from those in the article, I had to arrange the posts a little differently, but tried to keep the same overall appearance. The biggest change is that I had to have 3 posts on the back instead of two so that there will be proper support for the inter-tank elevated walkway. I must admit that getting all the posts to the correct length was an exercise in trial-and-error sanding and fitting.

The tank pad roof is painted with a thinned, loosely mixed, wash of flat black and dark gray. The tv controller made a handy weight for holding the main building roof panel in place while the glue dried. These roof panels were also cut from 0.040 in styrene.

Here's a little closer look at the tank pad. The vertical supports are painted with Model Master acryl rust coloured paint.

Piping at Jones

Progress has been slow on the Jones Chemical Company. I've been busier than I thought I would be this fall, and there hasn't been a lot of time for model building. Anyway, I did find some time on the weekend to install the tank piping. The basic inter-tank connections are 1/8 inch piano wire bent to appropriate shapes as per the article. Corresponding holes were drilled in the tops of the tanks for seating the wires. Although a little hard to see in the picture, the small tank at the rear has a large diameter plastic pipe from a Walthers piping kit connecting the tank to the building. There is also a vertical pipe and valve from the same kit attached to the large diameter tan coloured tank.
I also added clear plastic to the windows and installed a view blocker in preparation for installing the roof. I had plans for adding a large horizontal tank with flashing LEDs inside the building to simulate a bubbling chemical tank, but with this project taking so long - longer than the Bunn's Feed and Seed - I decided to forego that idea and concentrate on wrapping up the project. Next part: installing the roof on the main building, and building the structure that covers the tank pad.

New tanks for Jones

I haven't done any model building in awhile, but on the weekend I spent sometime fixing up the tanks. I decided to make due with material I had in the workshop for the new tanks. I no doubt could have found some 1 1/4 inch tube or pipe for exact replicas of those in the article, but I was lazy and thought it was more in the Moore spirit to use what was on hand. So, I built two tall tanks from 1 inch diameter aluminum tube and a third small tank - peeking out of the background at the back of the pad - from the same tube. Styrene caps were glued to one end of each tube and gaps were filled and sanded to get a uniform appearance. The aluminum tubing has a length-wise crease - it used to be part of a lamp - but when turned towards the building it is not noticeable. The next stage will be to add the piping.

Preliminary tank fitting at Jones

Mr. Moore recommends building the chemical tanks from 35 mm film canisters wrapped with paper and topped with a balsa cap. With digital photography the norm, it's hard to find 35 mm film cans anymore, so I thought some substitution was in order. According to the plans, the tanks have a diameter of 1.25 inches. I did some searching - as it turns out, not enough - and decided to use some 1.5 inch diameter, plastic sink tail-pieces cut to the length of the tanks specified in the plans. The problem turns out that at 1.5 inches in diameter, they are too wide and will require some major changes to the catwalk dimensions, as well as some basic changes to the layout of the tank facility, to get things to fit. Overall, I think to preserve the interesting appearance of Mr. Moore's design I'm going to go back to the drawing board and find some other tubes with 1.25 inch diameters. I should have followed the old adage - which, ironically, I always preach, but apparently don't heed :-(  - to "measure twice, cut once". 

Truck loading dock at Jones

The truck loading dock is built from balsa wood as specified in the article. When completed it was stained with a very loose wash of brown, 'mud' and flat black paints to give it a used look. 

The tank along the back wall is an addition to Mr. Moore's project. There is one photo in the article which shows a horizontal tank peeking out from the back end of the loading dock. It looks like it was made from paper or cardboard. This tank is never discussed in the article; however, I liked it and decided to add one. My tank is made from an HO tank car that was part of a Loblaws' Christmas train set. After stripping everything from the tank, it was set on a base built up from balsa strips. The end ladder is made from Plasti-struct HO-scale stock. All the wood was stained in the same manner as the truck loading dock. The ladder was painted Tamyia yellow-green, and was washed with a thinned flat-black. Some flat aluminum paint was used to pick out worn spots on the ladder such as the foot treads.

Mr. Moore scratchbuilt all the discarded 55 gallon drums that are strewn about his model. I was lazy and used Grandt Line and Campbell 55-gallon drums. They were painted different colours and washed with thinned flat-black paint. When I studied painting I once had an instructor who thought a painting wasn't lively if it didn't have any red in it - I tend to agree, so the drums gave me an opportunity to add some red elements.

Before all these items were added to the building, the building's panels were all washed very loosely with thinned flat-black paint. I also added some signs that I had left over from other kits. I'll post some better pictures of them soon. Now, I need to find something to make the large chemical tanks out of.

Finished paneling at Jones

It turned out that if I watched some episodes of My Name is Earl and Corner Gas I was able to make and apply the remaining panels without too much trouble :-)

Once all the sides were paneled, they were painted with Tamyia flat aluminum, and all the window frames were inserted and glued into the openings. The door openings were framed with styrene angle stock as was the vent opening on the railside loading dock. The rolling door receiving structure above each door was made from a styrene tube sliced lengthwise in half. Its ends were then closed by gluing on a thin styrene piece and sanding to shape. The door frames and rolling door structures were painted light grey. The doors are made from 0.040 inch styrene sheet cut to size and scribed with a scribing tool.

I've also finished the wooden truck loading dock and hopefully will have some pictures posted this weekend - and hopefully will start on the chemical tanks.

Wall paneling begins at Jones

I’ve got about half of the building paneled with the simulated corrugated metal panels. Frankly, I think this is the last time I’ll use this technique because the tedium of creating the panels is starting to get to me – but, I wanted to have an E. L. Moore-esque look, so I only have myself to blame :-) To add to the frustration, I’ve misplaced the extra panels left over from the Bunn’s Feed and Seed Plant that I had saved for this project. Argh!

So, I began by making panels. That pile is about enough to cover one side and one end wall. I’ll need to make another pile for the remaining two sides.

Before gluing the panels to the walls I painted the bottom halves of the panels with dull aluminum paint from Tamyia so that post-installation painting won’t mar the finish on the foundation.

Prior to gluing on the panels I did some preliminary finishing on the concrete steps, tank pad and foundation. The exposed laminate edges were plastered over with some white putty and then sanded to a rough finish. The concrete parts were then painted with several coats of Tamyia light gray and then with a thin wash of flat white to tone down the colour. Also, the interior was painted flat black to help control reflections.

The panels are attached to the walls by coating the wall with a thin film of white glue and pressing the panels on. Don’t press too hard or you’ll overly flatten the corrugations. Once dry, the excess panels are trimmed from the window and door openings with a new, sharp knife. To get an idea of how things will look when it’s finished, I then installed the window frames on the front wall.

Walls go up on Jones

The walls are now raised and glued up. Each of the corners are reinforced with pieces of square-section styrene strip. As well, a floor cut from 0.060 inch styrene was inserted a scale 4 feet into the structure. As I mentioned previously, since the door sill height was adjusted to a uniform 4 feet, everything lines up well.

The concrete railside loading dock and the side tank pad were built from laminated 0.080 inch styrene sheets. Mr. Moore shows the loading dock with four steps on either end; however, I thought that since this meant that each riser was about a foot tall, they were too steep for actual steps and looked a little odd. It turns out that 0.80 inch styrene is approximately equal to 7 inches in HO-scale, I re-sized the stairs so that each piece of 0.080 laminate corresponds to one step. It turns out this means there are 6, 0.080 steps, with 12 inch scale treads, and the top step is made from 0.060 inch styrene to get the whole unit to come level with the door sill. This also means that the total length of the staircases are longer than in Mr. Moore's model, but looks a little more realistic when a figure is placed beside it.

Building E.L. Moore's Jones Chemical Co.

E.L. Moore’s ‘Jones Chemical Company’ appeared in the March 1974 issue of Model Railroader magazine - that's the first page shown above. Like Bunn’s Feed & Seed, it’s a structure that captured my interest long ago, but when I first tried to build it, it was beyond my abilities. Now is as good a time as any to try again.

As I noted in the Bunn’s project, Mr. Moore used mainly balsa wood and basswood and paper and clear acetate and other rather humble materials to build his structures. I tried to follow his lead in the Bunn’s project, but in the end I used a lot of styrene to build the basic forms of the buildings in the complex. With the Jones project I’m going to completely abandon balsa and basswood except for things that are obviously wooden structures like the truck loading dock and some elevated platforms in the tank area. The core structures will be made from styrene or other plastics, and many of the details – like the window-frames - will be commercial items. However, I still like his paper-based method for making sheet metal panels, so I’ll still use those to help the overall appearance continue to suggest its Moorian origins.

The walls of the building are drawn on 0.040 inch sheet styrene according to the dimensions in the article; with one exception. You’ll note that in the plans the railside platform is 4 feet above ground, and the truck loading dock on the end is 3.5 feet above ground. If you want to have both loading doors open – as I do because I want to make the overall scene a little more animated than shown in the article – you’ll have a problem when installing the floor. Mr. Moore recommends a balsa floor carefully sanded to work out the problem with the door sill heights. Since in an actual building such as this the floor would probably be at a single level, I simply placed both doors 4 feet above ground, and I’ll adjust the truck loading dock dimensions accordingly.

I like working with sheet styrene, but I hate cutting out door and window openings. Previously I’ve done this by simply using a knife and steel straight edge to slice my way through the plastic along the edges of the openings. An internet search popped up a link to some instructions from the Saskatoon Railroad Modellers for making cut-outs. It’s relatively easy and works well. Simply drill out the corners of the opening (I used a small drill in a pin-vise), score along the edge of the opening with your knife and ruler (no need to go all the way through as before), flip the piece over and score an X between the holes, and finally, carefully flex the piece until the scored plastic pieces pop out. You may need to clean-up the opening with a file or sanding stick.

[How to cut out an opening]

[Step 1: Drill out the corners of the opening]

[Step 2: Score the outline of the opening with a sharp knife.]

[Step 3: On the flip-side, score an X between the holes.]

[Step 4: Flex out the piece.]
I’m using Tichy Train Group horizontal slider windows instead of Mr. Moore’s ink-ruled, scratch-built ones. I used those on Bunn’s, and they are alright, but I thought I’d use something more three-dimensional on this project. I test fit the window frames as I cut out the openings, and sanded them as necessary to make sure the frames fit before proceeding to glue the walls together. Unfortunately sometimes my sanding goes a bit astray, but not to worry, some out-of-squareness of the window openings can be tolerated because the window frame trim will hide a bit of unevenness in the opening.

And finally, here are the four walls, ready for assembly.