Room Construction - Part 2

Construction of the layout room itself pretty much grinded to a halt over the summer, but over the past 2 weeks a lot has been accomplished, mainly thanks to my uncle, father, and father-in-law. The first two pictures show the room just as we started hanging drywall. The bottom two pictures show the room after drywall is complete and the window cover installed.

The ceiling of the room was sprayed with flat black paint. This turned out very nice. Once track lighting is installed the ceiling should almost completely disappear from view. Insulation and framing were completed, and all electrical has been installed. The outlets are 36" above the floor and will be on a GFI circuit. The door to the room as been installed, and greenboard drywall is complete. My father-in-law made a covering for the basement window which is held into place using velcro strips. Once the wall is painted it should blend into the rest of the wall. As of right now the next step is primer and paint. Hopefully I will begin this process within the next week. After that is finished and carpeting is installed, the real fun can begin.

Finally here is a shot of the Union Station project. I have not completed much since the last update, but I did temporarily assemble the walls so I could take some measurements. Overall the station will take up approximately a 4 foot square section of the layout.

Union Station Project - Part 4

I have made some decent progress on the station this past week. Finally I have completed most of the intricate work on the street level walls. This area has taken a lot of time, and I am happy that it is over. Below are two quick shots I took showing this area. All that is left to do before paint is work on the decorative keystone pieces that go above the arch top windows and door, and then attach some trim pieces. After paint is complete I can begin installing window details.

I have also begun adding some details to the platform area single story walls. One tricky task was installing the pieces around the window. Making these fit perfectly was almost impossible, so I have some patch work to do. These pieces needed to be installed separately because they are actually in relief from the main walls, and frame the windows. The trim pieces on the bottom of these walls also need some patch work, but turned out quite well. Once I add the decorative trim pieces on top it will be ready for paint.

I expect to make some significant progress on this project as well as the train room itself in the next month. Stay tuned!

Union Station Project - Part 3

Long overdue update. Work has slowed for the summer, but I have had time lately to make some progress. The project is taking a lot longer than I had thought. It is very hard to cut out windows and make everything as straight as possible. The below pictures show some of the scribe work to make the block detail. All of the block work is to scale and an exact (or close to it) match to the actual building at 1/48 scale.

The first picture is a shot of the side windows to the left of the waiting room large arched windows. The second picture shows the arched top windows that face the passenger platform next to the tracks.

These two pictures show the front entrance to the station which is at ground level. I have to complete cutting the vertical detail pieces above the window and the door, which is very difficult to get just right. Also there is more scribed block work on these pieces, as you can see in the second picture. More decorative pieces go above the center of the door, and window. I have not yet figured out what I will use for those pieces.

This final picture shows an overall shot of the top level of the station. For perspective, the track is Atlas O-72. The caboose is an EJ&E O-27. I am currently finishing the scribe work. The next step will be to add trim and decorative pieces, and start testing paint options.

Typical Days of the Past

In the early to mid 1900s, the downtown area of the City of Joliet was filled with people, businesses, and of course steam engines. Before the tracks were elevated, these locomotives passed right through the city on ground level. Back when train service was at its peak in the 1940s, who knows how many engines would storm through downtown each day. Since its construction in 1912, hundreds of thousands of steam engines roared past the Joliet Union Station, a sight that is now rarely seen. The last time a steam engine passed through Joliet, to my knowledge, was September 1992. I was 9 years old, and my dad did not take me out of school to see it. My dad went to see it though, along with my Uncle and Grandfather.

The above posted video was taken by John Rockey, posted with his permission. You can see his webpage at www.railroad-crossing.com This video of the Santa Fe 3571 is rare look at a sight and sound that citizens of Joliet used to experience on a daily basis for over 70 years. In the background you can see the southeast face of the Joliet Union Station.

Union Station Project - Part 2

After a half dozen trips to Union Station, and many hours of calculating and sharpening pencils, I have completed the templates for the upper level of the structure. I started by making rough, semi-scale drawings on graph paper. The rough sketches made it easy to fill in measurements I was missing.

I did not realize how many measurements I needed until I began to complete the rough sketches. I found myself wanting to estimate on areas that were either hard to get to, or areas that just did not seem to be important enough to get exactly right. In the end I decided against this and ended up taking measurements for everything,from window trim, to the width and height of every block on the building. Luckily for me, the block pattern in the first two rows repeats itself up the entire height of the building, which makes it easy to calculate the heights of the upper decorative moldings. After I completed the rough sketches, I made scale drawings of each face of the building.

The next step will be to transfer these drawings onto the 1/4" MDF that I will use to make the exterior walls and cut out the window and door locations.

Employee's Picnic 1928

Here is a picture taken in the summer of 1928, showing the Elgin Joliet & Eastern Railway 755 2-8-2 Mikado. According the the www.ejearchive.com this locomotive was built by Alco Brooks in 1923.

This is a special picture for my family, showing my great grandfather James McArdle, who was an engineer on the 755. He is shown wearing a white cap in the picture, 6th from the left. At the EJ&E yearly picnic, different divisions of the railway would clean and decorate an engine, that would be entered into a contest. According to a letter my great grandfather wrote, the 755 lost this contest in 1928 to the Gary division engine 748. The contest turned serious in 1929, to which the 755 would emerge victorious (I will share some photographs of the 755 in 1929 in the future). The 755 is seen here pulling passenger cars that carried employee family members for the special occasion. This picture was taken in Plainfield, IL north of the grain elevator which still stands today, just south of route 59. The engine is draped in a patriotic red white and blue. The American Flags at the time had 48 stars, 6 horizontal rows of 8.

Union Station Project - Part 1

My first scratchbuild project will be the Joliet Union Station. The Joliet Union Station was constructed in 1911-1912 and was designed by Jarvis Hunt. The structure cost $250,000 to build. The EJ&E Railway only operated on the tracks adjacent to this station for a brief period of time, however the building is a trademark symbol of railroading in Joliet. This fantastic structure will be a large focal point of the layout.

I am completely new to scratchbuilding, especially to a project containing this level of detail. The building will be constructed to O scale (1 layout foot = 48 building feet), so the total length and width of the building will be approximately 3' by 3'. My first step in the project was to visit the station and take measurements, as well as photographs.

After one trip to the structure I have realized how time consuming this project will be, however it will be something to work on while waiting to complete construction on the train room. The walls of the building will be made out of 1/4" MDF. The next step in the process will be to create a scale template of the main walls of the building.