There are several structures on GIRR Mountain Division and construction of new buildings is still ongoing. The sources of these buildings are varied, some are straight up kits and some are completely scratchbuilt, some are in between. They are shown in more or less the order in which they were built or acquired.
The passenger station is a Playmobile kit. It
is moderately detailed and selectively compressed, but overall it
is a good kit. The parts are made of exceptionally heavy plastic
and the kit can be assembled without any adhesive. There is a large
hole in the back to allow children to play inside in doll house
style.
This is a freight depot made by ScanKit. I bought
it for about $20 at a Queen Mary show many moons ago. There were
several different types, but I've never seen any of them since. The
kit is made of fairly light plastic parts and probably would not
hold up outdoors.
This
is a plastic kit, from either Pola or Piko (I can't remember
which). Saloons often did double duty in many small western towns.
This one is the local red light district. This kind of kit comes in
pre colored heavy plastic and is often used out of doors.
The two bay engine house is a Pola kit. It is made
of exceptionally heavy plastic and comes pre painted and colored.
The style is somewhat European, but its close enough to represent
an engine house on a US railroad.
This kit is similar to the saloon, it is
probably made by Pola. When I moved it to put the hotel next door,
I found that it had a boarder. There was a mouse's nest inside.
This barn is an AristoCraft fully assembled
structure. What you see is what you get. I've done nothing to it
yet. It is supposed to be a livery stable.
This wooden shack was built by my son as a school
project. It was supposed to represent a German POW camp barrack.
After its school service was over, it was transported to the GIRR
Mountain Division for service as a MOW building.
This coal bin is a
JigStones starter project. Since it was built, it has received
an overcoat of genuine Welch coal.
This building
front is a bank constructed of 1:32 scale JigStones cast in
plaster. The structure is built on a lift out frame that allows
access to the backside of the town portion of the layout.
Eventually, the rest of the frame will be filled in with other
building fronts.
This is another
JigStones starter project built to 1:32 scale. It will be used in
the background (such as it is) to force perspective.
This is a hotel made from a Precision Products PV (Plastic Veneer) sheet "kit."
Calling this a kit is really stretching the definition of the word.
I spent a period of 4 months working on it. The "kit" comes with
five PV sheets, some instructions and a tube of glue. Past that,
its a scratchbuild project. A core box must be fabricated from
plywood (not supplied) and then the PV sheets must be trimmed and
glued onto the box. The edges of each sheet don't join really well
at the corners so that styrene strips (not supplied either) were
used to cover the corners.
Trimming the PV sheets is a lot of work if you want transparent windows as each individual pane must be cut out. Then the core box must be cut to match the windows. Clear styrene sheet (you guessed it, not supplied) is used to glaze the windows. For now black construction paper covers the inside so the hollow building interior is not visible.
The balcony railing is all scratchbuilt from basswood (not supplied) and the balcony is supported by more basswood (also not supplied). I had to make a fixture to assemble the railing panels.
The PV sheets were formed in gray styrene so after the whole ordeal of assembly, the whole thing had to be painted. This took a couple of hours due to all the masking required.
