The Toenail Ridge Shortline
New 1:20.3 structure for Selbyville
Page written 8th July 2003
Updated July 13th, 2003
As Selbyville evolved into the 1920s more and
more products of Messrs Ford, Chevrolet Packard et al made their appearance
in the Valley of the Toenail Ridge. And when you have motorised vehicles
you need service facilities for them. So one enterprising young fella,
by name Don Stuhr, approached New Jersey Jack Lazyacre for a loan and built
himself a temple for the care and maintenance of the 4-wheel jalopies of
the Valley.
The main structure of the new building is
Korflute, a plastic sheet that real estate agents use to divert your attention
in front of houses for sale when you're supposed to be paying attention
to your driving. The stuff is extremely light and has a pattern which looks
for all the world like weatherboard siding. It's available in two thichnesses,
3 and 5mm, I chose the 3mm for this station.
Windows are styrene strips scratchbuilt in
place, same with the doors. All trim is balsa wood. There's a staircase
inside leading to the upper floor and given the size of that big open door
I'm going to have to add an interior too. The roof cladding is made from
wet&dry sandpaper cut into strips and then slit to represent tarpaper
shingles.
The signs adorning this edifice are print-outs
from the net, mostly stolen from a wonderful site called Signs
of the Times
Don's Gas is
built to 1:20.3 scale using a scale rule printout kindly supplied by one
of the smart blokes who frequents mylargescale.com,
as is the Model T truck parked in front. The
inspiriation came from a photo in an ad in
Garden Railwaysmagazine.
Following considerable complaints from a certain
New Joisey character on the big-trains list that Don's gas station didn't
seem to have any gas dispensing equipment I decide to scratch up a couple
of pumps.
The main body of the pumps is plastic tubing
from a cheap towel rail...
the 'glass' reservoir is the top from a spray
bottle..
the hose is the neutral wire from household
240v wiring..
the hose nozzle is cut down from garden mini-sprayer
components...
..and the round signs on top are the caps
from wine bottles.
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