Upland Packing House Model

My recent post about the Scheu Manufacturing Company and Upland prompted Otto Kroutil to write to mention that he built an HO scale model of a packing house for Steve Mahan loosely based on the Upland Packing House.

Looking through my collection I found a photo I took of Otto's packing house on Steve's layout.

Otto Kroutil's Model On Steve Mahan's Layout

Otto has a 27 foot x 21 foot layout based on a two-level layout plan published in the 1999 issue of Model Railroad Planning. It is a large N scale representation of the west side of Cajon Pass from San Bernardino to Summit, circa 1950.

Steve Mahan's Pacific Coast Lines is located in a dedicated 1,500 square foot building with three rooms.  The standard gauge portion is two levels throughout with the levels connected by a two percent helix. The era is the mid- to late 1950s.  The primary focus is Southern Pacific but the layout does not represent specific locations and towns.  Several towns are reminiscent of various West Coast, Inland Empire and Sierra Mountain areas. 

Here are links to the prototype packing house from Jim Lancaster's packing house website:

http://scph001.home.netcom.com/upland_a_wm.jpg

http://coastdaylight.com/ph/scph_photos/sb_upland/laverne_coop_5-68_cp.jpg

http://scph001.home.netcom.com/upland_lavrn_coop_wm.jpg

http://scph001.home.netcom.com/upland_lemon_grwrs_assn_wm.jpg

Looking at the links I believe you will agree Otto did a fine job capturing the look and proportions of the prototype.

This Week’s Model Railroad/Railroad Events

As expected, this will be a light week.

Below are the upcoming model railroad/railroad events that I am aware of for this week. If details for an event were previously posted I also included a link to that message. Otherwise, try Googling the name of the sponsoring organization for details…and ask them to send announcements to our group.

Southern California clubs, museums, historical and model railroad organizations are welcome to post a message on their upcoming public events. Or they can send me a message with details.

I started distributing the 2017/2018 Calendar to a list I maintain of known members of clubs, societies and railroad groups...over 1,200 local people in all. I hope to receive feedback on events not listed so far.  

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December 27 - 31 (Tuesdays-Sundays) - 2nd Annual Muzeo Museum Holiday Trains, Anaheim

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/conversations/messages/10198

December 30 - 31, January 1 – Joshua Tree & Southern New Year’s Weekend, Joshua Tree

A Tribute To History: Back Dating A Building Flat

From one of my previous layouts I had a very simple building flat that was constructed from two wall sections of a Butler-style metal building made by Rix Product's Pikestuff Division. It probably was from their Distribution Center model.

 The Original, Very Simple Building Flat

While Butler-style metal buildings are quite common today, there were very few of these around in 1956, the year that I model. I do have one such building on the layout, the Sanford & Son Truck Salvage Company.

 

Sanford & Son Truck Salvage Company

 

I really didn't want another Butler building on the layout, which also meant that a completed kit-bashed welding shop would not have a home on the layout.

 

Kit-Bashed Welding Shop

 

The simple building flat, with its very obvious Butler heritage, was era-challenged and faced an uncertain future. After some study I decided the building flat could be made into an acceptable shallow relief structure by applying an overlay to simulate a wood structure of the same size and shape. Having ample Evergreen styrene sheet on hand I set to work. All I needed to do was to cut the Evergreen siding to the proper size, cut in some holes for windows and a vent, add two shallow side walls and a roof, and apply some trim pieces.

 

 

 

Scheu Manufacturing Company: The Model

The sign on the building indicates that it is the Scheu Manufacturing Company. As I know now, this simple model in no way resembles either of the real Scheu buildings in Upland. At the time it was constructed I had no photos from which to work. But the company was and is real and its history is entwined with the citrus industry so that is why it is represented on the layout by this simple structure.

 

Scheu Manufacturing Company: The Original Complex 

 

The company was started in the early 1900s by W.C. Scheu of Colorado. He invented an oil burning heater that protected the buds of peach trees from damage during late spring frosts in his area. In 1913, severe freezing storms paralyzed Southern California and devastated its citrus crop, destroying millions of oranges and lemons. Citrus growers asked Scheu to come to California and demonstrate his device.

The young inventor's device garnered tremendous success and by 1920 he had purchased a former packing house in Upland from which to distribute this increasingly popular device. Scheu had these manufactured in the east. Shipped by rail to California, this simple device would protect citrus groves throughout Southern California and much of the western United States for years, first as a smudge pot and later as a cleaner burning heater.

Original Smudge Pot Design & Cleaner Burning Return Stack Heater

 

The founder's son became involved in the business and in 1944 took over as president. In 1949 he decided that his firm should manufacture its own products, thus ending a lengthy relationship with the American Can Company, which had been producing the device in Toledo, Ohio. Factory machinery was transferred from Ohio to Upland.

Machinery Arrives At Upland (Notice Reefer At Rear Of Photo)

 

Model railroaders who conduct operations in the 1920 to 1949 period can simulate boxcar movements, hauling loads of smudge pots from the American Can Company's factory to the Scheu Company. Scheu was on a spur of the Santa Fe's Second District/Los Angeles Division.

Scheu initially operated a complex at 297 and 255 Stowell Street in Upland, consisting of an office and a warehouse/manufacturing facility. This location is just east of Second Avenue and across the former Santa Fe tracks from the Upland depot. The current Scheu office is located at 177 D Street in Upland and is the former Upland City Hall.

 

Inside The Scheu Factory

Current Scheu Office

 

The growing enterprises added factory space in 1948, 1951, and 1953. In 1962 Scheu bought out a longtime competitor, National Riverside Company, and in 1970 acquired the California Orchard Heater Company.

As used in California, the original Scheu heaters worked well to heat the groves but by design generated thick, oily smoke on the theory that a radiant blanket of such smoke would create and trap the heat. This theory eventually was discredited and the use of these heavily polluting smudge pots was banned in the Los Angeles Basin in 1957. Scheu and competitors redesigned their devices to produce heat with much less smoke.

 

Smoke & Fire

 

In the late 1970s, wind machines were becoming more prominent both as sole sources of frost protection as well as being used in conjunction with heaters. Orchard Rite Ltd., a small company in Yakima, Washington, proved to have a superior wind machine, and the Scheu companies became partners with Orchard Rite. This company has provided over seventy percent of the wind machines in use throughout the world today.

Wind Machine

 

 

What To Do With Surplus Rolling Stock

Many of us have more rolling stock than we need and may be trying to get rid of this excess inventory. Some of us sell at swap meets and some of us sell online. We give cars to friends, clubs and new model railroaders, and maybe we use cars for parts or kit bashing. Giving surplus inventory to your local NMRA division also is a good idea.

I've been selling inventory and giving some of it to friends and some free to my former module club for sale to other members. Then another use came to mind: weathering experiments.

The rolling stock I've acquired in recent years tends to be expensive models that are very accurate and highly detailed. The only thing I can do to make these models better is to weather them. And I have weathered some of them using simple techniques I've used on cheaper cars.

But their are some techniques I have little or no experience with, such as using artists oil washes and extreme rust applications. So the surplus inventory has become a source for learning by trial and error without having to ruin my expensive cars.

And what will I do with the weathered cars that look acceptable? Sell them on eBay. If you look at what is available in the way of weathered cars on eBay you'll see that model railroaders will pay a premium for halfway good weathering jobs.

Old Athearn "blue box" cars with just a little chalk dusting go for $10.00 and up. Cars with a little more to extreme weathering go for $20.00 and up.

This is a learn and earn proposition so consider this as just another way to handle your excess rolling stock inventory.

If you have other things you do with your surplus inventory please comment.

Thanks.

This Week’s Model Railroad/Railroad Events

For those of you living in Southern California, below are the upcoming model railroad/railroad events that I am aware of for this week. If details for an event were previously posted on my Yahoo group I also included the link to that message. Otherwise, try Googling the name of the sponsoring organization for details.

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From Model Railroads of Southern California

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/info

December 20 - 31 (Tuesdays-Sundays) - 2nd Annual Muzeo Museum Holiday Trains, Anaheim

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/conversations/messages/10198

December 24 - Rob Caves' Open House, Altadena

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/conversations/messages/10203

Boxcar Trauma

Most of us probably have seen several industry-produced films about the importance of low speed coupling. Several films I've seen focused on unfortunate families that received furniture or appliances damaged by poor railroad freight handling practices.

But what about the boxcar?

The eighteen minute movie, "The Freight Goes Through!", was produced by the Association of American Railroads in 1952. It's another one of those films about the importance of low speed coupling. And nine minutes into the film, using a cut-away boxcar, it shows in slow motion what happens to a load when coupling occurs above a recommended speed.

Ten minutes into the film it shows, again in slow motion, what happens to the boxcar as a result of coupling at higher speeds. Wow. Now I know why roofs had to be flexible. The car sides take a beating as well.

Have a look: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT8WIXDxbyE

This Week’s Model Railroad/Railroad Events

Every Monday on my Model Railroads of Southern California group (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/info) I publish a list of the week's upcoming model railroad and railroad events. The listing covers the Counties of Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Mono, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura, plus the NMRA National Convention.

I maintain a calendar of such events that already includes forty events in 2017.

For those of you who follow this blog and live in the above areas, here is the list. If details for an event were previously posted on my Yahoo group I also included a link to that message.

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December 12 - Poway Station Christmas In The Park, Poway

December 13 - 31 (Tuesdays-Sundays) - 2nd Annual Muzeo Museum Holiday Trains, Anaheim

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/conversations/messages/10198

December 16 &, 17 - Pacific Southwest Railway Museum "North Pole Limited Santa Trains", Campo.

December 17 – Train Collectors Association, Western Division Meet, Arcadia

December 17 & 18 - Roger & Faith Clarkson Garden RR Open House, Riverside

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/conversations/messages/10302

December 17 & 18 - Orange County Model Engineers North Pole Run, Costa Mesa

December 17 & 24 - Rob Caves Open House, Altadena

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/conversations/messages/10203

December 18 – T.T.O.S. Southern Pacific Division Holiday Open House, Anaheim

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/conversations/messages/10274

 

 

Why I Model The Southern California Citrus Industry

Why I model something this specific is rooted in my belief that there is more satisfaction when a layout reflects a concise time period, a well defined geographic area, a signature industry and the supporting elements of all three. I don't advocate this approach for everyone but it serves me well.

Personally there is not the need to achieve the near perfect geographic accuracy some of the most dedicated layout owners have attained. And I certainly applaud that. But after many years of learning and observing in the hobby, I have reached a point where a whimsical layout with scenery, locomotives, cars, industries and structures that are greatly mismatched and span a vast, unrealistic timeframe, just is not satisfying for me.

My upstairs layout in Mission Viejo was a concession to the substantial timeframe represented by the locomotives and rolling stock I had acquired over many years. I tried to model the Santa Fe in 1956 and 1971 with some limited deference to Southern California, the citrus industry and a lot of other things. After awhile it became apparent this layout lacked purpose and became a bit boring.

 

 

 The Upstairs Layout In Mission Viejo

 

So I looked for a concise layout concept that "held together" well and could be modeled reasonably and effectively with available rolling stock, structures and historical resources. There were many choices, and for me that turned out to be the Southern California citrus industry circa 1956.

I was deeply influenced by a presentation in 2004 at the NMRA National Convention in Seattle. Bill Messecar and Jim Lancaster gave a clinic on modeling the citrus industry. They illustrated how a specific industry could give purpose and structure to a model railroad and its operations potential.

This persuaded me to consider refocusing the purpose of my then very generic Santa Fe layout. As I concentrated on a theme a clear picture began to emerge of what I wanted to accomplish. This was to be an era and geographically specific layout based on a particular industry with the ability to conduct operations reflecting all these elements.

 Bill Messecar

 Jim Lancaster

 

By early 2005 Bill and Jim’s inspiration led to the establishment of my Citrus Industry Modeling Group on Yahoo (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/citrusmodeling/info). This obligated me to research the citrus industry and its relationship with the railroads to generate content for the website. This also benefitted my own needs. Group member helped to increase my knowledge of the citrus industry and related railroad operations through their many thoughtful contributions. I found the history of the railroads and the citrus industry fascinating and very engaging.

 

The available HO scale rolling stock was plentiful as Intermountain, Tichy, Red Caboose and CB&T Shops offered many different Santa Fe and PFE ice bunker refrigerator cars. I took a deep breath and decided to pay the high cost of better, more accurate freight cars. I should add that swap meet purchases made this a less of a hit on my budget.

My nearly forty-year acquisition program left me with many locomotives and cars that were too "new" for my era. New homes were needed for these items.  

 Intermountain Refrigerator Cars

Model Detailed By Michael Gross

 

There were many, many period structures available and several sources for icing platforms and packing houses. There were numerous books and magazine articles available and Jim Lancaster had an excellent packing house website (http://coastdaylight.com/ljames1/scph.html).

 

 

 

There were numerous articles on-line and photographs as well. The various local libraries and historical societies also had plentiful resources.

 

As I became immersed in the history of the citrus industry through those resources I became more confident about scratch building infrastructure. Certainly there was no shortage of examples for packing houses, juice plants, cold storage and ice production plants, smudge oil facilities, tank houses, farm buildings and citrus groves. Scratch building would allow me to fit appropriate structures into available space either through selective compression or shallow relied techniques.

 

Scratch Built Shallow Relief Packing House

Smudge Oil Unloading Facility

 

So the motivation, hobby equipment and reference resources all came together for me as a basis for the current layout. And this is why I model the Southern California citrus industry. Other model railroaders also take this approach for various combinations of railroads, eras, locales and  industries so I'm certainly not unique. But I understand why they do and I understand the satisfaction this brings them.

Benchwork Begins To Take Shape

Benchwork construction followed the same system I used on previous layouts. First, I located the wall studs using a stud finder. I then confirmed the center of each stud by drilling a series of very small holes at each stud location. I marked the center locations.

Having decided on the height on the benchwork I used a laser level to mark this height around the walls with a pencil line. On this line I proceeded to attach good quality 1 x 4 boards to the studs using long screws.

This continuous belt rail of 1 x 4 boards provided attachment points for prefabricated open-grid style benchwork boxes. The boxes were made with quality 1 x 4 boards screwed together with #6 wallboard screws. In my experience wallboard screws are stronger and cheaper than conventional screws of the same size.

Each hole was predrilled and countersunk. If you have two electric drills, one with a counter sink and one with a screw bit, this work goes very fast. Most of the time I used a three-way clamp to hold the lumber in place for drilling. I recommend countersinking the holes to avoid splitting the lumber.

In some areas I was able to use the open-grid style benchwork boxes from the previous layout either as originally built or with a little modification. And, at some point with this layout has to come down, the combination of the open-grid style benchwork boxes, belt rail and screws will make the work go fast once the layout's surface features have been removed.

It would be possible to salvage complete sections of the layout if one were to cut the tracks and cut through the surface layer where one benchwork box adjoins another.

Beginnings Of The Current Layout

By the fall in 2006 we had purchased the first home to be sold in a future Del Webb "active senior community" in Hemet. Our model featured a separate "casita" (or granny flat) in front of the main house, a perfect man cave as it was designed but in need of alterations to become a suitable layout room.

At the time of purchase not a spade of dirt had been turned for this community. I asked if the builder would construct the casita without the dividing wall and other obstacles to having a full, open layout room. I was politely refused. This was 2006 and home builders were selling every home they built almost as soon as these were completed. No concessions to buyers were required. Two years later the housing bubble burst and at that point I could have asked for the same thing and gotten it.

 

 

I made plans for converting the casita to a layout room. In July 2007 we moved in and a track plan was completed in October.  I found a reputable contractor who removed the partition wall, bathroom and closet, transferring all the new components to a rental unit he owned. The work was done in such a way that the room easily could be converted back into a living unit in the future. The resulting layout room was nominally 12 feet by 20 feet.

In February 2008 new carpet was installed and the walls were painted the obligatory sky blue. The ceiling was given another two coats of white paint following two coats of primer in the hope that I would never have to paint it again. The two, intrusive inward opening doors were replaced with a single sliding door.

 

The basic track plan ran around the walls and around a peninsula. Industries would line the walls and a citrus packing house district would be placed inside the peninsula. A swing gate would be built in front of the entrance.

The benchwork was set at 58 inches. At this height the trains would be viewed at nearly eye level for the average person. In a quest for a maximum layout area the aisle space narrows to 28 inches in several places. With the high benchwork there actually is more than 28 inches of clearance at belly level.

Benchwork construction began in March 2008. Much of the lumber came from previous layouts as these were built using screws rather than nails.