One of the latest changes is the replacement of a shallow
relief warehouse with a shallow relief cold storage building.
When you first enter the layout room the straight ahead scene
is the view block that separates the two sides of the peninsula. Along both
sides of this view block are rows of shallow relief buildings.
Between a grain elevator complex and the recently modified
Scheu Manufacturing Company was a single story, run of the mill warehouse of a
tilt-up concrete design. This was a carryover structure from my previous layout,
made from styrene sheet and shapes. Because the structure always was located at
a high viewing angle I never needed to install a roof on it.
Shallow Relief Warehouse
I wanted to replace this structure with something more
interesting so I measured the space and decided a Walthers R. J. Frost Ice
& Cold Storage building would easily fit. Too easily. The long side of the
building would leave too much space between its neighbors so I calculated that
adding a section from the other long side would lengthen the building just
enough to fill the space.
Lengthening R J Frost Building
Another issue was that I already have an R. J. Frost Ice
& Cold Storage building just a few feet down from this area so the shallow
relief version would have to be modified to look a little different from its
brother. The solution came from a layout I had visited in Atascadero , CA
Bill Obermeyer's HO scale Obermeyer
Ranch Railroad has been featured on the last two layout tours I organized for
the Central Coast Railroad Festival. Bill modified both the R. J. Frost Ice
& Cold Storage building and the Walthers' Red Wing Milling Company by
lengthening the structures and adding tile roof sections, among other modifications.
I like the tile roof idea as I had done this with the shallow relief Elephant
Packing House using Plastruct tile sections.
Bill Obermeyer's Model
So I added a wall section to my R. J. Frost Ice & Cold
Storage building, added a small rooftop shed and a large air conditioning unit
and I was in business. This building sits along a spur that doesn't quite reach
the last two loading doors so I closed off these doors under the scenario that
the spur originally was connected to the nearby main track but now it is
connected only to unseen track in the other direction.
To make the tile roof standout I painted some of the
individual tiles lighter and darker shades of the terra cotta acrylic craft
paint I used. I had done this to the Elephant Packing House but this time the
differences between the tiles was too extreme. I was able to decrease the
visual differences by giving all the tiles a very diluted wash of the original
terra cotta paint.
Differences Between Tiles Too Extreme
I don't have a company name for this structure but I
probably will designate it as a branch house for a major meat packer. These
were still common in my 1956 era.
Finished Structure
So what is a branch house? A branch house receives sides of
meat and lesser portions of animals slaughtered in the major packing plants and
further processes these for the local wholesale trade. Facilities for smoking
meats and sausage manufacturing also could be found in branch houses. On a
model railroad a branch house is a good industry for receiving meat reefers. As
these were owned by one major packer or another, only one packer's reefers
should serve a branch house.
