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Sorry for this long post, but I thought I would share the story of my construction of the first mid rise building on my layout. As many others seem to be doing, two years ago I decided that I had carried my ideas for my fifteen year old layout as far as I could and tore it down to rebuild it with a new “theme”. The original layout was based on Northern Arizona with grasslands, hills and mountains. What drove the change? It was the idea that I also really liked big city railroading. Changing trains in Chicago and looking back toward Union Station and with the Chicago skyline in the background or visiting the hallowed halls of Grand Central Terminal during last year’s TCA convention convinced me that I wanted that atmosphere on my new layout.

So, down came most everything. The peninsula greeting you as you enter the train room used to feature Hell Canyon with the Mule Mountains in the background (yes, Hell Canyon and the bridge are real, just seven miles north of me while the Mule mountains are also real, housing the Bisbee coper mining boom town of the 1880’s). It is being replaced by a big city terminal and downtown buildings.

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My new “downtown” is anchored by Chicago Union Station, made by TW Trainworx and a holdover from the old layout, as well as several other buildings saved from the old layout. But in addition to new buildings there remain four building plots reserved for major new structures.

I decided that the first of these would be the plot next to Union Station for which a hotel seemed a natural. Why a Hilton Hotel? It just seemed a name synonymous with hotels. And for the construction, I decided to use the tried and true technique of constructing a plexiglas box onto which exterior cladding is added. Alan Arnold has long been my inspiration for his high rises. I had one question I needed to have answered. So an email to Alan asked how he masks the interior of his high rises so the interior lights do not show directly. He answered with two great ideas. First, line the inside of the plexiglas with plain old wax paper and then use bubble wrap to surround the lights. Since I planed to use strip LED’s attached to a mailing tube, this should work well.

 

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Amazon provided a plexiglas dealer for the smoked material I would use but who would also cut the pieces for you. So, I had one 2x4’ sheet cut into four 13” wide by 24” pieces for the tower and the next into 4” wide pieces for the base floor. Corner, roof and floor reinforcements were cut and glued onto the plexiglas with epoxy and the box and room then glued together.

 

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Once the basic structure was dried, black striping tape was used to simulate the window minions and panels. I then used .040 styrene for the exterior skin for the concrete framework of the building. These were scored at 1” intervals to simulate concrete panels used in real construction. Also, it would not be practical to cut a large sheet with all the openings needed, so I cut vertical and horizontal panels and all were glued onto the plexiglas with Titebond glue.

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This building would be right at the edge of the table and quite visible, so an interior was needed for the lobby portion. Again styrene was used to scratch build all the walls, floor, ceiling and furniture while I went online to find carpeting and wall coverings which were printed and then glued to the walls and floor.

Interior lighting was the strip LED’s noted earlier, stuck onto a mailing tube and surrounded by a cylinder of bubble wrap. A full wave bridge rectifier provided the DC current for the LED’s and the AC for the lobby bulbs.

 

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The hotel needed a “Hilton” sign. I have bought some of Andre’s River Leaf Models laser cut buildings and have been really impressed with his work and ability to do custom projects. So, I sent him a photo of a Hilton sign and back came this beautiful laser cut sign which is added to three sides of the building.

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On the main entrance side, I had a small pedestrian plaza area. For planters, I cut slices of PVC plastic pipe, painted them and filled them with pink foam. Dried sedum flowers make great urban trees and my scenic supply cabinet furnished the flower material.

 

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A Hilton Hotel is now providing first class accommodations to the travelers heading next door to Union Station.

 

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Peter, that looks really sharp. I used to build architectural models for a living in my younger days, and that rivals the stuff we used to do. It's nice to see someone else use plexiglass for a structure, it's a great material. I use acrylic cement for bonding joints, it's actually stronger and cleaner than epoxy, but it takes a little practice.

I'll be building a number of grain elevators using PVC pipe for the silos, and plex for the rectangular parts. I love the heavy materials.

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