The Oblong Box Co opens for business....

If you’re doing ground covering scenery, you can always shim the building up on 1/4” square evergreen rods painted like a concrete foundation.  Once there’s grass and scrub around it, nobody would know the difference.

Nice work, Peter. I agree with Boilermaker, add a foundation so more cars will fit into the building.

Peter,

First, the building looks fine.

It looks like the second floor of the structure prevents you from removing a piece of the exterior wall to increase the height of the opening. Here is my suggestion if you want to get the taller cars into the loading area:

Get some 1/4-inch-thick poster board and place it beneath just the foundation to raise the height of the terrain and elevate the building. Leave the track at its current elevation on the plywood. Then put the building in place and cover the terrain with a layer of brown paint, dirt, dark-brown ballast (fine), and grass. Blend the outer edges of the terrain down to the plywood surface and cover as before. Then throw a thin layer of fine ballast around and between the track ties. Instead of building up the terrain with poster board, you could substitute two 1/8-inch-thick pieces of balsa or basswood.

I hope my suggestion is clear.

MELGAR

IT is a great looking building, Peter!! Wow!  Just a little difference in car height makes all the difference.  I agree with the others; the building needs raised (not to be confused with razed)

Love the first shot with the Delta Lines boxcar.

For that building to eat that Conrail or other contemporary freight car, l would deepen it with another added section, as well as do above recommended raising.  Companies do/did this. I have that building, but oddly haven't bashed it yet .  Probably will, on to-do list, as not finished, industry undecided.

Looks great Peter!

Peter! Very Nice building, exciting clearances too!  

Great job on the model Peter. It looks flawless.

Nice model

Peter you did a nice job on this. It makes a nice addition to your layout.

@MELGAR posted:

Peter,

First, the building looks fine.

It looks like the second floor of the structure prevents you from removing a piece of the exterior wall to increase the height of the opening. Here is my suggestion if you want to get the taller cars into the loading area:

Get some 1/4-inch-thick poster board and place it beneath just the foundation to raise the height of the terrain and elevate the building. Leave the track at its current elevation on the plywood. Then put the building in place and cover the terrain with a layer of brown paint, dirt, dark-brown ballast (fine), and grass. Blend the outer edges of the terrain down to the plywood surface and cover as before. Then throw a thin layer of fine ballast around and between the track ties. Instead of building up the terrain with poster board, you could substitute two 1/8-inch-thick pieces of balsa or basswood.

I hope my suggestion is clear.

MELGAR

Absolutely, Mel......that is an excellent thought and likely what I'll do........this is why I'm glad I built a slew of structures earlier this year and now, I can imagine where they will go and what I'll need to do. Tomorrow, will be the TW TrainWorx Rock Island Freight House.......Clearance is a similar concern....

By the way, I was also thinking a piece of masonite that I have lying around, left over from other projects.

Peter

@Boilermaker1 posted:

If you’re doing ground covering scenery, you can always shim the building up on 1/4” square evergreen rods painted like a concrete foundation.  Once there’s grass and scrub around it, nobody would know the difference.

Agreed!

Peter

Maybe leave as is.  It will add additional challenge during switching operations.  When the Oblong Box Co requests an empty boxcar to ship its products, the dispatcher needs to pick the correct one.

Structure placement and scenic details  Gentlemen,  I have a post on my blog about providing the proper clearance without altering the structure.

Dennis, that is a great tutorial on placing the building on higher ground.  Your diorama really compliments the kit!

Thanks, Mark. I had considered the clearance when recreating Ellison's structure and decided to leave it as originally designed. The thing about Ellison's designs is how perfectly proportioned they are. And, while I have added my own touches, I have not changed their footprint or other dimensions. We also need to remember that Frank's layout was O scale and the track and rail were scale height.  Our 3 rail track ties and rails are about twice the height of scale track. And like Petered mentioned, boxcars from that period in RR history were  smaller.

@DennisB posted:

Thanks, Mark. I had considered the clearance when recreating Ellison's structure and decided to leave it as originally designed. The thing about Ellison's designs is how perfectly proportioned they are. And, while I have added my own touches, I have not changed their footprint or other dimensions. We also need to remember that Frank's layout was O scale and the track and rail were scale height.  Our 3 rail track ties and rails are about twice the height of scale track. And like Petered mentioned, boxcars from that period in RR history were  smaller.

Pete could splice in some MTH scaletrax sraights into that siding!

Peter, nice job on the kit. Here’s what I did:

I will cover the Masonite with grass, ground cover, etc. The stepped Masonite makes a natural shoulder. It also allows me to use any boxcar I have.

Andy