Here's an over all view of the new engine house. The structure uses an inner supporting wall of untempered Masonite. After window openings were cut in the walls both the inner and outer surfaces were covered with 1" x 12" strip wood that had been stained with a mixture of alcohol and black shoe dye.

Photo 2.

The inside walls with their timber bracing and horizontal nailing boards are visible in this shot. The diorama base is Celotex house siding with thin slabs of pine boards added below to make it match the thickness of the Homasote used for the logging site. The edges of the base were cut at an angle to allow it to be easily removed from the layout for additional detailing at the work bench.

Photo 3.

The interior walls are bare of hand tools, chains, hoses and the other items normally found around a logging site. They will be added later. The doors are made up of a single thickness of 1x12's" that are held together with diagonally placed 1x8's.

Photo 4.

Grandt Line "O" scale Engine House hinges swivel on bent pieces of .020" music wire which were glued into holes drilled through the door framing boards.

Photo 5.

The roof is made up of two pieces of the Masonite material. The long edges were cut at an angle to allow a tight fit at the peak and also to provide a vertical lower edge. Strips of 1x10" strip wood were glued along all the exposed edges of the Masonite. Tissue paper was cut to 3' wide widths and attached with black Polly Scale paint. The 1x10's were masked off with cellophane tape and the entire roof was spray painted with Krylon Ruddy Brown Primer. It was further weathered with the alcohol/shoe dye mixture.

Photo 6.

The windows are 40 pane factory units from Banta Model Works. They were spray painted with Krylon Ultra-Flat Black and dry brushed with white acrylic craft paints. I used clear plastic, like the kind found in picture framing shops, for glazing.

Photo 7.

The barrels, overhead drive belt wheels, pallets and work bench surface are metal castings from Banta Model Works. Ground cover is a mixture of Colorado dirt, Woodland Scenics ground foams and C&TS cinders, all held in place with diluted white glue.

Photo 8.

The skidder is a hold over from my HOn3 modeling days. I believe it may be a Rio Grande Models piece, but I'm not positive about it's origin.

Photo 9.

The generator on the pallet is from a "basket case" PBL K-36 boiler and the loco shop step is a laser cut wood kit by Banta Model Works.

Photo 10.

The rail stops are metal castings from American Model Builders. I made the clumps of vegetation from strands of an old shag carpet. Individual strand were "flayed open" with a small steel brush and glued into a hole drilled in the base.

Photo 11.

The log chain is from Builders In Scale.

Photo 12.

Shay #8, leased from the WSLC is shown exiting the engine house to start its work moving log cars around the yarding area. The small water tank on the right is also from my HOn3 days. It was scratch built following plans published in a Gazette article. Even though it's small it looks good with the shay.

Photo 13.

Here's another view of the engine house with the shay sitting on the side track. The surrounding area still needs to have its ground cover added.

Photo 14.

This final scene shows the engine house sited on the layout with Shay #8 sitting on the side track

I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of the new engine house for the Ponderosa Logging Company. Now that it's completed, the rest of this area can receive some attention.