From the moment I started planning the Welland Avenue car barn for my S scale version of the Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto Railway, I knew that I wanted to create a vignette in the small space between the shop and the sand house. I decided this would be an ideal place for an improvised outdoor break room – a place where train crews and shop workers might gather for a coffee, a smoke (because it’s 1959), and an exchange of views about the company.
From a modelling perspective, this was an opportunity to add a splash of colour in amongst the brick and gravel that dominate this scene.
I started with a garbage barrel – a repurposed B/A Oil drum – and a laser-cut kit for some pallets. (Both are detailed here.)
To finish the scene, I wanted a beaten up picnic table and the best solution was to scratch-build it. I found a suitable set of plans online and built my model from 20 pieces of pre-stained 1×6 strip wood. I worked from photographs of a well-worn picnic table, also found online, to capture prototypical variations in paint fading and distressing, plus stains and gouges.
Finally, I painted up several Modelu figures and arranged them in a pair of conversations.
In the era I’m modelling, the NS&T’s passenger services have all been off-loaded to buses and I suspect the rumour mill was running flat out, with concerns that management would shut off the power and replace the venerable freight motors with diesels.
(This would happen in 1960, and result in the closure and demolition of the car barn and sale of the land for a strip mall.)
I’m sure everyone associated with the railway was worried about the future, and it would’ve been a regular topic of conversation whenever they took a break.
I hope I’ve captured that here.
Or, possibly, they’re Monday morning quarterbacking the latest Ti-Cats game?
The Model Railway Show 