Modifying Northumberland Station - Americanizing an MTH Station

 

Well, I have had this MTH station out on the layout for about 10 years representing the Northumberland station. It is a bit garish and looks very European with the colors and the trim. I had a large number of visitors coming and wanted to make it look better. So, I completely disassembled the building and made some changes. Fortunately, it was held together with tabs and screws so, while tedious, it was doable taking all the parts off the structure. I removed the windows, doors, roof and the base. The building itself was a one piece casting and very nice.

Here I took my modified windows and braces and set them up to be spray painted due to their large number. I also took the building cast and sprayed it a red oxide and then added white mortar paste to the whole building. Once I wiped it, off the building had changed character significantly. 

I modified the window trim to make it less heavy and garish. There are 45 windows in the structure, so this took a little bit of time. I also added some finishing trim to the upper side to make the mod look better. In this picture you see the original in green and a painted, modified window in brown, the PRR trim color, plus I painted mutins a dark red and added the concrete base to the window. The V shaped parts are the braces for the lower roof.

Here is the finished building on the layout. It looks more American now and is a nice representation of the Northumberland Station.

I need to address the additional platforms by adding a black roof and matching the platform colors.

One last thing will be to weather the building somewhat as it looks too brand new here. It is about 50 years old in my period. We also need to add some patrons and activity. Too many things to do!

Well, we are getting close on Herdon.

Well, when the visitors came, I had gotten the track painted and ground color on the flat surfaces. I put the buildings in place temporarily. The big improvement was taking off the protective plastic. 

It looks much improved and really shows off the potential for the scene.

We have a dairy , station and a team track. Plus a fuel oil dealer will be behind the dairy. 

The backdrop seems to integrate well, and the height is pretty good. 

 It certainly has a Pennsylvania look about it . The white paper is the site of the fuel oil dealer. 

Visitors Coming

Well, during all this work, I get a call that a group of men want to come down to see the layout. Yikes!

So, I have to do a rapid clean up of the shop and the train room. The shop needs the floor scrubbed and so, out comes the buckets and then the wax. 

The floors look better . At least it has a shine. 

The big time killer is moving all the stuff out of the shop so I can access the floor.

Then, I can get back to work on the trains!

 

 

Plastering the embankment

Well, the gang came over for a work session and plastered the whole embankment in the one evening. 

We also formed and plastered the track embankment that descends into Herndon. 

I had to develop a way to include the control panel that I will build for the town. 

So, out came the cardboard strips to use for the structure of the embankment. 

We now have the large embankment plastered and the structure of the track embankment built.

A lower view that gives the height perspective of the two hills. 

They also out up the ground foam on the larger embankment to integrate it into the backdrop

Now wew see the scene coming closer to completion. 

Here is the long view of the scene.

And we leave with the guys still working but one fellow peeks at the camera.
 

Building the embankment

So, here is the finished webbing that makes the transition as we blend the 3D hill into the photos.

You can see how we stacked the foam pieces to make the base of the embankment. Next is to cover the hill and blend that onto the lower embankment. 

I used casting plaster cloth to cover the rosin paper and tied the hill intot he scene. 

I incorporated the small embankment that the main line resides on and also included the base of the interlocking tower and the line side shed. 

I coated the plaster with my ground cover paint and was generally pleased. More work to do though. 

Slow progress as I painted the area around the base of the tower. 

So, now to move down the line and build the length of the embankment.

Here is is, ready to be coated with paper mache as the foam is a pretty solid base. I will try to smooth out the hill to avoid those ridges from the three sections of foam. 

It is beginning to take shape. 
 

Improving the backdrop at Herndon

Well, I was taking a picture of a kit I was selling and used a piece of ground foam to hold it up.  It got me to thinking of how could I use that foam to make a steep embankment to cover the base of the picture. 

I was thinking I would use it in a vertical format and cut a very shallow angle on my table saw. Mat Thompson who was working with me, suggested we stack the foam instead. That was a better approach so we computed a good angle and cut it, reflecting three pieces to cover the white which rose about 6 inches off the deck there. 

The foam bent around the curve I had in the sheet rock and reached towards the webbing and plaster scenery already erected. 

 I was trying to match the angle of the slope at the end of the plaster hill. 

Using carpenter glue and dry wall screws, I glued and screwed the pieces together. I staggered the joints to make it smoother. You can see that the base is now hidden. I wanted the hill to rise above the base and have some space at the top so the plaster coating would drop down into the picture. 

So, I cut some small strips that I placed on top of the wall and about an inch away from it. I also used the plaster hill to cover the joint and slope downward onto the backdrop as it comes around the curve.

I carried the webbing out onto the foam and the hot glue worked to hold the cardboard onto the foam. So, here we have me building the last portion of the hill. You can see the tabs that the webbing will be glued to, they are just under the plaster covering that was pulled back so we could work there. 
 

Continuing on the Development of Herndon

Pardon the can of soda but I wanted to show some of the colors I used to bring the portal to life. This is a cast plaster portal that was used on a friend's layout. It has to be about 35 years old and comes from a mold made by another friend. 

The wing walls are made by Scenic Express and are an expanded foam product. So, trying to get the colors consistent was a challenge. 

So, our desert scene here is nearing completion. 

It seems to tie together well.

Now for the addition of ground foam. I was not totally thrilled with how this came out so made some changes as I looked at it over time.

I want to add a cinder road that leads up to the portal and have to figure  out how to get that done. 

This is the backdrop after covering it with clear plastic to protect the photo as it is not truly color fast, I raised it up to have a better perspective and am thinking of how I can integrate that into the scene, and make that white base disappear.  

That is the roll of plastic in the foreground. The photo runs about 25 feet.