When I first started work on my layout, I built wood and plastic structure kits. I quickly grew frustrated with these buildings as few of them represented those found in Appalachia and along the Chesapeake & Ohio. Considering the lack of accurate building available on the marktet, I began scratchbuilding my own structures from wood and styrene.
Some of the buildings on my layout, the N scale Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Appalachian Division, are modeled from memories, such as the farmhouse I built to resemble my grandmother’s home in Maysville, Kentucky. Other buildings, however, I model following prototype photographs and drawings. I constructed an Afton, Virginia depot from photos in the C&O Historical Society collection. Thomas W. Dixon, Jr., president of the C&OHS, also sent me a copy of a page from Walter G. Burg’s book, Buildings and Structures of American Railroads, that had a sketch and dimensions of a combination station typical of those found on the Pennsylvania Lines west of Pittsburgh, Pa. It appears that the prototype C&O station in Afton was based upon these plans. Between the photos and the drawings I was able to scratchbuild a fairly accurate model of the Afton station.
It’s important to document the structure from as many sides as possible, so whenever I go on trips I always take my digital camera. I also carry a 100-foot tape so I can measure a structure’s exterior dimensions.
Editor’s Note: Don’t trespass to get photographs or measurements; get written permission before entering railroad or private property. This article originally appeared in the 2005 issue of Great Model Railroads. – Ed.
