B.E.S.T. originally did this kit as limited run back around 2000. They chose the subject via a contest. Later, Motrak Models bought some of BEST's kits. Motrak now offers the Clam Box in O, S, HO and N. Because I'd passed it hundreds of times, I bought BEST's kit when it came out and figured out where it would go on the layout after I'd planned the track. I can't replicate my original RR-Line thread because I missed it as the shutdown loomed. So this will be mostly pictures.
ClamBox0.jpg
This roadside eatery needs a road. Mass. Rt. 1A near the Rowley-Newbury line was the best I could do; no room for Ipswich on my layout.
ClamBox2012.jpg
The prototype has had a lot of additions over the years. The kit represents where it began.
ClamBoxKit.jpg
ClamBox1.jpg
I mocked-up a single "starter" addition.
I built the original building and my addition separately. And I asked BEST for a 3rd Clam Box sign decal, so I could have one facing the road and the others visible to approaching drivers.
ClamBox2.jpg
I used Campbell windows and a cut-down ?Tichy? door for the addition.
ClamBox3.jpg
Serving window subassemblies below the assembled addition.
ClamBox4.jpg
Checking it against the foundation.
ClamBox5.jpg
Glue drying.
ClamBox6.jpg
The "box lid" assembled and painted.
ClamBox7.jpg
Slaving over a fryer in summer? Gotta have open windows. Gotta have screens to keep the Greenhead Flies out. Why I rarely go to the beach between the July and August full moons.
screenmaterial.jpg
I cut the screens from a decorative ribbon I got on a present. Yes, at 2X you can tell a scale bumblebee could fly right through that mesh, but at normal viewing distance I like the effect.
ClamBox8.jpg
Building assembled.
ClamBox10.jpg
I think the fryer hood vent came with the kit. I scratchbuilt the electrical entrance: clear sprue meter, styrene meter box, phosphor bronze wire conduit, hammered down to make the overhead cable entrance shape.
ClamBox11.jpg
I think the fryer hood air intake came with the kit. I supplied the propane tank.
ClamBox12.jpg
LP's eye view. I should re-shoot this; now there are trees, a pole line along 1A, a painted backdrop and cables between the guard rail posts.
ClamBox13.jpg
The kit included good picnic tables, hot dogs and hamburgers. Some of the tiny details came from another firm, the source was credited in the instructions.
ClamBox14.jpg
I made a box of clams out of square styrene (maybe .080) and beach sand. Alas, it smells interesting to mice, so I occasionally have to get tweezers and stand it back up.
ClamBox15.jpg
Some customers complete the picture. Close up, it looks a little like Lurch and Wednesday Addams stopped in for lunch.
static_grass0.jpg
This was one of the first places I experimented with static grass.
static_grass1.jpg
Looks better at low angles.
schist_cut0.jpg
The only rock cut on my layout. Schist, modeled after a cut about a mile east on the prototype.
phrag_trees2.jpg
Phragmites Reed impersonating Eastern White Pine, which doesn't look like any commercial "pine tree" I've seen in HO.
BM2713EB.jpg
Backdrop painting didn't happen till several years later. B&M 2713 is a Sunset brass import. Some previous owner either painted it themselves or had it done by a pro. Guardrail cables and outdoor lighting were added in August 2015, as I worked on the NMRA "Scenery" AP certificate. About 3/4 down this page:
https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6843.135
What a unique and quirky building. You have done a wonderful job on it and the details.
Nice lil structure!
Thanks, Curt and Philip
I've driven past "The Clam Box" but never stopped to eat. I need to try their clams...
dave