The US Lighthouse Society website (https://uslhs.org/) does have a few measurements of the tower itself, which will be my first task. It's 61' high to the evaporator ball and 13.5' square at the base. The light has a 27 mile range.



I've never built a square light tower before. To mimic the stone used, I chose a RailScale Model product N scale dressed stone block sheet, but the rows were still too tall. At my request, the owner Stephen Miley, kindly obliged to re-cut the block rows for me down to 1.75 mm heights. which is smaller than the stock sheet. I also had him change the material, and burned it onto 1/16" basswood , rather than cardstock or RC board.



First, I made a crude scale drawing of my known elevations of the tower.



Even though I'm using the RSM block sheets here, I first made the carcass of four sides with .050" chipboard. I didn't want to rely solely on the finished block sheets for strength. I also need to miter all edges, and insert a tube to carry the power wires to the light.  So they'll be laminated to these pieces.



Rough mock-up...



Additional strength with 1/8" square corners...



Building out the base thickness to match the prototype....



Dressed the top with 2 levels of borders....and prepped the window cut outs...nothing glued...rubber bands only.



Till next time.....more tower work....

Thanks for following Rich. Appreciate the compliment.

Thank you Janbouli and Rich for the welcome.
I really appreciate your interest in following along.

John, Mark, Raymo, Mike, Greg, Bob and Jeff, thank you for coming along on this new adventure. And I appreciate the welcome.
My updates will always have several pix, and include tips and techniques too.

All comments will be welcome. No secrets will be kept. 

And Greg, I live in Bradenton.

Thanks Tom, appreciate you following along.

Also for your assistance on the phone, pleasure to talk to you.

If interested, you can read more background history here:
http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=294

The lighthouse is also listed on the National Register of Historic places. It has been carefully restored and turned into a nautical museum and souvenir shop, open May thru October. It was saved by a non-profit organization, and has not fallen into disrepair. Therefore, I will depict this model as it appears today .

Tours are available for a fee. I have been there only once, and it's worth every penny. Regrettably, I took only a few photos at the time.

I became frustrated trying to do some basic research. After contacting the Museum itself, they no longer possessed any architectural drawings or plans. They thought the Coast Guard had them, but the Coast Guard claimed they handed all of those over to the National Archives. Hmmm. In fact, the National Archives in College Park MD does have them, but require a professional researcher to be paid on site to do the necessary locating, copying and mailing. The fees were unacceptable. The Archives are in the process of digitizing all their lighthouse documents & posting them on-line, but they admit that will take years.

So I must fall back on many on-line tourist photos, brick row counting, known common values and personal judgment. In fact, Branchline Trains/Laser Art offers a kit called the "Rocky Point" Lighthouse, which is nearly an exact copy of the place...but I am not interested....

I shall begin this teeth pulling exercise next time....

Hello & Happy New Year. Been lurking a while here, and thought I'd post a build thread for your interest. Some may know me from RRLine, where I am still a member. Since I retired and now reside in Florida, my newest project returns me to my roots geographically, but also from a modeling perspective. In the past, I've built many waterside scenes, including docks, wharfs and lighthouses, in kit and scratch form. So, welcome to a scratch build in HO scale, of a historical spot back in my hometown of Dunkirk, New York.  The Dunkirk Lighthouse and Keepers Dwelling.



For a better perspective- here's the location from Google Maps, beside the southern shores of one of the five Great Lakes, Lake Erie.



A traditional cone shaped tower was built in 1837. A third order Fresnel lens was installed in 1857 and is still in use today.



After the original tower began to crumble in place, it was rebuilt in 1875, being clad in the squared off stonework visible today.



More in a few

Very nice work Steve. I applaud your pledge to keep your plan simple, and your track-to-scenery ratio in balance.