My winter project - Oakley Street Chicago

[bparrish]

Jan...

You did not miss a thing! ! !

I over looked saying.

The two metal cast cornices are old SS ltd castings.  I'm not sure they are out there any longer.  I'm using those on buildings that are not seen in the photo but of a correct period type.

What you can see are all formed from various wood shapes.  Mostly different "L" shaped wood from Northeastern.  I'm sure someome in the Netherlands is making something of the sort.

The Corbels under the under the cornices are from Tichy Train Group and modified a bit to match what can be seen in the photo...........  although not much.  There is one place in the upper left where you can see that they are doubled.

The windows and doors are a mix of Tichy and Grandt Line.  Their web sites give the raw opening for each and so I could gauge what I needed.  Tichy is terrific about filling orders NOW ! ! !

They never seem to be "just out" of anything.

The store fronts are all modified from something.  Mostly Tichy and made to look as close to the photo as possible.

After that .......... all of the various moldings are stacked wood or styrene to get what I need.

Thanx for looking in.
Bob

[ACL1504]

Bob,

This is the best job of scratch building of a Chicago block I've ever seen. I love all the structure and and elevated track as well.

Very well done Sir Bob!

Tom

[tct855]

Bob,
      Without taking up everyone's time reading a long drawn out synopsis.  I'll just say, I second what my better-looking brother Tom said.  keep'em coming BP. Thanx Thom...

[bparrish]

So I got the walls up and the corner trim.

I got after the outside stairway.  Never thought it would take much of the afternoon and evening.

I'll probably cover the roof in tar paper or perhaps corrugated sheet iron.  Can't decide.

see ya
Bob

[donatode]

Smartly done Bob.

[bparrish]

So I had to stop for a while.

I ran out of clothes pins. These are the best and cheapest clamps out there.  They provide all the pressure we need for such building.

Some have tapered ends that don't clamp to the end so I grind them off on a belt sander.

What is going on here is the placing of the foundational strips.  It also stiffens the base structure.

In Chicago at the time,  which was much of a swamp (some would argue that it still is)  didn't require much for foundations.  Many of the downtown stone buildings were set on huge treated wood pilings; old City Hall for example.  Others were on timbers or placed or cut stone.

These strips are 1/4 x 1/8" basswood that easily takes impressions from screwdrivers and such to create a stone appearance.  There were huge sand stone quarries on the south side that provided base blocks for such stuff.  Basements were only a coming thing as Chicago repeatedly raised the grade of streets and alleys to get above the clay layer. 

see ya
Bob

[Janbouli]

Jan...

You did not miss a thing! ! !

I over looked saying.

The two metal cast cornices are old SS ltd castings.  I'm not sure they are out there any longer.  I'm using those on buildings that are not seen in the photo but of a correct period type.

What you can see are all formed from various wood shapes.  Mostly different "L" shaped wood from Northeastern.  I'm sure someome in the Netherlands is making something of the sort.

The Corbels under the under the cornices are from Tichy Train Group and modified a bit to match what can be seen in the photo...........  although not much.  There is one place in the upper left where you can see that they are doubled.

The windows and doors are a mix of Tichy and Grandt Line.  Their web sites give the raw opening for each and so I could gauge what I needed.  Tichy is terrific about filling orders NOW ! ! !

They never seem to be "just out" of anything.

The store fronts are all modified from something.  Mostly Tichy and made to look as close to the photo as possible.

After that .......... all of the various moldings are stacked wood or styrene to get what I need.

Thanx for looking in.
Bob

Thanks very much Bob, will have to look for such things , I do have a good stock of Tichy windows and doors.

[bparrish]

This little structure is mostly roughed in.

It is out of sight in the source photo but it is to balance out a vacant spot in the larger diorama.

It is a confectionery store that was listed at this address in the 1892 city directory and then again later.

see ya
Bob

[PRR Modeler]

Excellent work Bob.

[Mark Dalrymple]

I caught up with this last night, Bob.

A very neat project with great workmanship.  Looking forward to watching it progress.

Cheers, Mark.

[jimmillho]

Fantastic looking work Bob.

Jim

[bparrish]

Thank you one and all. 

I'm really having a lot of fun with this. 

The source photo is probably the most studied photo ever.  I routinely sit with it and a jewelers loupe and look for what I am missing. I keep finding new stuff. This area was platted in the 1850s and built up along Lake street right after the Civil War and then not much else happened for twenty years.

You can see all manner of curbs and side walks stacked up.

Again.   Thanx
Bob

[bparrish]

Spent this afternoon building back steps.

This is actually one of my most fun things to do.  I built some years ago a number of yard shacks that had outside stairways.  They are so spindly looking that most people won't attempt them.  They really are rather durable and once placed on your railroad they don't get much pushing around.

They do also draw a lot of attention by visitors.

All of these are based on the Sanborn maps as none are in sight in the source photo.  The maps show stairways and doors.  The weird one is with the cat walk over the storage building on the 953 building.  The side stairway is not that far from the door centered on the back of the building.  Although this was one building, it really was two store fronts so I suppose there were two upper apartments.

It is possible that the center door was added later with the walkway over it as there was a HUGE population crunch in Chicago in the late 19th Century.  Most older buildings had been divided from their original.  Any sort of housing was at a premium.

All of these buildings will need de-fuzzing and such but I'm getting close to paint.

see ya
Bob

The cat walk panel over the roof will need to be removable until the roof is finished.

[PRR Modeler]

Top Notch work Bob.

[MAP]

Beautiful work Bob.  I'm really enjoying watching this build.