FSM Kit # 240 Branchline Water Tank - 2022 Challenge (2)

[S&S RR]

Next, I stained the wood sections with Driftwood stain, I used Hunterline for the first coat of weathering.





Weights were applied while it dried to keep it from warping.

[S&S RR]

While the stain was drying I cutout the roof card and did some test fitting. I also glued the roof card to form a cone, and clamped it up to dry.

[S&S RR]

Finally, for today, I glued the wood sheeting to the cardboard cylinder that was provided in the kit. George even supplied the rubber bands for holding it while the glue dried.

[GPdemayo]

Looking good John.....

[PRR Modeler]

Very nice John.

[S&S RR]

Thank you Greg and Curt. Next up the bands around the water tank.

[NEMMRRC]

Very nice.


I am puzzled as to how true to life it would be to have mixed construction of brick and stone. Or perhaps the building has a stone veneer and some has fallen off to reveal the brick structure. Not trying to put the kit down. I love the FSM kits. It was just a "head scratcher" for me.


Bang up job with the Pan Pastels.


Jaime

[deemery]

I admit to the same reaction to the structure from an 'historical architecture' question.  Given the reconstruction that has occurred, I'd think the RR would tear it down and replace it with a proper wooden frame.  The best I could come up with is "reuse of an existing spring house" the RR bought and put a tank on top. 


But of course, Rule 1 applies (and that's true for multiple FSM structures.  The 155 Old Time Coal Dock has some similar "Why would they do THAT?" problems.  The original idea came from an -ore- loading dock by Irv Schulz, I believe.




dave

[SteveCuster]

Looking good John! I've built this one a few times and it's always a classic. My favorite water tank kit produced.

[S&S RR]

Very nice.


I am puzzled as to how true to life it would be to have mixed construction of brick and stone. Or perhaps the building has a stone veneer and some has fallen off to reveal the brick structure. Not trying to put the kit down. I love the FSM kits. It was just a "head scratcher" for me.


Bang up job with the Pan Pastels.


Jaime

Jaime


Interesting question.  The real answer is George made his kits interesting and they look great. Adding different building materials creates points of interest that draw your eyes into the details. In rural America the Architect was the guy that built the building out of the materials he had on hand.


Now the S&S RR answer - we are a mountain railroad where building materials are expensive to ship in.  There are lots of rocks readily available from all the blasting that was done to put the railroad through the mountains. If you are  putting up a water tower for the passenger depot you use what's available in the area, bricks, cement blocks and all those cheap rocks.  It takes very expansive timbers to hold a water tank up in the air. Timbers that are better used in the big cities where the architects do their thing and they bring in revenue for the Railroad.

[S&S RR]

I admit to the same reaction to the structure from an 'historical architecture' question.  Given the reconstruction that has occurred, I'd think the RR would tear it down and replace it with a proper wooden frame.  The best I could come up with is "reuse of an existing spring house" the RR bought and put a tank on top. 


But of course, Rule 1 applies (and that's true for multiple FSM structures.  The 155 Old Time Coal Dock has some similar "Why would they do THAT?" problems.  The original idea came from an -ore- loading dock by Irv Schulz, I believe.




dave

Dave


Interesting discussion - I gave my take on it in my response to Jaime's original post.  As for the wood coal / ore loading docks.  Lake Superior had many of them in the late 1800's. Ore boats would take the ore out and bring coal in to run all of the locomotives and mining equipment.  The ruins of these structures were still around when I went to school up there in the late 1970's.

[S&S RR]

Looking good John! I've built this one a few times and it's always a classic. My favorite water tank kit produced.

Steve


Thank you for stopping by the thread and the kind words. I have built a few water tanks over the years and this is by far my favorite to-date. I see a larger scratch built version in my future.

[S&S RR]

I made some more progress on this build, today.


I followed George's instruction on adding the bands on the tank and it worked great.  You start by adding pins as starting points for each band.

[S&S RR]

You then tie the string for the bands to the first pin and wrap around the tank. Then you move down to the next pin, and wrap around again keeping the string in the scribe marks that we made, yesterday.  This process continues until you get to the bottom band and then you tie the string off on the last pin.

[S&S RR]

The final step for tonight was to add the water marker, which covers the pins.  This required some unique clamping while the glue dried.