Horwood Brothers Gas, Oil and Service - Rail Scale Miniatures.

Larry C · March 23, 2026, 07:37:21 AM

Tom very nice job!! Dang, good thing you have lots of real estate for this one. Should be an impressive building when finished.

friscomike · March 23, 2026, 02:32:06 PM

Howdy Tom,

Horwood Brothers is progressing nicely. It looks so good you don't need to paint it.

.

Have fun,
mike

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:04:40 PM

Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on March 23, 2026, 12:29:40 AMLooking great, Tom.

Its a huge kit!

Is it possible to raise the kit or lower the footpaths slightly so the door doesn't open straight onto the footpath (ie bottom of door at the same height as the footpath)? This would be a major problem in driving rain. There should be a small step. Having said that, one of my friends back doors opened 4 inches below the paving! And that was a problem!

Cheers, Mark.

Mark, Cheers,

Yes, it is a huge kit. I guess anything is possible. However, on this kit the door opening are on the same level as the sidewalks/footpaths. The thickness of the sidewalks is set and if I lowered them they would fit correctly against the buildings.

I can understand your friends problem. I have a friend whose driveway slopes down to the garage door. Every time it rains, the garage floor get wet.

Tom

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:05:53 PM

Quote from: KentuckySouthern on March 23, 2026, 07:10:44 AMImpressive model. It is looking great.

Karl,

It is a nice kit for sure and thank you for the nice comment.

Tom

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:08:25 PM

Quote from: Larry C on March 23, 2026, 07:37:21 AMTom very nice job!! Dang, good thing you have lots of real estate for this one. Should be an impressive building when finished.

Larry,

Thank you, much appreciated. I do have the space where it will go and that is the only place it would fit and make sense.

Tom

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:09:45 PM

Quote from: friscomike on March 23, 2026, 02:32:06 PMHowdy Tom,

Horwood Brothers is progressing nicely. It looks so good you don't need to paint it. .

Have fun,
mike

Mike, Howdy,

Thank you. It does look neat unpainted but I'll paint in anyway.

Tom

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:19:46 PM

Okay, lots to report today on this build. Two self created problems/issues and two fixes.

I drew the sidewalk joints on the blank sidewalk pieces and then scribed on the lines for the expansion joints.

Dario suggested making the curbs 1/8" wide. That was a "No Go". I/8" is an HO scale 12" or 1'. My sidewalks are 6" wide so I made them 6" or 1/16" wide.

I forgot to mention I did glue the keystone trim over the show room windows. You may have noticed this in yesterday's post.

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:24:05 PM

First problem! When the showroom structure was placed against the middle one, it didn't fit as you can see in the next photo. All the corners are square.

The only thing I can think of is that when the walls were being glued together, the glue pulled in the lower portion of the wall. I did leave this wall under a weight as the glued dried over night.

PRR Modeler · March 23, 2026, 04:29:16 PM

Nice job Tom. Can you break the glue seal on the large wall and glue it against the small office wall. Nice Keystone!

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:31:30 PM

To fix this issue, I cut a piece of HO scale 12X12 strip wood. After a few test fits and additional cutting, I wedged it between the walls.

deemery · March 23, 2026, 04:31:39 PM

Quote from: ACL1504 on March 23, 2026, 04:04:40 PMI can understand your friends problem. I have a friend whose driveway slopes down to the garage door. Every time it rains, the garage floor get wet.

We had that problem on our first house in NH. What was worse was when the water froze, and the garage door was frozen to the floor.

Good luck bringing the walls back into plumb!

dave

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:32:14 PM

Quote from: PRR Modeler on March 23, 2026, 04:29:16 PMNice job Tom. Nice Keystone!

Butty Curt,

Yea, I figured you'd like the Keystone.

Tom

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:34:14 PM

Quote from: deemery on March 23, 2026, 04:31:39 PM
Quote from: ACL1504 on March 23, 2026, 04:04:40 PMI can understand your friends problem. I have a friend whose driveway slopes down to the garage door. Every time it rains, the garage floor get wet.
We had that problem on our first house in NH. What was worse was when the water froze, and the garage door was frozen to the floor.

Good luck bringing the walls back into plumb!

dave

Dave,

You had a real problem with the freezing. My friend did cut in a drain but when it rained more heavily, it still flooded. He finally moved. Stay tuned for the wall fix.

Tom

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:36:21 PM

The 12X12 wedge fixed the wall issue. One issue down and one to go.

Now the two walls meet.

ACL1504 · March 23, 2026, 04:41:20 PM

That worked out okay. However, the front of the showroom isn't square to the front sidewalk and street.

What the Hay! Now I'm really getting frustrated.

I checked all the corners on this structure and the middle one. All corner walls are square so, the front should be square as well.

Back, in a few. I need a Diet Pepsi for the rest of this post update.